On Thursday, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) — the federal body behind the country’s widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — announced a partnership with OpenAI and fintech firm Razorpay. The initiative enables users to make purchases and payments directly through ChatGPT. Razorpay confirmed that the pilot is being launched nationwide and will become widely accessible in the coming months.
The project is built on UPI ReservePay, a new NPCI protocol that lets users lock a fixed amount of money for future payments to approved merchants, and UPI Circle, which authenticates payments within ChatGPT — eliminating the need to switch between apps or websites. Razorpay developed the merchant integration layer, allowing businesses to complete transactions through AI chatbots.
Early merchant partners include BigBasket, the Tata Group–owned online grocery platform, and Vi (Vodafone Idea), the telecom operator. These partners now allow customers to buy groceries or recharge mobile plans directly within ChatGPT. Additionally, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are powering the banking layer of the project.
India — home to over a billion internet users and the world’s most populous country — is already one of OpenAI’s top markets. In August, OpenAI introduced the $5 ChatGPT Go plan to attract more Indian users. This e-commerce pilot marks part of OpenAI’s broader push to deepen engagement and tap into India’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
“This is not just about payments — it’s a completely new way to discover and shop,” said Harshil Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Razorpay.
UPI is already a massive success in India, powering over 20 billion transactions each month and serving as the backbone of the nation’s digital payments ecosystem. However, if consumers begin adopting chatbots as a new interface for shopping, NPCI’s AI-led initiative could embed digital payments even further into everyday commerce.
Mathur revealed that Razorpay has also completed proof-of-concept integrations with Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude for agent-based payments, with public rollouts expected in the coming weeks. He added that Razorpay is in talks with several more merchants beyond BigBasket and Vi and expects a wider rollout within two months.
Both Google and Anthropic are seeing a surge of new users from India. While Google already enjoys deep market penetration through products like Android, Search, and YouTube, OpenAI and Anthropic are now building their local presence, adapting their AI offerings for Indian users.
Currently, there’s no defined revenue-sharing model among the partners involved in this “agentic payments” experiment. Still, the effort will help AI companies like OpenAI retain more users through deeper engagement. Mathur confirmed that AI companies will not have access to payment data, and that all chatbot transactions will require two-factor authentication for approval.
Last month, OpenAI introduced its “Instant Checkout” feature and Agent Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with Stripe, to help businesses connect with customers via AI agents. Similarly, Google rolled out its Agent Payments Protocol, enabling AI systems to conduct transactions on behalf of users.
“It’s still an early, futuristic concept — but one with huge potential,” said Riju Datta, co-founder of Cashfree Payments. “Adoption will naturally grow in step with how effective these shopping agents prove to be.”
Alongside Razorpay, Cashfree Payments — another online merchant payments startup — has launched its own Agent Payments MCP (Merchant Commerce Protocol), which allows merchants to enable payments through AI shopping agents. Cashfree’s system supports all major payment methods, including cards and UPI, though merchants must develop their own AI shopping agents to integrate with MCP.
The startup showcased a demo video featuring a chatbot that helps users purchase an iPhone directly within the chat.
Datta declined to name the first merchants experimenting with the feature but confirmed that Cashfree is working with several large enterprises in e-commerce and lending sectors to explore AI-driven shopping experiences.
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