Cashfree vs Razorpay vs PayU: What the Festive MDR Offers Actually Cost You

Every payment gateway in India seems to be running some version of "0% MDR" this festive season. This shows how the Indian market is now considered a premium destination for domestic and international payment gateways.

Especially with UPI taking over how people pay and receive money, payment gateways are checking everywhere to find their place in the market.

Here's the thing about a 0% headline, though: it's the easiest number in fintech to advertise and the hardest one to actually keep up with. Caps, validity windows, eligibility conditions, and payment-mix exclusions decide what a merchant actually saves, and those details rarely make it into the banner ad.

So instead of asking which gateway has the flashiest offer, it's worth asking a more useful question: for a business doing ₹5 lakh to ₹20 lakh GMV in the festive season, what does each offer translate to in real money, and what happens the day after the promotion ends?

Three Offers | Three PGs | Stacked Side by Side

• Cashfree is currently offering 0% platform fee on eligible domestic transactions for new merchants, up to ₹20 lakh in monthly GMV, with the offer valid until 31 March 2027. The offer applies to domestic UPI, cards, net banking, wallets and prepaid cards, subject to the applicable terms.
• Razorpay is running a similar zero-platform-fee offer, but the eligible GMV is capped at ₹5 lakh per month and the offer is valid for three months from signup. Once a merchant crosses the volume limit or the offer period ends, standard pricing applies.
• PayU, for this comparison, isn't running a comparable blanket 0% offer. Its published pricing is 2% for domestic cards, net banking, wallets and BNPL, with 3% for EMI, Amex, Diners and international transactions, plus applicable GST. PayU instead offers features such as Priority Settlements for eligible merchants, with settlement options ranging from 15 minutes to 24 hours depending on the arrangement.

Instead of a festive discount, PayU's proposition is therefore more focused on its standard payment infrastructure and optional faster settlement services, which can be a different value proposition for an established, higher-volume business.

To sum it up:

• Cashfree offers the widest ceiling and longest validity period among the current 0% offers discussed here, subject to eligibility.
• Razorpay offers a similar headline rate at a fifth of the monthly GMV ceiling and for a shorter period.
• PayU isn't really in this particular 0% race; it is competing more on its broader payment infrastructure and settlement options.

What Do the Numbers Say?

Take Cashfree's 1.95% standard platform fee and apply it across a few realistic festive-season GMV levels. With ₹5 lakh GMV, a business would save ₹9,750; similarly, at ₹10 lakh GMV they would save ₹19,500 and at ₹20 lakh GMV, the total saving would be ₹39,000, assuming the transactions qualify for the offer.

Now do the same exercise for Razorpay, whose standard platform fee is 2% plus applicable GST. At ₹5 lakh GMV, the equivalent fee would be approximately ₹10,000 before GST. Because the promotional cap stops at ₹5 lakh per month, that is also roughly the maximum promotional saving available within a single month.

*Razorpay's promotional benefit is capped at ₹5 lakh monthly GMV.

The difference becomes obvious once a merchant moves beyond ₹5 lakh.

A business doing ₹15 lakh in monthly festive GMV can potentially capture up to ₹29,250 in fee savings through Cashfree's 0% offer, compared with roughly ₹10,000 of promotional savings available under Razorpay's ₹5 lakh monthly cap.

At ₹20 lakh GMV, Cashfree's potential fee saving reaches ₹39,000.

That is before considering the much longer promotional runway. Cashfree's current offer runs until 31 March 2027, while Razorpay's 0% offer runs for three months from signup. The practical difference isn't the headline rate. Both say 0%. It's how much volume the 0% rate actually covers and how long the merchant gets to use it.

Read Between the Lines of These Offers

None of these offers are unconditional, as all of them come with caveats.

• Cashfree: The 0% offer applies to eligible domestic payment methods, including UPI, domestic debit and credit cards, net banking, wallets and prepaid cards. It does not apply to international card transactions. The merchant also needs to maintain at least 40% UPI share of monthly GMV to remain eligible. It is a new-merchant offer, and the current terms state that the pricing is valid until 31 March 2027.
• Razorpay: The promotional rate has a much tighter ceiling of ₹5 lakh in monthly GMV and is valid for three months from signup. That makes the offer particularly relevant to smaller merchants who expect to stay below that threshold during the promotional period.
• PayU: There is no comparable blanket 0% promotional offer in its current published pricing. Domestic pricing starts at 2%, while eligible merchants can separately evaluate Priority Settlements if faster access to funds is important.

Price Isn't the Only Benefit Here, Others Are More Important

Waived fees matter more to a seller with tight working capital and those dependent on today's revenue to fund tomorrow's operations. The bigger festive-season risk isn't the fee line item; it's what happens when checkout traffic spikes.

A few things are worth weighing beyond the percentage:

• Settlement Speed: Cashfree's standard settlement cycle is T+1, while instant settlement is also available for merchants who need faster access to funds. Faster access to collections can help businesses fund today's ad spend and restocking instead of waiting for the standard settlement cycle.
• Payment Success Rate: A checkout that fails silently costs more than the fee charged on a successful transaction. Payment routing and direct integrations with banks and payment networks can become particularly important during periods of high traffic, when a payment failure can mean a lost sale. Cashfree provides Best 95% payment Success rate, over razorpay’s 93% and Payu’s 90%.
• Support Access: Support can become more important during a festive sales spike. Cashfree currently states that GST-registered businesses can get a dedicated account manager under its current offering, while its premium services also include dedicated support and faster response options.
• Platform Integration: Native integrations with platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix can reduce the technical work involved in getting a payment gateway live. Cashfree also provides APIs, SDKs and webhooks for businesses that need a more customised integration.

Which Way Should You Go?

For an early-stage D2C brand or a bootstrapped seller doing ₹5 lakh to ₹20 lakh in festive GMV, Cashfree's combination of the fee waiver, T+1 standard settlement and support structure makes the offer worth evaluating. The wider ₹20 lakh promotional ceiling also gives a growing merchant more room than Razorpay's ₹5 lakh ceiling, provided the business meets the offer's eligibility conditions, including the 40% minimum UPI share.

The savings alone might not make or break the quarter, but stacked with settlement speed and support, they can provide a meaningful advantage during the one period when inventory turnover and cash flow matter most.

For a business already past ₹20 lakh in monthly GMV, one whose checkout leans heavily on EMI or other excluded payment categories, or one that's mostly selling cross-border, none of these festive offers should be the only deciding factor.

The exclusions will eat into exactly the volume that matters to them, and they are better off evaluating gateways on settlement terms, payment success rate, international payment capabilities, support and negotiated pricing instead of a promotional offer they may outgrow in weeks.

Don't switch gateways for a temporary discount alone. But when that discount comes alongside infrastructure a business would want anyway, such as faster settlement, payment reliability, integrations and support, it's worth running the numbers before the festive season, not after.