According to Verdict Food Service, restaurants pay Zomato between 10% and 28% commission, with payment gateway fees and GST charged on top. Where an outlet lands depends on its average order value, order volume and brand status. Citing NDTV Profit, the report said Eternal, Zomato's parent, was discussing lower commission and long-distance fees with restaurants, but nothing had been agreed.
Eternal is talking to restaurants about fees
According to Verdict Food Service, which cited NDTV Profit, Eternal, the parent company of Zomato, has held talks with restaurant stakeholders about possibly cutting its commission and the fee it charges on long-distance deliveries. No deal had been struck when the report was published. For an owner, the more practical part of the piece is what it says about how each restaurant's commission gets set.
The 10% to 28% range
Verdict Food Service puts Zomato's restaurant commission anywhere between 10% and 28%. That percentage is not the whole bill: payment gateway fees and GST are added on top.
The report lists three things that decide where an individual restaurant sits within that band:
- Average order value: what a typical order is worth
- Order volume: how many orders the outlet sends through Zomato
- Brand status: large chains tend to secure lower rates than small independents bargaining by themselves
So the rate is not simply fixed by restaurant category or city. It reflects each restaurant's own order numbers and how much weight it carries in the conversation.
Fee changes already in place
Two changes had been made before the review started, the report says:
- Since early 2025, restaurant partners have paid an extra fee on long-distance deliveries.
- Under a visibility scheme, restaurants that pay more are given priority when Zomato assigns delivery riders.
The second change means that what you pay can affect how dependably riders turn up for your orders, not only how high you show up in search.
Rapido's move into food delivery
Verdict Food Service places the review alongside the growth of Rapido. Better known for ride-hailing, Rapido has been expanding a food delivery business of its own, and the report singles it out as a point of focus because of what it means for restaurant margins.
Cost-cutting inside Zomato
Verdict Food Service also links the fee review with problems inside Zomato itself. In April 2025 the company let go of nearly 600 customer support associates it had taken on within the previous year. The cuts were put down to three things: food delivery, Zomato's main business, was growing more slowly; Blinkit, its quick-commerce unit, was losing money; and Nugget, an AI support platform Zomato built in-house, was automating the work those associates had done.
What this means for your restaurant
- Work out your average order value and monthly order count before you discuss your rate with Zomato; the report names these, along with brand status, as what sets commission.
- When you calculate what an order on Zomato really costs you, add payment gateway fees and GST to the commission percentage.
- Look at how many of your orders travel long distances, because restaurant partners have paid a fee on those deliveries since early 2025.
- Plan on your current rate until a cut is actually announced; at the time of the report, Eternal and restaurants had not agreed on anything.
Sources
- Eternal explores changes to Zomato's commission structure for restaurants — Verdict Food Service
This article summarises the reporting and guides listed above; the figures belong to those sources and are attributed in the text. Check anything that affects your business against your own platform agreements, payout statements and advisers.