PayU (India) Review

PayU India is the Indian payment gateway of Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed technology group majority owned by Naspers. According to PayU's own timeline the gateway was launched in 2011 by ibibo, the Naspers-backed Indian internet group, and demerged from it as PayU India in 2014; it bought Citrus Pay in 2016 and the card-authentication company Wibmo in 2019, and is run by Anirban Mukherjee, who became global PayU chief executive in October 2023. This review covers PayU India only: Prosus agreed in 2023 to sell PayU's businesses outside India, Turkey and South-East Asia to Rapyd for US$610 million, Rapyd completed the Latin American and African part in March 2025, and PayU sites in other countries are different companies with different terms. The contracting entity, PayU Payments Private Limited of Gurugram, received final RBI authorisation as an online payment aggregator in May 2025 and, according to November 2025 press reports, an integrated authorisation covering online, offline and cross-border payments. That came after the RBI returned its first application in January 2023 and PayU stopped onboarding new online merchants until it announced in-principle approval in April 2024. As of September 2026 PayU's pricing page lists 2% for domestic Visa and Mastercard cards, net banking, BNPL and wallets and 3% for Diners, American Express, EMI and international transactions, plus 18% GST, with no setup fee and T+2 standard settlement. UPI, priority settlement, POS and detailed international pricing are quoted, not published. The trade-offs are terms that let PayU hold settlements, demand reserves and keep funds for 210 business days after termination, and weak public merchant feedback.

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

What PayU India is

PayU India is the Indian payments business of Prosus, the technology investor listed in Amsterdam and Johannesburg and majority owned by South Africa's Naspers. PayU's own timeline says the gateway was launched in 2011 by ibibo, the Naspers-backed Indian internet group, and was demerged from ibibo in 2014 to become PayU India, which is why some sources date the company to 2014; we date it from the 2011 launch, since the business has run continuously since then. The contracting company is older than either date: the company registration number in PayU's privacy statement shows PayU Payments Private Limited was incorporated in 2006, and PayU does not describe the company's history before the gateway. It bought Citrus Pay for US$130 million in 2016, launched the LazyPay credit business in 2017, and acquired Wibmo, which provides card-authentication technology to banks, in 2019. A US$4.7 billion deal to buy the rival gateway BillDesk was called off in October 2022, when conditions were not met by the deadline even though the Competition Commission of India had approved it. PayU Payments Private Limited has its corporate office at Bestech Business Tower, Sector 48, Gurugram, and its registered office in Mumbai.

The PayU name needs care. PayU was once a global brand spanning Poland and Central Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In August 2023 Prosus agreed to sell PayU's Global Payments Organisation, covering Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, to Rapyd for about US$610 million. Rapyd's own announcement in March 2025 covered only the Latin American and African businesses, and Polish trade press reported that the European businesses, including PayU in Poland, had not changed hands; some coverage still describes the full deal as completed. India was excluded and is now the core of PayU. Anirban Mukherjee, who ran PayU India, became PayU's global chief executive in October 2023. This review covers PayU India (payu.in) only. PayU sites in other countries are run by different companies under different terms.

Scale figures vary by page. PayU's About page and pricing page say it serves 4.5 lakh+ (450,000+) businesses, while its footer, gateway page and May 2025 licence announcement say 5 lakh+ (500,000+). Reporting on Prosus's results in June 2026 put PayU India's revenue at US$781 million for the year to March 2026, US$577 million of it from payments and US$204 million from credit, with adjusted EBITDA of US$18 million for the full year.

Licences and regulatory history

India's payment aggregators must be authorised by the Reserve Bank of India under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, and PayU's path was slower than Razorpay's or Cashfree's. In January 2023 the RBI returned its application and asked it to resubmit within 120 days; PayU said a key issue was simplifying its corporate structure. PayU paused onboarding new online merchants, though existing merchants and its offline and bill-payment businesses carried on. It announced in-principle approval on 24 April 2024 and announced final authorisation as an online payment aggregator on 14 May 2025. In November 2025 Inc42 reported that it had received an integrated authorisation covering online, offline and cross-border payment aggregation, including inward and outward cross-border flows and offshore merchants collecting from customers in India. Its offline and Bharat Bill Payment System businesses were not affected by the 2023 pause.

We found no RBI monetary penalty against PayU Payments Private Limited. Razorpay and Cashfree, which we have reviewed, also had to pause onboarding while the RBI assessed their licences, and Cashfree was fined in March 2026. PayU is also in an unresolved commercial dispute that it brought itself: in September 2026 the Delhi High Court asked the RBI to mediate between PayU, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and Visa over merchant category codes and interchange fee claims. The claims turn on allegedly incorrect codes on merchants PayU onboarded; PayU says the acquiring banks, not PayU, assigned the codes. Court reporting puts ₹6.88 crore still withheld by Yes Bank from PayU's settlements, with further claims pending from other banks, and the court ordered status quo, with no further deductions, while mediation runs. It made no finding of liability. The deductions were taken from PayU's own settlement and escrow flows; the reports do not say merchants' settlements were affected.

Pricing, as of September 2026

PayU publishes a short rate card. GST at 18% is charged on the fee:

• Domestic Visa and Mastercard cards, net banking, BNPL and wallets: 2% (2.36% with GST).
• Diners, American Express, EMI and international transactions: 3% (3.54% with GST).
• UPI: priced by business type and volume, not published.
• No setup, onboarding or annual fee; charges apply only to successful transactions.
• Priority or same-day settlement: 'may have a nominal fee based on your business profile', quoted by an account manager.
• POS devices and in-store rates: quoted by sales.

The headline rates line up with the Indian market: Razorpay's platform fee is also 2% plus GST on domestic methods and Cashfree lists 1.95%. What PayU publishes is thinner than either. Its international-payments page says international card charges are quoted by the account manager, which sits awkwardly with the pricing page's 3% slab, and it publishes no exchange-rate mark-up. The pricing page says PayU can change or modify pricing at any time at its discretion, and the terms let it end the agreement immediately if a merchant does not accept a revised fee. Larger merchants are offered custom slabs by volume, industry and risk profile, so get the full schedule, including UPI and settlement fees, in writing.

Settlement

Standard settlement is T+2 for domestic payments, the same as Razorpay and Cashfree. International payments are converted to rupees at the transaction-date rate and PayU says they typically settle within T+2 business days. Approved merchants can switch on Priority Settlements, choosing cycles from T+15 minutes to T+1, 24x7 including weekends and holidays, for an unpublished fee. PayU can suspend Priority Settlements without notice, for reasons including 'any other reason', and can delay any settlement if it suspects fraud or a legal breach, if a merchant has excessive pending chargebacks or poses high refund risk, or where deliveries are regularly missed or late.

What the terms allow PayU to do

The merchant terms linked from PayU's terms page as of September 2026 are long (29 pages) and favour PayU:

• Either side can end the agreement on 30 days' written notice, and PayU can end it immediately if the merchant refuses a revised or additional fee, refuses an inspection, gives inaccurate information or sells banned products.
• PayU may require a reserve at any time against chargeback, refund, credit or delivery risk, and may suspend settlement or the service if the merchant does not agree the amount within seven days.
• If chargebacks are excessive PayU may add new service fees, demand a reserve, delay settlement or suspend service. If a merchant fails to supply dispute documents and PayU does so instead, PayU may keep the chargeback amount even when the dispute goes the merchant's way.
• After termination PayU may keep reserves and settlement money for 210 business days to cover chargebacks and refunds, with no time limit on money already put on hold for breach, suspected fraud or banned products. Funds put on hold for more than 270 days can be moved into a Merchant cum Customer Protection Fund and claimed back through a claims officer.
• Overdue amounts carry interest of 1.5% a month, and a merchant must refund any excess settlement within seven days.
• PayU's total liability is capped at the preceding month's service fees. The agreement is governed by Indian law, with arbitration seated in Delhi.
• PayU may amend the terms by email or dashboard notice, and the merchant agrees in advance to comply with the revised terms. Fee revisions are to be notified in advance.

Cashfree's terms, by comparison, let it keep settlement money for 180 business days after termination, so PayU's 210-day retention is longer. Both reserve broad rights to hold funds, as Indian aggregators generally do.

PayU's banned and restricted list, updated in February 2026, runs to more than 50 banned categories. As well as the usual gambling, adult content, tobacco, weapons, crypto and unauthorised financial services, it bans BPO services, immigration services, guaranteed-employment services, pawnshops, credit repair, telemarketing and offline dating events, and has a broadly worded entry covering intangible goods or services and aggregation businesses. PayU is not a high-risk specialist.

Reputation and support

Public merchant feedback is poor, though no worse than for its peers: Razorpay scores 1.4 and Cashfree 1.5 on Trustpilot. PayU's claimed Trustpilot profile for payu.in shows a TrustScore of 1.9 from 53 reviews, 90% of them one-star, with 14 posted in the last 12 months; reviewers, a mix of merchants and customers paying through PayU, describe settlement holds, including one who cites the 210-day retention, vague onboarding rejections, unresponsive support and fraud by merchants using the platform. Complaint sites carry similar merchant reports of settlements held while PayU asks for proof of delivery. These are self-selected and few against a base of several hundred thousand merchants, but they match the rights the terms give PayU. PayU advertises 24x7 support, dedicated account managers for custom-priced merchants, and a claims officer for money held in its protection fund.

Who should use it

PayU suits a registered Indian business, particularly a mid-sized or large merchant in e-commerce, travel, education or financial services, that wants a broad domestic method mix, card EMI and pay-later at checkout, and in-store POS and QR on the same account, and that has the volume to negotiate its rates, settlement cycle and an account manager. It suits less well a small merchant that wants every fee published before signing, a business in one of PayU's many banned categories, or one that cannot absorb a discretionary settlement hold. Razorpay and Cashfree Payments, which we have reviewed, publish fuller rate cards at similar or lower headline prices, and all three work under the same RBI framework, so compare written quotes from at least two before choosing. Businesses outside India cannot use PayU India to take payments from their home market.