About UPIfree.com
A public toolkit that answers one question: what does this UPI payment cost, and who pays it?
We do
- Show buyer fee and shop MDR
- Cite PIB PRID 2310586 and NPCI
- Make and read QR in the browser
- Split genuine shared bills
We do not
- Take or send your money
- Ask for PIN, OTP, CVV, or account no.
- Act as a bank, PSP, or aggregator
- Help slice one shop bill to dodge MDR
What this is
Most people in India still hear two stories about UPI: "it is always free" and "they will start charging you after ₹2,000." Both are incomplete. The buyer still pays ₹0 extra. From 15 October 2026, some shops pay a merchant discount rate (MDR) on tickets above ₹2,000.
This site turns that into numbers you can test. Type an amount, pick shop vs friend, and you get two results: extra fee on your side, and the shop's bank fee if any. Each result names the rule and the gazette.
You, the buyer
₹0 extra
UPI does not add a surcharge on your side. You pay the bill amount, then PIN.
The shop
May pay MDR
The shop's bank can take a fee from the shop, not from you. Under ₹2,000 that fee is ₹0.
High bills
₹300 max
From ₹75,000 upward the shop's UPI fee stops at ₹300, even on a high-value purchase.
Independence
UPIfree.com is an independent website. It is not a bank, not NPCI, not a payment aggregator, and not a government portal. We do not hold funds, settle merchants, or open UPI sessions. When you generate a QR, you get a standard upi://pay string. You pay in GPay, PhonePe, BHIM, or your bank app.
We are not paid by banks or aggregators to rank a fee. If a number here disagrees with a circular, the circular wins. Write to editorial@upifree.com.
- 1. Gazette
PIB PRID 2310586 · 15 September 2026 · Ministry of Finance
- 2. Rules file
Versioned bands: ₹0 / 0.40% / ₹300 · each rule names its source
- 3. Match
Amount, shop vs friend, merchant class. Highest-priority published rule wins.
- 4. Screen
You: ₹0 extra. Shop: MDR if any. Bank posting is the last word.
How a number is sourced
The calculator does not guess. It matches amount, payment type, and merchant class against a versioned rules file. The current baseline is Ministry of Finance PIB PRID 2310586 (15 September 2026), with shop MDR applying from 15 October 2026 as stated in NPCI's FAQ coverage.
- Friend to friend (P2P), any amount₹0
- Shop ticket up to ₹2,000₹0 MDR
- Standard shop above ₹2,0000.40%, cap ₹300 from ₹75,000
- Rail, fuel, telecom, insurance, utilities, school fees above ₹2,000Flat ₹5
- Mutual funds / broking0.02%, cap ₹300
- Small QR shops taking up to ₹1 lakh a month (P2PM class)₹0
Your acquirer contract can still differ. The gazette is the floor we show; the bank posting is the last word.
Read the Finance Ministry releaseThe tools
Calculators, QR tools, and the bill splitter run without an account. QR decode and generate stay in the browser. The bill reader is different: that photo is sent to read printed fields. Ask Pikoo is a live chat in the corner.
Editorial practice
Rules are dated. When a later gazette or NPCI FAQ changes a band, we update the file and the "last reviewed" stamp (currently 2 October 2026). News summaries on the homepage link to the reporting they rest on. We do not treat a court petition as a change in the rule until a court or a later official instrument says so.
Learn more in the rules directory and latest updates.
Bill splitting
The splitter is for a dinner, a trip, or rent that several people actually owe. It is not a way to cut one shop purchase into fake slices to sit under ₹2,000. We will not help with that.
Code
The site software is released under the MIT Licence (copyright 2026 UPIfree.com). That covers the code, not a promise that a given fee will post at your bank. See Terms and Privacy.