India has embarked on an innovative pilot program that enables consumers to shop and make payments directly through AI-powered chatbots. This initiative is spearheaded by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with forthcoming integrations of Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, positioning India as a pivotal market for global AI enterprises.
On October 9, 2025, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the governing body overseeing the country’s extensive Unified Payments Interface (UPI), announced a collaboration with OpenAI and fintech company Razorpay. This partnership aims to facilitate direct shopping and payment experiences via ChatGPT. Razorpay has confirmed that the pilot is being implemented nationwide and is expected to be broadly accessible in the coming months.
The foundation of this experience lies in two new NPCI protocols:
1. UPI Reserve Pay: This protocol allows users to earmark a specific amount of funds for future debits to designated merchants, ensuring a seamless transaction process.
2. UPI Circle: This solution delegates UPI authentication, enabling payments to be completed directly within ChatGPT without the need to switch to external applications or websites.
Razorpay has developed the merchant integration layer that empowers businesses to conduct transactions through AI chatbots.
Initial merchant partners for this pilot include Tata Group’s online grocery platform BigBasket and telecom operator Vi. Customers can now shop for groceries or purchase mobile recharge plans directly through ChatGPT. The banking infrastructure for this initiative is supported by Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank.
India, recognized as the world’s most populous nation with over a billion internet subscribers, has rapidly become one of OpenAI’s leading markets for ChatGPT. In August, OpenAI introduced a budget-friendly ChatGPT Go plan priced below $5 to attract a broader subscriber base. This commerce pilot aligns with OpenAI’s broader strategy to deepen engagement and leverage India’s swiftly expanding digital economy.
Harshil Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Razorpay, emphasized the transformative nature of this initiative, stating, It’s not just a payment experience. It’s a whole new discovery and commerce experience.
UPI has already achieved remarkable success in India, facilitating over 20 billion transactions each month and serving as the country’s primary digital payments channel. The introduction of AI-driven shopping experiences could further enhance UPI adoption by integrating it into daily commerce activities, provided consumers embrace chatbots as a new shopping interface.
Mathur also revealed that Razorpay has completed a proof-of-concept for this new agentic payment experience with Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. These integrations are slated to be available to consumers in the coming weeks.
Razorpay is actively engaging with additional merchants beyond BigBasket and Vi, anticipating a broader rollout in the next couple of months.
Both Google and Anthropic are witnessing a surge in new users from India. While Google already has a substantial local presence with products like Android, Search, and YouTube, OpenAI and Anthropic are making concerted efforts to establish a foothold in the country by localizing their AI offerings for Indian users.
The current plan for agentic payments in India does not involve any specific revenue-sharing model for the participating partners. However, this move is expected to enhance user retention for AI companies, including OpenAI.
Mathur confirmed that under the new setup, AI companies will not have access to payment data. Users will pre-authorize the transaction amounts through chatbots using two-factor authentication, ensuring a secure transaction process.
In September, OpenAI introduced an Instant Checkout experience and its Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with Stripe, to assist businesses and merchants in connecting with consumers using AI agents. Similarly, Google launched its Agent Payments Protocol to enable AI agents to conduct transactions on behalf of users.
Reeju Datta, co-founder of Cashfree Payments, commented on the potential of this concept, stating, This is still an early, forward-looking concept, but one with tremendous potential. Its adoption will naturally grow in line with how fast shopping agents take off.
In addition to Razorpay, online merchant payments startup Cashfree Payments has launched its Agentic Payments MCP, which enables merchants to facilitate payments directly through their shopping agents. Cashfree’s solution supports all major payment methods, including cards and UPI. However, merchants need to develop their own shopping agents to integrate them with MCP.
The startup demonstrated this experience through a video showcasing a chatbot enabling users to purchase an iPhone.
Datta declined to disclose the initial merchants involved in the agentic shopping experience, stating only, We are exploring this with a few large enterprise merchants across categories like e-commerce and lending.
