What is UPI?

Each person links a bank account to a UPI app and gets an address called a UPI ID, also known as a VPA, in the shape name@bank. To pay, they pick the app, check the amount and enter their UPI PIN. Razorpay’s documentation describes this PIN step as the second factor that finishes the payment.

For a seller, the useful question is how the buyer gets from your checkout into their UPI app. Razorpay’s documentation lists several routes:

• Intent: the buyer taps their UPI app on your checkout, the app opens by itself and the payment details arrive prefilled, so nobody types a UPI ID.
• QR code: the buyer scans a code with any UPI app and approves the payment there.
• Collect: the buyer types a UPI ID or mobile number on your checkout, then approves a request that lands in their app. This is the route that changed in 2026 (next section).
• In-app and SDK flows: Razorpay also describes options that keep the buyer inside your own mobile app, some of which need approval from Razorpay or a special integration.

Razorpay’s documentation says that, under NPCI guidelines, the UPI collect flow was deprecated from 28 February 2026, so customers can no longer pay or register a UPI mandate by manually entering a VPA, UPI ID or mobile number on the checkout. It lists a few exemptions, including iOS mobile app and mobile web payments, UPI mandate operations, eRupi vouchers, share-market categories and cross-border businesses.

The same page tells new users to start with UPI Intent, and existing users who are not exempt to move to Intent or QR. If you set up payments some time ago and a typed-ID option has vanished from your checkout, this is the likely reason. Check your payment provider’s own notes, because the rules and the exemptions can change.

Indian buyers expect UPI, so a shop without it loses people at the last step. The informal habit is to paste your own UPI ID into a DM and ask for a screenshot. It works for a handful of orders, but you end up matching bank credits to chats by hand, and a mistyped ID sends money to the wrong person.

• Share a checkout or payment page instead of a bare ID, so each payment is attached to an order.
• Use Intent or QR on that page: both skip typing, which is where most mistakes happen.
• Keep one record per order, not a screenshot folder.
• Say clearly what the buyer gets, and when, once the money has arrived.

In the DMFast store, which is available in India only, payments go through Razorpay. Which methods your buyers see depends on what is switched on in your own Razorpay account, so look there rather than assuming.