The company shared the revised guidelines in a recent blog post, stating that users who do not make any financial transactions through the PhonePe Wallet for 365 consecutive days will be marked as “inactive” and charged a ‘Wallet Inactivity Maintenance Fee’ of ₹100 (including GST) per quarter.
The company clarified that simply opening the PhonePe app or making payments through UPI linked to a bank account will not count as wallet activity.
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“User activities such as logging in to the PhonePe application, performing UPI transactions, on-app category payments/applications (recharge, bill payments, credit cards, loans, insurance) or any other non-wallet transactions or KYC submission for wallet do not constitute wallet activity for the purpose of determining the PhonePe Wallet’s ‘Inactive’ status and its period,” it said in the blogpost.
To keep a wallet active, users must carry out a transaction directly using their PhonePe wallet.
According to PhonePe, users will receive a 15-day notice before the inactivity fee is deducted.
Meanwhile, users can avoid the charge by completing a wallet transaction during the notice period, after which the wallet will be marked as active.
If sufficient funds are available in the wallet, the company will directly deduct ₹100 as a Wallet Inactivity Maintenance Fee from it. However, if the wallet balance is less than ₹100, only the available amount will be deducted, and the balance will be reduced to zero, without creating a negative balance.
According to PhonePe, the charge supports ongoing platform updates, fixes and feature enhancements aimed at improving the user experience.
How to avoid the charges
PhonePe users can check whether they may be affected by reviewing the activity of their PhonePe wallet. The inactivity fee applies only to wallets that have not recorded a financial transaction for 365 consecutive days.
To avoid the charge, users should ensure they complete at least one transaction using their PhonePe wallet within the one-year period.
The inactivity-related charges are not entirely new in the digital payments industry. Several fintech companies have previously introduced similar policies for dormant wallets. In 2021, Mobikwik introduced a wallet maintenance charge for inactive users.
Earlier, Airtel Payments Bank had also charged maintenance fees for wallets that remained inactive for a certain period before later moving to an annual maintenance charge structure.
(Edited by : Gareema Bangad)
First Published: Jun 19, 2026 11:58 AM IST
