NEFT vs RTGS vs IMPS vs UPI: limits, timings and charges (2026)

NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and UPI all move rupees between bank accounts. They are not four names for one pipe. RBI runs NEFT and RTGS. NPCI runs IMPS and UPI. The useful difference is how fast the money settles, how much you can send, and what the bank is allowed to charge.

Use UPI for a small daily payment. Use IMPS when it is urgent and within ₹5,00,000. Use RTGS when the amount is at least ₹2,00,000 and you want it to move one transaction at a time. Use NEFT for a salary credit, a scheduled transfer, or a bulk file. Money you will not need this week can sit in a fixed deposit. The FD rates and the FD calculator are that comparison, not a payments screen. More notes in this topic are on Everyday money.

What is each system, and who runs it?

NEFT is National Electronic Funds Transfer. It is a retail system owned and operated by the Reserve Bank of India. Your bank sends the instruction into a batch. RBI settles that batch, and the other bank credits the account. It is not instant at the level of one rupee. It is near real time, one batch at a time.

RTGS is Real Time Gross Settlement. RBI settles each transfer on its own, in RBI’s books, as it arrives. “Gross” means the payments are not added together and netted off. A completed RTGS credit is final. RBI describes it as the large-value system.

IMPS is Immediate Payment Service. NPCI runs it. The credit is instant, and it works on a holiday. You can start it from a phone, from internet banking, or from an ATM, if your bank offers that channel.

UPI is Unified Payments Interface. NPCI built it, and NPCI is regulated by RBI. It sits on the IMPS rails, but you do not type an account number for an everyday payment. You use a UPI ID, a mobile number, or a QR code. It also runs all day.

An IFSC is the 11-character code of a bank branch. The first four characters name the bank, the fifth is a zero, and the last six name the branch. MMID is the mobile money identifier your bank issues for an IMPS transfer to a mobile number. A UPI ID is the virtual address in the app, such as a name followed by the app’s handle.

How do the timings and the amount limits compare?

All four are available every day, including Sunday and a bank holiday. The dates differ.

NEFT has been on a 24x7 cycle since 16 December 2019. There are 48 half-hour batches. The other bank should credit the account, or return the money, within 2 hours of the batch. RBI sets no minimum and no maximum for an ordinary NEFT from an account. Your bank may set a cap, with its board’s approval. A person with no bank account can still deposit cash for an NEFT, up to ₹50,000 a transaction.

RTGS has been 24x7 since 14 December 2020. The minimum is ₹2,00,000. There is no RBI maximum. The beneficiary bank should credit the account within 30 minutes of receiving the message. RTGS does not take a transfer dated for a future day. If you want next Tuesday, that is a NEFT your bank can schedule, not an RTGS.

IMPS is instant and round the clock. NPCI’s per-transaction cap is ₹5,00,000 on every channel except SMS and IVR. Those two channels have a lower bank limit. NPCI tells you to ask the bank for that figure, so this page does not invent one. A bank can also set a lower cap than ₹5,00,000 on the app.

UPI is instant and round the clock. NPCI’s FAQ updated on 15 October 2026 says banks and NPCI keep daily security caps that are typically ₹1,00,000 to ₹5,00,000, depending on the category. “Typically” is NPCI’s word. It is not one ceiling for every payment, and your bank can set a lower one. Person-to-person transfers stay on the older NPCI rule. Circular 185B does not reprint that rupee figure. It says the person-to-person limit continues as it was.

Higher caps apply only to a verified merchant, and only in the categories NPCI named. Circular 185A of 24 August 2024 raised tax-aligned payments to ₹5,00,000 a transaction. Circular 185B of 28 August 2025, which banks had to follow by 15 September 2025, then set these verified-merchant ceilings:

The same circular also lists jewellery, foreign-exchange retail and digital account opening. This page does not quote those rupee rows. An IPO bid is a separate block. NPCI’s December 2021 circular, which SEBI adopted, lets an individual application use UPI up to ₹5,00,000. That is not the capital-markets merchant cap. The IPO application guide explains the mandate, and the allotment guide covers the draw.

What can the bank charge?

For NEFT, two rules sit on top of each other. From 1 July 2019, RBI stopped charging banks for processing NEFT. From 1 January 2020, a savings-account customer pays nothing for an NEFT that starts online. Inward NEFT is free at the destination branch.

Other outward NEFT, such as a branch slip, may be charged. RBI’s cap, before GST, is the most the originating bank may take.

GST can sit on top of those caps. The FAQ says “plus applicable GST”. It does not fix the GST rate on this page.

RTGS is not the same waiver. From 1 July 2019, RBI stopped charging banks for RTGS processing and asked them to pass that benefit on. The customer cap is still in the RTGS FAQ updated on 14 October 2026. Inward RTGS is free. Outward RTGS from ₹2,00,000 to ₹5,00,000 is not more than ₹25, exclusive of tax. Above ₹5,00,000 it is not more than ₹50, exclusive of tax. A bank may charge less. It may not charge more. This page does not say online RTGS from a savings account is free. The current FAQ does not say that.

IMPS charges are set by the bank. NPCI does not publish one customer price. Check your bank’s schedule of charges. This page does not quote one bank’s fee.

UPI, for the person paying, stays free on NPCI’s FAQ of 15 October 2026. Person-to-person transfers are free both ways. The app must not add a platform fee. A merchant discount of 0.4% on person-to-merchant payments above ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 once the payment is ₹75,000 or more, was decided for merchants. The same FAQ said the start date was still to be notified after Diwali. A small merchant collecting up to ₹1,00,000 a month on a UPI QR stays at zero merchant discount. None of that is a charge deducted from the sender.

What if the transfer fails or the account number is wrong?

A failed transfer here means the money left, or was supposed to leave, for a reason that is not your mistake: a broken link, a time-out, or a credit the other bank could not pass. RBI’s circular of 20 September 2019 sets one clock for the retail systems.

If an IMPS payment debits you and does not credit the other account, the beneficiary bank should reverse it by T+1. The same T+1 rule covers a UPI transfer of funds. After that day, compensation is ₹100 a day. The bank credits it on its own. You do not have to send a claim first. A UPI payment to a shop, where your account is debited but the merchant never gets a confirmation, has a longer outer limit: auto-reversal within T+5 days, then the same ₹100 a day.

NEFT uses a different clock, in the FAQ updated on 2 September 2024. The other bank should credit the account, or return the money, within 2 hours of the batch. If it is late, the bank pays penal interest at the repo rate plus 2 percentage points, for the days of delay, again without waiting for a complaint. The repo rate itself moves. The current one is on RBI policy rates.

RTGS, in the FAQ updated on 14 October 2026, expects the credit within 30 minutes of the message. If the other bank cannot credit the account, it should return the funds within 1 hour of receipt, or before the RTGS business day ends, whichever is earlier. A late return is compensated at the repo rate plus 2 percentage points. That amount should reach you automatically.

The account number is your responsibility. NEFT and RTGS credit the number you typed. A spelling difference in the name is why the systems were built to follow the number. From December 2024, RBI added a look-up so you can see the name on the account before you send. Banks had to offer it on internet banking, in the app, and at the branch by 1 April 2025. It is free. If the name cannot be shown, you may still send, and you carry that choice. IMPS and UPI already showed a name. Use it. Then read the account number again.

Complain to your bank first, with the UTR or the UPI reference. The NEFT FAQ says that if the bank has not resolved it within 30 days, you may use the Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman. The RTGS FAQ, updated later, points to the 2026 scheme and the time that scheme allows. File at the RBI complaints site named there. For a UPI payment, raise it in the app as well as with the bank. A failed transfer is not, by itself, a mark on a credit report. A bill you miss because the money never arrived can be. That score is the CIBIL guide.

How do you stay safe on UPI?

NPCI says the UPI PIN is yours. The app does not store it, and the bank’s staff will not ask for it. An OTP is the same kind of secret. Anyone who has both can move the money.

Check the name on the screen, then the account number or the UPI ID. A collect request you did not expect is a payment going out, not a receipt. Keep the reference until the other person confirms. A monthly saving after that habit is boring belongs in the RD calculator, not in the transfer itself.