Quick Summary
Government departments and PSUs are required to buy common goods and services through the Government e-Marketplace, and MSEs took 47% of that spend in FY 2025-26. Registration is free, done entirely online by the owner or a director, and the old caution money deposit has been scrapped. This guide walks through the documents, the eight registration steps, vendor assessment (and who is exempt from it), and the transaction charges that only start after your GeM orders cross ₹20 lakh in a financial year.
What You'll Learn
- How to complete GeM registration for MSME sellers using Aadhaar or PAN, Udyam and your bank account
- What vendor assessment and brand approval involve, and which MSME manufacturers can skip the assessment
- How to claim back an old caution money deposit and what GeM charges under Revenue Policy v1.6
What is GeM and Why Register?
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is the central government's online procurement portal, run as a Section 8 company under the Ministry of Commerce. Rule 149 of the General Financial Rules, 2017 makes it mandatory for government departments to buy common-use goods and services through GeM when they are available there.
That single rule is why the platform matters to a small manufacturer or service provider. The buyer is not choosing GeM out of preference. The buyer has to use it.
The scale is now hard to ignore. GeM crossed ₹20 lakh crore in cumulative order value in August 2026 and has recorded over ₹5 lakh crore in each of the last two financial years. In FY 2025-26, micro and small enterprises executed 68% of all orders and took 47.1% of the money, worth ₹2.36 lakh crore, according to the Press Information Bureau. Over 12 lakh MSEs are registered, and 1.37 lakh buyer organisations place orders.
If you already sell to private customers and have never sold to a government buyer, GeM registration for MSME sellers is the lowest-friction entry point. There is no tender fee to browse, and 97% of orders carry no transaction charge at all.
Who Can Register as a Seller on GeM?
Any Indian business entity can register, in one of five constitution types. The type decides which PAN GeM expects and what extra documents it asks for.
| Business type | Business PAN 4th letter | Extra document |
|---|---|---|
| Proprietorship | P (same as owner's PAN) | None |
| Partnership / LLP | F | None (key person verified from ITR) |
| Private / Public company | C | CIN |
| Trust / Society / AOP | T, A or B | None |
| Government entity | G | None |
Registration must be done by an authorised person, meaning the proprietor, a partner, a director, the Karta of an HUF, or the CEO. GeM validates this person's name against the income tax return of the business, so a manager or consultant cannot register on your behalf using their own Aadhaar. They can be added later as a secondary user.
You register as one of three seller roles. An OEM manufactures the product. A reseller sells someone else's brand and needs that OEM's authorisation. A service provider offers services such as manpower, printing, or vehicle hire.
Many MSMEs are OEMs for their own products and resellers for a few traded lines, and GeM lets you hold both roles under one account.
Documents for GeM Registration for MSME
GeM's own seller prerequisites document lists what you need before you start. Keep these ready, because the form validates most of them live against government databases and you cannot save a half-finished profile for long.
- Aadhaar number with its linked mobile, or personal PAN with exact name and date of birth, of the authorised person
- Business PAN, date of incorporation, and CIN if you are a company
- Udyam Registration Number (for MSE benefits) and DPIIT number if you are a recognised startup
- ITR acknowledgements for the last three years if the business is older than 24 months and you want to bid
- Registered office address, an alternate email and phone number for printing on contracts and invoices
- GSTIN for the billing address, and a current account number with IFSC for receiving payments
- Registered trademark certificate (or a notarised undertaking for an unregistered brand) if you will list your own brand
Two points trip people up. First, Aadhaar is no longer mandatory. Since GeM added the personal PAN route, an authorised person can register with PAN if their Aadhaar mobile link is broken.
Second, the ITR requirement applies only if you want to participate in bids and reverse auctions. A business incorporated less than 24 months ago, or one exempt from filing returns, can register and take direct-purchase orders without it.
GSTIN is technically optional for registration, but GeM's own prerequisites document warns that sellers without one are capped on the order value they can accept. For any serious MSME the answer is simply to register the GSTIN.
Step-by-Step GeM Seller Registration
The whole process happens online at gem.gov.in. Most MSMEs with documents in hand finish the profile in a single sitting; the waits come later at brand and catalogue approval.
Step 1: Sign up as a seller on the official portal only
Go to gem.gov.in, click Sign Up, and choose Seller / Service Provider. Read the terms and conditions, accept them, and pick your constitution type.
GeM has published a formal caution notice about fraudulent websites that copy its name, logo and layout to harvest login credentials and charge registration fees. GeM itself charges nothing for registration and never asks for money to sign up. Type the address yourself, check for the gov.in domain, and ignore any agency that promises a paid fast-track registration. There is none.
Step 2: Verify the authorised person
Choose Aadhaar or personal PAN. With Aadhaar you enter the number and confirm an OTP on the linked mobile. With PAN you enter the number, name exactly as on the PAN card, and date of birth, and GeM checks it against the Income Tax database. Then set your user ID, password, and email, and verify the email OTP.
Step 3: Enter business details
Enter the legal name, business PAN, and date of incorporation. Companies add the CIN, which GeM validates with the MCA-21 database. Firms and companies also confirm the key person as recorded in their ITR. The name and PAN must match income tax records to the letter, so copy them from your PAN card rather than from a letterhead.
Step 4: Link Udyam, DPIIT and ITR
This step is what turns a plain seller account into an MSE account. Enter your Udyam Registration Number and the mobile linked to it. GeM pulls the details through a live Udyam API, so the classification (micro, small or medium) comes straight from the MSME ministry rather than from a scanned certificate. Startups add their DPIIT recognition number the same way.
If you plan to bid, add the ITR details for the last three years now. Turnover is read from these returns and drives your bid eligibility later. If you do not have a Udyam number yet, get it first; our Udyam registration guide covers the free process.
Step 5: Add office address, GSTIN and bank account
Enter the registered office address and a billing address with its GSTIN. Then add the current account that will receive payments. GeM verifies the account through PFMS (the government's payment system), and every later payout, including any caution money refund, goes only to a PFMS-verified account marked as primary. Add the account once, correctly, and leave it alone.
Step 6: Vendor assessment, or an exemption
Vendor assessment is a capacity check run by the Quality Council of India for OEMs before they can list their own manufactured products. It runs in two stages, a desktop review of documents and a video assessment of the manufacturing site conducted over a mobile app. A passed assessment is valid for three years. Resellers do not need it; they need OEM authorisation instead.
The fee is paid directly to QCI and is shown on the portal before you confirm the request. GeM stated in August 2026 that vendor assessment fees have been cut by up to 92% from earlier levels, so ignore any figure quoted on third-party sites and read the amount off the Vendor Assessment screen itself.
Before paying for an assessment, open My Actions → Vendor Assessment → Assessment Exemptions and check the list. OEMs holding a BIS licence for the product category, OEMs registered with NSIC for that category, and sellers of handicrafts and artwork with no standard manufacturing process are all exempt, along with PSUs and firms with turnover above ₹500 crore. A BIS licence is the exemption most small manufacturers already qualify for without realising it; see our BIS certification guide if you are considering one.
Step 7: Brand approval and catalogue upload
To list under your own brand you upload the trademark certificate. A brand with Registered status on the IP India site is approved within four working days. An unregistered brand needs a notarised undertaking in GeM's format, signed and stamped on every page. Resellers upload the OEM authorisation letter instead and can list only in categories where that brand has been approved.
Then build the catalogue. Go to Catalogue → Products → Add New, pick the category, fill the specifications against GeM's golden parameters, and upload photos on a clear white background from three angles with the front view first. Catalogue approval takes about three working days, and most rejections are for images that are blurred or edited, or specifications that do not match the category template.
Step 8: Add secondary users and go live
A primary seller can create up to 50 secondary users and assign them roles such as bid participation, catalogue creation, and order fulfilment. Each secondary user verifies with the same method (Aadhaar or PAN) as the primary. Once the catalogue is live, buyers can place direct orders and you can start responding to bids.
What GeM Charges in 2026
The fee picture has changed twice recently, and most guides online still quote the old numbers. This is the current position from GeM's own documents.
| Item | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | ₹0 | No registration fee |
| Caution money deposit | Was ₹2,000 to ₹25,000 by turnover | Discontinued; existing deposits refundable |
| Vendor assessment (OEMs only) | Paid to QCI, one-time, valid 3 years | Exemptions available |
| Annual Milestone Charge | ₹10,000 + GST, once per FY | Only after ₹20 lakh of GeM orders in that FY |
| Transaction charge, order ≤ ₹10 lakh | Nil | 97% of orders fall here |
| Transaction charge, order > ₹10 lakh and < ₹10 crore | 0.30% of order value | Only after the ₹20 lakh milestone |
| Transaction charge, order ≥ ₹10 crore | Flat ₹3 lakh | Only after the ₹20 lakh milestone |
The caution money change matters if you registered before 2026. GeM discontinued the deposit and any amount you paid sits in a sub-account you can now withdraw. Log in, open Dashboard → Manage Caution Money Account, click Recalculate Threshold, then Withdraw Excess Funds. The amount reaches your PFMS-verified primary account within 24 hours on a working day.
Transaction charges come from Revenue Policy v1.6, effective for bids opening on or after 26 August 2025. Nothing is charged until the running total of orders placed on you in a financial year reaches ₹20 lakh. At that point GeM raises the ₹10,000 Annual Milestone Charge, and from then on each individual order above ₹10 lakh attracts 0.30%. You must pay within 15 days of the contract award or before raising your first invoice, whichever is earlier, or the account is suspended until you do.
A Ludhiana fastener manufacturer receives three GeM orders in FY 2026-27 worth ₹8 lakh, ₹9 lakh and ₹14 lakh. The first two are under ₹10 lakh each, so they carry no transaction charge, and the running total after them is ₹17 lakh, still below the milestone. The third order pushes the total to ₹31 lakh. GeM now levies the ₹10,000 Annual Milestone Charge plus 0.30% of ₹14 lakh, which is ₹4,200, plus GST on both. Total cost of doing ₹31 lakh of government business: ₹14,200 before tax.
MSME Benefits After Registration
Linking Udyam in Step 4 unlocks the benefits under the Public Procurement Policy for MSEs, which the Ministry of MSME enforces on every central ministry, department and CPSE.
- 25% procurement target. Central buyers must source at least 25% of their annual purchases from MSEs, with 4% reserved for SC/ST-owned and 3% for women-owned MSEs.
- L1 + 15% purchase preference. If the lowest bid comes from a non-MSE, any MSE that quoted within 15% of it can match the L1 price and take at least 25% of the order.
- EMD exemption. MSEs that manufacture the tendered product or provide the tendered service, plus DPIIT-recognised startups, are exempt from bid security. This is why GeM validates your Udyam number live rather than accepting a PDF.
- System-verified MSE status. Since 10 September 2025, GeM reads MSE status from your active Udyam profile at bid time instead of leaving it to the buyer to verify, so an expired Udyam certificate silently costs you the benefit.
- Fast payment cycle. The consignee must accept or reject goods within 10 days of receipt, after which payment is due within 10 days of the acceptance certificate. Central buyers pay through PFMS directly into your verified account.
For what happens after registration, from reading a bid document to avoiding liquidated damages, see our guide on winning government tenders as an MSME. DPIIT-recognised startups can check the recognition process in our Startup India registration guide.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Registering under the wrong constitution type is the expensive one. A partnership that registers with a partner's personal PAN as a proprietorship has to close the account and start again, and the seller rating history goes with it.
Paying an agency to register you is the second. Agencies frequently register the account under their own email and mobile, which means every OTP, bid alert and contract notification lands with them, and the primary user cannot change the registered email later. Register yourself and add the agency as a secondary user if you need help with bidding.
The third is treating GeM as a listing site. Buyers rate sellers on delivery, and GeM's own analytics flag abnormal pricing and collusion. Two or three orders declined or delivered late in the first months can leave you technically eligible but practically unselected.
Register with your own Aadhaar or PAN, your own email, and a PFMS-verified current account in the business name. Every rupee GeM ever pays you and every benefit it grants you traces back to those three fields.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GeM registration free for MSMEs?
Yes. There is no registration fee, and the caution money deposit that earlier applied at sign-up has been discontinued. The only costs are the vendor assessment fee for OEMs who do not qualify for an exemption, and transaction charges that begin only after your GeM orders exceed ₹20 lakh in a financial year.
Is Udyam registration compulsory to sell on GeM?
No. A business without Udyam can register and sell. But without it you get none of the MSE benefits, including EMD exemption and the L1 + 15% purchase preference, and you lose access to bids reserved for MSEs.
Do I need a Digital Signature Certificate?
Not for registration. GeM verifies the authorised person through Aadhaar or PAN. Some bid documents and undertakings may need to be signed, so a Class 3 DSC in the name of the authorised person is useful once you start bidding.
How long does GeM seller registration take?
The profile itself can be completed in one session if the documents are ready and the names match income tax records. Brand approval takes about four working days for a registered trademark and catalogue approval about three working days, so budget one to two weeks from sign-up to a live listing.
Related Resources
- What is Udyam Registration? Complete Guide for MSMEs
- Government Tenders for MSME: How to Win Contracts
- BIS Certification for Products: Complete Guide
- GeM seller FAQs and the GeM Revenue Policy v1.6
- GeM statistics dashboard
Edited by Trade in Bharat Editorial Team
