Paying bills with UPI? SBI UPI to be unavailable for 45 minutes on Oct 3

State Bank of India (SBI) customers will face a brief disruption in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) services in the early hours of Saturday, October 3, 2026, as the country’s largest lender carries out scheduled maintenance. The bank has asked users to plan their digital transactions accordingly and use UPI Lite for uninterrupted payments during the downtime.

According to an advisory posted on SBI’s official X handle, UPI services will be temporarily unavailable from 00:15 hrs to 01:00 hrs (IST) on October 3, 2026. The bank added that the maintenance activity “may, however, be completed early,” but customers should assume the full 45-minute window could be impacted.

During this period, UPI payments made from SBI accounts, as well as through SBI’s own YONO and BHIM SBI Pay apps, may fail or show as pending. The outage is limited to the stated time slot and is not expected to affect other digital banking channels outside the maintenance window.

What customers can use instead

SBI has specifically highlighted UPI Lite as the preferred alternative during the maintenance. UPI Lite is designed for small-value, high-frequency transactions and works like an on-wallet balance within UPI apps.

• Key features of UPI Lite that remain available during such downtimes include:
• Transactions up to ₹1,000 per payment without entering a UPI PIN.
• A daily transaction cap of ₹5,000 from the loaded UPI Lite balance.
• Instant processing even when regular UPI rails are under maintenance.

Customers can load funds into UPI Lite via the BHIM SBI Pay app or other supported UPI applications before the maintenance begins.

Planning around the outage

The bank has urged customers to complete time-sensitive UPI payments before 00:15 hrs on October 3 or after 01:00 hrs, once services are restored. For urgent needs during the outage, users can also rely on ATMs for cash withdrawals and balance enquiries, which will remain functional.

SBI said it regrets the inconvenience caused to customers due to the scheduled maintenance.