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How to Pay by UPI Without Sharing Your Phone Number

Share a UPI ID or QR code to receive payment without giving the payer your phone number. Here’s how to find one and what to check before approving a payment.
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You can receive a UPI payment without giving the payer your phone number: share your UPI ID (also called a Virtual Payment Address or VPA) or your UPI QR code instead. This keeps your phone number from being used as the payment route; it does not make the transaction anonymous.

What to share instead of your phone number

Payment route What you give the payer Practical considerations
UPI ID or VPA Your UPI payment address Easy to send in a message. The payer enters it in their app and should verify the payee details before approving.
UPI QR code Your personal QR code Convenient to scan in person or share as an image. The payer should check the payee and amount shown in the app.
Account number and IFSC Your bank account number and branch IFSC A separate transfer route where supported by the relevant app and bank. It exposes bank details and is not the default UPI-ID/QR approach.

NPCI lists UPI ID and QR scan as BHIM send-money methods and says users can view and share their static QR and payment addresses: BHIM UPI App – Instant Money Transfer App. Availability and app layout can vary.

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How to receive a payment using a UPI ID or QR

  1. Find your payment details. Open your UPI app and look in its profile, payment, or receive-money section for your UPI ID/VPA or personal QR code. NPCI’s 2026 BHIM-UPI guidelines say the user-specific QR should appear on the profile page with the UPI ID beneath it; other apps may organize this differently. See the BHIM-UPI guidelines updated 4 June 2026.
  2. Share only the route you want to use. Send the UPI ID or QR to the payer instead of your phone number. With BHIM, if you want to stop using the phone-number-based ID, first create a secondary UPI ID, then use the profile privacy control to disable mobilenumber@upi. NPCI says the QR associated with that disabled ID is disabled too, so share the active secondary ID or its QR.
  3. Check the payment details before authorizing. Confirm that the recipient/payee information and amount shown in your app are correct before proceeding. NPCI says a QR payment page shows merchant information.
  4. Keep your UPI PIN to yourself. Enter it only in your payment app when you are authorizing a transaction. NPCI warns, “Please do not share your UPI-PIN with anyone.”

What the payer needs to do

The payer can enter your UPI ID in their app or scan the QR you shared, then check the payee information and amount shown before authorizing. For online merchant payments, NPCI describes a flow in which the customer enters a payment address, receives a collect request, and authorizes it with the UPI PIN. The exact screens and available payment methods depend on the app. See NPCI’s UPI Frequently Asked Questions.

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Can you disable the phone-number UPI ID?

BHIM documents a way to disable mobilenumber@upi after creating a secondary UPI ID. The QR linked to the disabled ID is disabled as well. This documented control is specific to BHIM; do not assume another UPI app offers the same switch. Check that app’s current profile or privacy settings, and use an active UPI ID or QR.

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Does this hide your phone number completely?

It avoids giving the payer your phone number as the payment identifier, but it does not make the payment anonymous. Your number may still be used for UPI app registration and account verification. NPCI says the mobile number linked to your bank must match the number verified in the UPI app to fetch bank accounts.

Account number plus IFSC is another transfer route described by NPCI; a beneficiary need not be registered for UPI for that route, subject to the services enabled by the payer’s app provider and bank. It is a distinct option, not a way to make UPI anonymous.

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