GST e-invoice limit 2026: Rs 5 crore is the live threshold
For FY 2026-27, the GST e-invoice limit in India is aggregate annual turnover above ₹5 crore, counted across all GSTINs under one PAN. The rule has applied since 1 August 2023 under CBIC Notification 10/2023-Central Tax. No source supports a ₹1 crore limit. The ₹2 crore figure has been discussed at GST Council level but has not been notified. Once a business has crossed the line in any financial year since 2017-18, the obligation continues. Covered businesses must register each B2B and export invoice on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) to get an IRN and a signed QR code. Automating this means your billing system sends invoice data to a GSTN-authorised IRP through an API and saves the IRN back to the invoice. A person still checks rejected invoices, buyer details and deadlines.
In short
- For FY 2026-27, the India e-invoice threshold is aggregate turnover above ₹5 crore across the PAN; no notified ₹1 crore or ₹2 crore limit is in force.
- Once crossed in any year since 2017-18, the obligation continues even if turnover later falls.
- Businesses at ₹10 crore and above must report invoices to the IRP within 30 days from 1 April 2025.
- Automation connects billing data to a GSTN-authorised IRP, but a person still checks rejected invoices, buyer GSTINs and the 30-day queue.
- Fix customer and HSN master data before connecting anything, because errors reach the IRP faster once automated.
Which threshold applies in 2026
Most of the official record points to one figure: aggregate annual turnover above ₹5 crore. The threshold took effect on 1 August 2023. Turnover is tested at the PAN level, so several GSTINs under one PAN are added together. Once a business has been above the line in any financial year since 2017-18, the obligation does not fall away when later turnover drops.
The reports you have seen online differ on three points. The first is the ₹1 crore figure. No source in this guide supports it, and no notified limit at that level is in force. The second is the ₹2 crore figure. The GST Council has discussed a cut to ₹2 crore, and one blog described a change from 1 October 2025. The most recent report found, dated 13 October 2026, says no notification has changed the ₹5 crore limit and no date has been announced for a lower one. The third point is the boundary case. Most pages say 'above ₹5 crore', while one reads the rule as 'exceeds', which would put a business at exactly ₹5 crore outside the class. Check the notification text on the CBIC website before you rely on the boundary.
The 1 April 2026 date that appears in many articles is not a new threshold. It marks the start of FY 2026-27 for businesses that first crossed ₹5 crore in FY 2025-26. Separately, the 57th GST Council reportedly recommended on 8 October 2026 that e-invoicing extend to reverse-charge purchases and imported services at ₹5 crore and above. That is a recommendation, not a notified rule, so it does not change your obligations today.
Why the gap costs money
The cost of getting this wrong sits in three places. The first is the invoice itself. The GSTN's own material says an e-invoice needs an IRN and a digitally signed QR code, and without them it is treated as invalid. A buyer cannot rely on an invalid invoice to claim input tax credit, so a missing IRN becomes your customer's problem, and then yours. The second is penalties and credit denial, which non-compliance can trigger. The third is the 30-day window. Businesses with aggregate turnover of ₹10 crore and above must report invoices to the IRP within 30 days of the invoice date, from 1 April 2025. After that, the portal blocks the IRN.
The time cost is simpler to measure. Use this formula with your own figures: minutes per invoice for keying and checking, multiplied by invoices per month, multiplied by the loaded hourly cost of the person doing it, plus the time lost to rejected and reissued invoices. As a hypothetical, 300 invoices a month at four minutes each is 20 hours of keying before any rework. Your own numbers will differ. The free audit measures them for your business.
The manual way and the automated way
The table below compares the two approaches for a business that already issues B2B invoices from Tally, Zoho Books, or a spreadsheet.
| Task | Manual way | Automated way |
|---|---|---|
| Source of invoice data | Retyped from an order sheet or spreadsheet | Read from the billing or ERP record |
| Submission to the IRP | Uploaded one invoice at a time through the portal | Sent by API from the billing system to a GSTN-authorised IRP |
| IRN and signed QR code | Copied back by hand onto the invoice | Saved to the invoice record when the IRP returns them |
| 30-day reporting (₹10 crore and above) | Tracked on a calendar, often missed at month end | Open invoices listed by days remaining |
| Customer copy | Printed or emailed later | PDF with IRN and QR sent once the IRN returns |
| Errors such as wrong GSTIN or HSN | Found after the invoice is issued | Checked by field rules before submission |
| Credit notes and cancellations | Matched by memory or by searching files | Linked to the original IRN in the record |
How to automate IRN generation, step by step
Confirm coverage first. Pull the aggregate turnover for each financial year since 2017-18 across all GSTINs under the PAN, then compare the highest year with the ₹5 crore line. Record the result with the date you checked it.
Choose the route. If your billing software already has e-invoicing built in, check whether it registers with the IRP and generates IRNs. Zoho's documentation describes registering on the IRP with your GSTIN and an OTP, and then issuing an IRN and QR for each invoice. If you use Tally, ask your Tally partner for the current e-invoicing setup. Where your ERP has no connector, a GSTN-authorised invoice registration provider such as IRIS or Cygnet offers API access, and you register for an API key or API credentials before you connect anything.
Test in the sandbox. GSTN-approved providers offer sandbox environments for testing before production. Run sample invoices through the test environment, including a credit note and a cancellation, and check the signed response before going live.
Map the data. The IRP uses a defined JSON structure for each invoice. Your ERP or billing tool has to supply seller and buyer GSTIN, invoice number and date, HSN codes, tax values and totals in that format. The mapping is where most of the setup work sits, and it is also where errors start.
Store the returned values. On success, the IRP returns the IRN, a digitally signed invoice and a signed QR code. The IRN is a 64-character code. Save it against the invoice record, and print only the signed QR code that the IRP returns. A QR code you generate yourself does not count.
Deliver to the customer. Many Indian buyers respond faster on WhatsApp than on email, so send the PDF with the IRN and QR code through the channel the customer has agreed to. A WhatsApp Business Platform integration or your email tool can send the file automatically once the IRN is saved. Confirm each customer's consent for WhatsApp messages under the current terms of your messaging provider.
Use OCR and an LLM only where they fit. OCR can read supplier bills and bank statement lines, including UPI and bank transfer references, into your ledger for matching. An LLM can draft a reconciliation summary for a person to approve. Neither should write the buyer GSTIN or the invoice value that goes to the IRP. Those fields come from the billing record, and a person checks them before submission.
What breaks, and how to prevent it
Most failures come from the data, not from the connection. These are the ones that appear most often.
Wrong or missing buyer GSTIN. Keep a validated customer master, and block submission when the GSTIN field is empty or malformed.
Short HSN codes. Businesses above the threshold must show at least six-digit HSN codes on invoices under Notification 78/2020-Central Tax. Set the item master to require six digits.
Duplicate invoice numbers. The IRP runs duplicate checks, so a reused number will be rejected. Lock the number sequence inside the billing system and never let staff type numbers by hand.
Late reporting for ₹10 crore and above. The portal will not accept invoices older than 30 days. Sort open invoices by age every day, and treat anything near day 25 as urgent.
Printing a self-made QR code. Only the signed QR code from the IRP is valid. Check the invoice PDF template before going live.
Threshold misreading. A business that is just under the line may assume it is exempt when a prior year was above it. The fix is the check in step one, repeated at each financial year end.
Expired credentials or portal downtime. Set alerts for token or API key expiry, and keep a queue so invoices wait for resubmission instead of being lost.
Automation cannot decide whether a sale is a B2B supply, whether a buyer's GSTIN is correct, or whether a credit note is justified. A person still reviews rejected invoices, approves credit notes and checks the monthly list of open invoices against the IRP acknowledgement.
When not to automate
Automation is not worth it for every business. If your turnover is below ₹5 crore and you issue few B2B invoices, e-invoicing is optional for you. Paper invoices can continue under the existing rules, and a simple billing tool may cost you less time than a connector. If most of your sales are to end consumers, the IRN requirement applies only to supplies to registered persons and exports, so the connector would sit idle for most of your sales.
Do not automate a process that is still messy. If customer GSTINs are missing, HSN codes are inconsistent, or invoice numbering is not controlled, a connector will push those errors to the IRP faster. Fix the master data first. Automation is also a poor choice if you expect the threshold to change soon, because the rule moves in both directions over time and a connector project should not be rebuilt each time a notification appears.
What it typically takes
The work is mostly time, not money. Confirming coverage takes a short review of turnover records. Connecting software to an IRP usually depends on the route you choose. A built-in module can be set up in a day of configuration and checking. An ERP connector needs data mapping, sandbox tests, and sign-off from the person who owns the billing process. The sandbox phase tends to take longest when your invoice mix is varied, with exports, credit notes, and multiple GSTINs. The exact time depends on the reader's own invoice volumes and systems, which the free audit measures.
This explains the rule in general terms; it is not legal or tax advice for your case.
Sources
How AiStaffo would automate this
AiStaffo would start by confirming which invoices fall under the IRN rule, using the PAN-level turnover record, so the connector only handles covered B2B and export invoices. The system would then send invoice data from your billing or ERP record to a GSTN-authorised invoice registration provider, save the returned IRN and signed QR code against each invoice, and send the PDF to the customer through the channel they use. A daily queue would list invoices approaching the 30-day window where it applies. You would still review rejected invoices, approve credit notes and check buyer GSTINs before anything is submitted. Book a free automation audit.
Questions people ask
Is the e-invoice limit in India still Rs 5 crore in 2026?
Where did the Rs 1 crore e-invoice limit come from?
If my turnover dropped below Rs 5 crore, do I still need e-invoicing?
What happens if an invoice does not have an IRN?
Can I print my own QR code on the invoice?
Which software can generate IRNs automatically?
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