The Structural Anatomy of the NPCI upi://pay Deep Link Intent
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), relies on a standard uniform resource identifier (URI) scheme. When a customer scans a UPI QR code using any banking or payment mobile application (such as Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, or BHIM), the smartphone operating system intercepts the quick response matrix and resolves the embedded URI intent structure.
A fully compliant UPI intent URL string is constructed using standard key-value pairs formatted as follows:
upi://pay?pa=VPA_ADDRESS&pn=PAYEE_NAME&am=AMOUNT&tn=REMARKS&cu=INR
- pa (Payee Address): The Virtual Payment Address (VPA) or UPI ID registered with a PSP bank (e.g.
merchant@icici). - pn (Payee Name): The legal account holder or business entity name displayed during authorization.
- am (Amount): The requested monetary value encoded in INR decimal format (e.g.
250.50). - tn (Transaction Note): Custom narrative, bill number, or invoice reference for bank statement reconciliation.
- cu (Currency Code): Standard three-letter ISO currency code, strictly designated as
INRfor Indian Rupee transfers.