Is Swiggy or Zomato charging you the commission you agreed?

Commission is the largest single deduction on most Swiggy and Zomato payouts, and a percentage point on it is real money over a year. Checking it properly means asking two different questions — and keeping the answers apart, because they lead to different claims.

Check one: did the platform apply its own rate correctly?

The settlement file shows the commission charged on each order and, directly or indirectly, the value it was charged on. Divide one by the other. If the platform says it charges 18% and an order shows 20% of the same base, that is provable from the file alone — the strongest kind of claim there is.

Check two: is that rate the one you agreed?

A file can apply its stated rate perfectly and still differ from your agreement, if the stated rate is not the contracted one. Compare the effective rate with the rate in your agreement for that outlet on that platform. This claim rests on your contract rather than on the file, so keep the agreement to hand when you raise it.

What the rate is charged on

Commission is usually charged on the item total, or on the item total after the discounts you funded — not on what the customer paid including GST and delivery. Checking the rate against the wrong base makes every order look off. Work out which value the platform uses from a few orders before checking the rest.

Look beyond the average

An average rate across a month can look fine while some orders are charged well above it — a batch of orders on a promotion, a new outlet set up on a different rate, a particular order type. Check the rate order by order, and look at the spread, not only the mean.

The rest of the platform's take

Commission is not the whole cost. Payment collection charges, long distance charges, discounts you fund, advertising and GST on the platform's fees all come off the payout. The headline commission might be 20%; the all-in cost of selling through the platform is often a good deal higher. Knowing that figure per outlet is what a renegotiation starts from.

MenuMetrics does this for every order in every file you upload: it rebuilds each payout from the platform's own columns, checks it against what settled, and lists what does not tie — with the arithmetic — ready to raise as a claim.