What is UPI One World UPI Enabled Payments For Foreigners & NRIs

For years, UPI’s global reputation has been built on numbers—transactions, adoption, coverage. But the real power of UPI is not the statistics. It’s the ordinary ease: small payments done instantly, without drama, across millions of merchants. The limitation has been obvious to anyone travelling into India—visitors couldn’t fully participate in that ease unless they had local banking access, so they defaulted to cash and cards even in a QR-first economy. 

UPI One World is NPCI’s (National Payments Corporation of India) attempt to make India’s payment infrastructure accessible to inbound travellers and NRIs visiting India through a prepaid UPI-linked wallet. With a pilot expansion now reported for visitors from over 40 countries, the conversation shifts from “UPI is big” to “UPI is usable—even for outsiders.”

What Is UPI One World?

UPI One World is a prepaid wallet (a PPI- Prepaid Payment Instrument) linked to UPI that lets inbound international visitors and NRIs visiting India make UPI merchant payments (scan-and-pay at UPI QR codes) during their stay. The intent is to provide foreign travellers and NRIs a way to use UPI without becoming a full local banking customer.

Who Can Use UPI One World?

UPI One World will reportedly be available for visitors from 40+ countries (as part of the summit pilot). More broadly, UPI One World is framed for inbound foreign travellers and NRIs who complete the required verification/KYC through the authorised issuer or partner channel. Since this is still being rolled out in pilots and programmes, availability can be cohort- or event-dependent rather than every tourist everywhere, instantly.

How Does UPI One World Work for a Traveller?

At a high level, the traveller journey looks like this:

1. Onboard via an authorised issuer/partner (as enabled for the pilot/programme)

2. Complete verification/KYC (passport and valid visa)

3. Get a prepaid UPI wallet and load funds through the supported method (subject to norms)

4. Use it for UPI Person-to-Merchant payments by scanning UPI QR codes at shops and services

This same flow applies to NRIs visiting India as well, subject to the issuer/programme’s onboarding requirements. The key point for a traveller is not the mechanics, it’s the reduction of friction. India runs on QR payments in daily life. This makes the UPI system accessible without forcing visitors into a local bank account just for a short trip.

Where Can You Use It in India?

UPI One World can be used to make merchant payments (P2M) across UPI-enabled merchant locations—the same QR ecosystem locals use for everything from small purchases to routine retail. The promise here is cultural as much as technical. Visitors stop living in “cash planning mode” and start paying the way India pays—quick, small, frequent transactions without the overhead.

What Happens to the Remaining Balance After the Trip?

This is the detail that makes UPI One World feel “tourist-designed” instead of “wallet-designed.” Any unused balance at the end of the visit can be transferred back to the original funding source, in line with foreign exchange regulations. That removes a common prepaid-wallet anxiety: “Will I get stuck with leftover money I can’t recover?”

What Are the Limits or Conditions Travellers Should Know?

A few things are worth stating cleanly:

• It is a pilot rollout in this 2026 moment, tied to a specific event cohort, so access may depend on the issuer/partner setup available to that programme.
• The service is described as enabling P2M merchant payments—so the practical framing is to pay businesses via UPI QR, not replace every banking function.
• Operational details such as how you load funds, timelines, and onboarding touchpoints can vary by the partner providing the wallet in that rollout.
• The wallet is designed for short-stay spending, so loading is typically governed by programme limits.
• Loading limits are defined by the issuing partner within RBI’s PPI regulations. In reported pilot deployments, limits have included ₹25,000 per load with a capped monthly ceiling, but actual limits may vary by issuer.

Why Is This a Big Deal for India’s Payments Story?

UPI has never needed marketing inside India. It became a habit because it solved real problems quietly. But globally, the story has often sounded like scale for scale’s sake—big numbers, big networks, big claims.

UPI One World changes the shape of the story. It shifts UPI from being an impressive domestic rail to being a visitor-facing experience. And experience is what travels. If foreign visitors can land, onboard, pay at merchants, and exit without being stuck with leftover funds, UPI becomes something they don’t just read about, it becomes something they feel working in real life.