Cashfree waives gateway fees for new SMBs up to Rs 20 lakh in sales

Cashfree Payments is pitching an SMB-growth stack spanning Checkout 360, EMI/BNPL, AI-led payment recovery, next-day settlements and cross-border payments, alongside zero gateway fees until new merchants reach Rs 20 lakh in sales.

— Source publishedWed, 2 Sept, 2026, 15:53 IST·First seen Wed, 2 Sept, 2026, 16:03 IST·Source YourStory · Capital

What happened

Cashfree Payments says it is targeting India’s growing SMB and digital-commerce base with trust indicators, Checkout 360, EMI/BNPL options, AI-led payment

Key facts

  • Founded in 2015
  • Zero payment gateway fees for new businesses until they reach Rs 20 lakh in sales
  • Next-day settlements

Why this matters

Cashfree is positioning itself as a broader SMB commerce infrastructure partner, making it a more consequential payments competitor or partnership target across checkout, lending, cross-border and collections.

What to watch

  • Number and quality of new merchant sign-ups, especially activation rates and payment-volume retention after crossing Rs 20 lakh in sales.
  • Competitor responses involving zero-fee gateways, subsidized settlements, free checkout products or lower pricing for new SMBs.
  • Changes in Cashfree's take rate, transaction growth, settlement costs and value-added-services attach rate.
  • Evidence of increased multi-homing, merchant churn, fraud losses, chargebacks or payment-failure rates among newly acquired SMBs.
  • Adoption of EMI/BNPL, AI recovery, cross-border payments and next-day settlement products by waived-fee cohorts.
  • RBI or payments-network rule changes affecting onboarding, pricing, recurring payments, cross-border collections or lending-linked payment products.
  • Expand fee-waiver eligibility through partnerships with e-commerce platforms, seller networks, startup incubators and accounting software providers.
  • Use Checkout 360 and faster settlements as conversion hooks to migrate merchants from simple payment acceptance into higher-margin workflow products.
  • Introduce targeted post-threshold pricing, volume-based incentives and bundled plans to retain merchants as they exit the free tier.
  • Increase underwriting, fraud screening and recovery automation to prevent adverse selection among newly onboarded merchants.
  • Push cross-border acceptance and EMI/BNPL selectively toward merchants with demonstrated transaction quality and repeat customer demand.

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