Guides · ONDC registration
ONDC Seller Registration Without GST: 5 Steps + 1 Catch
Updated: August 2026 · 9 min read
✅ Seedha jawab: GST is not mandatory for ONDC seller registration. Since 1 October 2023, a small seller can join the ONDC Network with a free GST enrolment ID instead of a GSTIN — no monthly returns, no registration fee. Five steps, roughly one afternoon of work. The one condition: you can sell only within your own state until you take a full GSTIN.
Type “ONDC GST requirement” into Google today and several big, official-looking pages will tell you a GSTIN is compulsory for every ONDC seller.
They are wrong. Or more kindly: they were right in 2022 and nobody has touched their page since.
I know because we run these registrations ourselves. Kaarobari is a Seller App in the ONDC Network — we are the company that runs the seller’s shop on the network — and sellers are live on our platform today with no GSTIN at all, on an enrolment ID. Our KYC system has a dedicated no-GST path that we built and rebuilt from real seller feedback.
This page is the registration guide for that route: what the enrolment ID is, the exact 5 steps, the documents, the cost, and the one restriction that every seller must hear before signing up — because almost nobody else mentions it.
What is the real ONDC GST requirement in 2026?
The network needs every seller to have one of two identities:
- A GSTIN — normal GST registration, needed if your yearly sales cross the GST limit (₹40 lakh for goods in most states) or if you want to sell to buyers in other states; or
- A GST enrolment ID — a free identity number for unregistered small sellers, created by the 48th GST Council decision, effective 1 October 2023.
What you cannot do is sell with neither. E-commerce tax reporting needs one identity per seller, so a seller with no GSTIN and no enrolment ID cannot go live — on our platform the activation gate holds until one of the two is added. But “GST is mandatory” as a blanket statement stopped being true in October 2023.
📊 GSTIN vs enrolment ID at a glance
| GSTIN | Enrolment ID | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (but usually accountant fees) | Free |
| Monthly GST returns | Yes | No |
| Sell to other states | Yes | No — own state only |
| Yearly sales limit | No limit | Under ₹40 lakh (goods, most states) |
| Good for | Growing/established sellers | First-time and small sellers |
How do I register on the ONDC Network without GST? (5 steps)
- 1Udyam number — udyamregistration.gov.in, free — 15–20 min
- 2Enrolment ID — gst.gov.in, free — 15–20 min
- 3Seller App signup — mobile + OTP — 5 min
- 4KYC: PAN + Aadhaar photos + bank details — about 10 min
- 5Add products & go live — same day
You never register with “ONDC” directly — sellers join the network through a Seller App, which handles the technical side. Here is the full path on the no-GST route, in order:
Step 1 — Take your free Udyam number (15–20 minutes)
Udyam is the government’s MSME registration. Go to udyamregistration.gov.in — the only real site; it is completely free and needs just your Aadhaar and PAN. You get an Udyam registration number.
Fake-site warning: search results are full of paid “Udyam consultants” charging ₹500–₹2,000 for this free form. If a site asks for payment, it is not the government portal.
On Kaarobari, the Udyam number is what your registration needs. You do not have to hunt for a certificate PDF — we dropped that upload requirement in August 2026 after a real seller got stuck on the final submit because of a certificate file, while the number itself was sitting right there. Lesson learned; requirement removed.
Step 2 — Take your free GST enrolment ID (15–20 minutes)
Go to gst.gov.in → user services → e-enrolment for unregistered persons. You fill PAN, mobile, and state, verify OTP, and receive your enrolment ID. Free, no returns to file afterwards, no accountant needed.
This number is your legal identity for selling online while unregistered. Guard it like your bank details.
Step 3 — Sign up on a Seller App (5 minutes)
On Kaarobari: enter your mobile, verify the OTP, choose a password. That creates your seller account. No card, no deposit — there is no monthly fee to start, so there is nothing to pay at signup.
Step 4 — Complete KYC (about 10 minutes)
Our KYC on the no-GST path asks for exactly four things:
- PAN card — one clear photo
- Aadhaar — front and back photos
- Bank details — account number + IFSC, typed in (a passbook photo is optional, not required)
- Your Udyam number and enrolment ID — the two numbers from steps 1 and 2
🖥️ The KYC documents step on the no-GST path (illustration)
That is the whole list. No shop-establishment licence, no CA letter, no notarised anything. Food sellers additionally need an FSSAI number (foscos.fssai.gov.in). The complete document explainer with official links lives on our seller documents page.
Step 5 — Add products and go live (same day)
Upload product photos, set prices (never above MRP), write short honest descriptions. After your KYC is approved, your catalog goes out to the buyer apps on the network, and orders arrive on your dashboard. Speed is real here: one of our sellers finished signup late at night and was live with a full catalog before the next morning.
Can I sell all over India without GST? (Read this before you register)
No — and this is the catch that decides everything. An enrolment-ID seller may sell only to buyers in the same state. It is a condition of the scheme itself, and on the ONDC Network it is enforced by software, not by trust: an order from another state is refused automatically before it ever reaches your seller dashboard.
Concretely, for a Dhule (Maharashtra) seller with an enrolment ID:
| Buyer's location | What happens |
|---|---|
| Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur — anywhere in Maharashtra | ✅ Order comes to you normally |
| Surat, Delhi, Bengaluru — any other state | ❌ Network refuses the order automatically |
We are publishing this from experience, not theory. On our own production servers we have watched real orders get refused with the network’s inter-state error code (30018) — and the frustrating part is that the buyer’s app often just shows the order as stuck, so neither side gets a clear explanation. That is exactly why this guide gives the rule its own section: choose the enrolment route with open eyes. The full story of this rule is in the one catch of no-GST selling.
Two honest framings to weigh:
- For a first-time seller, the limit rarely bites. Your own state is a market of crores of people, and nearby buyers get your products fastest anyway.
- For an ambitious seller with proven out-of-state demand, take the GSTIN instead — since the simplified “GST 2.0” registration went live on 1 November 2025, small low-risk sellers get a GSTIN in about 3 working days. The month-long GST registration everyone fears is history.
And the upgrade is painless: add your new GSTIN in the dashboard later and your shop, listings, and order history continue untouched. We cover the whole decision in sell online without GST.
What does ONDC seller registration cost without GST?
Registration itself costs nothing at any government step. Udyam is free. The enrolment ID is free. Kaarobari has no monthly fee, no listing fee — 2% only on delivered orders. On a ₹1,000 delivered order, our fee is ₹20. No delivered orders in a month means you pay us nothing that month.
🖥️ The order-page settlement break-up (illustration)
₹1,000
buyer paid
− ₹20
Kaarobari fee (2%)
₹980
you get (before buyer-app charge & order-level taxes)
Every order shows this full break-up — buyer app’s charge, taxes, our 2% — before payout.
The order screen shows every order’s full break-up (buyer app’s charge, taxes, our 2%) before payout — you trust the math because you can see the math. Full rate card: pricing.
Does the network actually deliver volume for small shops? One of our live sellers crossed 769 delivered orders within his early weeks. That number is from our own delivery records, August 2026 — we publish it because a registration guide should prove the destination is worth registering for.
FAQ — asked by real sellers on real calls
Portal pe likha hai GST mandatory hai — aap galat to nahi keh rahe?+−
Sahi sawaal hai, and healthy suspicion. The rule changed on 1 October 2023 by the GST Council's own decision; many pages online were written before that and never updated. Check the primary source yourself: the e-enrolment option for unregistered persons is live on gst.gov.in today. If it were illegal, the government portal would not issue the ID.
Enrolment ID banane me kitna time aur paisa lagta hai?+−
About 15–20 minutes, and it costs nothing. If anyone quotes you a fee for the enrolment ID or Udyam, you are on an agent's site, not the government's.
Meri dukaan food ki hai — kuch extra chahiye?+−
Yes, one thing: an FSSAI number (registration for small food businesses, from foscos.fssai.gov.in). Everything else in the 5 steps stays the same.
Order aane ke baad paisa kab aur kaise milega?+−
Payment comes to the bank account you gave at KYC after delivery, and the order page shows the exact amount you will receive with the full deduction break-up — nothing appears at payout that you did not already see on the order.
Agar network pasand nahi aaya to nikal sakta hoon?+−
Haan, bilkul. Koi lock-in contract nahi hai — the account closes on request, and money for already-delivered orders is still paid to you. Trying costs you a few photos and an afternoon.
Stuck on any document? Our team gets it done on a call — no charge
We have a dedicated team that guides you step-by-step on a call and gets every document made — Udyam, GST enrolment, FSSAI, all of it. And not just documents: from signup to your shop going live on the ONDC Network to your first delivered order — support at every step, completely free. No fees, no agent costs.
Mon–Sat, 10am–7pm. Hindi and English both work.
Read next
Sources & official links
- e-Enrolment for unregistered persons: gst.gov.in (free — the only official source)
- Udyam/MSME registration: udyamregistration.gov.in (free — avoid paid lookalikes)
- FSSAI for food sellers: foscos.fssai.gov.in
- ONDC Network official resources: resources.ondc.org
Kaarobari is a Seller App in the ONDC Network, operated by NEXSOL INFOTECH PVT LTD, Dhule, Maharashtra. First-party facts in this guide — the no-GST KYC path, the August 2026 certificate-requirement removal, the inter-state refusal code, and the 769-delivered-orders benchmark — come from our production systems.