The best payment gateway for Shopify in India, compared on the things that differ

The best payment gateway for Shopify in India

For most Indian Shopify stores the shortlist is Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree, and on standard pricing none of them is meaningfully cheaper than the others. Pick on settlement time, how cards are taken at checkout, how offers and refunds behave, and the rate each one will offer at your volume.

These are the standard terms on each provider's pricing page and documentation, read on 3 November 2026: Razorpay's pricing, PayU's pricing and Cashfree's charges.

A short way to choose:

• Razorpay if you want one app that covers UPI, cards, netbanking, wallets and international cards on one hosted page, and you expect prepaid sales above ₹5 lakh a month, where its pricing page offers custom rates.
• PayU if you want cards entered on Shopify's own checkout page with no redirect, with its hosted app beside it for UPI and netbanking.
• Cashfree if you are a new merchant who qualifies for its current offer, or you want next-day settlement while that offer runs.

Other Indian gateways publish Shopify apps too. Hold them to the same checks in this guide before you sign.

Why Shopify Payments is not an option in India

Shopify Payments does not operate in India, so every Indian store pays through a third-party gateway and Shopify adds its own fee on top. There is no setting that turns it on, which is why searches for how to enable Shopify Payments in India go nowhere.

Shopify's list of Shopify Payments countries names 41 countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the UAE. India is not on it, and Shopify says businesses in unlisted countries must use a third-party provider.

Shopify's help page on third-party payment providers says its transaction fee applies to all transactions processed through third-party and alternate gateways. Shopify's India pricing page sets that fee by plan: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. The same page notes that prices in local currencies and local payment methods require Shopify Payments, so they are out of reach for an Indian store on any plan.

This fee belongs to your Shopify plan, not your gateway. It is the same whether you pick Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree, and the point at which a higher plan pays for itself is worked out in our guide on which Shopify plan to pick in India.

What a prepaid order costs, gateway by gateway

On the Basic plan a ₹1,000 prepaid order costs about ₹43 in payment fees whichever of the three gateways you use. The plan you are on changes that figure far more than the gateway does.

PayU's page says GST is charged on top without stating the rate, so the PayU column assumes the same 18% that Razorpay and Cashfree state.

Scale it to a store taking ₹10 lakh a month in prepaid payments. At standard rates Cashfree costs ₹23,010 a month including GST, and Razorpay or PayU ₹23,600, a gap of ₹590. On the same store, moving from Basic to Grow on yearly billing cuts Shopify's fee from ₹20,000 to ₹10,000 for ₹4,100 more in plan price, a net saving of ₹5,900. The plan decision is worth ten times the gateway decision.

Two terms are worth more than the headline rate:

• Custom pricing. Razorpay's pricing page offers custom pricing to businesses processing over ₹5 lakh a month. Ask all three for a written quote at that point.
• Cashfree's current offer. Its charges page shows a 0% platform fee on the first ₹20 lakh of GMV for new merchants who signed up from 21 July 2026, with the offer running until 31 March 2027. Corporate cards, Amex, EMI, pay later and international payments are excluded. GST is still deducted, computed on the standard 1.95% rate, so ₹20 lakh of sales still costs about ₹7,020 in GST.

UPI is not free on a gateway

The zero MDR rule on UPI does not mean a gateway processes UPI for nothing. Razorpay's rate card lists zero MDR on standard UPI and RuPay debit cards and a 2% platform fee on each. PayU says its UPI pricing varies by business type and volume. Get every gateway's UPI rate in writing, and work out your cost from your own mix of UPI, card and netbanking orders.

International cards cost more

Cards issued abroad cost up to 3% at Razorpay, 3% at PayU, and 2.99% on Visa and Mastercard at Cashfree. Since local currency prices need Shopify Payments, an Indian store selling abroad charges in rupees, and Cashfree's docs note that UPI appears only on orders in INR. Our guide on selling internationally on Shopify covers the rest of that setup.

Hosted pages and onsite cards behave differently at checkout

A hosted gateway sends the buyer from Shopify's checkout to the gateway's own payment page, while an onsite card app takes the card on Shopify's checkout page itself. Shopify's help page on configuring third-party providers allows only one credit card provider to be active at a time.

• Razorpay. Razorpay's Shopify docs describe a hosted app, shown to buyers as Razorpay Secure (UPI, Card, Int'l Card, Apple Pay). It supports the payment gateway on web standard checkout, and lists Route and Subscriptions as unsupported.
• PayU. PayU offers a hosted app, Cards, UPI, NB by PayU India, and a separate Onsite Card Payments by PayU India app for cards. PayU's Shopify FAQs say the two can run on the same store, and that the onsite app does not support offers.
• Cashfree. Cashfree's Shopify docs describe the hosted 1Cashfree app for UPI, cards, netbanking, wallets and pay later, and Cashfree Payments - Cards, which handles cards only within Shopify's native checkout.

Each redirect is one more page where a buyer can give up, and an onsite card field removes one for card buyers. UPI and netbanking still go through a hosted page on all three. Measure the effect rather than assuming it: compare the gateway's payment success rate in its dashboard with your abandoned checkouts in Shopify, before and after a change. The checkout section of our CRO audit framework shows where this fits.

If you sell subscriptions, confirm the gateway supports your subscription app before you choose it. Our guide on subscription retention explains why failed renewals matter so much.

How to set up a payment gateway on Shopify in India

Apply with the gateway first, then connect it from Settings, Payments while logged in as the store owner. Shopify states that only the store owner can add or change a payment provider, so this is one job a developer or agency cannot do for you.

1. Check the store address. In Settings, General, make sure the address is in India. Shopify filters the provider list by store address, so a wrong country hides the Indian gateways.
2. Open the gateway account and finish KYC. Razorpay asks for your website to be reviewed before you connect it, so publish your product pages, contact details and policies before you apply.
3. Open the payments page. In the Shopify admin, go to Settings, Payments. Click Choose a provider, or Add payment method in some admins, then Search by provider.
4. Search for the exact app name. 01 Cards, UPI, NB, Wallets by Razorpay, 1Cashfree, or PayU's hosted app. For onsite cards, Onsite Card Payments by PayU India or Cashfree Payments - Cards.
5. Connect the account. Razorpay connects through the account owner's login and needs no API keys. PayU's onsite card app asks for a merchant key and salt. Cashfree asks for your registered email.
6. Test first. PayU and Cashfree both offer a test mode inside their Shopify settings. Place a test order with it on.
7. Activate and save. Then place one real low-value order and refund it from the Shopify admin, and check that the refund appears in the gateway's dashboard.
8. Make phone number required. Cashfree recommends mandatory phone number collection in Shopify's checkout settings, and your courier needs the number anyway.

Stores that connected Razorpay before 28 April 2022 should check they have moved to the current Razorpay Secure app, which Razorpay's docs say prevents payment failures. If an agency is building your store, our guide on giving a developer access safely explains why the owner account should stay with you, and this step is one reason.

Cash on delivery is a separate setting with no Shopify fee

Cash on delivery is a manual payment method, set up on the same Payments page, and Shopify charges no third-party transaction fee on it. Your courier's COD charges still apply.

Shopify's help page on manual payments gives the steps. Go to Settings, Payments, select the manual method in the Payment providers section, add any details to show at checkout, add payment instructions, and activate it. Cash on Delivery (COD) is a reserved name, so you cannot create a custom method with it.

COD orders arrive marked as unpaid. Mark each one as paid on its order page once the courier remits the cash, so your reports match your bank. If a COD verification or checkout app sends COD orders through a gateway instead of as a manual payment, check your Shopify bill, because the transaction fee applies to anything that passes through a gateway. For the cost of COD in returns, see our guide on cutting COD returns and RTO.

Gateway offers can leave Shopify's order total wrong

A discount applied on the gateway's own page, such as a bank offer or a UPI discount, changes what the buyer pays without changing the order in Shopify. Decide before launch whether a prepaid discount lives in Shopify or in the gateway.

Both PayU and Cashfree document the problem. PayU's FAQs say offers work only with its hosted app, that Shopify does not show the discounted order value, and that refunds on offer transactions must be started from the PayU dashboard. PayU also recommends turning off Shopify's automatic order emails when offers are used, since they would show the wrong amount. Cashfree's docs cover a mismatch between the paid amount and the Shopify total, for example after a 5% UPI discount, and tell merchants to reinstall the plugin to fix it.

Where you can, set prepaid discounts in Shopify, so the order total, the buyer's emails and your refunds agree. If you run gateway offers anyway, reconcile them by matching the Payment ID in Shopify's order export with the gateway's order ID, as Cashfree's docs describe.

Settlement and refunds set your cash flow

Standard settlement is T+2 working days at Razorpay and T+2 at PayU, and Cashfree settles T+1 by 8 PM while its current offer runs. All three offer faster settlement on request if you need the cash sooner.

• Razorpay. Its settlement docs give T+2 working days as the standard domestic cycle, with instant settlement on request through support.
• PayU. T+2 as standard, with same-day and priority settlement depending on business category, which may carry a fee.
• Cashfree. Instant settlement from a 0.30% platform fee plus GST, depending on the type chosen and a risk review of the business.

Refunds should start from the Shopify admin so the order and the money stay in step. PayU's FAQs confirm that Shopify notifies PayU when you refund from the admin, and give typical timelines of 5 to 7 working days for credit cards, 7 to 10 for debit cards and 3 to 5 for UPI. Put those numbers in your returns policy so customers know what to expect, and test a refund on every gateway before launch, as in the setup steps above.

When to change gateways, and how to switch cleanly

Review your gateway when prepaid sales pass ₹5 lakh a month, when you start selling abroad, or when its success rate falls. The switch itself takes minutes in Shopify, but the old account has to stay connected long enough to refund its orders.

Shopify's steps are Settings, Payments, Choose another provider, then the new provider's credentials, Activate and Save. The old provider leaves your payment settings, and Shopify warns that you should not remove its credentials before switching if you still need to process returns on its orders. Keep the old gateway account open until your return window on its last orders has passed.

Finish KYC with a second gateway even if you never switch. If your main gateway has an outage or holds a settlement during a sale, an approved backup account can be connected the same day instead of after a week of paperwork.

Payments are one of the first decisions when we build a store, alongside the plan, the theme and the app budget, and our Shopify development page covers how we build and launch. If you want a second opinion on your gateway terms, you can reach us through the contact page.