NEFT vs RTGS vs IMPS 2026: Charges, Limits, and Which One Actually Moves Your Money Fastest

By Nitish Bharadwaj · Published Sep 21, 2026 · 6 min

NEFT, RTGS, and IMPS all move money between Indian bank accounts, but they settle differently: NEFT clears in half-hourly batches, RTGS settles transfers in real time above a ₹2 lakh minimum, and IMPS settles instantly with no minimum, 24x7. Since 2019, RBI has made online NEFT and RTGS free for savings account holders — only branch-initiated transfers can still carry a fee. IMPS was never covered by that mandate, so banks keep charging for it in slabs that vary — SBI, HDFC, and ICICI all price it differently for the same amount.

Every net banking app offers the same three ways to move money to another bank account, and the confirmation screen rarely explains why one of them sometimes shows a fee and the other two never do. The difference comes down to how each one actually settles behind the scenes — in half-hourly batches, in real time above a minimum amount, or instantly with no minimum at all — and a 2019 RBI mandate that made two of the three free for online transfers while leaving the third, the only one that's genuinely real-time and never closed, as the one banks still bill for.

How the Three Actually Settle

NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) doesn't move money the instant you hit send — it batches every transfer received into half-hourly settlement windows and clears them together, running 24x7 including weekends and holidays since December 2019. RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) is the opposite: each transfer settles individually and immediately, which is why RBI restricts it to larger amounts — a ₹2 lakh minimum, with no upper cap. IMPS (Immediate Payment Service), run by NPCI, settles instantly like RTGS but carries no minimum amount, making it the only one of the three built for a small, urgent transfer that can't wait even a half-hour NEFT cycle.

Why NEFT and RTGS Are Free Online, and IMPS Isn't

RBI mandated in 2019 that banks stop charging savings account holders for NEFT and RTGS transfers initiated online — through internet banking, mobile banking, or UPI-linked NEFT — to push more payment volume onto digital rails. That mandate is specific to online, self-initiated transfers: walk into a branch and ask a teller to send the same NEFT or RTGS transfer, and the bank can still charge a slab-based fee plus GST, since the free mandate was about digital adoption, not the underlying transfer itself. IMPS was never brought under that mandate at all — it's a separate NPCI-run product, and banks have continued charging for it, though several now waive small transfers below a threshold.

IMPS Charges, Bank by Bank

Because IMPS sits outside RBI's free-online mandate, individual banks set their own fee slabs, and they don't match. The numbers below are representative of current online IMPS pricing at three large banks — check your own bank's schedule before a large transfer, since these slabs get revised periodically and generally exclude GST unless stated.

Where UPI Fits Into This

UPI runs on the same real-time rails as IMPS underneath, but for peer-to-peer transfers and most merchant payments, it's free — RBI's zero-MDR framework for UPI means banks don't pass on a charge to the customer for a standard UPI transfer. The catch is the ceiling: UPI's default per-transaction limit sits at ₹1 lakh for most banks, with a small set of categories like capital markets, insurance, and tax payments permitted higher caps. For everyday transfers under that limit, UPI has effectively replaced IMPS for most people; for anything larger, you're back to choosing between NEFT and RTGS.

Which One to Actually Use

• Transferring within UPI's per-transaction limit (typically ₹1 lakh) — use UPI; it's instant and free
• Above that limit but not urgent — use NEFT; it's free online and clears within the next half-hourly batch, effectively near-instant in practice
• ₹2 lakh or more and it needs to land right now — use RTGS; it's the only mode built for large amounts that settle immediately, and it's free online
• Below ₹2 lakh, above UPI's limit, and genuinely urgent — IMPS is the only option left, and the one place you'll actually pay a fee for speed

If a Transfer Doesn't Go Through

A transfer to a wrong or inactive account number is supposed to bounce back automatically, but the timeline differs by mode — IMPS reconciles fastest since it's a one-to-one real-time transaction, while a failed NEFT batch or RTGS transfer can take longer to reverse since it involves a settlement cycle rather than a single instant confirmation. If money hasn't been credited or reversed within a couple of business days, raise a complaint with your bank quoting the UTR (Unique Transaction Reference) number generated at the time of transfer — that number is what both banks use to trace the transaction across the interbank settlement system.

For readers comparing how digital-first banks price these same transfers against traditional ones, our neobank vs traditional bank savings account guide covers where fee structures diverge beyond just fund transfers. If you're funding a fixed deposit through one of these transfer modes, our digital FD guide walks through how instant FD booking uses the same UPI and net-banking rails.