Instamojo Review

Instamojo is a Bengaluru company, founded in 2012, that sells online stores, landing pages and payment links to small Indian businesses, with payments built in. As of October 2026 its pricing page lists 2% + ₹3 per payment by UPI, Indian cards, netbanking, wallets and pay later, and 3% + ₹3 on corporate cards, with 18% GST charged on top of the fee. The free store and landing-page plans charge 5% + ₹3, and digital goods cost more. Money reaches your bank three business days after the sale unless you pay extra for faster payouts. Instamojo used to run its own payment aggregation business, but on 27 September 2023 the Reserve Bank of India returned its application for an aggregator licence, and RBI's own list, dated 1 October 2026, still shows it that way. The company says it moved merchants' payment accounts to licensed aggregators, with fresh KYC. Merchants told the press their payouts were stuck for weeks during the switch. Its Trustpilot page is dominated by one-star reviews about delayed payouts, KYC and unanswered support. Instamojo is a cheap, simple way for a very small Indian seller to start taking payments, but choose it for the store software, and get written answers on who holds your money before relying on it.

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

What Instamojo is

Instamojo is an Indian company that sells small businesses the tools to sell online with payments built in: a hosted online store, a landing-page builder called Smart Pages, payment links, and a payment gateway with APIs and plugins. According to its own history, Sampad Swain co-founded it with Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta in September 2012, after struggling to collect money for a blogging project. It launched payment links in 2013, added a free online store in 2015, launched shipping and working-capital products in 2018, and bought the store builder GetMeAShop in February 2020. In 2023 it rebranded itself as a direct-to-consumer commerce platform rather than a payment gateway. Its gateway page says more than 20 lakh (2 million) Indian businesses use it, which is the company's own figure.

Two companies sit behind the brand. Instamojo Research and Development Private Limited runs the website and app and contracts with you for the store and software. Instamojo Technologies Private Limited is named in the published terms as the payment partner. Both give the same address in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Instamojo is venture-backed. Inc42 and Entrackr put total funding at about $15.2 million, from investors including Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, Gunosy Capital and the Japanese firms AnyPay and BASE. Mastercard announced an undisclosed strategic equity investment in June 2021. None of these investors has disclosed a controlling stake, so we describe them as investors rather than owners.

The RBI licence and what happened to payments

India's 2020 rules require any company that aggregates payments for merchants to be authorised by the Reserve Bank of India. Instamojo applied as an existing aggregator. RBI's published status list of aggregator applications, dated 1 October 2026, records Instamojo Technologies Private Limited's application as returned on 27 September 2023. Instamojo is not on the list of entities with in-principle or final authorisation. Co-founder Akash Gehani told Inc42 that the application was returned for not meeting the eligibility criteria; in a later interview he said Instamojo met every other requirement except net worth, where its calculation differed from the RBI's. In November 2023 the company said it had settled the money in its nodal accounts to merchants, moved merchants' payment accounts to licensed aggregators with fresh KYC, and that about 90% of merchants had completed the switch. Instamojo also said its gateway remained fully functional. In August 2024 Deccan Herald reported that its partners included Razorpay, Cashfree, PhonePe and CCAvenue.

The switch was rough for merchants. In January 2024 Inc42 interviewed more than a dozen who described payouts stuck for weeks or months, KYC resubmissions that went unanswered, outstanding balances that vanished from dashboards, and in one case payments refunded to customers instead of being settled to the merchant. Instamojo's co-founder told MediaNama in February 2024 that the business shrank overnight and that merchants had accused the company of taking their money. In 2024 the company said it had no plans to reapply for its own authorisation. One thing has not caught up: the payments terms linked from Instamojo's website still describe Instamojo Technologies as providing payment aggregation services from its own nodal account under the RBI's 2020 guidelines. We could not find an Instamojo page that names the licensed aggregator a new merchant will be placed with, so ask before you sign up.

Why we list Instamojo as business software

We list Instamojo as business software that comes with payments attached, not as a payment facilitator. A payment facilitator in India would need RBI authorisation as a payment aggregator, and Instamojo's application was returned. Since late 2023 the regulated part of each payment, holding and settling the money, has been done by licensed partner aggregators, and merchants went through fresh KYC to move their accounts to them. What Instamojo sells, and prices, is the store, the landing pages, the links and the dashboard, with a per-payment commission on top. Its website terms describe Instamojo as a technology company that facilitates payment services through its payment partner.

What it costs

• Payment gateway and payment links: 2% + ₹3 per payment by UPI, Indian debit and credit cards, netbanking, wallets and pay later, as of October 2026. Corporate cards cost 3% + ₹3. The gateway page charges 5% + ₹3 on digital goods.
• International and premium cards: no published rate; the pricing page asks you to request them.
• GST: 18% is charged on the transaction fee, and GST is also charged on top of every plan price. On a ₹1,000 sale at 2% + ₹3, the fee is ₹23 plus ₹4.14 GST, a total of ₹27.14, or about 2.7%.
• Online store plans: Lite is free at 5% + ₹3 per payment (10% + ₹3 for digital products). The plan cards list Starter at ₹6,999 a year (5% + ₹3) and Growth at ₹14,999 a year or ₹2,999 a month (2% + ₹3, or 5% + ₹3 for digital products). Do-It-For-Me is priced on request.
• Smart Pages: Basic is free at 5% + ₹3; the plan card lists Pro at ₹12,999 a year or ₹2,499 a month at 2% + ₹3; Enterprise starts at ₹24,999 a year.
• Payment links: the Quick plan is free and the Smart plan costs ₹4,999 a year or ₹1,499 a month, both at 2% + ₹3.
• Faster payouts: next day 0.25%, same day 0.50%, instant 1%, each plus 18% GST.

The pricing page contradicts itself on plan prices. The plan cards at the top show the figures above, while the comparison table lower on the same page lists Starter at ₹3,999 a year, Growth at ₹9,999 a year or ₹1,999 a month, and Smart Pages Pro at ₹9,999 a year or ₹1,999 a month. The page's headline, plans 'starting at just ₹10/day', fits the lower Starter figure. We report the plan cards and recommend checking the amount at checkout. The free plans are dearer per sale: at 5% + ₹3, a ₹1,000 sale costs ₹53 plus ₹9.54 GST. Moving to a paid plan saves ₹30 plus GST on each ₹1,000 of sales, so at the plan-card price of ₹14,999 a year Growth pays for itself once a store sells roughly ₹5 lakh a year. Instamojo also offers a convenience-fee setting that passes the charge to your customer; its calculator shows the customer paying 3% + ₹3 + GST.

Payouts, holds and contract terms

Standard payouts arrive three days after the sale. The pricing FAQ calls this 'transaction + 3 days', and the gateway page says three business days. The same FAQ still explains the delay by saying Instamojo settles through its own nodal account, another passage that predates the 2023 switch to partner aggregators. Faster payouts need eligibility and KYC approval. The payments terms on instamojopayments.com still say settlement happens on T+1, which disagrees with Instamojo's own pricing page, so confirm your schedule in the dashboard. Those terms let Instamojo withhold settlement amounts during and after an audit 'or in any other such event as we may deem necessary', deduct disputed amounts, refunds, bank fees and penalties from settlements, and suspend accounts without notice. The website terms let Instamojo suspend an account or impose a reserve if it sees a high volume of disputes, charge a penalty fee for platform abuse, and change its commission at its sole discretion, with notice given by posting on the platform. You must offer customers a refund window of at least three business days. There is no fixed-term contract or exit fee for payments. Paid plans renew automatically where your payment method allows, and can be refunded only within 14 days. Disputes go to arbitration in Bengaluru under Indian law.

What it can and cannot do

The strength is speed for a small seller. A store or landing page with UPI, cards and netbanking switched on, shipping integrations, cash on delivery, coupons and a WhatsApp widget can be live without a developer, and payment links can be shared on WhatsApp or social media. For your own website there are APIs, webhooks and plugins, including WooCommerce and Magento. The limits are real. Instamojo says it does not support recurring or subscription payments, offering scheduled payment requests instead, and it does not support escrow. You must be an Indian resident, international cards are available only on request, and there is no in-person card acceptance.

Reputation and complaints

As of October 2026, Instamojo's Trustpilot profile has a TrustScore of 1.6 from 49 reviews, with 94% of them one-star and no four- or five-star reviews; the profile is claimed but the company has not replied to negative reviews. The reviews posted since 2024 describe delayed payouts, accounts not activated after KYC, a gateway outage of several days in December 2025, refunds that took weeks, and support that did not answer. The sample is small, but it matches what merchants told Inc42 about the 2023 switch to partner aggregators. The RBI's return of Instamojo's licence application is a regulatory decision on an application, not an enforcement action or penalty. Our searches found no lawsuit, court judgment or regulatory penalty naming Instamojo.

Who should use Instamojo

Instamojo suits a very small Indian business, home seller, creator or service provider that wants a store, a landing page or a payment link working today, on a free plan or a cheap annual one, and accepts a three-day payout. It is a poor fit for a business that needs its money quickly, sells subscriptions, sells abroad, or cannot risk funds being held while an account is reviewed. If you do sign up, ask in writing which licensed aggregator holds your account, check the plan price at checkout, use the 14-day refund window to test payouts on real sales, and keep records of every settlement.