Razorpay vs Cashfree: Fees Compared (2027)

Quick answer: On the published rate cards, Cashfree Payments charges a standard platform fee of 1.95% plus taxes, a shade under Razorpay's flat 2% plus GST, and it is running a new-merchant offer of zero platform fees on the first ₹20 lakh of volume. Razorpay offers one flat rate across links, pages and invoices; Cashfree publishes itemised EMI, subscription and payout rates. For most SMBs the gap is a few hundred rupees a month, so decide on fit.

How we researched this: We read both gateways' own pricing pages, Cashfree's offer terms and developer docs, Razorpay's checkout integration docs, PayU's and Instamojo's pricing pages, the RBI Master Direction on Payment Aggregators and the NPCI press release of 13 October 2026. Everything below is as checked in October 2026; rates change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you sign up.

The two rate cards, side by side

Both vendors quote a "platform fee" rather than the old bank-style MDR, and both add GST on top of it. Here is what each pricing page says (checked October 2026):

Two things in that table deserve a second look. First, Razorpay lists EMI, Pay Later and ordinary cards in one block, with a footnoted 2.15% + GST line sitting beside the credit-card-on-UPI row. Ask the sales team which instruments that line covers before you assume 2% everywhere. Second, Cashfree's page prints two numbers (1.95% and 2.0%) for the main payment-mode group without mapping them, while its offer terms say "standard Cashfree platform fees of 1.95% + applicable taxes". Treat 1.95% as the headline and 2.0% as a reminder to read your own agreement.

What a ₹10 lakh month actually costs

Take a Coimbatore D2C brand selling ₹10,00,000 a month, all domestic, mostly cards and UPI, with GST at 18% on the fee:

• Razorpay: 2% of ₹10,00,000 = ₹20,000, plus ₹3,600 GST = ₹23,600.
• Cashfree: 1.95% = ₹19,500, plus ₹3,510 GST = ₹23,010.

The difference is ₹590 a month, or ₹7,080 a year, and it exists only if every rupee lands in the 1.95% bucket. A GST-registered business should ask its accountant whether the GST on gateway fees can be set off as input credit, because that changes the real cost more than a 0.05-point gap does.

The new-merchant offer changes the first few months. Cashfree's terms say merchants who sign up on or after 21 July 2026 and finish KYC get zero platform fees on a cumulative ₹20,00,000 of domestic volume, with the campaign running until 31 March 2027. GST is not waived: it is still charged at 18% and computed on the standard 1.95%, so on the full ₹20 lakh you would pay about ₹7,020 in GST and no platform fee. The same volume at Razorpay's headline rate would cost ₹40,000 plus ₹7,200 GST. The fine print matters:

• Amex, Diners, corporate credit cards, every EMI method, prepaid cards, Pay Later, subscriptions (e-mandate) and international transactions are excluded.
• Cashfree can withdraw the offer if credit cards make up 60% or more of your volume once you cross ₹1 lakh.
• It is once per PAN or bank account, not for merchants already transacting on Cashfree before 21 July 2026, and not for merchants referred through partners or resellers.

Razorpay's pricing page carries its own sign-up banner for a free payment gateway for the first 90 days ("0% fee, down from 2%"). The banner does not spell out its conditions on the page, so read them at sign-up. Neither promotion is a reason to pick a gateway you would not want at full price.

Where the gap widens: EMI, international, subscriptions, payouts

EMI and Pay Later. If you sell ₹40,000 laptops or ₹90,000 sofas, EMI matters. Cashfree publishes a separate figure for each EMI type, and debit-card EMI is listed at 1.5%, below the headline rate. Razorpay's public page does not itemise EMI apart from its headline block, so get the EMI rate in writing.

International cards. A Pune design studio billing US clients by card pays up to 3% + taxes on Razorpay and 2.99% on Cashfree for Visa and Mastercard. Razorpay's international bank transfers are listed at 1% with zero forex markup. The export side, including how to get a FIRC, has its own walk-through in receiving export payments in India.

Subscriptions. Cashfree Subscriptions publishes per-mandate and per-debit lines. For UPI AutoPay, the page shows debit presentations at ₹7.5 + ₹5 for amounts under ₹1,000 and ₹7.5 + ₹15 from ₹1,000 upward, alongside platform fees. Razorpay Subscriptions describes UPI AutoPay and e-NACH pricing as quoted by sales. If recurring billing is your core business, read UPI AutoPay vs e-NACH for recurring billing before comparing rate cards.

Payouts. Cashfree prints a payout table: ₹3 (NEFT), ₹4 (RTGS) or ₹6 (IMPS/UPI) up to ₹1,000; ₹5, ₹6 and ₹8 from ₹1,000 to ₹25,000; ₹8, ₹10 and ₹15 above ₹25,000, excluding bank charges and GST. Razorpay's vendor-payment side is RazorpayX, which is priced separately. We compare both in bulk vendor payouts in India.

Payment links. Both treat links as a feature of the gateway, not a separate product. Cashfree Payment Links are listed as included at no additional cost, and Razorpay Invoices and links sit under the same 2%. A 25-person Pune distributor chasing 60 retailers for dues can send links from either; the cost gap is the same 5 paise per ₹100.

UPI: zero MDR is not zero fee

Razorpay's FAQ is blunt: standard bank-to-bank UPI and RuPay debit carry zero MDR, "however, a standard platform or technology fee of 2% will be applied". Cashfree's answer is vaguer ("as per the applicable law"), yet its platform-fee table still lists UPI among the modes at 1.95% / 2.0%. In both cases "UPI is free" does not mean your gateway statement shows nothing for UPI. QR codes issued by a bank or a UPI app for business are separate products from a gateway checkout, so compare their terms on the issuer's own page; the wider picture is in UPI payment gateway charges and MDR in India.

There is a regulatory twist for 2027 budgets. NPCI's press release dated 13 October 2026 says its UPI and Services Steering Committee decided that merchant discount rate on "select Person-to-Merchant (P2M) UPI transactions" will be implemented immediately after Diwali, "at a date to be notified separately". The release does not say which transactions, which merchants or what rate. Until NPCI UPI notifies the details, model your UPI cost at today's published figures and keep a line in the budget for a change.

Settlement, onboarding and what the RBI actually fixes

Razorpay's FAQ says fees are deducted per transaction and the rest is settled on your cycle, "typically T+1 or Instant". Cashfree's offer terms set T+1 settlement by 8:00 PM IST as the default during the campaign, and its Instant Settlements (funds within about 30 minutes of capture, per its FAQ) cost 0.30% extra. Neither number is a legal constant. The RBI's Master Direction on Payment Aggregators (15 September 2025) leaves merchant credit timelines to the agreement between aggregator and merchant, which must state them transparently. So the settlement clause in your contract, not the marketing page, is what binds the gateway.

The same Direction sets a lighter onboarding route for small merchants: where annual turnover is up to ₹40 lakh (or export turnover up to ₹5 lakh), an aggregator may verify PAN or Form 60, do a physical contact-point check and take an officially valid document from the proprietor.

Integration: what day one looks like

"Razorpay payment gateway integration" and the "Cashfree payments gateway solution" are both server-plus-browser flows, and both vendors tell you never to trust the browser alone.

Razorpay (per its Standard Checkout docs):

1. Create an order on your server with the Orders API. The amount is sent in paise, so ₹500 is 50000.
2. Load checkout.js with your Key ID and the order_id. Payments made without an order cannot be captured and are refunded automatically.
3. On success, verify the HMAC SHA256 signature of order_id|razorpay_payment_id with your key secret before fulfilling the order.
4. Test with test-mode keys, then swap in live keys, and set up webhooks such as order.paid.

Server SDKs exist for .NET, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby and Go, and plugins cover WordPress, Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify. Account activation is in how to set up Razorpay.

Cashfree (per its Hosted Web Checkout docs):

1. Call Create Order from your backend with your client ID and secret in the x-client-id and x-client-secret headers.
2. Take the payment_session_id from the response and open Cashfree's JS checkout in sandbox or production mode; your domain must be whitelisted first.
3. Fetch the order from your backend and treat it as paid only when order_status is PAID.
4. Set a return_url, but confirm through webhooks, because customers close tabs.

Neither flow is harder than the other. Choose on the developer you have: if your site already runs on WooCommerce or Shopify, the plugin route on either vendor is the fastest start.

Who should pick which, and a rollout that avoids lock-in

• Pick Razorpay if you want one flat rate to explain to your finance team, or you will use invoices, links and RazorpayX from one dashboard. Our Razorpay pricing guide goes deeper.
• Pick Cashfree if you want published EMI, subscription and payout rates, or you are a new merchant who can use the ₹20 lakh offer. See the Cashfree pricing guide.
• Look elsewhere if your average ticket is small or your volume is very large. Instamojo publishes 2% + ₹3 per transaction for UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets (3% + ₹3 for corporate cards), so a ₹300 order costs ₹9 before GST there against ₹6 at a flat 2%. PayU lists 2% for domestic cards, netbanking, wallets and BNPL and 3% for EMI, Amex, Diners and international, with T+2 standard settlement. Easebuzz says pricing is customised by usage and settles T+1 working day.

For a wider shortlist, the payment gateway category lists more options and best payment gateway in India: charges compared covers the rest of the market. "Best payment gateway for low fee in India" has no single answer; it depends on ticket size, payment mix and whether you need EMI, subscriptions or international cards. Razorpay itself says on its pricing page that no payment gateway in India is genuinely free, so treat any "free" claim as a question about where the cost moved.

A rollout that keeps you free to switch:

1. Pull three months of your payment mix: share of UPI, debit, credit, EMI and international.
2. Price each gateway on that mix, including GST, using the table above.
3. Ask both for written confirmation of the rate on each instrument you use, the settlement cycle and any minimum or annual charge.
4. Wrap the gateway behind a thin payment layer in your code so a second one can be added later.
5. Reconcile settlements against your books monthly in your accounting tool, such as Zoho Books, so a mis-billed fee shows up in month one, not month twelve.

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