Initial Availability
It only supports Axis Bank cards for now.
Apple Pay has arrived in India, making the contactless payment service available to the world's most populated country. It took Apple over a decade since the feature's inception to be able to roll it out to the market, because it had to comply with local banking regulations.
Bank Support and Negotiations
For now, however, the feature only supports Visa and MasterCard credit cards issued by Axis Bank. It still doesn't work with cards issued by other banks in the country, such as the State Bank of India and HDFC Bank. Additionally, it doesn't support India's local credit card network RuPay. Apple reportedly wants to charge a 0.2 percent fee per transaction, and its terms are still under negotiation with the other banks.
Merchant Support
In addition, it will not work on terminals that haven't been enabled for the payment method. The company stated in its announcement that millions of merchants across India will accept Apple Pay at launch, including Apple Store locations, Blinkit, Chaayos, Comet, Croma, Interflora, Ixigo, Le15 Patisserie, Reliance brands, Tata 1mg, Zomato and more.
Setup and Market Context
Like in other regions, users in India can add Axis Bank cards through the bank's app or via tapping the plus sign inside the Wallet app and following instructions. India's smartphone market is still dominated by Android phones, but Counterpoint Research told CNBC that Apple's volume market share is likely to reach 10 percent this year, thanks to the strong demand for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
