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A UPI payment shows pending, the customer insists they paid, and the business does not know whether to ship, wait or ask for another payment.
Pending is temporary and ends as success or failure; ship on success, let the bank reverse on failure, and never take a second payment while the first is pending.
A pending-payments list from the gateway or UPI dashboard, checked several times a day, with each order held until its payment status is final.
No orders shipped on unconfirmed payments, no duplicate payments from impatient customers, and late successes marked paid promptly.
Pending means the customer’s bank has not yet confirmed whether the UPI payment succeeded or failed. It always ends one of two ways: success, and the money reaches you in your settlement, or failure, and the money goes back to the customer. Do not ship, and do not refund, until the status is final.
Why does a UPI payment stay pending?
UPI connects the customer’s app, the customer’s bank, NPCI’s network, your bank or gateway, and your app. If any link is slow, the payment waits.
| Why it stays pending | What the dashboard shows | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Customer’s bank slow to respond (timeout) | Pending or processing | Wait; check again in a few minutes |
| Collect request sent but not approved | Pending (awaiting customer) | Remind the customer to approve it in their app |
| Network delay between banks | Pending | Wait for the final status |
| Customer’s bank debited but response lost | Pending, later success or failure | Wait; do not take a second payment |
A “collect request” is when your checkout asks the customer’s UPI app for money and the customer must approve it. If they never approve, it expires and no money moves.
How long can a UPI payment stay pending?
Most pending payments resolve within minutes. A few take a few hours, and in rare cases the final status arrives the next day.
If the payment finally fails after the customer was debited, the customer’s bank must reverse it. RBI’s circular of 20 September 2019 on turnaround time requires reversal of a failed UPI payment to a merchant within T+5 days (T is the transaction day), and ₹100 per day compensation to the customer for any delay beyond that. The bank pays this, not you.
Should I ask the customer to pay again?
Not while the first payment is still pending. If the first one later succeeds, the customer has paid twice. You then have to find the duplicate and refund it, and the customer waits for their money.
A better reply: “Your payment is still being confirmed by your bank. We will hold your order and confirm within the next few hours. If it fails, your bank will return the money automatically.”
Worked example: a ₹899 order
- 14:10: a customer pays ₹899 by UPI. The status shows pending.
- 14:25: the customer, worried, pays ₹899 again. This second payment succeeds at once.
- 16:10: the first payment also turns to success, two hours after it started.
You now have ₹1,798 for one ₹899 order. The order is paid. The second ₹899 is a duplicate you must refund.
Check: ₹899 + ₹899 = ₹1,798 received, ₹899 earned, ₹899 to refund. Refund the later payment ID, note both payment IDs against the order, and tell the customer the refund reference.
On UPI fees: NPCI has approved merchant charges of 0.4 percent on person-to-merchant UPI payments above ₹2,000, with sector carve-outs, which apply once the new charges start; NPCI has postponed the start to after Diwali 2026, with the date to be notified. Each ₹899 payment here is below ₹2,000, so that charge would not apply to it. A ₹2,500 payment, by contrast, would carry ₹10 at 0.4 percent once the charges start, unless a sector carve-out applies; the charge is capped at ₹300 per transaction. A Supreme Court challenge to the charges is still pending; on 28 September 2026 the Court refused to pause them.
How pending payments show up later
A pending payment that turns successful arrives in a later settlement than you might expect. A duplicate shows as two payment IDs against one order ID. Checking pending and duplicate payments daily keeps the month-end match clean.
What to read next
- Next in this series: A customer paid twice for one order: how do I find and refund the duplicate?
- UPI settlement reconciliation
- Exception management in reconciliation
- Payment gateway reconciliation
Payment-gateway settlement reconciliation is on the TransactIG roadmap.
Content authored by practitioners with experience at Amazon India, Intuit QuickBooks, and the Tata Group. Meet the team →