Update, 10:13 p.m. ET: Apple has now confirmed the launch for “customers with Axis Bank-issued Visa and Mastercard credit cards.” The original story follows below.
Nearly twelve years to the day after Apple first announced Apple Pay, the feature is now rolling out in India, one of the few major markets where it had yet to become available. Here are the details.
Earlier today, TechCrunch reported that Apple Pay would launch in India “later Tuesday with Axis Bank as its initial banking partner.”
Now, as spotted by Aaron Perris on X, Apple has begun enabling Apple Pay support in India on its servers, suggesting the rollout is officially underway.
Apple Pay is now rolling out in India after 12 years, as per Apple's backend pic.twitter.com/Takw6hYe7o
According to an Apple support article, there are now 101 countries and regions that support Apple Pay, including India.
India has quickly become one of the most strategically important countries for Apple, both in terms of manufacturing and consumer growth.
In addition to expanding its retail presence and repeatedly highlighting strong growth in the country during quarterly earnings calls, Apple and its suppliers have been shifting more iPhone production to India as part of a broader effort to diversify manufacturing beyond China.
That expansion has not been without its controversies. Apple is currently fighting an antitrust case brought by the Competition Commission of India over its App Store practices, and the company has also refused to comply with a government order requiring smartphone makers to preinstall a state-run app on new devices.
Apple manufacturing partner Tata Electronics has also recently come under fire after an Indian pollution regulator alleged that wastewater from one of its iPhone component factories contaminated groundwater and nearby farmland.
Tata was also recently targeted by a cyberattack that allegedly exposed confidential files from several companies, including Apple.
All of that said, Apple’s launch of Apple Pay in India signals another step in the company’s broader expansion in the country and comes at a potentially useful time for its Services business.
During the last fiscal quarter, Apple saw its first sequential drop in Services revenue since fiscal Q4 2022. Of course, India is unlikely to move that needle on its own, but with iPhone sales reaching record levels in the country, Apple Pay gives the company another way to keep building on that momentum.
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Marcus Mendes is a Brazilian tech podcaster and journalist who has been closely following Apple since the mid-2000s.
He began covering Apple news in Brazilian media in 2012 and later broadened his focus to the wider tech industry, hosting a daily podcast for seven years.
