# NPS Charges 2026: What You Pay From 1 October

> PFRDA's new NPS point-of-presence charges from 1 Oct 2026: INR 200 onboarding, 0.20% a year of your corpus, and how the eNPS route avoids them.
- **Published**: 2026-10-18
- **Modified**: 2026-10-18
- **Category**: fire
- **URL**: https://www.tldr.money/articles/fire/nps-charges-2026

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NPS is one of the retirement accounts covered in our [FIRE guide](/fire). This page explains the **NPS charges for 2026**: the new point-of-presence (PoP) fees that apply from 1 October 2026, and how to avoid them.

## What PFRDA changed

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) issued a circular dated 28 August 2026 revising the charges that PoPs, such as banks and other intermediaries, can levy on NPS and NPS Lite subscribers. It applies from 1 October 2026, and record-keeping agencies (CRAs) start collecting it from the October-December quarter. Some news reports dated the change 31 August; the circular itself is dated 28 August.

## NPS charges 2026: the new structure

| Charge | Amount | How it is collected |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding | INR 200 per PRAN, one time | INR 50 a quarter, by cancelling units |
| Onboarding, fully digital | INR 100 per PRAN | Same as above |
| Recurring PoP charge | 0.20% of AUM a year | Through the NAV, paid quarterly |
| Dormant accounts | No recurring charge | No contribution for four consecutive quarters |
| GST | Extra | On top of the charges above |

These are PoP charges only. Other NPS costs, such as fund management fees, are separate.

## What 0.20% a year costs you

On a INR 10 lakh corpus, 0.20% is INR 2,000 a year before GST. The charge grows as your corpus grows, so it adds up over a career.

For a long-term illustration, take a INR 10,000 monthly contribution for 25 years. At an assumed 10% annual return, the corpus would be about INR 1.34 crore. If the return is 0.20% lower, at 9.8%, it would be about INR 1.29 crore: roughly INR 4.5 lakh less. Actual NPS returns vary, so treat this only as a sense of scale.

## How to avoid PoP charges: the eNPS route

PFRDA's circular says subscribers who onboarded through eNPS and contribute through eNPS or D-Remit do not pay PoP charges. If your account was opened through a PoP, such as your bank branch, the PoP charges continue to apply.

If you are opening an NPS account now, the digital routes cost less. If you already have one through a bank, check your statement after the first quarter of charges to see what you are paying.

## Where NPS fits in a FIRE plan

NPS locks most of your money until 60, so it cannot fund an early retirement gap on its own. Plan it alongside EPF, and read the [EPF partial withdrawal rules for 2026](/articles/fire/epf-partial-withdrawal-rules-2026) before treating either as an emergency fund. To see how much you need in accessible investments, use the [retirement and FIRE planner](/tools/retirement-planner), and read [safe withdrawal rate in India](/articles/fire/safe-withdrawal-rate-india).

## Sources

- PFRDA, Circular PFRDA/2026/46/REG-POP/08, Charge structure applicable to PoPs for all schemes under NPS and NPS Lite, 28 Aug 2026: https://www.pfrda.org.in/w/charge-structure-applicable-to-pops-for-all-schemes-under-nps-and-nps-lite
- Moneycontrol, NPS charges revised from 1 October: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/personal-finance/nps-charges-revised-from-october-1-what-subscribers-will-pay-under-new-pfrda-structure-14018906.html
- Corpus illustration: tldr.money calculation, monthly contributions at the start of each month, compounded monthly
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