GeM ran free for sellers for years; the revenue policy changed that for larger transactions — and changed it again in revisions since, which is why half the numbers circulating online are from superseded versions. This page carries the current structure, what each charge means operationally, and the pricing discipline that keeps charges from eating margins.
The full seller cost map (complete fees guide) outlines your baseline expenditure across platform stages:
| Stage | Cost | Nature |
|---|---|---|
|
Registration & listing
|
₹0 | Free, always |
|
Caution money
|
Abolished (2025) | Old deposits refundable |
|
Vendor assessment
|
Turnover-tiered ~₹872–₹3,486+GST | One-time/3-yearly (guide) |
|
Transaction charges
|
Per-order, above thresholds | Cost of winning |
The Annual Milestone Charge. ₹10,000 + applicable taxes, levied once your "Seller Merchandise Value" (the running total of order values placed to you) crosses ₹20 lakh in a financial year. It's recovered at the moment you clock the threshold, once per FY — each financial year counts fresh and separately. Below ₹20L in a year: you owe nothing under this policy.
Transaction charges — apply only to sellers who've crossed the ₹20L milestone, per order:
| Order value | Charge (excl. taxes) |
|---|---|
| Up to ₹10 lakh | Nil |
| Above ₹10 lakh, below ₹10 crore | 0.30% of order value |
| ₹10 crore and above | Flat ₹3,00,000 |
Orders awarded before you crossed ₹20L SMV also carry no transaction charge.
Collection mechanics — the part that catches sellers out: charges fall due on award of the contract, not on payment received. You must pay GeM within 15 days of award, or before raising your first invoice to the buyer, or before the first delivery due date — whichever comes first. Generate the charge invoice within 5 days of award (else the portal auto-generates it on your default GSTN). Non-payment suspends the seller account under the Incident Management Policy until cleared — a suspended account mid-contract is a self-inflicted crisis.
Refunds. If the buyer terminates within 6 months for defined reasons (wrong selection, erroneous order, requirement dropped, consignee unavailable), transaction charges are refundable — claim within 90 days, pro-rata for partial terminations. No refund where termination stems from your non-performance.
Exemptions worth knowing: government-to-government contracts (restricted bids/nomination), contracts on nomination or Single Tender Enquiry basis — though exempted order values still count toward your ₹20L milestone. Also in the policy: forward-auction charges (0.30% on auctions ≥₹20,000, paid by the auction buyer), rate-contract charges (0.30%, capped ₹3L), and the OEM "Business Cockpit" analytics subscription at ₹6,00,000/year — strictly optional.
(This page updates within days of any policy revision; the fees guide mirrors the headline numbers. Previous versions: v1.5 w.e.f. 09/08/2024, v1.4 w.e.f. 02/08/2023.)
They're a bid-math line, not a surprise. On large orders, the transaction charge belongs in your RA floor calculation alongside freight and financing. Sellers who compute floors without it donate the difference — on exactly their biggest wins.
They reshape order-size economics at the margins. Charges kicking in above thresholds create step-changes in net margin around those values — worth knowing when structuring quantities or evaluating bunch bids, though buyers control order sizing, not you.
They're deductible business costs — account for them. Platform charges flow into your books like any marketplace commission; the operational failure we see is invoicing/reconciliation treating them as anomalies — align your accounting for them from order one (order-to-payment mechanics).
They fund the platform you're renting. Editorially: a marketplace delivering structural demand at fractions-of-a-percent on wins remains dramatically cheaper customer acquisition than almost any private channel. The charges are real; the comparison is favourable.
Original revenue policy introduction → revision versions → current version, with effective dates — the practical lesson repeats our fees-page theme: check the date on any GeM cost content, including screenshots forwarded on WhatsApp. Policy versions supersede; forwarded screenshots don't.