New Delhi, April 28 -- India's digital payments landscape is moving beyond UPI's default dominance. Consumers are now making deliberate choices about how they pay, depending on what they are buying and when, according to Phi Commerce's How India Pays 2025-26 report, based on transaction data from 20,000 merchants across eight sectors.

UPI remains the most preferred mode for speed and convenience, inching up from 65% of digital transactions in 2024 to 67% in 2025. Cards and net banking also gained share, rising from 10% to 14% and 3% to 5%, respectively.

The most striking shift, however, is the drop in equated monthly instalments (EMIs), whose share halved from 20% to 10% between 2024 and 2025.

This does not necessarily signal a retreat...