Amazon Pay has unveiled two significant innovations at the Global Fintech Festival – UPI Circle, a comprehensive family payment solution, and an expansion of its payment ecosystem to trusted smart devices. UPI Circle now enables primary UPI account holders to securely add family members to their payment circle with either one-time approval or transaction-by-transaction authorisation.
Family members can make UPI payments using their own UPI ID or QR code without needing separate bank accounts. In collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Amazon Pay is also bringing secure payment capabilities to smartwatches and wearables using advanced biometric authentication and device-level encryption, moving digital payments beyond smartphones into everyday devices.
What is Amazon Pay UPI Circle?
UPI Circle now enables primary UPI account holders to securely add family members and trusted contacts to pay instantly with UPI but with preset spending limits.Each added member would have their own UPI id or QR code, but don’t need to operate bank accounts and instead can get access to fixed fund amounts approved by primary account holders.
All payments are PIN-less and enabled with additional biometric authentication for security. The primary user retains complete control over usage, including reviewing payment requests, setting spending limits, tracking expenses, and accessing detailed payment records.
Making payments secure on smartphones and wearables
Additionally in a strategic collaboration with NPCI, Amazon Pay is expanding the payment ecosystem beyond smartphones to trusted smart devices. This initiative brings secure payment capabilities to smartwatches and other wearables, featuring advanced biometric authentication, device-level encryption, and real-time fraud detection. Users will soon make quick tap-and-go payments, receive instant transaction notifications, and manage family payments across multiple connected devices—all while maintaining bank-grade security.
"UPI Circle marks a transformative step towards inclusive digital payments. At Amazon Pay, we are committed to solving real customer problems at scale, and these features address the growing need for secure, family-managed digital payments," says Girish Krishnan, Director Payments & Merchant services, Amazon Pay India.
“The ability that Amazon Pay now offers to use a diverse range of trusted smart devices for payments marks a significant leap toward our vision of frictionless commerce, where any trusted device becomes a secure payment instrument," he adds. "The feature promises to transform daily transactions, making them not just faster, but fundamentally more secure and intuitive for millions of Indians. And together with UPI circle, we are confident that we can help enable acceleration of digital payment adoption across households throughout India."
Diverse payment scenarios with Amazon Pay UPI Circle
Amazon Pay UPI Circle offers unprecedented flexibility with both one time approval (full delegation) and every time approval (partial delegation) based UPI payments, making it convenient for different family needs. The solution supports a wide range of payment scenarios—including sending money, scanning and paying at stores, online merchant payments, and shopping on Amazon.in. Future upgrades will expand in functionality to include bill payments and subscriptions. The service specifically targets digitally-savvy household managers (aged 30-50) who oversee family payments, and digital-native teens (aged 13-17) and other dependents without individual banking access.
UPI Circle also extends Amazon Pay's rewards ecosystem to all family members. As circle members make payments with Amazon Pay, they earn personalised shopping rewards on every transaction. On meeting monthly milestones in terms of transactions, Amazon Pay users can qualify for 5% assured cashback on various shopping and payment categories, making it the most rewarding way for families to pay.
The new feature aligns with Amazon Pay's broader mission to simplify and personalise payments while supporting NPCI's vision of expanding digital payment adoption across India. With every transaction, users enjoy secure processing, cashback rewards, and unified visibility of family expenses.
