Razorpay in October 2026: Apple Pay goes live and ChatGPT Ads for Indian brands
What happened at Razorpay in the first three weeks of October 2026: Apple Pay arrived for online and in-store payments in India, Razorpay Engage started running ChatGPT Ads campaigns for brands like Tanishq and Tata Neu, and there was still no public update on the IPO.
Razorpay's October has had two pieces of news: Apple Pay went live for Indian payments at the turn of the month, and on 5 October Razorpay started offering to run ChatGPT Ads campaigns for Indian brands. One of them changes your checkout, and the other is a marketing service.
This follows our August–September roundup, which covered Vulcan, the Multi-Currency EEFC Account and the RAY account manager on WhatsApp.
At a glance
| Date | What happened | Affects your checkout? |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Sep – early Oct | Apple Pay live for domestic payments, online and in-store | Yes, if you use Standard Checkout |
| 5 Oct | ChatGPT Ads through Razorpay Engage, with OpenAI | No, it is a marketing service |
| 8 Oct | Newsroom repost of the Vulcan demo at Global Fintech Fest | No, the event was in September |
| October | No public update on the IPO | Not yet |
Apple Pay goes live in India (30 September, early October)
Apple Pay launched in India on 30 September with Axis Bank as its first bank. Razorpay was one of several payment companies switching it on for merchants, along with Juspay, Cashfree, PayU, Pine Labs, Paytm, Mswipe and Worldline. Its own announcement, dated 30 September, was widely reported in the first days of October.
How it works for a shopper: they pick Apple Pay at checkout and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID or their device passcode. They don't type a card number and they don't get an OTP. This is allowed because of the RBI's framework for authentication other than SMS OTPs, which took effect in April 2026.
What Razorpay says about it:
- Where it works: online and in-store, on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. On a Windows PC, the shopper scans a code with their iPhone.
- Integration: "If you are a Razorpay standard checkout business, no integration effort is needed from your end." Merchants on other integrations have to register interest through a form.
- Security: the merchant gets a token, not the real card number. Razorpay says this lowers fraud and chargeback risk.
- Live merchants named: Zepto, ixigo, IndiGo, Tata 1mg and JioMart.
- Earlier support: Razorpay already accepted Apple Pay for international payments. This adds domestic ones.
The limits are what matters for planning. According to Entrackr's launch report, at launch Apple Pay in India supports only Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard credit cards, and not UPI or RuPay cards. Most Indian iPhone owners can't use it yet, so expect low uptake until more banks join. Razorpay hasn't published fees for domestic Apple Pay. If pricing matters to you, check your rate card.
What it means for you: if you're on Standard Checkout, the Apple Pay button may appear without you doing anything, so follow Apple's button and brand guidelines, which Razorpay calls mandatory. It also adds another party to the payment: a failed Apple Pay payment can come from Apple's wallet or the issuing bank as well as from Razorpay. Apple Pay payments are card payments, so check your card success rate rather than your UPI one.
ChatGPT Ads through Razorpay Engage (5 October)
OpenAI started showing ads to logged-in adults on ChatGPT's Free and Go plans in India at the end of August, with WPP and Omnicom as its first agency partners. On 5 October, Razorpay said its growth marketing platform, Razorpay Engage, would set up and run those ads for Indian brands. The release calls this a deeper partnership with OpenAI.
Engage covers the whole job:
- checking whether a brand's product catalogue is ready, and structuring the product feed;
- creating and managing campaigns, using an AI agent built around ChatGPT Ads best practices;
- measuring and adjusting performance, "with human oversight from Razorpay's team where judgement is needed."
The brands named at launch were Tanishq, Rivaah by Tanishq, Fastrack, Traya, Tata Neu, Shaadi.com, Axis Max Life, Palmonas and NMIMS. Agency HiveMinds supported the Tanishq campaign.
COO Rahul Kothari said shoppers "may simply ask an AI assistant for help deciding what to buy." Nitin Bawankule, OpenAI's head of enterprise sales in India, said ads "can help brands show up meaningfully in those moments, while preserving the trust people place in ChatGPT."
Neither Razorpay nor any outlet we read has published pricing, campaign results or a date for buying inside ChatGPT. MediaNama's report puts this in context: Razorpay is also working with OpenAI and NPCI on ChatGPT storefronts and in-chat UPI payments, which builds on the agentic payments pilots we covered earlier.
What it means for you: nothing changes in your payments. This is Razorpay selling marketing on top of payments. If your customers find you through ChatGPT, it's an early way in, but there are no published results yet to judge it on.
Not new: Vulcan at Global Fintech Fest
On 8 October Razorpay's newsroom posted that it had shown Vulcan, its payments foundation model, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. The release is datelined 10 September, and GFF 2026 ran from 8 to 11 September, so this is old news posted late. There are no new numbers: it repeats the 8–10% success-rate gain at Blinkit, Bachatt and redBus that we reported in September.
The IPO: still waiting
Razorpay filed its draft papers confidentially with SEBI in June. As of 21 October there's no public update: no SEBI comments reported, and no updated draft prospectus published for public comment. Inc42 still describes the company as "IPO-bound." The first audited FY26 numbers will come in that public draft, so until it appears, treat any FY26 revenue figure you see quoted as unconfirmed.
What to watch next
- More banks on Apple Pay. Uptake depends on banks other than Axis, and on RuPay and UPI, joining.
- Results from ChatGPT Ads. The nine launch brands are the first test of whether AI-assistant ads drive sales.
- The public draft prospectus, which would start the 21-day public comment period.
- Festive season traffic. Late October is a peak for Indian e-commerce, which tests every gateway's success rates.
When a payment fails and you need to know whether the problem is Razorpay's own, Razorpay's live status on isuptime checks its monitor every few minutes, alongside 102 other services.
Sources
- Razorpay merchants can now accept Apple Pay online and in-store, with no card entry or OTPs (Razorpay newsroom)
- Introducing Apple Pay on Razorpay: a new way for India to pay (Razorpay)
- Apple Pay launches in India with Axis Bank cards; Razorpay, Cashfree and others enable merchant support (Entrackr)
- Razorpay partners with OpenAI to expand ChatGPT Ads in India (Razorpay newsroom)
- Razorpay to set up and manage ChatGPT ads for Indian brands (MediaNama)
- Razorpay partners with OpenAI to help Indian brands advertise on ChatGPT (Inc42)
- OpenAI to start showing ads on ChatGPT's Free and Go tiers in India (TechCrunch)
- At Global Fintech Fest, Razorpay presents AI payments model Vulcan to PM Narendra Modi (Razorpay newsroom)
Live status for the services in this post
Checked continuously against each provider's own status feed.