E-Invoice Limit 2026: Who Must Issue E-Invoices Under GST (and Who Doesn't)

Ask three websites about the e-invoice limit and you can get three answers: ₹100 crore with a 7-day window, ₹10 crore, or ₹5 crore. All three were true at some point. E-invoicing under GST arrived in phases, each phase lowered the turnover limit, and a separate 30-day reporting rule was added later with its own, different limit. Old articles never got updated, so the history and the current rule sit side by side in search results.

This guide settles it. It gives the limit that applies today, explains how to work out whether your business has crossed it, lists the businesses that are exempt whatever their turnover, and explains the 30-day rule. It also says plainly what most small shops want to know: if you sell to walk-in customers and your turnover is under ₹5 crore, e-invoicing does not apply to you.

What an e-invoice actually is

"E-invoice" sounds like any bill made on a computer or phone. Under GST it means something narrower.

An e-invoice is an invoice you prepare in your own software and then report to a government-authorised Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). The IRP checks it, gives it a unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN), digitally signs it and returns a signed QR code. Only the invoice that carries that IRN and QR code counts as a valid tax invoice for a supply that falls under e-invoicing.

Three things follow from that:

1. You still make the invoice yourself. The IRP does not create it; it registers it.
2. The IRN is a 64-character hash built from your GSTIN, the financial year, the document type and the invoice number. The same invoice number cannot be registered twice in one financial year.
3. The data flows onwards automatically. Registered e-invoice details are passed to the GST system and fill in the matching tables of your GSTR-1, and Part A of an e-way bill can be generated from the same data.

A PDF bill you share on WhatsApp is an electronic invoice in the everyday sense. It is not an "e-invoice" in the GST sense unless it has an IRN and the signed QR code.

How the e-invoice limit came down

This is the history that confuses search results. Each phase lowered the AATO limit:

No further cut has been notified since August 2023. You may read that the limit "will soon" fall again. Until a notification is issued, the limit is ₹5 crore.

How to check if the e-invoice limit applies to you

Work through these four questions in order.

1. Has your AATO exceeded ₹5 crore in any year since 2017-18?

Aggregate turnover is the total value of all taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports and inter-state supplies made by all GSTINs under your PAN. It leaves out the GST itself and inward supplies taxed under reverse charge.

Check every financial year from 2017-18 to the last completed one. If even one year is above ₹5 crore, you are covered from the year after that. A dip below ₹5 crore later does not take you out.

Example: a wholesaler had turnover of ₹5.3 crore in 2021-22 and ₹4.6 crore in each year since. It is still covered, because one year since 2017-18 was above ₹5 crore.

2. Are you in an exempt category?

If you are an SEZ unit, an insurer, a bank, an NBFC or other financial institution, a goods transport agency, a passenger transport service provider, a cinema selling admission tickets, or a government department or local authority, e-invoicing does not apply however large your turnover is. SEZ developers are not exempt; SEZ units are.

3. Is the supply B2B, B2G or an export?

E-invoicing covers:

• B2B tax invoices to GST-registered buyers.
• B2G supplies to government buyers with a GSTIN.
• Exports, including deemed exports and supplies to SEZs.
• Credit notes and debit notes issued against such invoices.

It does not cover B2C sales to unregistered buyers, bills of supply, or delivery challans. Those carry on as normal invoices.

4. Is your AATO ₹10 crore or more?

If yes, the 30-day reporting limit below also applies.

Quick decision table

The 30-day e-invoice rule

This is the rule people mix up with the limit itself. It does not decide whether you e-invoice; it decides how late you can register an invoice.

• From 1 November 2023, businesses with AATO of ₹100 crore or more could not report an invoice to the IRP more than 30 days after its date.
• From 1 April 2025, GSTN lowered this to AATO of ₹10 crore or more.
• Businesses with AATO under ₹10 crore have no reporting time limit for now, though they still have to register the invoice before they issue it.

How it works in practice: an invoice dated 1 April cannot be reported after 30 April. The IRP simply rejects it, so no IRN is created. The restriction covers invoices, credit notes and debit notes. The date that counts is the date on the document, not the date you upload it.

If you are a ₹10 crore+ business, the practical fix is to generate the IRN at the moment you make the invoice, not in a batch at month end.

Some older articles still describe a "7-day" rule for ₹100 crore businesses. That was a proposal that was replaced; the rule that took effect was 30 days.

What happens if you skip an e-invoice you needed

For a supply that falls under e-invoicing, an invoice without an IRN is not a valid invoice under the GST rules. That has real consequences:

• Your buyer cannot claim input tax credit on it, and will usually ask you to fix it or stop buying from you.
• Penalty under Section 122: failing to issue a proper invoice can attract a penalty of ₹10,000 or the tax involved, whichever is higher, per invoice.
• Penalty under Section 125: smaller lapses, such as a wrong or incomplete e-invoice, can attract a general penalty of up to ₹25,000.
• E-way bill and transport trouble: goods moving on an invoice that should have been e-invoiced can be detained.

There is no paid "late e-invoice" option. If you are under ₹10 crore and missed one, register it as soon as you notice. If you are ₹10 crore or more and the 30 days have passed, the IRP will refuse it, so speak to your CA about correcting the transaction.

How to generate an e-invoice

1. Register on an IRP using your GSTIN. The government's own portal is run by NIC, and several private IRPs are also authorised.
2. Prepare the invoice in your accounting or billing software in the standard e-invoice schema (INV-01), with GSTINs, HSN codes, values and tax.
3. Upload it to the IRP: by hand as a JSON file, through an offline tool, or directly from software that has an API connection.
4. Receive the IRN and signed QR code, and print them on the invoice you give the buyer.
5. Cancel within 24 hours if needed. An e-invoice can be cancelled on the IRP within 24 hours of generation. After that, correct it with a credit note or change it in GSTR-1 before filing.

If you are exempt, say so

Exempt businesses and businesses below the limit often get asked by large buyers, "Where is the IRN?" Two simple habits help:

• Print a one-line declaration on your invoice, for example: "E-invoicing is not applicable to us as our aggregate turnover has not exceeded ₹5 crore in any financial year." Exempt categories can name their category instead.
• Use the declaration facility on the e-invoice portal, where a business can record that it is not liable to e-invoicing. Buyers can then check it.

Buyers' accounts teams are cautious because an invoice without a required IRN costs them their ITC. A clear declaration usually settles the question.

Where most small shops actually stand

For the businesses this blog is written for, here is the plain answer:

• A kirana or general store selling to households is almost entirely B2C, and most are far below ₹5 crore. No e-invoicing.
• A small trader who sells to other registered shops needs e-invoicing only once AATO has crossed ₹5 crore in some year.
• Below the limit, you still need proper invoices. Follow the regular GST invoice format: Rule 46 for a tax invoice, Rule 49 for a bill of supply. Our guide to the bill format shows which heading your shop should print.
• Not registered at all? Check the GST registration limit first. An unregistered shop issues plain bills and charges no GST.

Be honest about what your billing tool does. BillZap does not generate IRNs or e-invoices. It is built for shops below the e-invoice limit: GST tax invoices, bills of supply and plain bills for counter sales, with HSN codes, CGST, SGST or IGST worked out and the heading chosen automatically. If your business has crossed ₹5 crore and makes B2B sales, you need e-invoicing software or an IRP connection for those invoices.

FAQ

The bottom line

The e-invoice limit is ₹5 crore of PAN-wide turnover in any year since 2017-18, and it applies only to B2B, B2G and export invoices. The 30-day rule is a separate limit for businesses at ₹10 crore and above. If you are under ₹5 crore, or you sell to consumers, carry on issuing proper GST invoices and keep your numbering clean. That is all the law asks of you.