# How to start a prop firm that takes UPI payments > How an Indian prop firm collects challenge fees over UPI: gateways vs merchants of record, what to check before signing, refunds, chargebacks and the platform. Source: https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/prop-firm-upi-payments Published: 2026-09-26 Updated: 2026-09-26 Publisher: PropExecutor ## Frequently asked questions ### Can a prop firm accept UPI for challenge fees? Yes. Collecting from your own traders happens outside the trading platform, so you choose the payment provider. Most Indian gateways and at least one merchant of record support UPI, RuPay, netbanking, cards and wallets. ### Gateway or merchant of record? A gateway moves the money and leaves tax, invoicing and disputes to you. A merchant of record sells as the seller of record and handles that paperwork, usually for a higher percentage. Firms selling across borders tend to prefer the second. ### Does PropExecutor process my traders' payments? No, and deliberately so. The platform provisions accounts and enforces rules; how you charge traders is your business and stays entirely under your control. ### How do I accept UPI for challenge fees? Through an Indian payment gateway that supports UPI, cards and netbanking. You connect it to your checkout, and passed payments can trigger account provisioning automatically through the API. ### Which gateways support UPI for a prop firm? Most major Indian gateways support UPI collections. Choose one for its settlement terms, payout support and fees; the platform is gateway-agnostic, so you wire in whichever you prefer. ### What are UPI fees like? UPI is typically among the cheapest ways to collect in India, often lower than card fees, which matters when evaluation fees are small and volume is high. ### Does the money settle in INR? Yes, to your Indian bank account through the gateway. You price and collect in rupees and settle in rupees. ### Can I automate provisioning from a UPI payment? Yes. Wire your gateway webhook to the provisioning API so a successful UPI payment creates the account, assigns the rule set and sends credentials, with no manual step. ### How do refunds work over UPI? Refunds are handled by your gateway back to the payer, following your refund policy. Keep the policy clear at checkout, as you would for any digital purchase. ### Can I take both UPI and international cards? Yes. Serve Indian traders with UPI and international traders with cards through the same or parallel gateways, and provision every paid account the same way. If your traders are in India, UPI is not a nice-to-have. It is how people pay for everything, it settles instantly, and a checkout that only offers international cards will quietly lose you most of a domestic audience. Here is how the payment side of an Indian prop firm actually fits together. ## Two separate money flows It helps to keep them apart in your head from day one: 1. **Trader pays you a challenge fee.** This is your business, your pricing, your refund policy, your payment provider. It does not touch the trading platform at all. 2. **You pay for the platform.** One payment for a plan, and top-ups when you need more accounts. No setup fee and nothing monthly. Nobody sits in the middle of the first flow. That is deliberate: a platform that takes a cut of your challenge fees has an interest in your pricing, and we would rather not. ## Choosing how to collect over UPI Two shapes of provider exist, and the difference matters more than the percentage on the pricing page. **A payment gateway** connects you to UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets and settles into your account. You remain the seller: you raise invoices, you handle GST, you argue the disputes. Cheapest per transaction, most work. **A merchant of record** sells to the trader as the seller of record. It collects, handles tax where it is due, issues the invoice and takes on the dispute machinery. It costs more per transaction and removes a category of work you would otherwise have to staff. Which is right depends on where your traders are. Domestic only, a gateway is usually enough. Selling across borders, a merchant of record stops being a luxury quite quickly. ## What to check before you sign - **Is UPI actually live for your business category?** Ask directly, and ask about prop firm or trading-education categories specifically. - **Settlement time.** T+1 or T+2 changes how much float you need to run promotions. - **Refund handling on UPI.** Refunds to a UPI handle are routine, but confirm the window and who bears the fee. - **Chargeback exposure on cards.** UPI has no chargeback the way cards do, which is part of why it is attractive, but your card volume still carries the risk. - **Payout limits and KYC.** Get this cleared before launch, not on the day you cross a threshold. - **International traders.** If you want them, check what happens to your pricing page in a currency you do not hold. ## The platform side Buying PropExecutor is one payment from $129 for 50 trading accounts, with no setup fee and no monthly licence. Checkout runs on [Dodo Payments](https://dodopayments.com/payment-methods/upi), a merchant of record built in India, which supports UPI and RuPay alongside cards. After that, accounts come out of a permanent pool of credits. Nothing renews, so a quiet month costs you nothing at all. Top-ups are bought when you need them, at a rate that falls as you add more. ## Putting it together, operationally 1. Trader pays your challenge fee over UPI, through your provider. 2. Your provider confirms the payment. You, or a small script against the API, assign one of the accounts you provisioned earlier. 3. The trader gets an account number, a server and a password, and signs in to your branded terminal. 4. The rule engine enforces the challenge on every tick, and the trader watches their own headroom in the [dashboard inside the executor](https://www.propexecutor.com/features#dashboard). 5. Pass or breach is recorded the instant it happens, and your operators see it on the firm-wide desk. The payment step and the platform step are cleanly separated, which is what lets you change payment providers later without touching anything about how your accounts run. [See the price list](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing), or read [how to start a prop firm in India](https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/start-a-prop-firm-in-india) for the full cost list.