Pine Labs Review

Pine Labs is an Indian merchant payments company based in Noida. It began in 1998, is best known for the card terminals found at Indian shop counters, and has listed on the NSE and BSE since 14 November 2025. It rents in-store terminals and UPI soundboxes, runs an online payment gateway called Pine Labs Online (formerly Plural), and offers debit and credit card EMIs at the till through partner banks and brands. Its other lines include payouts, cross-border card acceptance and prepaid gift cards. The Reserve Bank of India lists Pine Labs Limited as an authorised payment aggregator for online, physical and cross-border (inward and outward) payments. Pricing is the weak spot. As of October 2026 the online gateway shows only 0% MDR on UPI and asks you to contact sales for everything else. Terminals carry 'starting at' monthly prices from ₹75 to ₹450, but the page does not say whether GST is included. Online payments settle T+1 by default, with early-batch and same-day settlement available. The published online terms have no fixed term, but they let Pine Labs hold 30% of payouts for 15 days after either side gives notice to end the service, and 100% for up to 120 days after a breach. Merchant complaints describe rental charges that continued after a terminal was surrendered, charges merchants say were not disclosed at sign-up, and delayed settlements.

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

What Pine Labs is

Pine Labs is an Indian merchant payments company whose card terminals are a common sight at Indian shop counters. Its own timeline says it was incorporated in 1998 as Pine Labs Private Limited. Its corporate identity number (L67100HR1998PLC113312) also dates the company to 1998, and the L prefix marks it as listed. Company profiles say it started out building card-based payment and loyalty systems for fuel retailers before moving into mainstream merchant payments. In 2005 it launched Plutus, its card-acceptance platform with EMIs, loyalty and promotions built in. It launched PayLater in 2013 and its online gateway Plural, now called Pine Labs Online, in 2021. Its acquisitions include Qwikcilver (gift cards, 2019), Fave (Malaysia, 2020), QFix, Mosambee and Setu (2022), and Credit+ (2023). The registered office is in Gurugram, Haryana, and its corporate offices are in Sector 62, Noida, which we list as its headquarters.

In 2025 Pine Labs Singapore, the Indian company's former holding company, was amalgamated into it under a scheme of arrangement, according to the IPO offer documents, and the company then listed in India. The IPO ran from 7 to 11 November 2025 at ₹221 a share and raised about ₹3,900 crore, of which ₹2,080 crore was new money. The shares began trading on the NSE and BSE on 14 November 2025. The offer documents describe Pine Labs as having no identifiable promoter, and Peak XV Partners and Mastercard were among the investors named as selling shareholders. For the April–June 2026 quarter, Pine Labs' results press release (28 July 2026) put revenue at ₹737 crore and profit after tax at about ₹20 crore, the merchant base at 11.5 lakh (1.15 million) and digital checkout points at 21.7 lakh (2.17 million), with about ₹4.22 lakh crore of gross transaction value across 201 crore (2.01 billion) transactions.

Why we list Pine Labs as a payment facilitator

Pine Labs works in two ways. Its original in-store model puts its own terminals and software in front of acquiring banks. The FAQ talks about routing transactions to different banks and warns that the acquiring bank may charge for late batch settlement, and the in-store page says the platform routes across more than 27 acquiring banks. In that set-up a bank is the acquirer, and Pine Labs is the terminal and software provider. The RBI has since authorised Pine Labs Limited as a payment aggregator for online payments (as 'Pine Labs Online', 9 May 2025), for physical payments, and for cross-border payments both inward and outward; its list does not date the physical and cross-border authorisations. Its online terms say a merchant 'must enter into a merchant agreement with Pine Labs Limited'. Pine Labs collects funds into an escrow account, deducts its transaction discount rate and settles to the merchant. It also advertises aggregator services in-store, with daily settlement straight to the merchant's account. Because Pine Labs holds the merchant agreement on the aggregator products it now sells, we classify it as a payment facilitator, the same as other RBI-authorised aggregators on this site. A merchant on an older bank-acquired terminal has its acquiring agreement with that bank instead.

What it costs online

Very little is published. As of October 2026, the online gateway page advertises '0% MDR on UPI' and a ten-minute go-live, but the asterisk limits this to merchants with GST registration and a website or app. For cards, netbanking, wallets, EMI and international payments, the page says only that Pine Labs offers 'custom pricing options based on volumes' and asks you to contact sales. The cross-border page says the same. Rates are therefore quoted per account. Pine Labs' blog says MDR on its platforms often ranges from 1.5% to 3%, but that is a general range in marketing copy, not a price list, so treat it as a rough guide only. The published terms say taxes on fees are borne by the merchant, and Pine Labs can change its transaction discount rate on seven days' notice when banks or partners change their charges. Ask for every rate in writing, by method and card type, and confirm whether it includes GST.

What the terminals cost

Pine Labs lists monthly 'starting at' prices for its in-store devices as of October 2026: ₹75 for the Mini (a UPI soundbox with tap and dip card acceptance), ₹200 for the handheld Go, ₹350 for the Android Touch and ₹450 for the Duo. The pages do not say whether GST is included, what the minimum rental period is, or whether there is a setup or installation charge, and the order buttons lead to a sales form. In-store MDR is not published. The FAQ says rent can be paid by cheque, ACH mandate or online. It also says paper rolls are free, physical damage is charged at the cost of the part, and hardware upgrades and value-added services cost extra. Ask for the rental term, any lock-in and the surrender process before you sign.

How it works and what you get

• In-store: Android terminals and a card-capable UPI soundbox. They accept cards, UPI, wallets, Pluxee meal cards, gift and prepaid cards, PaybyPoints and the digital rupee, with DCC for foreign cards and integrations with more than 300 billing and ERP apps.
• Affordability: credit card, debit card and cardless EMI and brand-funded offers, from more than 40 banks and 350 brands according to Pine Labs. The merchant pays a per-transaction EMI service fee set in its agreement.
• Online: Pine Labs Online supports more than 100 payment methods, split payments across two methods, payment links, forms, subscriptions, tokenisation, and Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix integrations.
• Cross-border: foreign-card detection, DCC in currencies including USD, SGD, GBP, AED, EUR and JPY, Apple Pay, and settlement in INR.
• Payouts: bulk and scheduled payouts to bank accounts, UPI and cards by dashboard or API.
• Prepaid: gift cards, brand wallets and reward programmes under Pine Labs' RBI prepaid instrument authorisation.

Settlement and payouts

Online payments settle T+1, one business day after the transaction, by default. The developer documentation also lists early-batch settlement, same-day settlement and holiday or weekend settlement. Their cost is not published, and Pine Labs' own blog notes that instant settlement often comes with added fees. In-store, Pine Labs advertises daily settlement directly into the merchant's bank account on its aggregator service. On bank-acquired terminals the merchant must settle the batch every day: the FAQ says that if the batch is not settled within 24 hours, the acquiring bank may charge for late settlement.

Contract terms and holds

Pine Labs publishes its Online PA Services terms (last updated 21 February 2025). They apply alongside a separate merchant agreement that is not public, so the agreement you sign is what counts. The public terms set no minimum term. They allow either side to end the agreement after a breach that is not fixed within 30 days of notice, or on insolvency, and allow Pine Labs to end it immediately if its acquiring banks end their relationship with it. The holding rules matter more. After either side gives notice to end the service, Pine Labs may withhold 30% of payouts for 15 days. If it ends the service because of the merchant's breach, it may withhold 100% of payouts for up to 120 days. It may also withhold settlements while it investigates suspected fraud or to comply with an order, giving at least 10 business days' notice where the law allows. Settlements are paid net of chargebacks, refunds, rolling reserves, network and bank penalties, and Pine Labs' fees, and Pine Labs can demand a security deposit if chargebacks become excessive. The rental terms for terminals are not published.

Reputation and complaints

Pine Labs has no Trustpilot reviews to speak of: its profile at trustpilot.com/review/pinelabs.com had none when we checked in October 2026. The Pine Labs One merchant app is rated 3.2 out of 5 from about 450 ratings on Apple's Indian App Store. Recent reviews there describe charges that merchants say sales staff told them would not apply, slow delivery of terminals, delayed or held settlements, and support that does not respond. ConsumerComplaints.in lists 50 complaints against Pine Labs, most of the ones we read several years old. They describe rental debits continuing after a terminal was surrendered or a de-installation was requested, ECS mandates still debiting after cancellation, and delayed UPI settlement, and the most recent, from November 2025, is about a duplicate debit. These are self-selected samples. Still, they point to the same advice: get the rental terms and any value-added service charges in writing, and confirm cancellation of the device and the auto-debit mandate separately.

Regulatory record

By an order dated 23 March 2026, the Reserve Bank of India fined Pine Labs Limited ₹3.10 lakh under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act. An inspection covering July 2024 to May 2025 found that it had issued full-KYC prepaid payment instruments without completing KYC on the holders. The RBI said the penalty was for deficiencies in regulatory compliance and did not pronounce on any customer transaction. The penalty concerns Pine Labs' prepaid card business, not its merchant acquiring. We found no other enforcement action against Pine Labs' merchant business.

Who Pine Labs suits

Pine Labs suits Indian retailers and chains that want a dependable terminal with EMI offers at the counter, especially sellers of electronics, appliances, furniture and fashion, where affordability lifts basket size. It also suits larger merchants that want in-store, online and cross-border acceptance from one licensed provider with listed-company disclosure. It is a weaker fit for a small online business that wants a self-serve sign-up and a public price list, because Pine Labs quotes card rates individually and onboarding starts with a sales enquiry. Whatever your size, get the MDR for each method, the GST treatment, the rental term and the surrender process in writing, and note the 30% and 100% withholding rules in the online terms before you sign.