Zomato adds a new charge for cash payments: Here's what customers choosing COD need to know

Zomato customers who choose to pay for their food in cash at the time of delivery are now being charged an additional fee, adding another cost to orders placed on the platform.

The new charge appears on the bill as a “Pay on Delivery Fee”. The amount can vary between orders. In a bill shared by a user on X, Zomato charged ₹21 as the pay-on-delivery fee on an order with an item total of ₹850.

The bill shows an item total of ₹850, restaurant packaging charges of ₹51, a platform fee of ₹14.99, ₹30 for three months of Zomato Gold and ₹51.53 in GST. The ₹21 pay-on-delivery fee took the grand total to ₹1,018.52. After a cash round-off of ₹0.48, the final amount payable was ₹1,019.

The bill also shows that the delivery partner fee, which was ₹34, was waived.

Zomato's new cash-on-delivery fee

The new “Pay on Delivery Fee” is charged when customers choose to pay for their order in cash instead of paying online.

Don't Miss: State finances are turning into a matter of concern. Here’s why

The charge does not appear to be a fixed amount. Another user on X claimed that Zomato is charging up to ₹30 for cash-on-delivery orders.

“Zomato will charge up to Rs 30 for CoD orders. This will be called a ‘Pay on Delivery' fee: 2 per cent of order value up to a maximum of Rs 30. No extra charges for online prepaid orders,” the post read.

The ₹21 fee shown in the shared bill would be in line with a 2% charge on an ₹850 order.

However, Zomato has not publicly confirmed the exact formula for the new fee. It is also not clear whether factors such as location or other parameters can affect the amount charged.

For customers, the key difference is simple. Paying online can help avoid the new fee, while choosing cash at delivery can add to the final bill.

From ₹2 to ₹14.99, how Zomato's platform fee grew

The new cash-on-delivery charge is not the first additional fee Zomato has introduced for customers.

Zomato began testing a platform fee of ₹2 per order in 2023. The company gradually increased the charge over the following years as it looked for ways to improve revenue from its food-delivery business.

The platform fee was later increased to ₹10 in October 2024. Zomato subsequently raised it again, with the charge reaching ₹12.50 before being increased to ₹14.99 per order earlier this year. GST is charged separately on the platform fee.

The platform fee is only one part of the final food-delivery bill. Depending on the order, customers may also have to pay delivery charges, restaurant packaging charges, GST and other applicable fees.

The latest cash-on-delivery charge adds another cost for customers who prefer to pay after their food arrives.

Zomato started as a restaurant discovery platform

Zomato's business today is very different from where it started.

The company was founded in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It was initially launched as FoodieBay, a restaurant discovery platform that provided information about restaurants, menus and reviews.

The company changed its name to Zomato in 2010 and later expanded into restaurant reservations, food ordering and delivery.

Zomato entered India's food-delivery market in 2015. It went on to compete with Swiggy as online food ordering became increasingly popular across the country.

A major development came in 2020 when Zomato acquired Uber Eats' India business in an all-stock deal.

Must Read: Planning to move to Dubai for work? Indian woman explains why salary alone is not enough to judge an offer

Zomato is adding more ways to monetise its platform

The latest fee comes as food-delivery companies look for new ways to generate more revenue from their large customer bases.

Platform fees have become a regular part of food-delivery bills since their introduction in 2023. What started as a small charge has increased over time, with Zomato now charging ₹14.99 per order before GST.

The new cash-on-delivery fee takes this further by linking an additional charge to the customer's choice of payment method.

Zomato's main competitor, Swiggy, has not introduced a similar cash-on-delivery fee so far.

For customers, the change means that the final cost of a food order can now depend not only on what they order, but also on how they choose to pay.