Google Pay, also known as GPay, is a mobile payment application developed by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

. It allows users to make payments via smartphones using methods such as the

Unified Payments Interface Unified Payments Interface, commonly known as UPI is an Indian instant payment system as well as protocol developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in 2016. The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and pe ...

(UPI) in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and PayNow in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. The app supports peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, in-store payments via NFC, online purchases, and bill payments.

History

Tez and rebranding

Google Pay was originally launched in India as Tez in September 2017, built on the UPI system. In August 2018, it was rebranded as Google Pay to unify Google's payment platforms across global markets. The new app retained UPI features while adding broader payment capabilities.

Expansion

After success in

, Google Pay expanded to countries including

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. A revamped app was launched in the U.S. in 2020 but was later discontinued in June 2024 in favor of

Google Wallet Google Wallet (or simply Wallet) is a digital wallet platform developed by Google. It is available for the Android, Wear OS, and Fitbit OS operating systems, and was announced on May 11, 2022, at the 2022 Google I/O keynote. It began rollin ...

. As of September 2024, the app remains active in

and

Features

NFC and QR payments

Google Pay supports QR code payments and NFC-based contactless transactions in supported regions. In Singapore, QR payments are enabled through PayNow and FavePay. In India, Google Pay allows NFC-based Tap & Pay using RuPay credit/debit cards linked with the app.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers

Users can send or receive money from contacts. In India, this is powered by UPI, and in Singapore by PayNow.

UPI integration (India)

Google Pay in

operates on the

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

infrastructure, enabling instant money transfers between linked bank accounts. Users can pay using UPI IDs, QR codes, or mobile numbers. Several related features were introduced in 2024: the UPI Circle feature allows a user to delegate payment access to trusted secondary users with either full or partial control, UPI vouchers let users send prepaid monetary value via mobile numbers, redeemable even without linking a bank account, and Autopay for UPI Lite tops up a user’s UPI Lite balance when it falls below a set threshold for small-value offline transactions. Users can add prepaid utility services like electricity or maintenance bills and recharge them directly from the app. Google Pay supports international UPI QR payments, allowing Indian tourists to pay local Singaporean merchants directly via UPI without currency exchange.

ClickPay QR (India)

Google Pay supports ClickPay QR for bill payments by scanning QR codes generated by billers through NPCI Bharat BillPay.

PayNow integration (Singapore)

In Singapore, the app integrates with PayNow, allowing users to send and receive funds via mobile numbers or NRIC/FIN.

FavePay integration (Singapore)

In partnership with Fave, Google Pay supports cashback-enabled QR payments via the SGQR system at various retail outlets.

Security

Google Pay uses device-level security such as PIN, fingerprint, or face unlock. Transactions are encrypted, and the app employs machine learning-based fraud monitoring to detect suspicious activity.

Availability

As of 2024, Google Pay is available in the following countries: * India Full

support and features. * Singapore PayNow, FavePay, and international

acceptance. Google Pay was formerly available in the United States but was phased out in June 2024 in favor of

References

{{Digital payment providers Mobile payments Android (operating system) software IOS software Google services 2024 disestablishments in the United States