CCAvenue Review

CCAvenue is one of India's oldest online payment gateways. Founder Vishwas Patel launched it in 2001, and it now belongs to AvenuesAI Limited, the listed company called Infibeam Avenues until January 2026. The company is headquartered in GIFT City, Gandhinagar. This review covers the Indian business, which is for websites owned by Indian entities; CCAvenue runs separate sites for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the USA. CCAvenue is an RBI-authorised payment aggregator. You sign its Master Service Agreement as a sub-merchant, customer payments land in its escrow account, and it pays you out after deducting fees. As of October 2026 the standard online rate is a 2.00% platform fee on domestic cards, netbanking, wallets and UPI, plus 18% GST. Domestic corporate cards and Amex or Diners cost 3%, international cards 3% and multi-currency processing 3.5%. There is no setup fee, but an annual software charge of ₹1,200 plus GST applies from the second financial year. In-store (offline) pricing is on request. The FAQ says payouts are weekly unless your agreement says otherwise. The terms let CCAvenue suspend settlements during an investigation, without paying interest. Payment-method coverage is very broad. Public merchant reviews are few but mostly negative, and they centre on held funds and support that does not respond.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using CCAvenue’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What CCAvenue is

CCAvenue is an Indian online payment gateway that lets websites, apps and payment links accept cards, netbanking, wallets, UPI and EMI. AvenuesAI's management page says Vishwas Patel founded the CCAvenue brand in 2001, and he is now AvenuesAI's managing director and chief executive. CCAvenue was originally run by Avenues India Private Limited. In July 2017 the board of the listed e-commerce company Infibeam approved acquiring and merging Avenues India in an all-stock deal of 260 Infibeam shares for every 100 Avenues shares. The National Company Law Tribunal approved the amalgamation in May 2018, and in July 2018 the listed company renamed itself Infibeam Avenues Limited. On 20 January 2026 it changed its registered name to AvenuesAI Limited, and from 3 February 2026 its NSE ticker became CCAVENUE. Vishal Mehta is chairman and managing director. The registered office is in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and the merchant agreement treats CCAvenue's administrative office in Santacruz, Mumbai as the place the contract is formed.

This review covers CCAvenue India at ccavenue.com. AvenuesAI also runs CCAvenue sites for the UAE (ccavenue.ae), Saudi Arabia (ccavenue.sa) and the USA (ccavenue.us), each with its own pricing and terms. CCAvenue's FAQ says the Indian service is only for websites owned by Indian entities.

Scale

In its first-quarter FY27 earnings presentation (August 2026), AvenuesAI reported INR 1.48 trillion of transaction processing value (TPV) for the quarter, up 74% year on year, and more than 10 million merchants. Both figures cover the whole group: CCAvenue in India and abroad, the BillAvenue bill-payment business and other payment lines, online and offline. CCAvenue's own website footer gives a smaller figure, 'nearly 3 million merchants'. Company figures disagree in other places too: the corporate profile describes a team of over 650 people, while the same presentation gives 950+ employees. We report both rather than pick one. The group's net revenue fell 3% year on year that quarter while gross revenue rose 109%, and the same deck shows its payments net take rate falling from 10.4 to 5.3 basis points, so the extra volume is earning thinner margins.

Why we list CCAvenue as a payment facilitator

In India, CCAvenue operates as a payment aggregator. The Reserve Bank of India gave Infibeam Avenues final payment aggregator authorisation in March 2024. RBI's published list of authorised payment aggregators (checked October 2026) shows AvenuesAI Limited, formerly Infibeam Avenues and Avenues India, as an online payment aggregator from 4 March 2024, and also authorised for physical (in-store) payment aggregation. The ccavenue.com footer shows Certificate of Authorisation No. 251/2025; RBI's list does not print certificate numbers, so we could not match that number against it. Merchants sign CCAvenue's Master Service Agreement as sub-merchants. CCAvenue's FAQ describes it as authorised by Indian financial institutions to appoint sub-merchants. Customer payments are pooled in an escrow account that CCAvenue holds, and it pays merchants out after deducting its fees. The acquiring banks (the FAQ names ICICI Bank, Citibank, Axis Bank, SBI and American Express) contract with CCAvenue rather than with you. Customers' card statements show 'CCAvenue.com' or 'AvenuesAI Limited' rather than your business name. That is the aggregator, or payfac, model. We did not classify it as a standalone gateway, because the merchant relationship and the funds flow sit with CCAvenue rather than with a bank account you hold. It is not a merchant of record either, because you remain the seller.

What it costs

CCAvenue publishes its India rate card. As of October 2026, the standard plan charges a 2.00% platform fee on online domestic payments by credit, debit and prepaid card, wallet, netbanking and UPI. Every fee carries 18% GST on top, so the effective cost of the headline rate is 2.36%. The pricing page states: 'Commercials may differ based on merchant categories'. Its custom plan, for enterprises with large volumes or high annual revenue, is priced through sales. The other published online rates, each plus GST, are:

• Credit card on UPI: 2.15%
• Credit card EMI: 2%
• Domestic corporate or commercial credit cards: 3%
• American Express and Diners Club credit cards, including EMI: 3%
• Cardless EMI: 3.5%
• International credit and debit cards: 3%
• Multi-currency processing (USD, GBP, EUR, AED and 23 more currencies): 3.5%
• Shopify plugin: an extra 0.20% on every payment mode

The terms say platform fees include zero MDR on RuPay debit cards and UPI, as Indian regulation requires. The pricing page nevertheless lists UPI under the 2.00% platform fee, so ask CCAvenue how UPI will be billed on your account before you rely on it. Offline payments, eNACH and UPI mandates are listed as 'Pricing on Request'. A promotion that waived platform fees on new registrations ended on 31 March 2026.

Fixed charges are small but real. There is no setup fee. An Annual Software Upgradation Charge (ASUC) of ₹1,200 plus GST is billed in advance each 1 April, waived for the first financial year after activation and pro-rated if you join after April. Card tokenisation costs ₹1.25 per token provisioned, migrated or deleted, and ₹0.20 per cryptogram request. Recurring card mandates cost ₹15 to create or modify, plus ₹1 each for validation and notification. WhatsApp messages cost ₹0.30 and SMS ₹0.25 each. GST applies to all of these. The FAQ says GST is deducted from your payouts and shown on statements and invoices.

How it works

You sign up online. CCAvenue says it activates accounts within an hour for registrations received 9am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. Before full approval your website has to carry a business description with prices, About Us and Contact pages, and shipping, refund, privacy and terms policies. You then upload KYC documents, and payouts are released only once KYC is complete. Some netbanking banks and international cards need separate bank approval. A business without a live website can start with CCAvenue's free storefront, invoices or social payment links. CCAvenue also asks for a hard copy of the Master Service Agreement, signed on every page and franked or attached to ₹1,000 non-judicial stamp paper, which is more paperwork than a click-through sign-up.

For integration, CCAvenue offers a hosted checkout and a shopping-cart interface, plugins (including Shopify), and APIs. The product range around the gateway includes invoices and payment links, subscriptions, a storefront, card tokenisation (TokenPay), custom payment forms, and, more recently, POS terminals, TapPay contactless acceptance on a phone and a mobile app. On the payment page, CCAvenue routes each transaction through whichever of its acquiring banks is performing best, gives customers up to three attempts after a failed payment, and offers the page in 18 languages. CCAvenue claims the retry option raises success rates by more than 15%; we have not verified that figure. In September 2026 it announced Apple Pay acceptance for its merchants.

Payouts and holds

CCAvenue's FAQ says it 'settles payments on a weekly basis or as per the terms in your agreement'. It also says it remits amounts above ₹1,000 and that you must keep a ₹1,000 minimum balance in your CCAvenue account. The FAQ is not internally consistent on timing. One answer says captures made by Thursday midnight are paid the following Monday; another says transactions shipped by Wednesday midnight are paid on Friday. The current terms leave the online payout schedule to your activation email or a written agreement. The only T+1 commitment we found is in the schedule for POS (offline) transactions. Card orders sit as 'pending' and must be captured within 12 days, or the authorisation lapses.

The terms give CCAvenue wide powers to hold money. It can suspend settlements while it investigates a suspected breach or fraud. It can withhold settlements in anticipation of chargebacks or when chargebacks are excessive. It can retain payments when transactions are larger or more numerous than expected, until they are no longer at risk of a chargeback. No interest is paid on held amounts. CCAvenue's FAQ gives you five days from its chargeback email to send proof of delivery, and a lost chargeback is a permanent debit.

Contract and cancellation

The online agreement has no fixed term. It runs until either party gives notice, and either side may terminate on 30 days' written notice. CCAvenue can also terminate if you do not use the service for 180 consecutive days, and immediately for breach or suspected illegality. We found no early-termination fee for the online gateway. POS terminals are rented with installation, rental, SIM and maintenance charges and a refundable deposit. Returning a terminal before its lock-in period ends costs the remaining rental for that period. The terms give three different change mechanisms. The opening clause lets CCAvenue change the terms by posting them online, effective immediately and without further notice. A separate 'Variations of Agreement' clause makes changes binding on notification by post unless you object in writing by registered post within five days. The POS schedule deems fee changes accepted unless you object in writing within seven days. Platform fees can also change without advance notice when a regulator, card scheme or bank requires it. Overdue amounts you owe CCAvenue can attract interest of 2% to 4% a month. Disputes go to arbitration in Mumbai under Indian law.

Reputation and complaints

CCAvenue is regulated by the RBI as a payment aggregator, and its parent is listed and publishes quarterly results. On regulatory matters, the most notable recent item is tax rather than payments conduct. In January 2025 the Central GST adjudicating authority in Ahmedabad issued Infibeam Avenues a demand of about ₹16 crore in tax plus ₹16 crore in penalty. The demand disallowed the GST exemption on card transactions up to ₹2,000 for July 2017 to March 2024. The company said the demand was not maintainable and that it was evaluating its options, and we could not confirm the outcome.

Merchant feedback is thin and negative. As of October 2026, CCAvenue's Trustpilot page (www.ccavenue.com) has 25 reviews and a TrustScore of 2.6, while 84% of the reviews are one-star and 16% five-star. The star split is harsher than the 2.6 score alone suggests. The recent complaints describe funds held for weeks or months while documents are requested, payments marked as awaited, and email and phone support that does not resolve issues. The sample is small and mixes merchants with shoppers, so we treat it as a warning sign rather than a measure.

Who it suits

CCAvenue is a reasonable choice for an established Indian online business that values breadth of payment options, EMI, multi-currency checkout and a long-running, regulated aggregator. That is the profile of the travel, hospitality and education clients it highlights. It is a weaker fit for a small seller who needs money quickly, because payouts are weekly by default and the holding powers are broad. Remember to add the 18% GST and annual charge to the headline 2% when comparing costs. Businesses that are not Indian entities cannot use the India service at all. If you need in-store payments, expect a quote and a terminal lock-in rather than a published price.