UPI Is Coming to Uzbekistan, but Indian Travellers Will Have to Wait About a Year

NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the overseas arm of India's National Payments Corporation of India, signed a commercial agreement on 30 August 2026 with Uzbekistan's National Interbank Processing Centre (NIPC), the operator of the country's HUMO payment system, to enable UPI-based payments across Uzbekistan. Under the arrangement, Indian travellers would eventually be able to scan Uzbekistan's national interoperable QR code, UZQR, and pay merchants directly from an Indian bank account using a UPI-enabled app.

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Uzbekistan becomes the eleventh country in the scheme

If completed, the tie-up would make Uzbekistan the eleventh country where Indian travellers can pay by UPI, joining Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Bhutan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Greece. Uzbekistan's Silk Road cities, Samarkand, Bukhara and the capital Tashkent among them, have seen rising interest from Indian tourists in recent years, helped along by relatively simple e-visa access.

The rollout is not immediate

Reporting around the announcement has been explicit that this is a commercial agreement rather than a live payment rail: officials involved in the deal have indicated the arrangement is expected to become operational in around a year, putting a realistic launch closer to mid-to-late 2027 rather than this year. Indian travellers heading to Uzbekistan in the near term should not assume UPI will work at merchants there yet.

Why the expansion keeps happening

NPCI International has pursued this kind of bilateral tie-up steadily over the past few years, aiming to let Indian travellers pay directly from a home bank account rather than carrying cash or relying on foreign exchange cards, while also giving Indian tourism a data trail that host countries can use to court more visitors. Each new country has tended to follow a similar pattern: an agreement signed first, followed by a technical integration period before payments actually go live for the public.

This is based on the NIPL-NIPC agreement reported around 30 August and into September 2026; travellers should confirm current payment options with their bank or UPI app, and check official NPCI International and Uzbek government sources closer to any planned trip, since rollout timelines for cross-border payment systems can shift.

Traveller tips

• UPI does not yet work in Uzbekistan; carry a forex card or cash until an official launch is confirmed.
• Uzbekistan offers e-visa access for Indian passport holders, making it a relatively straightforward Central Asian add-on to a trip.
• Check your UPI app or bank's international payments page before travel, as country support can be added or adjusted without wide publicity.
• For the ten countries where UPI already works, transaction limits and merchant acceptance still vary, so keeping a backup payment method is sensible regardless of destination.