Zepto’s free delivery threshold now stands at Rs 199, up from Rs 149, with the minimum order value rising to as much as Rs 299 during periods of high demand, marking the completion of a steady retreat from the aggressive fee waivers the company used to buy market share last year.

Orders below the applicable threshold attract a delivery fee of Rs 30. Handling fees remain waived, in line with the company’s stated position that it will not reinstate them.

The Rs 199 level brings Zepto in line with Eternal-owned Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart, both of which sit at the same threshold, erasing the pricing advantage Zepto held through most of last year.

FE was first to report each stage of the fee waiver and its unwinding. In November 2025, Zepto launched its “All new Zepto experience”, removing delivery, handling, rain and surge fees on orders above Rs 99, then the lowest free delivery threshold in the market. FE reported on January 8 that the company had raised the threshold to Rs 149, an increase of more than 50%.

In March, FE reported the move to Rs 199 as part of a wider cooling of the sector’s fee war, with Instamart having ended its above-Rs-299 waiver programme in January and Blinkit more than doubling its handling fee to Rs 11 from Rs 5. On June 5, FE reported that Zepto had begun linking the threshold to demand, pushing it to Rs 299 in some locations and at peak hours, a mechanism similar in effect to the surge pricing the company had made a point of eliminating seven months earlier.

The higher threshold is aimed at improving contribution margins on small baskets and nudging up average order values. 

The recalibration comes with Zepto’s listing plans pushed back. The company paused its IPO at the end of July, after domestic mutual funds indicated they were only willing to value it at $2.5-3 billion, much lower than the company’s expectations. The company is in talks to raise about $105 million from existing investors through a pre-IPO placement at a valuation of $4-4.2 billion. Zepto had cash of Rs 5,681 crore and no debt as of March 31.

Zepto did not respond to a request for comments at the time of going to the press.