Apple Pay Eyes India Launch by Mid-2026

Apple is making its move into India's massive payments market. The company is actively in talks with Visa, Mastercard, and three of India's biggest banks — ICICI, HDFC, and Axis — to bring Apple Pay to the country around mid-2026.

It's a significant push into the world's most populous nation, where digital payments have exploded in recent years. India's homegrown UPI system already processes billions of transactions, and Apple clearly wants a piece of that action.

The discussions with both global card networks and major domestic banks suggest Apple is building a broad coalition to support its launch. Getting the banking infrastructure lined up is step one. Convincing over a billion potential users to tap their iPhones at checkout is the harder part.

No official confirmation from Apple yet. Talks are ongoing.