If you are searching for whether Razorpay works for freelancer invoicing in India, here is the short version: Razorpay is excellent at collecting money and average at producing an invoice. It is a payment gateway with invoicing bolted on, not an invoicing tool with payments bolted on. Which one you actually need depends on how your clients pay you.
Full disclosure: I built Riffit, which is on the other side of this comparison. I use Razorpay too, for Riffit's own subscription billing, so this is not a takedown. It is where each tool earns its place.
What Razorpay actually is
Razorpay is a payment gateway. Its core job is to accept money through cards, UPI, net banking, wallets, and EMI, and settle it into your bank account. On top of that core it offers Payment Links and Razorpay Invoices, so you can send a client a link or a simple invoice and let them pay through any of those methods.
For a freelancer, the appeal is real. There is no setup fee and no annual maintenance charge. You only pay when you actually get paid.
What Razorpay costs
Razorpay charges around 2% per successful transaction on standard domestic payments, plus 18% GST on that fee, which works out to roughly 2.36% all in. On a ₹1,00,000 payment, that is about ₹2,360 gone.
A few things push it higher:
- Corporate and business credit cards are 2.15%. Amex and Diners sit at the same 2% as everything else domestic, which surprises most people.
- International cards go up to 3%, and once currency conversion stacks on top, a cross-border card payment lands a fair bit higher again.
- EMI is not a gateway percentage at all. The lender sets it, and a Bajaj Finance EMI runs from roughly 6% on a three-month tenure to about 13.5% over twelve, with the gateway fee and GST still on top.
- Settlement is T+2 working days by default. Getting the money sooner is a paid add-on that Razorpay prices separately rather than publishing on the pricing page, so check your own dashboard for the rate.
None of this is hidden and none of it is unusual for a gateway. It is simply the trade you make: Razorpay handles the payment rail, and it takes a slice of every rupee that flows through it.
Where Razorpay is the right tool
Reach for a gateway like Razorpay when the payment method is the point:
- Your clients want to pay by credit card, EMI, or net banking, not UPI or bank transfer.
- You bill international clients who pay by card and you want it handled in one place.
- You need automated recurring billing for a retainer and want the charge to run itself.
- You are running something closer to a small product business than a service practice, with many small payments.
In all of these, the transaction fee buys you something you cannot get for free: the ability to accept money through rails that UPI and a bank transfer do not cover.
Where a dedicated invoicing tool fits better
Here is the case most Indian freelancers are actually in. Your clients are Indian companies or founders. They pay by UPI or bank transfer. You want a professional, branded invoice with your details, the client details, a clear description, and a way to pay.
In that situation, a payment gateway is solving a problem you do not have while charging you for it. A UPI link on the invoice costs you nothing per payment, and the client pays you directly. Paying roughly 2.36% to route the same UPI payment through a gateway is a cost with no matching benefit. On ₹5,00,000 of billing in a quarter, that is about ₹11,800 you did not need to spend.
The other gap is the invoice itself. Razorpay's document is functional, built around getting the payment through. A dedicated invoicing tool treats the invoice as the product: your branding, your PAN and GST number, itemised work, payment terms, and a running record of what is pending, paid, and overdue. If you want the mechanics of putting a free UPI link on a PDF, adding a UPI payment link to your invoice walks through it.
Send a professional invoice with a free UPI link and track what is pending, paid, and overdue. No per-payment cut.Try Riffit freeRazorpay vs a dedicated invoicing tool
| Razorpay | Riffit | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Payment gateway with links and invoices | Invoicing tool with a free UPI link |
| Price | ~2% + GST per transaction | Free: 5 invoices/month. Pro: ₹249/month, or ₹199/month billed annually |
| Per-payment cut | Yes, on every transaction | None on UPI or bank transfer |
| Card and EMI payments | Yes | No, not a gateway |
| GST | Add your GST number | Add your GST number |
| Invoice and branding | Functional, payment-first | Invoice-first PDF, your logo and colour on Pro |
| Tracking | Payment dashboard | Pending, paid, overdue on the dashboard |
| Best for | Clients paying by card, EMI, or recurring | Clients paying by UPI or bank transfer |
Riffit is not a payment gateway. It does not process card payments. It puts a UPI link and your bank details on a professional invoice, and you get paid directly, which is what most Indian freelance payments look like anyway. If your clients genuinely need to pay by card or EMI, Razorpay is the better fit and it is worth the fee.
Choosing between tools in general, not just these two, is covered in the best invoicing tool for Indian freelancers, and the full menu of ways clients can pay you is in what payment details to put on a freelance invoice.
FAQ
Yes. Razorpay has a freelancer and individual signup, with no setup fee and no annual maintenance charge. You complete KYC with your PAN and bank details, then you can send payment links and invoices and accept UPI, cards, net banking, and EMI.
If your clients pay by UPI or bank transfer and you mostly want a clean, professional invoice with tracking, Riffit does that from a WhatsApp message, with no per-payment fee. Your own logo and brand colour come with Pro, ₹249/month or ₹199/month billed annually, and every new account starts with a 14-day Pro trial. If they need cards or EMI, keep Razorpay in the stack for exactly those payments.