The true cost of sending money to India.

You pay in two places. The first is the fee, which is visible and advertised. The second is the exchange rate margin: the gap between the mid-market rate and the rate you are given. The margin is rarely labelled as a cost, but every rupee it removes is one your recipient does not receive.

The mid-market rate is the midpoint between what buyers and sellers are quoting for a currency pair — the rate you see when you search for USD to INR. Nobody transacts at it wholesale, but it is the fair reference point every retail rate should be measured against.

A provider that advertises "zero fees" still has to earn money somewhere. Very often it is in the rate, where it is harder to see and easier to overlook.

More than most fees. Take two hypothetical providers on a $1,000 transfer: one charges no fee but gives a rate 2% below mid-market, the other charges $5 at the mid-market rate. The first delivers about $980 worth of rupees, the second about $995. The zero-fee option costs four times as much.

The numbers above are an illustration of the arithmetic, not a quote from any real provider. The point holds at any size: a percentage margin grows with the amount you send, while a flat fee does not. On larger transfers, the rate matters far more than the fee.

Margins also move. A provider can offer a sharp rate on a first transfer and a wider one afterwards, which is why a comparison you did last year says little about today.

Enter the same US dollar amount into each provider at the same time, and write down the rupee amount the recipient will receive after every fee. Ignore the headline fee and the headline rate on their own. The amount received is the only single figure that includes both costs, so it is the only one worth comparing.

Do it at the moment you intend to send. Exchange rates move through the day, so a screenshot from the morning is not a fair comparison with a quote in the evening.

Check delivery method too. A bank deposit and a UPI payout can be priced differently by the same provider.

ComplyRemit prices transfers from the mid-market reference rate — the rate you would see quoted on Google — and does not widen it to disguise a fee. Before you confirm, the review screen shows what you send, the rate applied and what your recipient receives, so the full cost is visible before you commit.

That review screen is designed to be the comparison figure from the previous section: one rupee amount, with nothing deducted after you press confirm.

Rates shown on our website and dashboard are indicative, for estimating. The review screen shows the rate for your transfer at the moment you send.