₹2 to ₹17.58: The Three Year Fee Creep That Reshaped Restaurant Economics
Zomato and Swiggy platform fees went from ₹2 in 2023 to as high as ₹17.58 in 2026, one small hike at a time. The full timeline, the math, and what restaurants can do about it.
In April 2023, Swiggy quietly added a ₹2 platform fee to orders in select cities. Almost nobody noticed. It was two rupees.
Three years later, that fee sits at ₹17.58 per order on Swiggy and ₹14.90 on Zomato after the March 2026 hikes, and restaurant bodies say they expect further increases ahead. Restaurants surveyed after the most recent 20 percent jump told reporters they believe the fee is heading higher still, in line with global markets, while new restaurants are signing on at 28 to 30 percent commission and calling the economics unfeasible.
No single hike was dramatic. That was the point. Here is the full timeline, and what it adds up to.
The timeline
April 2023. Swiggy introduces a ₹2 platform fee in select cities.
August 2023. Zomato follows with ₹2, then moves to ₹3 in select markets.
October 2023. Swiggy raises to ₹3.
January 2024. Swiggy tests ₹10 with a small set of users. A trial balloon.
Through 2024 and 2025. Both platforms step through ₹5, then ₹6, a 20 percent hike framed as covering rising operational costs. During New Year demand spikes, Zomato charges as much as ₹9 in certain markets. Surge pricing arrives for fees, not just delivery.
March 2026. Zomato moves from ₹12.50 to ₹14.90 on March 20. Swiggy goes to ₹17.58 on March 24, a roughly 19 percent jump.
Today. Restaurant owners publicly expect ₹10 to ₹15 more.
From ₹2 to ₹17.58 in 36 months is a compounding rate no restaurant's food margin can match. And the fee has a property that makes it uniquely attractive to the platforms: it does not scale with anything. It is not a percentage of the order. It does not rise with food cost or fall with discounts. It is close to pure margin, collected on every single transaction, and it grows by decree.
Why the frog never jumped
Each hike was small enough to absorb. One or two rupees at a time, often announced quietly, sometimes tested on a small user set first. Customers grumbled and paid. Restaurants watched order values stay flat while payouts thinned, because the fee sits on top of a stack that already includes base commission of 17 to 28 percent, GST, payment gateway charges, and marketing spends. Stack it all and effective deductions commonly land between 25 and 35 percent. On a ₹500 order, a restaurant keeping ₹325 is normal.
The fee creep matters more than any single commission negotiation because it moves for everyone, everywhere, at once, and there is nothing to negotiate. You cannot call your account manager about it. It is the weather.
The math on a real month
Take a restaurant doing 40 delivery orders a day at a ₹450 average. That is 1,200 orders a month.
At the current fee levels, customers on those orders are paying roughly ₹18,000 to ₹21,000 a month in platform fees alone before commission touches the restaurant's side. Money that leaves the table's total budget without feeding anyone. Meanwhile the restaurant's own deductions on ₹5.4 lakh of monthly aggregator sales run ₹1.35 to ₹1.9 lakh at the 25 to 35 percent effective band.
Every rupee the fee rises makes the aggregator order more expensive for the customer while the restaurant's payout stays untouched or worse. The platforms are raising prices on your food without asking you.
What the fee creep is quietly teaching customers
Here is the part working in restaurants' favor. Customers see the fee now. ₹17.58 on a bill is visible in a way ₹2 never was, and order screens increasingly read like airline checkouts: item price, delivery fee, platform fee, surge, GST. Every hike makes the direct alternative more attractive without the restaurant spending a rupee on persuasion.
A direct order has no platform fee. A restaurant that keeps the 25 to 35 percent an aggregator order surrenders can fund free delivery or a standing discount and still come out ahead. The fee creep is the aggregators building the case for direct ordering, one hike at a time.
This is the gap platforms like Menuthere exist to fill: a restaurant's own branded ordering website and app, WhatsApp ordering, zero commission, no platform fee, with orders flowing straight into Petpooja POS. When the next hike lands, and restaurant owners are on record expecting it, the operators with a direct channel already running will be the ones who benefit from it.
₹2 was easy to ignore. ₹17.58 is not. Whatever number comes next, the restaurants that win will be the ones who stopped renting their checkout before it arrived.
Menuthere helps restaurants launch commission free direct ordering with full Petpooja integration. menuthere.com