How to Cancel upGrad and Get Back as Much of Your Money as the Law Allows
upGrad keeps a flat ₹10,000 from every approved refund, cohort start is a hard cliff (no refund after), and the NBFC loan stays alive when the enrolment dies. Here is what you can recover.
The financial reality, in one paragraph
Pay ₹1,50,000 for a PG Programme and request refund before your cohort starts: realistic best case is ₹1,40,000 back in 15 to 45 business days, with a strong chance of being offered an alternative course instead. After cohort commencement, upGrad's terms read verbatim: "there will be no refund allowed for any reason whatsoever." If you financed through an NBFC, the loan keeps running regardless. Below: the playbook for the best case, three escalation routes if support stalls, and the Consumer Protection Act script that moves files in India.
The refund math, by programme type
upGrad does not prorate. It is all-or-nothing minus the ₹10,000 fee, and cohort start is the cliff. What that means for the most common enrolment sizes, per the official Terms of Service:
| Programme tier | Typical paid | Best-case refund pre-cohort | Post-cohort refund |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Course / Certificate | ₹5,000 to ₹50,000 | Paid minus ₹10,000 | ₹0 |
| PG Programme (IIIT-B / IMT) | ₹1,50,000 to ₹4,50,000 | Paid minus ₹10,000 | ₹0 |
| Master's (LJMU / GGU) | ₹4,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 | Paid minus ₹10,000 (university partner may add its own deduction) | ₹0 |
| upGrad Abroad caution deposit | Separate from tuition | Conditional, depends on documented withdrawal date | Often non-refundable |
| Anything under ₹10,000 paid | Up to ₹9,999 | ₹0 (fee exceeds payment) | ₹0 |
Deferral alternative: pre-commencement costs 50% of programme fees, post-commencement 10% plus next-batch fee difference. Worse than a refund if you actually want out.
The legal case nobody warns you about
upGrad has used the Delhi High Court to silence a refund critic.
In July 2025, Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora granted upGrad an interim injunction against a student, Lavangiri Ansar Basha, barring him from posting critical content about the company on social media. The order specifically prohibits use of the word scam. According to LawChakra, upGrad offered Basha a full refund to settle. He refused, choosing to let his underlying consumer forum complaint in Andhra Pradesh continue.
Two takeaways. A settlement-shaped refund is on the table if you make enough noise, but public posts become injunction material. Your private grievance email and portal ticket are worth more. And the consumer forum route works. It is the lever Basha is now pulling.
Three routes to recover your money
The standard portal request
Unlike Simplilearn (email-only, 7-day-from-purchase window), upGrad gives you a partially self-serve path. Three steps, in order:
- Sign in to upGrad with your registered email and open My Applications.
- Submit the in-portal refund/withdrawal request. State the cohort commencement date and that you are requesting refund before that date.
- Within the same hour, email [email protected] from your registered address with the portal ticket number and a one-line summary. For KnowledgeHut courses, use [email protected] instead. The dual paper trail matters in step 3.
Expect a counter-offer to swap into a different course. In one ConsumerComplaints.in case (REF-2430), a counsellor unilaterally tagged the student's file as "proceeding with other courses" to block the refund. Reply in writing: "I am requesting a refund, not a course swap. Please process under the refund policy."
The Consumer Protection Act escalation
If the portal goes silent for 15 working days or you get a refusal you believe is wrong, file two complaints in parallel. Both are free.
- National Consumer Helpline at 1915 and the e-Daakhil portal (edaakhil.nic.in). This is the cheap, fast, public route under the Consumer Protection Act 2019. Allege deficiency of service and unfair trade practice. Attach your portal screenshot, the enrolment email, and the refusal correspondence.
- Your District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission for the city you enrolled from. Kaanoon-listed lawyers specifically advise this route for upGrad complaints. Filing fees are nominal (under ₹500 for disputes under ₹5 lakh) and you do not need a lawyer to start.
A copy-pasteable opening for both filings:
The chargeback (only if you paid by card)
If you paid by Indian credit or debit card and upGrad is in clear breach of its own refund policy, dispute the charge through your issuing bank under the RBI chargeback framework. The nuclear option, with caveats:
- upGrad closes your access immediately and may flag the enrolment as a contract breach.
- The NBFC loan, if you have one, does not get cancelled by the chargeback. Close that separately.
- Evidence needed: the TOS clause granting your refund, portal screenshots, the refusal email, a timeline. File through your bank within 90 days of the original charge.
A chargeback is legitimate when a pre-paid service has been refused in violation of the seller's own policy. It is not a refund button when you changed your mind after the cohort started. A frivolous chargeback gets reversed and stains your card history.
The EMI loan trap (read this even if you think it doesn't apply)
Cancelling upGrad does not cancel your loan.
upGrad finances most large enrolments through partner NBFCs: HDFC Credila, Liquiloans, and Eduvanz. The terms state plainly that loan EMIs continue after cohort commencement and upGrad does not notify your lender of withdrawal. Multiple PissedConsumer complaints document EMIs running for months after upGrad verbally confirmed a refund.
Same day you file the refund request:
- Pull your loan agreement. Find the lender (not upGrad) and loan account number.
- Email the lender from your registered address. Subject: "Loan cancellation request following service withdrawal, account [XXX]". Attach your upGrad refund ticket.
- If the loan has not fully disbursed, ask them to halt further disbursement immediately. Highest-leverage call you can make.
- If it has disbursed and EMIs are running, request a foreclosure quote. Foreclosure fees run 2 to 4% of principal, almost always cheaper than letting EMIs run on a dead enrolment.
The upGrad Abroad variant: a documented pattern has Abroad sales reps arranging loans in the student's name with a "don't pay now, pay after you move to the US" pitch. The Voxya complaint describes a student discovering an active loan they had not knowingly taken. If that is your situation, the loan is the urgent file. Cancel the loan first, fight upGrad second.
What not to do
Do not wait to "try a session or two." Cohort commencement is the cliff. The first live class is on the wrong side of it. Three documented complaints describe students who attended one session, decided to leave, and lost the entire fee.
Do not accept a verbal "refund confirmed." Multiple complaint patterns document support agents confirming refunds in writing or by phone with nothing actually processed. Only treat a refund as real once the credit hits your account or your NBFC confirms the loan is closed.
Do not accept "course credit" instead of cash. Once you sign the swap, your refund right is gone. The same internal note that swapped you in is the note that blocks any future refund.
Do not escalate to the university partner. IIIT-Bangalore, Liverpool John Moores, Liverpool Business School, IMT Ghaziabad, and Golden Gate University lend branding but do not handle refunds. They redirect you back to upGrad. The exception is Golden Gate University, which has its own Refund and Deferral Policy PDF with separate windows. Read it if you are in a GGU programme.
Do not post the word "scam" on social media before your refund lands. See the Delhi High Court section above. The injunction route exists. Keep your fight in private email and on the consumer forum docket, where it is harder to silence.
Verifying the refund actually hits
upGrad does not publish a refund SLA. User reports cluster around 15 to 45 business days for refunds that do arrive, with a meaningful share that never do without escalation. Three checks:
- Bank statement, not portal status. The portal often shows "processed" before money moves. The line item on your statement is the source of truth.
- NBFC loan balance. If you paid through Credila, Liquiloans, or Eduvanz, the refund may be adjusted against the loan rather than returned to your account. Call the lender on day 20.
- Deduction amount. If the refund is lower than your payment minus ₹10,000, ask for an itemised explanation in writing. The TOS allows unquantified deductions for "administrative and marketing expenses." A written ask sometimes recovers the difference.
If 45 business days pass with no money and no written explanation, route 1 has effectively refused. Move to route 2 or 3. Stop waiting politely.
Questions people actually ask
Can I do a chargeback against upGrad?
Yes, if you paid by card and upGrad has refused a refund you are entitled to under its own published terms. File through your issuing bank under RBI's chargeback framework, within 90 days of the original charge, with the TOS clause and your refusal correspondence attached. Note that this does not cancel an NBFC loan. You still have to close that separately with HDFC Credila, Liquiloans, or Eduvanz.
My cohort already started. Any path at all?
upGrad's terms say no refund post-commencement under any circumstance. In practice, your only routes are (a) consumer forum, alleging deficiency of service if upGrad has materially failed to deliver, or (b) post-commencement deferral (10% of course cost plus next-batch fee difference). The INSOFE shutdown in April 2023 left 700+ students in exactly this position with most never recovering fees, per Inventiva.
I paid less than ₹10,000. Do I get anything back?
No. The processing fee is ₹10,000 flat regardless of what you paid, which means anyone who paid under that ceiling gets zero on an approved refund. For short courses under ₹10,000 the refund mechanism is structurally impossible. The honest move is to skip the refund request and dispute the original charge with your card issuer if you have grounds.
Will the university partner help if upGrad won't?
Almost never. IIIT-Bangalore, Liverpool John Moores, Liverpool Business School, and IMT Ghaziabad lend branding to upGrad-delivered programmes and do not own the refund. Golden Gate University is the partial exception with its own PDF policy. Other escalations typically end with a redirect back to upGrad.
Is upGrad a scam?
A Delhi High Court interim injunction (July 2025) currently bars one specific student from using that word about the company on social media. The underlying consumer forum case in Andhra Pradesh continues. For our purposes the more useful framing is documented: a 27.27% complaint resolution rate on ConsumerComplaints.in (6 of 22 cases resolved), a 1.2/5 rating across 98% unfavourable PissedConsumer reviews, and a published ₹10,000 fee that swallows small refunds entirely. Use the legal routes above and let the documentation speak.
What about KnowledgeHut, which upGrad acquired?
Different grievance email ([email protected]), different terms, same parent. If you enrolled via KnowledgeHut, contacting upGrad's main support typically gets you redirected, adding days to your timeline. Go directly to the KnowledgeHut grievance channel from the start.
If you are evaluating the rest of the Indian edtech stack
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