UPI's ₹5 lakh travel limit: why your QR still stops at ₹1 lakh

A client tries to pay your ₹3,00,000 Europe package advance over UPI, and it bounces at ₹1 lakh. You tell them NPCI raised the UPI limit for travel to ₹5 lakh, so it should go through. It doesn't, because that higher limit belongs to a specific kind of merchant QR, not to UPI in general, and not to the account your agency is probably collecting on.

This post sorts out what the ₹5 lakh travel limit covers and what to send a client instead once a payment is over ₹1 lakh. Every figure below is dated "as of October 2026"; NPCI revises these circulars often enough that no number here is permanent.

Why your client's payment stops at ₹1 lakh, not ₹5 lakh

The ₹5 lakh UPI limit applies only to person-to-merchant (P2M) payments reaching a merchant coded MCC 4722, "Travel Agencies and Tour Operators," and only where that merchant is categorised as a "Verified Merchant." That's the condition in NPCI's circular OC 185B, dated 28 August 2025, with banks and UPI apps due to comply by 15 September 2025 (the date most "limit raised to ₹5 lakh" headlines are pegged to). Ordinary UPI stays at ₹1,00,000 per transaction, per NPCI's UPI FAQ, and the circular says the person-to-person (P2P) limit continues unchanged. So if your agency collects on a personal VPA (your own UPI ID), a family member's account, or an unverified shop-style QR, the ₹5 lakh row doesn't apply to you, even though you're a travel business.

What UPI can actually carry, by account type

Collecting on	Per transaction	Per day	Who caps it
Personal VPA (P2P)	₹1,00,000	₹4,00,000 inward, or 25 credits	NPCI, bank
Small-merchant QR (P2PM)	₹10,000	₹25,000/day, ₹1,00,000/month	NPCI
Ordinary merchant VPA (P2M, not verified)	₹1,00,000	Bank's call	NPCI ceiling, bank
Verified travel merchant (MCC 4722)	₹5,00,000	₹10,00,000	NPCI ceiling, bank's discretion

The P2P inward cap is from NPCI's OC 181B; the small-merchant row from NPCI's OC 192 (a P2PM account taking ₹1,00,000 or more a month for three straight months must move to a proper P2M category). Most agencies have never checked which row they're actually on. Ask your bank or aggregator in writing whether your UPI ID is P2P, P2PM or P2M, and what MCC it carries; a rough hint is whether a client's app shows your firm's name or a person's name when they scan your QR.

Two traps before testing a large payment. First, NPCI's OC 76C caps "QR share & pay" at ₹2,000 for all P2P payments and for non-verified offline merchants, and depending on the app, a client paying from a QR image you sent on WhatsApp, rather than scanning it live, can fall under that cap. Second, P2P collect requests (a personal UPI ID sending a "pay me" request) stopped from 1 October 2025, so a personal VPA can no longer send a client a payment request.

Careful: Clause 3 of OC 185B leaves banks free to set a lower internal limit even for a verified MCC 4722 merchant. NPCI's ₹5 lakh is a ceiling, not a guarantee from any particular bank, and the payer's own bank enforces the 24-hour cap on its side too.

What makes an agency a "verified merchant"

OC 185B requires "Verified Merchant" status and tells acquiring banks to give the higher limit only to merchants that meet NPCI's QR and UPI-branding guidelines. Who counts as verified is set out in clause 7.8 of NPCI's UPI Consolidated Circular, issued 18 September 2026: the merchant's UPI bank (the "payee PSP") may verify a large merchant, online or offline, after due diligence if it falls in one of a short list of segments (capital markets, insurance, government e-marketplace, credit card bill payments, collections, forex retail through BBPS, tax, IPO, RBI G-Sec or government merchants) or has consolidated annual turnover, group entities included, of at least ₹50 crore in the preceding financial year. Travel is not on that segment list, so for an agency the test is the ₹50 crore turnover, and the bank can add conditions of its own.

Most small agencies are nowhere near that. The same clause has UPI apps show a green tick against a verified merchant, which is a quick check on your own QR. Get your status in writing rather than take anyone's word for it.

Questions for your bank or payment aggregator

1. Is our UPI ID [vpa] onboarded as P2P, P2PM or P2M?
2. What MCC is it coded under? We are a travel agency / tour operator
   (MCC 4722).
3. Is it categorised as a "Verified Merchant" under NPCI circular
   OC 185B (28 August 2025), for the higher per-transaction limit?
4. What per-transaction and 24-hour limit applies, and does it change
   for a QR scan, a payment link, or a shared QR image?
5. Can you confirm this in writing?

A verbal "yes, we'll set it up" is worth nothing if a client's payment fails mid-booking, and a "no" is common. Plan around it.

Collecting a ₹3 lakh advance cleanly

Route	Per-transaction cap	Today's cost
Personal VPA (P2P)	₹1,00,000	Free, wrong account for business
Ordinary merchant QR (not verified)	₹1,00,000	Free; ₹300 a payment once MDR starts
Verified MCC 4722 merchant (if granted)	₹5,00,000	Free; ₹300 once MDR starts
RTGS or NEFT to your current account	No RBI maximum	Free to receive; small or no fee to send

Example: On a personal VPA, a ₹3,00,000 advance needs at least three transfers of up to ₹1,00,000 each (spread over three days if the client's bank caps their day at ₹1,00,000). Your account's P2P inward cap is 25 credits or ₹4,00,000 in 24 hours, so if a second client pays ₹1,50,000 the same day, the total reaches ₹4,50,000 and the transfer that crosses ₹4,00,000 fails. On a verified MCC 4722 QR, the same ₹3,00,000 clears in one payment, under both the ₹5,00,000 and ₹10,00,000-a-day ceilings, if the client's bank allows it. RTGS sidesteps the question: ₹3,00,000 clears the ₹2,00,000 RTGS minimum with no maximum, lands free, and the client's bank can charge at most ₹25 plus tax. RBI's RTGS FAQ also describes a free beneficiary name look-up, so the client can confirm your account name before sending.

The practical default: under ₹1,00,000, a merchant QR in your firm's name, scanned live, normally carries the payment (a small-merchant P2PM QR stops at ₹10,000). Above it, unless you've confirmed and tested verified MCC 4722 status, send RTGS or NEFT instead of hoping it clears.

For transfers over Rs 1,00,000, please use:

Account name: [Agency legal name]
Bank: [Bank name]
Account number: [xxxxxxxxx]
IFSC: [XXXX0000000]
Amount: Rs [amount]
Remarks / reference: [Booking reference]

Please confirm the account name on your banking app before sending, and
share the UTR number once done. A receipt will follow.

Issue the receipt once it lands using the advance receipt format for tour bookings. For the cost and dispute side of UPI versus a gateway, see collecting advances: UPI, payment links or a gateway; if you approach a payment aggregator for a merchant account, the travel agency payment gateway guide covers how they underwrite and price travel businesses.

What the UPI MDR announcement changes, and when

As of October 2026, no UPI merchant fee is being charged. A government FAQ dated 15 September 2026 announced a 0.4% merchant discount rate (MDR) on P2M payments above ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 at ₹75,000 and above, with P2P and small-merchant P2PM payments staying free and merchants barred from passing it to customers.

It was due from 15 October 2026, but on 13 October 2026 NPCI said the rollout would come "after Diwali," with the date to be notified separately. Treat any date you read elsewhere as unconfirmed. Once it starts, three ₹1,00,000 payments to an ordinary merchant QR would cost ₹300 each (0.4% is ₹400, capped at ₹300), ₹900 in total, against ₹300 for one ₹3,00,000 payment to a verified merchant.

Why a personal account is the wrong fix

Running client advances through a personal account risks the ₹4,00,000-in-24-hours P2P inward cap, and NPCI's OC 181 (November 2023) told acquiring banks that merchants must be onboarded only as P2M or P2PM, with any merchant wrongly categorised as P2P to be corrected. Splitting an advance across several family accounts to dodge the limit muddies who actually paid, which on an overseas package becomes a question of whose PAN the TCS goes against. And a savings account suddenly showing heavy, regular credits can trigger a bank's own KYC review, covered in bank froze your account for 'unusual' turnover. The fix is a proper merchant account, not a workaround.

Common questions

UPI se 2 lakh kaise bheje agar ek transaction mein ₹1 lakh pe atak jaaye?

Don't force it through in pieces on the same account. Check the client's own bank app for its daily limit first, since it can sit below ₹1,00,000 even on an ordinary account. If your QR is a verified MCC 4722 merchant, a single payment up to ₹5,00,000 should go through, subject to the client's bank allowing it. If it isn't, send the amount by NEFT or RTGS instead.

Is UPI free for merchants now, or is a charge coming?

Direct UPI into your own merchant QR is still free of MDR, as of October 2026 (a gateway or payment link charges its own fee regardless). The 0.4% MDR announced on 15 September 2026 was deferred by NPCI on 13 October 2026 to after Diwali, with the start date still to be notified.

Does the ₹5 lakh travel limit apply to my own personal UPI account?

No. It applies only to P2M payments reaching a verified MCC 4722 merchant. A personal-to-personal transfer stays at ₹1,00,000 per transaction regardless of category.

The short version

• The ₹5 lakh UPI limit is for P2M payments to merchants coded MCC 4722 and categorised as "Verified Merchant," not for UPI generally and not for a personal account.
• Personal UPI (P2P) stays at ₹1,00,000 per transaction, with P2P credits into the account also capped at 25 transfers or ₹4,00,000 in 24 hours.
• Even a verified merchant's ₹5,00,000 ceiling can be set lower by any individual bank, on either side of the payment.
• Travel isn't one of the segments NPCI lets banks verify regardless of size; for an agency the test is ₹50 crore consolidated annual turnover (NPCI's consolidated circular, September 2026), so ask your bank or aggregator in writing rather than assume you qualify.
• NPCI caps "QR share & pay" at ₹2,000 for personal and non-verified offline-merchant QRs, and a QR image you send can land in that bucket, so test your own QR before you rely on it.
• Above ₹1,00,000, send RTGS or NEFT by default unless you've confirmed and tested verified MCC 4722 status.
• As of October 2026, no UPI MDR is charged; the 0.4% fee announced in September was deferred to after Diwali, date still unnotified.