IMPS Limit Per Day, Charges and Transfer Time at Every Major Bank in 2026

The IMPS limit is ₹1 to ₹5 lakh per transaction, the cap NPCI sets for net banking and mobile banking. There is no single nationwide daily cap: each bank sets its own cumulative daily limit, so SBI allows up to ₹25 lakh a day online while Kotak Regular accounts get ₹10 lakh.

If you are paying a vendor, salary or a family member, the limit that stops you is usually not the ₹5 lakh. It is your bank's daily cap, the lower cap on a payee you added today, or a fee that applies above ₹25,000. This guide lists all three for SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Kotak, Axis and Bandhan, from each bank's own pages.

For what IMPS is and how it works, see what is IMPS; this page covers its limits, charges and timing.

Your daily IMPS limit is the total you can send in a day across all IMPS transfers, and your bank sets it, often per account type and channel. Here is what each bank publishes:

Figures from each bank's website, checked October 2026.

Two things trip people up. Kotak's daily cap is shared across IMPS, NEFT and RTGS, so a morning NEFT reduces what you can send by IMPS. And SBI makes you set a third-party limit before the ₹25 lakh applies.

Can I transfer ₹2 lakh through IMPS? Yes, in one transfer, as ₹2 lakh is under the ₹5 lakh cap, provided your daily limit allows it and the payee is past any new-payee cap.

When you add a payee, banks make you wait before the first transfer and then cap how much that payee can receive at first. This is fraud protection: if someone takes over your account, they cannot empty it to a new payee in one go.

• SBI: the payee is active within 1 hour if you approve by OTP between 6 am and 8 pm (otherwise next day after 6 am), you can add up to 8 payees a day, and the payee can receive ₹5 lakh in total over the first 4 days.
• HDFC: the payee is ready in about 30 minutes and capped at ₹50,000 for the first 24 hours.
• ICICI: the first-24-hour cap depends on your tier: ₹1 lakh General, ₹2 lakh Privilege, ₹5 lakh Wealth, ₹10 lakh NRI.
• Kotak: a 30-minute wait, then ₹50,000 for Regular accounts, ₹3 lakh for Privy and Wealth, and ₹25,000 for 811.

If a large payment is due, add the payee a day early (four days early at SBI for amounts over ₹5 lakh), or use RTGS or NEFT if your bank allows a higher first-day amount there.

You can send IMPS without adding a beneficiary in two ways. Since NPCI's circular of 31 October 2023, banks must let you send up to ₹5 lakh using only the payee's mobile number and bank name; the app shows the account holder's name before you confirm. Banks also offer a quick or one-time transfer by account number and IFSC, with a lower cap.

• SBI Quick Transfer: ₹50,000 per day.
• Kotak one-time transfer: ₹50,000 on net banking, ₹1 lakh on the app.
• ICICI by mobile number + MMID: ₹10,000.
• HDFC by mobile number + MMID: ₹5,000 per day.

Money sent by mobile number goes to the default account linked to that number, so confirm with the payee which account that is. For anything above these caps, add the payee.

With a beneficiary added, you pay by account number and IFSC, the standard IMPS route alongside the other online payment methods in your bank app.

IMPS charges are set by each bank, paid by the sender only, and 18% GST applies to the fee, not the amount sent. Receiving IMPS is free.

All figures plus 18% GST. SBI branch IMPS costs more, and SBI salary and premium current accounts are exempt. HDFC Imperia and Preferred customers pay nothing. Kotak and Axis publish fees on their schedule of charges; check before large or frequent transfers.

Worked example: send ₹3,00,000 at ICICI: ₹15 fee + ₹2.70 GST = ₹17.70. The payee receives the full ₹3,00,000.

IMPS money usually reaches the other account within seconds, at any hour, including nights, Sundays and bank holidays.

A pending IMPS is not lost: it either credits the payee or comes back to you. Don't send it again while it shows pending, or you may pay twice.

• Raise the daily limit in your app or net banking (SBI: Define Limit; Kotak: Bank Controls; ICICI: My Profile), up to the bank's ceiling.
• Split the amount: ₹20 lakh in a day is four IMPS of ₹5 lakh, if your daily limit is ₹20 lakh or more (ICICI, Kotak Privy, SBI).
• Use RTGS for ₹2 lakh and above with no upper cap, or NEFT, if the money doesn't need to land in seconds.
• Business accounts: current accounts and premium tiers carry higher caps (Kotak Privy ₹20 lakh a day); for payroll or many vendor payments, ask your bank about bulk upload in corporate net banking, which avoids sending each IMPS by hand.

• Check: HDFC NetBanking > Funds Transfer > View IMPS Funds Transfer, or app > Money Transfer > History; other banks: transaction history. Search by the 12-digit RRN retrieval reference number.
• Pending: wait up to 2 days; it will credit or reverse.
• Debited but not credited: RBI requires reversal by T+1; beyond that the bank owes you ₹100 per day of delay.
• Complain: to your bank with the RRN, date, amount and both bank names; if unresolved in 30 days, escalate to the RBI Ombudsman (cms.rbi.org.in).

Pick the rail by amount and urgency. IMPS is best when money must land in seconds and the amount is ₹5 lakh or less. NEFT suits routine payments of any size where a short wait is fine, and RTGS suits single transfers of ₹2 lakh and above, with no upper cap. All three run 24x7, so the choice is about the limit, not the time of day.

A business paying ₹8 lakh to one vendor today would use one RTGS rather than two IMPS transfers, which saves a fee and a second approval.

For a fuller comparison, see IMPS vs NEFT and RTGS vs NEFT.

No bank setting lets IMPS carry a payment from outside India: it only moves money between two Indian accounts. If you are a freelancer or exporter paid by an overseas client, that money arrives by SWIFT or through a cross-border receiving platform. With Xflow receiving accounts, your client pays local account details, and you get INR in your Indian account the next business day (T+1) at the mid-market rate, with an eFIRA for your records. That eFIRA is the proof of receipt your CA needs for zero-rated GST on export of services.