Apple Resumes Card Payments for App Store Purchases in India

Apple AAPL has resumed accepting debit and credit card payments for App Store and iCloud purchases in India, reversing a suspension that had left Indian users limited to UPI and net banking as their only in-app payment options. The restored card option is being made available for standard App Store purchases as well as iCloud storage and other subscription services, giving users back a payment method many had relied on before the suspension took effect. The move affects one of Apple's largest and fastest-growing services markets by user count, where App Store and iCloud purchases had been constrained to alternative rails for an extended period.

The original suspension traced back to India's card-on-file tokenization mandate, a Reserve Bank of India rule requiring that card networks, rather than merchants like Apple, be the party responsible for storing tokenized card data used in recurring and in-app transactions. Apple had paused card payments in India rather than build out the compliance infrastructure at the time, pushing affected users toward UPI and net banking as substitutes for several years. The resumption suggests Apple has now completed the technical and compliance work needed to route card transactions through tokenization-compliant rails, even without operating its own local data center in the country.

Reports indicate the restored card-payment option is rolling out gradually, first to a subset of users before wider availability across Apple's Indian App Store and iCloud customer base. That phased approach is consistent with how Apple has handled other regional payment and compliance changes, allowing it to monitor transaction success rates and fraud signals on a smaller population before a full rollout. Apple has not issued a detailed public statement on the rollout timeline, which leaves some uncertainty about when card payments will be available to all Indian users. Until Apple confirms a firm completion date, the practical takeaway for App Store and iCloud users in India is that card availability may vary by account for some time.

For investors, the change is a modest but tangible signal about Apple's approach to one of its fastest-growing services markets. India has become an increasingly important market for Apple's hardware and services businesses, and restoring a familiar payment method removes friction for users who prefer cards over UPI for certain purchases, including higher-value App Store transactions, family sharing setups, and business expensing. The bigger open question is whether Apple's compliance path here, working with card networks rather than building local data infrastructure, becomes a durable template as India's data-localization rules evolve, or whether further regulatory changes could again disrupt payment options for Apple's services revenue in the region.