Delhivery Franchise Cost in India: ₹5–13.5 Lakh, but Up to ₹10 Lakh Is a Refundable Deposit

A Delhivery courier counter costs ₹5 lakh to ₹13.5 lakh by the company's own numbers, but that headline is misleading. Between ₹3 lakh and ₹10 lakh of it is a security deposit Delhivery calls 100% refundable. The money you do not get back is ₹2 lakh to ₹3.5 lakh: store set-up of ₹1.5 to 3 lakh and a one-time registration fee of ₹50,000. Rent, staff and working capital come on top, and Delhivery does not say whether GST is added.

The counter cost, line by line

Delhivery's franchise FAQ answers "Is there an investment involved?" with three amounts. We checked them against the live page on 2 November 2026 and recorded them on the Delhivery listing.

Item	Amount	Refundable?
Store set-up (interiors and branding)	₹1.5 to 3 lakh	No
Security deposit	₹3 to 10 lakh	Yes, 100% per Delhivery
Registration fee (account set-up, training, start-up kit)	₹50,000	No, one-time
Total	₹5 to 13.5 lakh	₹2 to 3.5 lakh is sunk

Both the set-up cost and the deposit move with the city and the floor area. The counter itself is 80 to 200 sq ft on a main road. Interiors must follow company guidelines and are done by one of Delhivery's authorised vendors, so you do not pick your own contractor.

The delivery centre is a different business

Delhivery's second format is the Local Delivery Franchise, a last-mile centre of at least 200 sq ft. Delhivery publishes one number for it: a refundable deposit of ₹2 to 5 lakh (no interest) or a bank guarantee. It says partners without existing delivery infrastructure "might incur initial start-up costs" but gives no figure.

So the real outlay depends on what you already own. Racks, a computer, a scanner, riders and the premises are yours to fund. Our own working estimate for the full start-up is ₹3 to 8 lakh, built from the published deposit plus racks and a month or two of rider wages and rent. That is a FranchiseChuno estimate, not a Delhivery figure, and the premises deposit is extra.

What Delhivery does not tell you about earning

Counter partners earn a commission on shipping charges and add-ons such as packaging and insurance. Delivery partners are paid per parcel, every fortnight, against an invoice Delhivery raises. Neither rate is published. There is no royalty, no stated payback period and no outlet-level earnings figure anywhere on the franchise page. That gap matters more than the deposit, because the deposit comes back and the missing commission figure decides whether the business works at all. A counter that costs ₹8 lakh to open and earns an unknown commission cannot be judged until you have the percentage in writing and a count of how many parcels a comparable counter handles in a month.

760 partner centres, and the number fell

Delhivery's FY26 annual report lists 4,848 last-mile delivery centres, of which 760 are partner-run and 4,088 are run by the company directly. A year earlier the split was 905 partner and 3,589 direct. In one year the partner count fell by 145 while the direct count grew by 499.

The reports do not say why. Courier counters are not counted in either figure, and the store locator gave us no outlet list to count. Still, the direction is worth a direct question to Delhivery: how much of the area around you is likely to be served by a company-run centre in three years?

The company is healthy; your counter is a separate question

Delhivery is listed on the NSE and BSE and, on a group basis, reported ₹10,508 crore revenue and ₹152.5 crore profit in FY26, after a ₹249.2 crore loss in FY24. It bought Ecom Express in 2025. None of that says anything about what a single counter earns.

Customer sentiment is mixed. The consumer app holds 4.1 out of 5 on Google Play from about 4.39 lakh ratings, while a MouthShut page showed 1.28 out of 5 from 451 ratings in an October 2025 archive. Complaints there concern delays and damaged parcels, which land on the counter staff first.

Fake Delhivery franchises are a documented problem

In January 2026 the Delhi High Court restrained a network that allegedly sold fake Delhivery franchises through lookalike domains, collecting registration fees and "refundable security deposits". The court ordered the accounts used to be frozen and extended the order in April. Delhivery says it never offers franchises or asks for payment by phone, and writes only from addresses ending in @delhivery.com.

Pay nothing until the agreement reaches you from a verified address.

The costs worth budgeting for are the ones nobody publishes: rent, staff, GST and the months before commission covers them.

Questions to put to Delhivery before you commit

• What commission percentage applies to each service, and is it in the agreement?
• When and how is the deposit returned, and what deductions are allowed?
• Is GST charged on the set-up cost and the registration fee?
• For delivery centres, what is the per-parcel rate and how is it revised?
• Can the agreement be ended, and on what grounds, by either side?

If you are comparing courier formats, the DTDC and Blue Dart listings set out their published terms the same way. Use the Delhivery listing page to register your interest.

FAQ

Is the Delhivery security deposit really refundable? Delhivery says it is 100% refundable for the counter, and refundable without interest for the delivery centre. The refund conditions are not published, so ask for them in writing.

Is there a royalty? No royalty is published. Counter partners earn a commission and delivery partners are paid per parcel, with rates undisclosed.

How much of the ₹5 to 13.5 lakh do I lose if I leave? By Delhivery's figures, ₹2 to 3.5 lakh is non-refundable, and the rest is the deposit.