Digital Wallets in Nepal: A Fee Comparison Table (2026 Update)
Most transactions on Nepal's wallets are free — until the moment they aren't. Here's exactly which actions cost money on eSewa, Khalti, and your bank's own app, with real published rates instead of vague "may apply" language.
If you use a digital wallet a handful of times a month, fees are basically noise. But for freelancers cashing out client payments weekly, small shopkeepers settling QR collections into their bank daily, or anyone topping up a wallet by card regularly, the difference between a free channel and a 1–2% fee adds up to real money over a year. This comparison pulls together the currently published fee schedules for Nepal's major wallets and typical bank mobile banking channels, organized by the transaction types people actually do most.
Important context before you read further: IME Pay and Khalti officially merged in July 2025 to form "Khalti by IME" (operated by IME Khalti Limited), Nepal's largest digital wallet by user base. IME Pay is no longer a separate standalone product — its wallet, remittance, and rewards features now run on Khalti's unified platform and fee schedule. This comparison reflects that reality rather than treating them as two competing wallets.
Methodology: What Fees Were Compared
We compared four transaction types that make up the bulk of everyday wallet usage in Nepal, using each provider's own published tariff pages and NRB-referenced infrastructure charges (connectIPS) current as of this writing:
Fig. 1 — Where each provider actually charges something, at a glance. Full breakdown and figures below.
eSewa Fees
| Service | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant / QR payment | Free | Standard bill and merchant payments carry no service charge. |
| Wallet-to-wallet transfer | Free | Sending to another eSewa user has no fee. |
| Load via linked bank account | Free | Standard method for topping up. |
| Load via debit/credit card | 1.75% | Applied to the total load amount; capped at Rs 10,000 per transaction. |
| Load via Cash Point agent | Free (up to Rs 20,000/month) | Beyond the monthly free allowance, agent terms may vary. |
| eSewa-to-bank transfer (withdrawal) | Free up to 3/day, then Rs 10 | Transactions under Rs 100 are always free; above Rs 100, free for the first 3 daily / 30 monthly transfers, then Rs 10 per transaction. |
| Cash-out at agent counter | Disabled | eSewa's direct cash-out service was suspended at time of writing — check current app status. |
Khalti (by IME) Fees
| Service | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant / QR payment | Free | No charge for standard bill and merchant payments. |
| Wallet-to-wallet transfer | Free | Minimum transaction of Rs 10 applies per NRB directive; no service fee on top. |
| Load via linked bank account | Free | Loading directly from a linked bank account carries no charge. |
| Khalti-to-bank transfer (withdrawal) | Free | Khalti has positioned free bank transfer as a core, ongoing feature rather than a limited promotion — confirm the current per-transaction limit in-app. |
| Receiving international remittance | Free to receive | Inherited from IME Pay's remittance heritage; the sender may still pay a fee abroad, and cashing out to an agent or bank may carry a separate charge. |
| Legacy IME Pay features (interest-bearing wallet, etc.) | Now under Khalti's schedule | Since the July 2025 merger, IME Pay-specific features and charges have migrated into Khalti's unified fee structure. |
IME Pay Fees (Now Merged Into Khalti by IME)
| Legacy IME Pay Service | Status Today | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone IME Pay app | Discontinued | Existing users were required to migrate their wallet balance, KYC, and reward points into the Khalti app by October 2025. |
| Receiving remittance into wallet | Free | This IME Pay feature carried over into Khalti by IME's remittance offering. |
| Cash pickup / bank withdrawal of remittance | Varies by partner | Historically fee-free or low-fee depending on the sending partner and corridor; now governed by Khalti's current schedule. |
| IME Points | Converted | Merged into Khalti's rewards system and rebranded as "Daaami Points." |
Bank Mobile Banking Fees
| Service | Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Own-bank internal transfer | Typically free | Moving money between your own accounts at the same bank is usually free across mobile banking apps. |
| Interbank transfer via connectIPS | Rs 2–8 (slab-based) | This is a shared infrastructure fee set by Nepal Clearing House Ltd. (NCHL) and applies whether you transfer through your bank's own app, the connectIPS app, or a connected wallet — the fee scales with transaction size. |
| Merchant / QR payment via bank app | Free | Standard merchant QR payments carry no separate charge for the payer. |
| Government revenue / tax payment | Rs 2–5 (cross-subsidized) | Deliberately kept lower than the general transfer slab to encourage digital tax payment. |
| SMS transaction alerts | Small periodic fee (bank-specific) | Most banks charge a nominal SMS alert fee billed quarterly or annually — amount varies by bank and isn't standardized. |
| Debit card issuance / annual renewal | Bank-specific | Not a wallet fee, but a common line item bundled with mobile/internet banking activation — check your bank's own charge sheet. |
Hidden Costs to Watch For
VAT on service chargesNepal applies VAT to many digital service fees. A quoted "Rs 5" charge can arrive on your statement as a slightly higher total once tax is added — always check whether a published rate is VAT-inclusive.
Card-loading percentage fees compound with amounteSewa's 1.75% card-load fee looks negligible on a small top-up but becomes a real cost once you're loading several thousand rupees regularly — switching to a linked bank-account load avoids it entirely.
Exchange rate margins on remittance, not the flat feeFor money arriving from abroad, the sender-side exchange rate margin often costs far more than any wallet-side receiving fee — compare the effective exchange rate, not just the advertised "zero fee" headline.
Free tiers reset and cap outeSewa's free bank withdrawals are capped at 3 per day and 30 per month — a freelancer cashing out multiple times daily will hit the Rs 10 fee well before the month ends.
Idle balance limits force withdrawalsNRB's wallet balance cap (Rs 50,000 overnight) means heavy users may be pushed into more frequent withdrawal transactions than they'd otherwise choose — worth factoring into which withdrawal fee structure suits your volume.
Which Wallet Is Cheapest for Which Use Case
Everyday bill payments and QR purchases
TIE — all effectively free. Merchant and utility payments run on shared, interoperable rails across eSewa, Khalti, and bank apps alike, so the deciding factor is which one your usual merchants accept, not the fee.
Frequent cash-outs to your bank account
Khalti by IME currently advertises free bank transfers without eSewa's daily/monthly free-transaction cap, making it the better fit if you move money out to your bank often.
Topping up your wallet by card
Avoid card loading on eSewa where possible — its 1.75% fee is the single clearest avoidable cost in this comparison. Loading via a linked bank account is free on every platform compared here.
Receiving remittance from family abroad
Khalti by IME, carrying IME Pay's remittance strength forward, remains free to receive into the wallet — but compare the sender's exchange rate margin abroad, since that usually matters more than the receiving fee.
Regular bank-to-bank transfers via a mobile banking app
Bank mobile banking via connectIPS wins on predictability — a transparent, government-referenced Rs 2–8 slab beats a wallet's percentage-based or capped-free structure once you're moving larger, less frequent sums.
In practice, most Nepali users will end up with more than one wallet installed anyway, simply because acceptance varies by merchant. The fee differences that matter most are the ones tied to your specific habit — frequent small cash-outs, occasional large transfers, or regular card top-ups — rather than any single wallet being "cheaper" across the board.
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