Apple Restores Card Payments for India’s App Store After Four Years

Apple has resumed card payments for App Store and iCloud purchases in India, ending a four-year absence that pushed every renewal through India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), net banking, or Apple Account balance. The phased rollout accepts only Visa and Mastercard for now, with RuPay and American Express support said to be next in the coming months. Card billing returns after Apple walked away from the Indian market in 2022 instead of rebuilding its payment stack under the Reserve Bank of India’s 2021 rules.

For Apple, the change clears a path the company has been working toward for nearly a decade: bringing Apple Pay to India. The service, which uses Face ID or Touch ID on iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads and Macs, remains unannounced in the country. Reports in early 2026 placed Apple in talks with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Visa and Mastercard on a launch around mid-2026, with the timeline described as fluid. Apple has stayed quiet on the timing.

Card Payments Return, Phase by Phase

Apple has begun restoring credit and debit card payments for Apple Account purchases in India, having stopped accepting cards in 2022. The change, reported by TechCrunch on Monday, lets users add eligible Visa and Mastercard cards to their Apple Account to pay for subscriptions such as iCloud+ and Apple Music, as well as App Store purchases. Apple also updated its support documentation to reflect the change.

RuPay and American Express cards are not yet supported, but Moneycontrol, citing unnamed sources, said Apple is working to enable them over the next few months. Apple did not respond to requests for comment from TechCrunch or Moneycontrol. The rollout is phased, and Apple expects the option to expand to all eligible users over time, according to a person familiar with the matter. The change reverses a workaround that funnelled every App Store and iCloud renewal through UPI, net banking, or stored Apple Account balance.

Why Apple Stopped in 2022

Apple stopped accepting Indian debit and credit cards for App Store and iCloud transactions in 2022, after the Reserve Bank of India tightened two overlapping frameworks. The first, a card tokenisation framework introduced in 2021 and implemented in stages, banned merchants and payment platforms from storing customers’ card details. Instead, encrypted tokens issued by Indian banks had to stand in for the original numbers. The second was a recurring-payments rule that, among other things, required banks to notify users 24 hours before any auto-renewal charge and let them cancel.

The two frameworks together forced a wholesale rebuild of any global subscription billing stack, and Apple stopped card payments entirely. Other wallets, including Google Pay and Samsung Wallet, complied with the rules and kept taking cards. The transition disrupted subscription billing for many domestic and international companies before they updated their payment systems, per the Reserve Bank of India’s device-based tokenisation framework.

The 2021 tokenisation circular was meant to harden card security, since only card networks and issuers could hold the original card numbers under the new rule. For Apple, that meant handing off an integral piece of its payments plumbing. The recurring-payments rule added a second integration burden on top, since renewal notifications had to be issued by the customer’s bank, not by Apple. Indian users did not have the option of paying with a card for nearly four years.

The Compliance Work Apple Had to Finish

To bring card payments back, Apple had to make back-end changes so that tokenised card credentials live with the card networks and issuers in India. The work happened alongside Apple’s longer-running effort to bring Apple Pay to the country, with one Moneycontrol source describing the card-payments return as a side effect of that groundwork. “Apple has been laying the groundwork for Apple Pay, and this has helped them enable card payments in India now,” the source told the publication.

A second layer of the rule requires that tokenised payment data be stored locally in India. Apple does not operate a data centre in India and is not planning to build one in the near future, Moneycontrol reported, citing sources. The company backs up tokenised card data on servers in the United States, Denmark (for the European Union) and China. For India, Apple has decided not to mirror that data.

Apple’s services business in India has continued to grow at a double-digit pace even without direct card billing. Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, framed the return as overdue and necessary for a maturing Indian subscriber base.

It’s long overdue but happening finally. This solves one of the friction points for subscription renewals.

Pathak told TechCrunch. Restoring the option becomes increasingly important as the company’s installed base expands and more users expect multiple ways to pay, he said. The card-payments reset puts Apple one compliance milestone closer to Apple Pay.

Apple Pay Edges Closer After a Decade

The card-payments reset lines up with Apple’s reported work on an Apple Pay launch. In February 2026, Bloomberg and Reuters reported that Apple was in talks with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, alongside Visa and Mastercard, to launch Apple Pay in India around mid-2026. The Economic Times, citing people with knowledge of the matter, said the timeline remains fluid.

Apple Pay in India is expected to support UPI alongside card-based payments, putting Apple Pay in direct orbit with Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon Pay and Paytm in a market where UPI dominates. The Reserve Bank of India cleared one long-standing friction point late last year when it set new rules allowing biometric authentication for digital payments. Apple Pay uses Face ID or Touch ID to approve in-person tap-to-pay transactions, web checkouts and in-app payments, so the new rule removes a meaningful compliance hurdle. The wallet is built into iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads and Macs, with Apple’s list of Apple Pay participating banks covering the issuer side.

• ICICI Bank
• HDFC Bank
• Axis Bank

Eddy Cue said in 2018 that Apple wanted to bring Apple Pay to India. “We absolutely want to bring Apple Pay to the market,” Cue said at the time. Apple has been working to bring Apple Pay to India since at least 2018. Apple Pay remains unannounced in the country.

Why India Has Become Too Big to Sit Out

India’s pull on Apple has only grown during the card-payments pause. The country has a population of around 1.4 billion people and more than 750 million smartphone users, with UPI dominating the digital payments space.

Apple’s installed base has crept up alongside that growth. As recently as 2024, the iPhone represented just 6% of India’s smartphone market. By early 2026, Apple had lifted that share to about 10% of smartphone sales, the Economic Times reported.

Apple’s services business in India has continued to grow at a double-digit pace even without direct card billing, Counterpoint Research told TechCrunch. The retail footprint has expanded alongside the installed base. Apple BKC in Mumbai opened in 2023 as the first Apple Store in India. The Economic Times reported in February 2026 that Apple had just opened its sixth store, also in Mumbai. Apple is also using India as a key production base for iPhone exports.

• India population: around 1.4 billion
• Indian smartphone users: more than 750 million
• iPhone share of Indian smartphone sales: 6% in 2024, about 10% by early 2026
• Apple retail stores in India: 6 as of February 2026
• Apple services growth in India: double-digit pace, per Counterpoint Research

Apple has also expanded Indian iPhone assembly for export, the Economic Times reported. The build-out helps Apple manage US tariffs on Chinese-made iPhones by sourcing some US-bound units from India. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has frequently said India sales are growing quickly. He has called the market a key lever for the company’s overall growth.

What’s Still Missing Before Apple Pay

Two open questions hang over the rollout. The first is RuPay and American Express support, which Moneycontrol reports is being worked on for the next few months. Without RuPay, India’s homegrown card network, a meaningful slice of Indian cardholders will still need a workaround.

The second is the timing of Apple Pay itself. Card payments are now compliant, but no Apple Pay launch has been announced, so whether the mid-2026 window still holds will become clearer once Visa, Mastercard and the Indian banks now testing cards with Apple convert the same plumbing into a launch.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Apple stop card payments in India?

Apple suspended card payments for App Store and iCloud purchases in India in 2022, after the Reserve Bank of India tightened its card tokenisation framework and a separate recurring-payments rule. Indian users have since relied on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), net banking, or Apple Account balance.

Why did Apple pull out of Indian card payments?

The 2021 card tokenisation framework required that merchants and payment platforms stop storing customers’ card details, using encrypted tokens issued by Indian banks instead. A recurring-payments rule introduced in June 2022 required banks to notify users 24 hours before any auto-renewal charge. Apple chose to stop card billing outright.

Which cards does Apple now accept in India?

The phased rollout supports Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards. Moneycontrol reports that RuPay and American Express support is being worked on for the next few months.

When will Apple Pay launch in India?

Apple has not announced a launch. Reports in early 2026 said Apple was in talks with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, alongside Visa and Mastercard, to launch Apple Pay around mid-2026, with the timeline described as fluid.

Do UPI and net banking still work?

UPI, net banking and Apple Account balance all remain supported payment methods, with the return of card payments adding Visa and Mastercard to the existing list.