ChatGPT UPI Payments: Will Your Passwords be Safe?
Soham Halder
ChatGPT’s new UPI & AI-agent payment pilot raises a crucial question: can your banking passwords survive this shift?
UPI Integration in India: India has launched a pilot with NPCI, Razorpay & OpenAI to enable UPI payments directly in ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Accepts UPI Subscriptions: OpenAI now allows ChatGPT Go users in India to pay via UPI, making AI access easier, but is it safe?
How AI Agents Handle Authentication: In “agentic payments,” the AI agent may hold cryptographic tokens or delegated permissions rather than your raw UPI PIN.
Risk: Credential Exposure: Storing or transmitting payment credentials to an AI layer could expose them if encryption, access controls, or auditing aren’t airtight.
Strength: UPI’s Security Backbone: UPI is built on top of banking infrastructure with multi-factor authentication, device binding, and limits, giving it a strong baseline defense.
Risk: Misuse of Permissions: If a rogue AI or software glitch misuses granted permissions (e.g., paying without user intent), that’s a critical security vector to watch.
Safety Controls You Should Demand: You should insist on audit trails, revocable token access, transaction confirmation prompts, and zero storage of raw passwords.
Verdict & Advice: ChatGPT UPI payments bring convenience, but only if your passwords are abstracted away behind secure token flows you control.