UPI Circle lets you make payments for friends and family. Here's how it works.

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. For S Anand, managing household expenses for her ageing parents had always been a challenge. Her father, a senior citizen, often hesitated to make digital payments himself, worried about entering incorrect details or navigating complex UPI interfaces.

Anand found herself either making payments for him or transferring the money from her own account, which was both inconvenient and time-consuming. However, with the introduction of UPI Circle, these troubles are now in the past. “UPI Circle has been a lifesaver," Anand said.

“It allows me to make payments directly from my father’s account with his authorisation, saving us both time and effort. The process is seamless and gives my father peace of mind, knowing he’s in control." The UPI Circle feature allows a primary user (like Anand’s father) to authorise a secondary user (Anand) to transact from their bank account. The primary user sets a transaction limit—up to ₹15,000 a day in case of full delegation—ensuring control over spending.

Also read: What you need to know about RBI rules when investing abroad A primary user can delegate payments to up to five secondary users. However, to make it easier to manage payments and prevent confusion, a secondary user can only accept delegation from one primary user at a time. All users must be registered on the BHIM app for this feature to work.

Currently, UPI Circle is live on the BHIM UPI app, with support from leading banks such as SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and many more. However it is not yet live on popular UPI apps such as PhonePe and Google Pay. UPI Circle allows the primary users to partially or fully delegate payments to a secondary user.