Nearly a quarter of approximately 6,700 employees in India have either been laid off or are in the process of being laid off, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Addressing these reductions, a PayPal Spokesperson stated, “The recent staffing changes are part of our previously announced multi-year transformation to simplify our global operations, strengthen execution, and position the company for long-term growth. Decisions like these are never easy. We recognise the impact they have on our employees and are committed to supporting them through this transition.” The spokesperson did not comment on exact number of layoffs in India.
In May 2026, media reports emerged that the -based digital payments giant planned to cut about 20 per cent of its global workforce over the next few years to accelerate adoption and reduce costs. The planned job cuts would affect approximately 4,760 positions.
Full-time employees
According to the company’s annual report, PayPal employed approximately 23,800 people globally as of December 31, 2025. About 41 per cent of its workforce was based in the US, with the remainder located outside the country. Nearly 49 per cent of PayPal’s full-time employees were classified within its technology function.
As per its website, PayPal has two software development and operations centres in Chennai and Bengaluru, which employ product, technology, analytics and operations specialists building products, solutions, and services for its global customer base.
The India technology centres are the largest for PayPal outside of the US, with employees here working on building PayPal’s payments platform, distributed computing, cloud, mobile, user experiences, AI, data science, blockchain, among others.
PayPal’s latest workforce reduction follows a series of cost-cutting and restructuring initiatives in recent years. As per the annual report, in the second quarter of 2025, the company launched its “2Q 2025 Plan”, a large-scale initiative to reengineer its technology infrastructure, reduce operational costs and “optimise” its workforce. The programme is expected to run for 18 to 42 months, with the workforce component substantially completed by 2027 and the technology infrastructure component by 2028.
Earlier in 2025, PayPal also initiated a workforce reduction to comply with a new regulation affecting its operations in an international market. In the first quarter of 2024, the company launched a global workforce reduction aimed at streamlining operations, focusing resources on core strategic priorities and improving its cost structure.
This followed another global workforce reduction launched in the first quarter of 2023, which PayPal said was intended to focus resources on core strategic priorities, improve its cost structure and increase operating efficiency.
Media reports observed that earlier this week, PayPal also laid off around 160 employees in Ireland, equivalent to nearly 12 per cent of its Irish workforce.
After the publication of the story, a PayPal spokesperson in a statement updated their earlier comment, stating “The headcount reductions made in India on 31 Aug 2026 is approximately 220 employees. This is a 4% reduction of our India employee headcount.”