Recurring Payments in India: The RBI E-Mandate, Explained

If you have only ever sold subscriptions to customers in the US or Europe, the mental model is simple: you store a card, you charge it whenever the plan says so, and the only thing that stops you is an expired card or an insufficient balance.

That model does not work in India, and building on it is the most common reason a subscription launch quietly fails here. Renewals do not decline because the customer had no money. They decline because nobody registered a mandate.

What the e-mandate framework actually requires

The Reserve Bank of India regulates recurring card payments through what is usually called the e-mandate framework. Stripped to the parts that affect you as a merchant, it requires three things.

One: a registered mandate. Before you can charge a customer on a schedule, the customer has to authorise that schedule once, with additional factor authentication — in practice an OTP. The mandate records who is being charged, the maximum amount, and the frequency. You are not storing a card and deciding later; you are registering a standing instruction with limits attached.

Two: a pre-debit notification. At least 24 hours before every single debit, the customer must be notified that the charge is coming. Not the first one. Every one. The notification has to identify the merchant and the amount, and it must give the customer a way to opt out before the money moves.

Three: authentication above the limit. Below a per-transaction threshold the debit happens without the customer doing anything. Above it, the customer has to authenticate that specific charge. A ₹2,000 monthly box clears silently. A ₹25,000 annual plan does not.

Why this breaks naive subscription apps

An international subscription app models a subscription as “a card plus a schedule”. Under the e-mandate framework a subscription is “a mandate plus a schedule”, and a mandate is a thing with a registration step, an expiry, a maximum amount, and a notification obligation attached to it.

The failure modes are specific:

• No mandate registered. Checkout completes, the customer believes they have subscribed, and the first renewal declines with an error that looks like a generic card failure. The customer is annoyed and you have no way to fix it without asking them to subscribe again.
• No pre-debit notification. The debit is rejected by the issuer, or it goes through and the customer disputes it. Neither is a good outcome, and the second one costs you a chargeback.
• Amount exceeds the mandate maximum. You register a mandate for ₹999 and later raise the price to ₹1,299. The debit fails, because the mandate was registered for the smaller amount. Price increases need a fresh mandate, not just a database update.
• Ignoring the AFA limit. A plan priced above the threshold needs the customer to approve every charge. If your app does not surface that, renewals stall and the merchant blames the gateway.

UPI Autopay is not a footnote

A large share of Indian shoppers do not want to enter card details at all. UPI Autopay — NPCI’s mandate rail on top of UPI — lets a customer approve a recurring debit from their UPI app, with the same one-time approval and pre-debit notification pattern.

For a consumer subscription in India, supporting UPI Autopay is often the difference between a viable funnel and an abandoned one. It is not a nice-to-have alongside cards; for many stores it is the primary rail. We cover the mechanics separately.

What this means for choosing a subscription app

Ask any subscription app you are evaluating three questions:

1. Does it register an e-mandate at checkout, or does it store a card and hope?
2. Does it send the pre-debit notification, or is that left to you and a calendar reminder?
3. Does it support UPI Autopay, or only cards?

An app that answers “no” to all three can still be sold to you as “supporting India”. It will take payments for the first order. It will not take the second one reliably.

The practical setup

If you are launching subscriptions in India, the sequence that works:

• Price below the AFA limit where you can. A ₹1,499 monthly plan bills silently. A ₹18,000 annual plan requires the customer to approve each renewal, which is a real drop-off point. If you want annual, consider prepaid — one authenticated payment up front, no recurring mandate at all.
• Register the mandate for more than the price. Mandates carry a maximum. Registering at the exact current price means any future increase breaks the mandate. Registering with headroom means a modest price change does not force re-authorisation.
• Treat the notification as part of the product. The pre-debit notification is a compliance requirement, but it is also the most-read email you will send. It is a chance to remind someone what is arriving and let them skip rather than cancel.
• Expect a different failure profile. In India a failed renewal is more often a mandate problem than a funds problem, and the fix is different — re-registration, not a retry.

Where Super Subscription fits

We built Super Subscription in India, for Indian stores first. Mandate registration happens during checkout, the pre-debit notification goes out 24 hours ahead automatically, UPI Autopay is a first-class rail alongside cards, and renewal invoices carry the GST breakdown your accountant will ask for.

It is also built on Shopify’s own billing, which means the payment method stays vaulted with Shopify rather than with us — no second vault, and no PCI scope landing on you.

Install it free from the Shopify App Store, or read the full guide to Shopify subscriptions.

Frequently asked questions

Can I charge an Indian customer's card automatically every month?

Only under a registered e-mandate. The RBI's framework requires the customer to authenticate the mandate once with additional factor authentication, and requires a pre-debit notification 24 hours before each charge. A card stored without a mandate cannot be debited on a schedule.

What is the limit for recurring payments without additional authentication?

As of the RBI's 2023 revision the limit is ₹15,000 per transaction for most categories, raised to ₹1,00,000 for specific ones including insurance premiums, mutual fund subscriptions and credit card bill payments. Above the applicable limit the customer must authenticate that individual charge.

Does UPI Autopay follow the same rules?

UPI Autopay is a separate NPCI mandate rail with its own limits and its own registration flow, but the same principles apply: a one-time mandate approval, a notification before debit, and customer-initiated authentication above the limit.