A founder in Pune recently told me he spent three weeks comparing payment gateway pricing, picked the cheapest one, and launched. Within sixty days, he switched. The problem was not the rate. Nearly one in ten payments were failing at checkout, and the payment gateway did not support UPI AutoPay for his subscription product. The "cheapest" option was costing him more in lost sales than the fee difference ever saved.
This story plays out across thousands of Indian startups every quarter. Headline transaction rates across major payment gateways now sit between 1.5% and 2%. The actual gap on a domestic card transaction is often less than Rs 500 per lakh of GMV. But the revenue impact of choosing the wrong payment gateway, once you factor in failed transactions, missing payment methods, and slow settlements, runs into lakhs per month.
This guide compares the five most relevant payment gateways for Indian startups in 2026 on pricing, features, and the numbers that actually determine which one costs you the least.
Razorpay, PayU, and Stripe all charge 2% on standard domestic transactions. The pricing gap between major Indian payment gateways is smaller than most founders assume.
Razorpay is the only payment gateway offering a 90-day zero platform fee promotion (Rs 5 lakh cap) for new merchants activated after July 1, 2026. No promo code required.
Payment success rates matter more than TDR. Razorpay reports 90% to 95% success on domestic transactions. The industry average sits between 85% and 88%. On Rs 10 lakh monthly GMV, that gap translates to Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 in additional collected revenue per month.
Razorpay is the only Indian payment gateway with a one-click checkout (Magic Checkout), in-app UPI (Turbo UPI), and AI payment routing (Optimizer trained on 600M+ data points). No other provider on this list offers all three.
CCAvenue offers the widest payment method coverage (200+ methods, 58+ netbanking banks) but charges Rs 1,200 annual maintenance and additional fees for Shopify, tokenization, and recurring payments.
Instamojo is the simplest to set up but charges 5% + Rs 3 on digital goods and returned its RBI PA license in September 2023.
PayU matches Razorpay on pricing (2%, zero setup, zero AMC) and includes LazyPay BNPL at checkout, but lacks business banking, lending, payroll, or AI-powered checkout products in comparison to Razorpay.
Stripe India is best suited for startups with cross-border revenue from day one, but its domestic payment method coverage and India-specific feature set are narrower than Razorpay's.
Only Razorpay bundles a full financial ecosystem on one platform: payment gateway, business banking (RazorpayX), working capital (Razorpay Capital), payroll, and POS. Every other payment gateway on this list requires separate vendors for these functions.
The cheapest payment gateway is not the one with the lowest TDR. It is the one that delivers the highest net revenue after accounting for failed payments, checkout abandonment, hidden fees, and multi-vendor operational costs.
Every payment gateway publishes a transaction discount rate, or TDR. This is the percentage the payment gateway deducts from each successful payment before settling the rest into your bank account. For most domestic card and netbanking transactions across major Indian payment gateways, TDRs fall between 1.5% and 2%.
The problem is that TDR only applies to transactions that actually succeed. The number on the pricing page tells you nothing about:
How many payment attempts go through on the first try
Whether the payment gateway supports the specific payment methods your customers want to use
What fixed costs (setup fees, annual maintenance, per-transaction flat fees) eat into your margins before any percentage is calculated
How quickly your money lands in your bank account after a customer pays
What happens when your startup grows, and you need subscriptions, international payments, lending, or payroll on the same platform
A payment gateway that charges 1.5% but converts only 87% of payment attempts collects less net revenue than a payment gateway charging 2% that converts 93% of attempts. The math is straightforward, and it is worth running on your own numbers before picking a provider.
Consider a startup processing Rs 10 lakh per month:
Payment Gateway A (1.5% TDR, 87% success rate): Collects Rs 8,70,000. Fee: Rs 13,050. Net to bank: Rs 8,56,950.
Payment Gateway B (2% TDR, 93% success rate): Collects Rs 9,30,000. Fee: Rs 18,600. Net to bank: Rs 9,11,400.
Payment Gateway B costs Rs 5,550 more in fees. But it puts Rs 54,450 more into the startup's bank account every month. Over a year, that gap is Rs 6.5 lakh in additional revenue, simply from more transactions completing successfully.
Published industry data puts the average payment success rate for Indian payment gateways between 85% and 88%. The top-performing providers report rates in the 90% to 95% range. The gap is real, and at startup-stage volumes, it compounds quickly.
| Criterion | Why It Matters for Startups |
|---|---|
| Total Cost of Ownership | TDR + setup fees + AMC + flat per-transaction charges + hidden costs, not TDR alone |
| Payment Success Rate | Every failed transaction is revenue that walked away, not just a poor user experience |
| Payment Method Coverage | UPI, cards, netbanking, wallets, EMI, BNPL, international, QR codes |
| Settlement Speed | Cash flow determines runway; T+1 vs T+5 changes how much working capital you need |
| Ecosystem and Scalability | One platform for payments, banking, payroll, and lending vs stitching together five vendors |
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard Platform Fee (Cards, Netbanking, Wallets, UPI) | 2% + GST |
| Credit Card on UPI (RuPay) | 2.15% + GST |
| EMI, Pay Later, Amex, Diners Club | 3% + GST |
| International Cards | 3% + GST |
| International Wallets and Local Methods | 3.5% + GST |
| International Bank Transfer | 1% + GST |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 |
| Annual Maintenance | Rs 0 |
| Refund Processing Fee | Rs 0 |
| Settlement Cycle | T+2 standard; Instant Settlements available |
| Reported Success Rate | 90% to 95% (industry average: 85% to 88%) |
| Payment Methods | 100+ (UPI across 53+ apps, 72+ netbanking banks, 10+ wallets, EMI, BNPL, QR codes, international) |
| Uptime | 99.9% (Optimizer product: 99.99%) |
| RBI PA License | Yes (2022) |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 |
Razorpay processes over $180 billion in annualized TPV and power payments for 105 of India's 119 unicorns. These are not marketing claims pulled from a pitch deck. They are the kind of numbers that only come from infrastructure that has been stress-tested under real transaction volumes at national scale.
For Indian startups specifically, three things separate Razorpay from the rest of this list: the AI-powered payment stack, the broader financial ecosystem, and an onboarding offer that no other major payment gateway currently matches.
New merchants who complete KYC and activate their Razorpay account on or after July 1, 2026 get zero platform fees on the first Rs 5,00,000 of domestic payment gateway transactions for 90 days. No promo code. No application form. The amount credits are applied automatically the moment your account is activated.
For a startup processing Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh per month, this covers the entire first quarter. That is roughly Rs 9,000 to Rs 12,000 in platform fees that you simply do not pay. For an early-stage company still validating product-market fit, removing one of the first operational costs from the P&L for three full months is a material advantage.
What is excluded: prepaid cards, corporate credit cards, American Express, Diners Club, and all EMI-based payment methods. GST on the standard fee rate and a one-time Rs 199 KYC processing fee are not waived. One redemption per PAN or bank account. If you operate multiple MIDs under the same PAN, only the first activated MID qualifies. Unused credits lapse at 90 days with no carry-forward.
Full terms: razorpay.com/terms/90-day-free-pg-offer/
Razorpay is the only Indian payment gateway that combines AI routing, one-click checkout, and in-app UPI into a single stack. Here is what each product does:
Razorpay Optimizer: ML engine trained on 600M+ data points. Routes each payment through the bank or network most likely to approve it. Five strategies: Smart Routing, Priority Routing, Rule-Based Routing, Custom Identifiers, and Cascading Payments (auto-retry through a backup route if the primary declines). Merchants report 10%+ success rate improvement within the first few weeks.
Magic Checkout: Prefills name, address, phone, and email for returning users. Reduces checkout to a single confirmation tap. Reported 35% conversion improvement. Directly targets the 18% of cart abandonments caused by checkout friction (Baymard Institute data: 70% average cart abandonment rate).
Turbo UPI: Completes UPI payments inside the app without redirecting to a third-party UPI application. The transaction stays within the checkout flow. Eliminates the app-switch drop-off that kills conversion for mobile-first businesses.
The dashboard carries a learning curve. The number of products, settings, and configuration options can overwhelm a first-time user, especially one coming from a simpler payment gateway. Custom pricing above Rs 5 lakh per month GMV requires talking to the sales team, and the published rate card does not extend to enterprise tiers. EMI, Amex, Diners Club, and international transactions carry a 3% rate, which is standard across the industry but should be factored in if those methods represent a significant share of your volume.
Startups processing up to Rs 5 lakh per month want one platform for payments, banking, and lending with the highest available success rates and the broadest domestic payment method coverage in India. The 90-day zero-fee offer makes the first quarter of payment processing essentially free for core domestic transactions.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard Platform Fee (Cards, Netbanking, Wallets, BNPL) | 2% + GST |
| EMI, Amex, Diners, International | 3% + GST |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 |
| Annual Maintenance | Rs 0 |
| Settlement Cycle | T+2 standard; Same-Day and Priority Settlements available |
| Payment Methods | 150+ (cards, UPI, netbanking, wallets, EMI, BNPL) |
| RBI PA License | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 |
PayU has operated in India since 2011 and reports serving over 4.5 lakh businesses. The pricing structure is clean and transparent: 2% for domestic cards, netbanking, wallets, and BNPL; 3% for EMI, Amex, Diners, and international; zero setup and zero annual fees. On the rate card alone, PayU's cost structure is identical to Razorpay's standard rates.
PayU's standout feature is LazyPay, its in-house Buy Now, Pay Later product. If your startup sells to price-sensitive consumers who want to split payments or defer them by 15 days, LazyPay comes pre-integrated into the PayU checkout with no separate BNPL provider required. PayU also offers 150+ payment methods, intelligent payment routing for reducing failed transactions, Token Hub for card tokenization, and Instant Refunds.
The PayU dashboard is functional and less cluttered than some alternatives. API documentation covers standard integration patterns. The company also offers PayU for Enterprise with custom pricing and a dedicated account manager for higher-volume businesses.
PayU's ecosystem does not extend beyond payments. There is no equivalent to RazorpayX for business banking, no integrated working capital product based on your payment data, and no payroll service. If your startup grows and needs financial operations consolidated on one platform, you will need to bring in additional vendors. The checkout experience, while solid, does not have a direct equivalent to Magic Checkout for one-click purchase flows or Turbo UPI for in-app UPI without redirection. PayU does not publish a specific success rate figure; marketing materials reference "industry-leading success rates" without attaching a number.
Best for: Startups that want a straightforward, zero-fixed-cost payment gateway with broad payment method support, especially those whose customer base would benefit from the built-in LazyPay BNPL option at checkout.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Standard Platform Fee (Cards, UPI, Netbanking, Wallets) | 2% + GST |
| Credit Card on UPI (RuPay) | 2.15% + GST |
| Credit Card EMI | 2% + GST |
| Corporate/Commercial Cards | 3% + GST |
| Amex, Diners Club | 3% + GST |
| Cardless EMI | 3.5% + GST |
| International Cards | 3% + GST |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 (Standard plan) |
| Annual Software Upgradation Charge (ASUC) | Rs 1,200 + GST per year (waived for first financial year) |
| Shopify Plugin Surcharge | Additional 0.20% + GST on all payment modes |
| Tokenization (CCAvenue Vault) | Rs 1.25 per token provisioning + Rs 0.20 per cryptogram request |
| Recurring Payment Fees | Rs 15 per mandate creation + Rs 1 validation + Rs 1 notification |
| Settlement Cycle | T+3 standard; Express Settlements (same-day) available as upgrade |
| Payment Methods | 200+ (6 card networks, 97+ debit cards, 58+ netbanking, 15 bank EMIs, UPI, 13 prepaid instruments, multi-currency) |
| RBI PA License | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 |
CCAvenue, operated by Infibeam Avenues, is one of the longest-running payment gateways in India. Its primary strength is breadth. With 200+ payment methods, 97+ debit card options, and 58+ netbanking connections, CCAvenue covers more payment instruments than most competitors, particularly among regional and cooperative banks where smaller payment gateways may have gaps.
CCAvenue has its own Smart Dynamic Routing engine that automatically routes payments based on bank performance patterns. The F.R.I.S.K (Fraud and Risk Identification System) handles transaction risk scoring. Additional products include TapPay (phone as POS terminal), CCAvenue Forms (no-code payment forms), and in-app payment SDKs. The platform also supports multi-currency processing with INR settlement for businesses handling international customers.
For startups, the Standard plan at 2% with no setup fee is the relevant starting point. The ASUC of Rs 1,200 + GST per year is waived for the first financial year from activation. After that, it is billed monthly, payable in advance every April, and prorated for mid-year signups.
The ASUC is a fixed annual cost that Razorpay, PayU, and Instamojo do not charge. At Rs 1,200 per year, it will not break a budget, but for a startup processing Rs 1 to 2 lakh per month, it is a line item the alternatives simply do not have. More importantly, CCAvenue layers on additional charges that are not visible on the headline pricing page. Shopify users pay an extra 0.20% + GST on every transaction. Tokenization costs Rs 1.25 per token. Recurring payments carry a Rs 15 mandate creation fee plus per-transaction charges.
The integration experience has not kept pace with newer platforms. Developers accustomed to REST-first, webhook-driven APIs in the style of Stripe or Razorpay may find CCAvenue's integration patterns slower and more cumbersome to work with. Settlement times default to T+3, which is a day or two slower than Razorpay and PayU. There is no bundled business banking, lending, or payroll offering.
Best for: Established small businesses that need the widest possible netbanking and regional bank coverage across India, particularly those transacting with customers at banks where smaller payment gateways may not have direct connections. Less suited for tech-first startups that prioritize developer experience, API quality, and fast settlements.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Payment Gateway (Physical Goods) | 2% + Rs 3 per transaction + GST |
| Payment Gateway (Digital Goods) | 5% + Rs 3 per transaction + GST |
| Smart Pages Basic Plan | Free (₹0/year) and (transactions at 5% + Rs 3) |
| Smart Pages Pro Plan | ₹1,999 per month (transactions at 2% + Rs 3) |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 |
| Settlement Cycle | T+3 standard; faster payouts available at additional cost |
| Payment Methods | Cards, UPI, Netbanking, Wallets, Pay Later |
| RBI PA License | Returned to RBI in September 2023; operates under partner arrangements |
Instamojo positions itself as the simplest payment solution for solopreneurs, freelancers, and micro-businesses. Onboarding is fast, the dashboard is minimal, and payment links can be generated and shared over WhatsApp or social media without any technical integration or website.
The pricing has layers that are easy to overlook at first glance. The 2% headline TDR for physical goods looks competitive until you add the flat Rs 3 per transaction charge. On a Rs 500 order, that Rs 3 is an additional 0.6%, bringing the effective rate to 2.6%. At Rs 200 per order, the effective rate crosses 3.5%. For digital goods, courses, ebooks, software licenses, and templates, the rate is 5% + Rs 3 + GST, which is the highest on this list by a significant margin.
Instamojo also offers Smart Pages, a built-in store builder that lets businesses without a website create product pages and accept payments through them. The Pro plan at ₹1,999 per month unlocks webhooks, Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics integration, WhatsApp messaging, custom domain linking, and visitor insights. The Basic plan at Free (₹0/year) provides the store functionality but at the higher 5% + Rs 3 transaction rate.
Instamojo also has a convenience fee feature that lets merchants pass the transaction cost to the customer. This effectively makes payment acceptance "free" for the seller, though customers see the fee added at checkout.
Instamojo returned its RBI Payment Aggregator license to the regulator in September 2023 and currently operates under partner arrangements. This does not make it unlawful to use, but the company does not directly hold the PA authorization. Startups dealing with investors, compliance teams, or enterprise customers who ask about payment partner credentials will need to explain this arrangement.
The 5% rate on digital goods is a dealbreaker for any startup selling digital products at scale. Recurring payment support is limited. The Pro plan at Rs 2,499 per month adds a fixed monthly cost that the alternatives do not require for equivalent functionality. Settlement at T+3 is slower than Razorpay and PayU. There is no AI payment routing, no one-click checkout, no business banking, no lending, and no payroll. For any startup expecting to grow past a few lakhs per month in GMV, the platform's feature ceiling will force a migration to a more comprehensive payment gateway.
Best for: Solopreneurs and micro-businesses selling physical products at very low volumes who need the fastest possible setup with zero technical effort. Not recommended for digital goods sellers, subscription businesses, or startups planning to scale beyond Rs 3 to 5 lakh monthly GMV.
| Parameter | Detail |
|---|---|
| Domestic Cards | 2% + GST |
| International Cards | 4.3% + GST (additional currency conversion fee may apply) |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 |
| Annual Maintenance | Rs 0 |
| Settlement Cycle | International transactions take T+5 business days |
| Payment Methods | Cards, selected international methods |
| RBI PA License | Yes |
| PCI DSS | Level 1 |
Stripe is the global benchmark for developer experience in payments. The API documentation is best-in-class. The client and server SDKs cover every major programming language and framework. The integration patterns are clean, consistent, and extremely well-maintained. If your engineering team has worked with Stripe in the US, Europe, or Southeast Asia, the India product will feel immediately familiar.
For startups with cross-border revenue from day one, Stripe's global infrastructure is a genuine advantage. Processing international card payments, handling multi-currency payouts, managing compliance across jurisdictions, and accessing Stripe's ecosystem of financial products (Billing, Connect, Atlas, Radar) is where the platform's depth really shows. Stripe's fraud detection (Radar) uses ML models trained on data from millions of businesses globally, which is a meaningful advantage for cross-border fraud patterns.
Stripe's India product is a subset of its global offering. Not all features available in the US or EU have launched in India yet. The domestic payment method coverage, while expanding, does not match Razorpay's breadth across Indian wallets, regional bank netbanking, and payment instruments like UPI AutoPay. There is no equivalent to Magic Checkout, Turbo UPI, or the multi-strategy AI routing that Razorpay Optimizer provides.
Stripe does not offer business banking, working capital lending, or payroll products in India. For a startup whose customers and revenue are entirely domestic, the developer experience advantage may not offset the narrower local feature set. Stripe's India support team is smaller than Razorpay's or PayU's, which can translate to slower response times for non-enterprise accounts.
Best for: Startups with meaningful international revenue or cross-border operations from launch, where Stripe's global payment infrastructure, multi-currency capabilities, and world-class developer tools are directly applicable. For purely domestic Indian startups, other payment gateways on this list offer broader local payment method coverage and richer India-specific features.
| Feature | Razorpay | PayU | CCAvenue | Instamojo | Stripe India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Domestic TDR | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% + Rs 3 flat | 2% |
| EMI / Premium Methods | 3% | 3% | 2% to 3.5% | N/A | N/A |
| International | Upto 3% (cards), | 3% | 3% | Not supported | 3% + conversion fee |
| Digital Goods Rate | 2% | 2% | 2% | 5% + Rs 3 | 2% |
| Setup Fee | Rs 0 | Rs 0 | Rs 0 | Rs 0 | Rs 0 |
| Annual/Fixed Fees | Rs 0 | Rs 0 | Rs 1,200 ASUC (waived yr 1) | Rs 1,499 to Rs 2,499/mo (plans) | Rs 0 |
| Per-Transaction Flat Fee | None | None | None (0.20% extra on Shopify) | Rs 3 per transaction | None |
| Reported Success Rate | 90% to 95% | 80% | 80 to 86% | 80 to 82% | Upto 90% |
| Settlement | T+2 (Instant available) | T+2 (Priority available) | T+3 (Express available) | T+3 (faster at extra cost) | T+2 |
| Payment Methods Count | 150+ | 150+ | 150+ | 30+ | 40+ |
| AI Payment Routing | Yes (Optimizer, 600M+ data points) | Basic intelligent routing | Smart Dynamic Routing | No | No |
| 1-Click Checkout | Yes (Magic Checkout) | No | No | No | No |
| In-App UPI | Yes (Turbo UPI) | No | No | No | No |
| Business Banking | Yes (RazorpayX) | No | No | No | No |
| Working Capital Loans | Yes (Razorpay Capital) | No | No | No | No |
| Payroll | Yes (Razorpay Payroll) | No | No | No | No |
| POS / Offline | Yes (Razorpay POS) | No | Yes (TapPay) | No | No |
| Startup Free Tier | 90-day zero fee, Rs 5L cap | No | Zero TDR up to Rs 1L (limited time) | Free with convenience fee passthrough | No |
| Fraud Prevention | Yes | Yes | F.R.I.S.K | Basic | Radar (ML-based) |
| Startup Profile | Recommended Payment Gateway | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Early-stage, under Rs 5L/month, wants one vendor for everything | Razorpay | 90-day free offer eliminates startup costs; ecosystem covers banking, capital, payroll on one platform; highest reported success rate |
| D2C ecommerce with high cart abandonment | Razorpay | Magic Checkout + Turbo UPI + Optimizer routing directly reduce the three biggest conversion leaks: form friction, app redirection, and payment failures |
| SaaS with subscription billing and recurring payments | Razorpay | Subscriptions product is the most mature; UPI AutoPay and e-NACH support; PayU is a functional alternative if LazyPay BNPL matters |
| B2B startup with BNPL demand from buyers | PayU | LazyPay BNPL pre-integrated at checkout, no separate provider needed |
| Solopreneur selling physical products, no tech team | Instamojo | Fastest setup, built-in store page, payment links via WhatsApp, zero technical work required |
| Cross-border startup with international customers from day one | Stripe India | Global infrastructure, multi-currency, Radar fraud ML, best developer tooling for international payment flows |
| Established SMB with heavy netbanking and regional bank usage | CCAvenue | Widest netbanking coverage (58+ banks, 97+ debit card options) including regional and cooperative banks |
| Startup selling digital goods (courses, SaaS, templates) | Razorpay or Stripe | Instamojo's 5% digital goods rate is a non-starter at any meaningful scale; both Razorpay and Stripe charge a flat 2% |
| Startup needing offline + online on one platform | Razorpay | Razorpay POS handles in-store; CCAvenue TapPay is the only other option with offline, but lacks the broader ecosystem |
Pricing alone does not separate these five payment gateways as much as their marketing pages suggest. Razorpay, PayU, and Stripe all charge 2% on standard domestic transactions. CCAvenue charges 2% plus Rs 1,200 annual maintenance. Instamojo charges 2% plus Rs 3 per transaction and 5% on digital goods.
Where Razorpay pulls ahead is in what surrounds the fee: a 90-day zero platform fee offer (Rs 5 lakh cap) for new startups, a 90% to 95% success rate powered by AI routing trained on 600 million data points, one-click checkout and in-app UPI that no other Indian payment gateway matches, and a full financial ecosystem covering banking, lending, and payroll on one platform.
For an early-stage Indian startup processing under Rs 5 lakh per month in domestic GMV, Razorpay delivers the strongest value on net revenue per transaction, total cost of ownership, and long-term scalability. The 2% rate is the same as PayU and Stripe, lower in effective cost than Instamojo and CCAvenue once you add flat fees and annual charges, and the AI payment optimization, ecosystem depth, and zero-fee onboarding offer make the comparison clear.
The "cheapest" payment gateway is not the one with the lowest number on the pricing page. It is the one that puts the most money in your bank account after accounting for fees, failed transactions, and operational complexity. By that measure, Razorpay wins.
Is Razorpay really free for new startups?
Razorpay offers a 90-day zero platform fee promotion for new merchants who activate after July 1, 2026. The offer covers up to Rs 5,00,000 in cumulative domestic payment gateway transactions. GST on the standard fee rate and a one-time Rs 199 KYC processing fee still apply. After 90 days or once the Rs 5 lakh cap is exhausted (whichever comes first), standard 2% pricing kicks in automatically. The credits apply on activation with no promo code required. One redemption per PAN or bank account.
If Razorpay and PayU both charge 2%, what actually makes Razorpay more cost-effective?
The TDR is the same, but the total cost of ownership is not. Razorpay reports success rates of 90% to 95%, powered by an AI routing engine (Optimizer) trained on 600 million+ data points. PayU does not publish a comparable figure. On Rs 10 lakh of monthly GMV, a 6 percentage point gap in success rate between two payment gateways translates to Rs 60,000 in additional collected revenue, which far exceeds any savings from a lower TDR. Add Magic Checkout's reported 35% conversion improvement, Turbo UPI's in-app completion (no app-switch drop-off), and the ecosystem products (banking, capital, payroll) that eliminate the need for separate vendors, and the value equation extends well beyond the percentage on the pricing page.
Which payment gateway has the highest success rate in India?
Razorpay is the only major Indian payment gateway that publishes a specific success rate range: 90% to 95% on domestic transactions, against an industry average of 85% to 88%. Razorpay Optimizer dynamically routes each transaction through the bank or payment network with the highest probability of approval for that specific payment attempt, using Smart Routing, Cascading Payments (automatic retry through a backup route on failure), and Priority Routing strategies. PayU and CCAvenue reference intelligent routing capabilities in their marketing but do not attach a specific success rate figure.
Does CCAvenue charge any fees beyond the transaction rate?
Yes. CCAvenue charges an Annual Software Upgradation Charge (ASUC) of Rs 1,200 + GST per year, which is waived for the first financial year from activation. Shopify merchants pay an additional 0.20% + GST on all payment modes. Card tokenization through CCAvenue Vault costs Rs 1.25 per token provisioning plus Rs 0.20 per cryptogram request. Recurring payment mandates carry a Rs 15 creation fee, Rs 1 per validation, and Rs 1 per notification. These charges are published on the CCAvenue dashboard but are not visible on the main pricing page.
Why is Instamojo so expensive for digital products?
Instamojo charges 5% + Rs 3 + GST on digital goods (courses, ebooks, software, templates), compared to 2% + Rs 3 for physical goods. This is 2.5x the standard domestic rate at other payment gateways. Instamojo's Smart Pages Pro plan at Rs 2,499 per month brings the digital goods rate down to 2% + Rs 3, but that adds a fixed monthly cost. For any startup selling digital products at meaningful volume, the 5% base rate makes Instamojo the most expensive option on this list. Razorpay, PayU, CCAvenue, and Stripe all charge 2% flat regardless of whether the product is physical or digital.
Can I use Razorpay for international payments?
Yes. Razorpay supports international card payments at 3% + GST for exports and 3.5% (including forex) for imports. International bank transfers are processed at 1% + GST. The platform supports 130 currencies. For startups with primarily international revenue and complex multi-currency requirements, Stripe may offer deeper global tooling. But for Indian startups with a mix of domestic and occasional cross-border transactions, Razorpay's international payment support is more than sufficient without needing a second payment gateway.
Does Instamojo still have an RBI payment aggregator license?
Instamojo returned its RBI Payment Aggregator license in September 2023. The company continues to process payments through partner arrangements with licensed entities. This does not make using Instamojo illegal, but the company does not directly hold the PA license. Startups working with compliance-sensitive investors, regulated industries, or enterprise customers who require their payment partners to hold direct RBI authorization should factor this into their evaluation.