Google Pay is shutting down in the US later this year

Google Pay was largely replaced by Google Wallet in 2022, but it still works in several countries, including the US. Now the search giant has announced that the standalone Pay app will be discontinued in the US on June 4, 2024 in an effort to simplify payment methods. After that, it will only be available in Singapore and India due to “unique needs in those countries,” Google wrote in a blog post.

As part of the withdrawal, Google will remove peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, managing your balance and “finding offers and deals”. For the latter, he recommends using the new one transactions destination in search. Users will still be able to transfer their Google Pay (GPay) balance to a bank account after June 4, 2024, using Google Pay website.

Google Wallet has now largely replaced GPay, with five times as many users in 180 countries, the company said. That’s because it can handle more than just payments—besides credit and debit cards, that is shops transport cards, government IDs, driver’s licenses, virtual car keys and more. Google Pay, the service, will still be available through Google Wallet.

Google’s payment system has been a mess over the years. It started as Google Wallet, which was launched in 2011. At the time, it was a touch-based payment system that came years before Apple Pay (2014), supported by Mastercard and retailers like Macy’s.

Meanwhile, Android Pay came out in 2015, then was integrated with Google Wallet in 2018 and renamed Google Pay. In addition, the company originally had a Google Wallet card (killed in 2016), which was effectively a prepaid debit card usable at all retailers that accepted Mastercard. Now everything is back under the Google Wallet umbrella – unless the company changes its mind again.

Correction, February 23, 2024, 10:30 a.m. ET: This post has been updated to clarify that only the standalone Google Pay app is shutting down in the US, not the actual service. It will still be available through Google Wallet going forward.