Cashfree vs PayU: India Payment Gateway Comparison (2026)

The case for

• Cashfree publishes the whole dispute ladder with response windows, so you know you get 3 days to respond and 1 day for fraud cases
• Refunds, batch refunds, split settlements and vendor payouts are all documented with APIs and webhooks, which shortens integration work for an in-house team
• Settlement reversal reasons are published, so you can tell an invalid IFSC apart from a bank side failure without raising a ticket

The catch

• The default settlement cycle is T+2 bank working days, not T+1. Instant settlement needs an eligibility check through a support form, not a dashboard toggle
• Settlements to NRE bank accounts are not possible, which blocks a merchant whose only current account sits under an NRE mandate
• The refund button only appears on transactions that have already settled, and the money takes 7 to 10 business days to reach the customer
• Cashfree serves its pricing page only to a full browser session and returns 403 to everything else, so rate cards are hard to compare

The case for

• Rates are stated plainly at 2 percent for domestic cards, netbanking, wallets and BNPL, and 3 percent for EMI, Amex, Diners and international
• There is no setup fee, no onboarding fee and no annual maintenance charge, unlike gateways that bill a yearly platform charge
• PayU supports 150 plus payment modes and serves over five lakh Indian businesses, so local wallet and bank coverage is already broad

The catch

• GST of 18 percent applies on top of the quoted rate, so 2 percent actually costs 2.36 percent of every transaction
• Merchant UPI pricing is not published and varies by business type and volume, which is the mode most Indian buyers care about
• Standard settlement is T plus 2 business days, and same day or priority settlement carries a fee set from your business profile
• PayU states it can change or modify pricing at any point at its own discretion, so a quoted rate is not contractually fixed