UPI P2PM Limit Checker: Are You Still Exempt From MDR?
Small merchants taking up to ₹1 lakh a month through a UPI QR code keep paying nothing. See where your receipts sit against that ceiling, how much headroom is left, how long growth would take to cross it — and whether crossing it would actually cost you anything. Nothing is uploaded.
Everything customers pay you into your UPI QR, added up over a calendar month.
Used to work out what you would owe if you ever lost small-merchant cover.
Roughly how fast your UPI takings are rising. Leave at 0 if they are flat.
Inside the small-merchant limit
₹0 in fees
You are using 60.0% of the ₹1,00,000 monthly allowance, with ₹40,000 of headroom left. While you stay inside it, UPI stays free at every payment size.
TL;DR
There are two separate tests, and you have to fail both before you pay anything. The first is your category: small merchants under P2PM, receiving up to ₹1 lakh a month by QR, are outside the fee entirely, and GST registration is not required to qualify. The second is the payment itself: MDR only ever applies above ₹2,000. So a vendor doing ₹3 lakh a month in ₹80 sales crosses the limit and still owes nothing, because not one payment is chargeable.
Two tests, four outcomes
| Monthly QR receipts | Payment sizes | What happens | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under ₹1 lakh a month | Every sale ₹2,000 or under | Small-merchant treatment, and nothing is chargeable anyway | ₹0 |
| Under ₹1 lakh a month | Some sales above ₹2,000 | Small-merchant treatment covers you | ₹0 |
| Over ₹1 lakh a month | Every sale ₹2,000 or under | Category may change, but no payment is chargeable | ₹0 |
| Over ₹1 lakh a month | Some sales above ₹2,000 | Standard treatment on the sales above the threshold | 0.4% + GST on those sales |
Three of the four rows cost nothing. That is not an accident of how the table was drawn — it reflects how the framework was designed, with a small-merchant carve-out and a per-payment threshold that between them leave the great majority of Indian businesses untouched.
What P2PM actually is
P2PM stands for person-to-person-merchant, which is an awkward name for a sensible idea: an account that behaves like a merchant but belongs to someone too small to be treated as one. The vegetable seller with a QR code taped to a crate, the auto driver, the tailor, the tiffin service. They accept payments all day, but they are not running a business that could absorb a card-style merchant fee, and the category exists so they never have to.
The important thing to understand is that you do not put yourself in this category and you cannot elect out of it. Your bank or payment provider assigns it from how your account was registered and how it is used. This tool tells you where you stand against the published ₹1 lakh threshold; it cannot see your account, and it is not a confirmation of your status. If it matters to your planning, ask your provider what they have you classified as — it is a reasonable question and they can answer it in a minute.
Crossing the line costs less than people fear
A shop growing past ₹1 lakh a month tends to imagine a cliff. Work through what is on the other side of it. Suppose you take ₹1.4 lakh a month across 200 payments, of which 40 are above ₹2,000 and average ₹2,800. Those 40 payments attract 0.4% of ₹2,800, which is ₹11.20 each, plus ₹2.02 of GST — about ₹529 for the month, and ₹448 of that if you can reclaim the GST.
On ₹1.4 lakh of takings that is under four tenths of one percent. It is a real cost and worth knowing about, but it is not the kind of number that should change how you run a shop or push you back towards cash. If you want the figure for your own mix rather than this example, the fee estimator takes bands of payment sizes and gives you a monthly total.
On using several QR codes
It comes up immediately, so it is worth answering directly: spreading your receipts across two or three QR codes to keep each below ₹1 lakh is structuring around a regulatory threshold. Providers watch for exactly this pattern, the downside is losing your ability to accept digital payments at all, and the upside is a few hundred rupees a month. That is a bad trade in every direction. The legitimate lever, if the fee genuinely bites, is your pricing — and the price increase calculator will show you it takes a rise of well under one percent to absorb it completely.
Questions people are actually asking
What is the difference between P2PM and P2M?
They are two ways your payment provider can classify the account that receives money. P2PM — person to person merchant — is the small-merchant category, intended for vendors and tiny businesses accepting payments through a UPI QR code, and it carries zero MDR while monthly receipts stay within ₹1 lakh. P2M is the full merchant category used by registered businesses, and it is the one the 0.4% applies to above ₹2,000. You do not choose between them yourself; your bank or payment provider sets the classification from how the account was registered and how it is used.
Is the ₹1 lakh limit per month or per year?
Per month. The small-merchant treatment covers up to ₹1 lakh of UPI QR receipts in a month, and the assessment repeats each month rather than accumulating across the year. A seasonal business can therefore sit comfortably inside the limit for most of the year and go over it during a festival month. What happens when you cross is a matter for your provider rather than an automatic switch, which is why this tool shows your position against the threshold instead of claiming to tell you your status.
Do I need GST registration to qualify as a small merchant?
No. GST registration is explicitly not required for P2PM eligibility, which matters because a great many of the vendors this category exists to protect are below the GST registration threshold in the first place. The ₹1 lakh monthly figure is about how much you receive through UPI QR, not about your tax registration status. Being GST-registered does not disqualify you either — it simply is not the test.
What happens if I go over ₹1 lakh in a month?
Your provider may reclassify the account into the standard merchant category, at which point the 0.4% applies to your payments above ₹2,000. It is not an instant penalty and it is not retrospective; it is a change in how the account is treated going forward. The size of the change depends entirely on your payment sizes, which is why this tool asks for your typical ticket. If your sales are mostly small, crossing the limit may cost you nothing at all — the threshold and the ceiling are two separate tests and you have to fail both to pay anything.
My typical sale is small. Does the limit matter to me?
Much less than you would think. MDR only ever applies to a payment above ₹2,000, so a vendor whose sales are ₹50 to ₹500 owes nothing whether they are classified as a small merchant or not. Crossing ₹1 lakh a month through many tiny payments changes your category without changing your bill. The limit starts to matter when your volume and your ticket size rise together — when you begin taking payments above ₹2,000 regularly and your monthly receipts are also past the ceiling.
Can I use several QR codes to stay under the limit?
Do not plan around it. Splitting receipts across multiple QR codes or accounts to stay below a regulatory threshold is structuring, and it is the kind of pattern providers monitor for; the consequence of being wrong is losing your merchant facility, which costs vastly more than the fee ever would. It is also unnecessary for most businesses, because the fee is small and only applies above ₹2,000. If your bill has genuinely become material, price for it openly instead — that is both legal and, at these rates, almost invisible to customers.
Where these rules come from
The framework was announced on 15 September 2026 and takes effect on 15 October 2026. The small-merchant carve-out and the ₹1 lakh monthly figure follow the Department of Financial Services FAQs on MDR for select UPI (P2M) transactions and NPCI’s accompanying clarifications.
General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. This page cannot see your account and does not confirm your merchant classification — only your bank or payment provider can tell you which category you are in.