Zomato has started charging a “Pay on Delivery” fee on cash orders, and it will not say how the fee is set. The charge appears on the final bill only when a customer picks cash. Customers who pay online are not charged.
Four outlets checked the app on September 12, 2026. They reported four different numbers. Inc42 saw fees of ₹5 and ₹13 on real orders, plus one user report of ₹21. Business Standard found “at least ₹5,” rising “as high as ₹20 in some locations.” An IANS wire put the range at ₹5 to ₹20.
The spread is roughly four times from bottom to top. Nobody has mapped where each number applies.
Zomato has not explained the pricing. Inc42 wrote that it is not clear when the fee started, whether it has been rolled out across India, or how it is calculated. An email to Zomato went unanswered before Business Standard published.
The fee sits on top of charges Zomato already levies. Those include the platform fee, the delivery fee, restaurant packing charges and GST. Zomato raised its platform fee to ₹14.99 per order earlier in 2026, up from ₹12.50.
The scale is what makes a small fee matter. Zomato processes an estimated 2.3 to 2.5 million food orders a day. At that volume, even a few rupees per cash order adds up to a real number over a year.
The timing is the second question. On September 10, 2026, the Department of Consumer Affairs notified the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) (Amendment) Rules, 2026. They take effect on January 1, 2027. The rules require platforms to run a yearly dark-pattern self-audit and display a compliance certificate. An undisclosed, variable, payment-linked surcharge is close to the shape those rules were drawn around. Whether a COD fee that varies without disclosure survives the January rules is a fair question for both Zomato and the Department.
What this means for you: If you order on Zomato and want to avoid the fee, pay online, because the charge only lands on cash orders.
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