Razorpay vs PayU vs Cashfree: what payment gateways actually charge in 2026
MDR is the sticker price. Settlement float, refund maths and GST on fees are where the real money moves.
In short: As of August 2026 the published cards sit within a whisker of each other — Razorpay 2% flat domestic, PayU 2% (3% on Amex, Diners, EMI and international), Cashfree 1.95% with a limited-period 0% offer up to ₹20 lakh monthly volume. The real comparison is your blended rate by payment-method mix, settlement speed (T+1–T+2 standard, instant costs extra), non-returned MDR on refunds, and 18% GST on every fee. Pick on plumbing, then negotiate the percentages.
What are the headline gateway charges in 2026?
As of August 2026, from the gateways' own pricing pages: Razorpay lists 2% per successful domestic transaction (2.15% for corporate cards, up to 3% for international), with zero setup and zero annual maintenance. PayU lists 2% on Visa, Mastercard, netbanking, wallets and BNPL, and 3% on Amex, Diners, EMI and international, with no setup or annual fees. Cashfree lists 1.95% standard across UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets — currently under a limited-period 0% offer on those methods up to ₹20 lakh monthly volume, advertised until 31 March 2027 — with international cards at 2.99% (Amex 2.95%). All three add 18% GST on the fee.
Notice how tight that spread is: on standard published cards, the big three sit within a tenth of a percentage point of each other for domestic volume. Which is the first honest conclusion of this piece — for most D2C brands the published MDR is not the decision. Your blended rate, weighted by payment-method mix, settlement speed and the hidden lines below, is. We compared the three on success rates and checkout features in the conversion-side piece; this one is purely about what they charge.
How do charges differ by payment method?
UPI is the line that decides most Indian D2C blends, because it is routinely half or more of checkout. Merchant UPI carries zero MDR by government mandate, but that does not automatically make it free through a gateway: Razorpay’s page folds UPI into its 2% standard platform fee, Cashfree publishes 1.95% with the 0% limited offer, and PayU quotes merchant UPI pricing as varying by business type and volume. Ask the UPI question first and get the answer in writing. Cards cluster at 2%, with premium instruments costing more — corporate cards 2.15% at Razorpay, Amex and Diners 3% at PayU. Netbanking and wallets sit at the standard 2%/1.95% rates. Since your AOV shapes your method mix — higher tickets pull in more cards and EMI, as the AOV benchmarks piece shows — two brands can sign identical rate cards and pay meaningfully different blended rates.
| Razorpay | PayU | Cashfree | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic standard | 2% per successful transaction | 2% (Visa, Mastercard, netbanking, wallets, BNPL) | 1.95% (0% limited offer up to ₹20L/mo, advertised until 31 Mar 2027) |
| UPI | Within the 2% standard fee | Priced by business type and volume | 1.95% (0% offer); RuPay credit-on-UPI 2.15% |
| Premium instruments | Corporate cards 2.15% | Amex, Diners, EMI 3% | Pay Later 2.20%; EMI from ~1.90% |
| International | Up to 3% | 3% | 2.99% Visa/Mastercard; 2.95% Amex |
| Setup / annual fees | ₹0 / ₹0 | ₹0 / ₹0 | ₹0 / ₹0 |
| Standard settlement | Typically T+2 (faster tiers paid) | T+1–T+2 by profile; same-day at a fee | Typically T+2; 15-minute instant settlement as paid add-on |
All figures are published standard-plan rates as of August 2026, exclusive of 18% GST; negotiated pricing replaces most of this table once your volume is meaningful.
What do settlement cycles actually cost you?
Standard settlement across the three runs T+1 to T+2 business days, and faster money is a product you pay for: Cashfree markets instant settlements within 15 minutes as an add-on, PayU offers same-day or priority settlement for a profile-based fee, and Razorpay reserves faster cycles for paid tiers. The cost of ignoring this line: at ₹30 lakh monthly GMV, a T+2 cycle keeps roughly ₹2 lakh permanently in transit — working capital you cannot recycle into inventory or ads. For a performance-led brand that funds tomorrow’s ad spend from today’s settlements — the daily cash loop any serious performance marketing programme runs on — a day of settlement speed is often worth more than five basis points of MDR. Price the add-on against your working-capital cost, not against zero.
You are not buying a rate. You are buying money that arrives on time, minus a fee you can predict.
Where are the hidden costs?
- Refunds. Refund processing may be free — Razorpay publishes ₹0 — but gateways generally do not return the original transaction fee when you refund, so at a 10–15% cancellation-plus-refund rate you are paying MDR on revenue you never keep. Instant-refund products cost extra again (Razorpay lists ₹7.99–14.99 per instant refund). Refund economics compound with COD and returns maths into the gap between dashboard ROAS and banked ROAS.
- Chargebacks. Beyond the forced refund itself, dispute handling costs ops time and, at some providers, a per-dispute fee — the number is agreement-specific, so ask before signing rather than after losing.
- International. The 2.95–3% headline is before currency-conversion margins on non-INR settlement; if exports matter, price the forex line separately.
- GST. 18% on gateway fees means a published 2% is an effective 2.36% cash cost (input credit applies if you are GST-registered — most D2C brands are).
- Failure and retry. The most expensive gateway is the one that drops paid traffic at the last step. A 1% success-rate gap costs more than any MDR gap on this page — the arithmetic in the gateway conversion piece.
Which gateway suits which stage of D2C?
Launch (under ~₹5 lakh a month): setup and AMC are ₹0 everywhere, so optimise for onboarding speed and introductory economics — Cashfree’s 0% window is genuinely useful cash at this stage, provided you diarise the expiry and the ₹20 lakh cap rather than discovering them on an invoice. Scale (₹5–50 lakh): the decision flips from price to plumbing — success rates by method, settlement speed, and a primary-plus-fallback two-gateway setup so a bank outage never becomes a revenue outage. Enterprise (₹50 lakh+): everything on this page is negotiable, method by method; PayU openly pitches custom enterprise pricing, and all three will sharpen pencils against each other annually if you bring method-mix and success-rate data to the table. Whatever the stage: recompute your blended rate quarterly, because your method mix drifts faster than your contract does.
Quick answers: Razorpay vs PayU vs Cashfree charges
What does Razorpay charge per transaction in 2026?
A published 2% per successful domestic transaction (2.15% for corporate cards, up to 3% for international cards), plus 18% GST on the fee. Setup, annual maintenance and refund processing are listed at ₹0 on the standard plan.
Is UPI free through payment gateways?
Merchant UPI carries zero MDR by government mandate, but gateway platform fees are a separate line: as of August 2026 Razorpay folds UPI into its 2% standard fee, Cashfree publishes 1.95% with a limited-period 0% offer, and PayU prices merchant UPI by business type and volume.
Which payment gateway settles money fastest?
Standard cycles run T+1 to T+2 business days across Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree. Faster money is a paid add-on: Cashfree advertises instant settlements within 15 minutes, and PayU offers same-day or priority settlement for a profile-based fee.
Do payment gateways charge setup or annual fees?
The big three publish zero setup and zero annual maintenance on standard plans. The real costs live in the percentages: MDR by method, GST on fees, instant-settlement and instant-refund add-ons, premium-card surcharges and non-returned MDR on refunded orders.
Frequently asked questions
Should a D2C brand run two payment gateways?
Once you cross a few lakh a month, yes. A primary plus fallback setup with routing by method and live success rate protects revenue during bank or gateway outages, and the second relationship is your leverage when the annual pricing conversation comes around.
Do gateways return the MDR when I refund an order?
Generally no — refund processing may be free, but the fee charged on the original transaction typically stays charged. At a 10–15% cancellation-plus-refund rate, that is MDR paid on revenue you never kept, so model refunds into your blended rate and check your specific agreement.
Which gateway is cheapest for a UPI-heavy checkout?
On published cards as of August 2026, Cashfree's 1.95% standard rate — with its limited-period 0% offer up to ₹20 lakh monthly volume — reads lowest for UPI-heavy mixes. But blended cost depends on your full method mix and on negotiated pricing once volume grows, so recompute quarterly.
When can I negotiate custom pricing with Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree?
Realistically once you process a meaningful, provable volume — for most D2C brands somewhere past ₹20–50 lakh a month. All three offer custom or enterprise pricing; you negotiate best with method-mix, success-rate and refund data in hand, and with a credible second gateway live.
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