What you earn on Sikhami

The short version

You set one price. Buyers pay the same amount wherever they buy. Sikhami keeps a fee of 20% of the money that reaches Sikhami and pays you the rest, to the bank details you saved in Settings.

The one thing that changes the amount is where the buyer paid. A sale made inside the Android app is collected by Google, which keeps a 15% service fee before the money ever reaches Sikhami. Sikhami cannot waive that fee, so it comes off the top and the 20/80 split then runs on what is left.

Work out any price

The same two numbers are shown next to every price field on Sikhami, so you always know what a sale is worth before you save a price.

An example: ₹500

Why Google takes a fee

Google Play requires every app distributed on the Play Store to sell digital items — an online course, notes, a club or meetup seat, entry to a study room — through Google Play's own billing system, and charges a service fee for it. Sikhami follows that rule: purchases made inside the Android app go through Google Play. Purchases made on this website are collected by Sikhami through its payment gateway, where Google is not involved.

Tickets to a meetup you attend in person are a real-world service, not digital content, so Google Play's billing system is not used for those — they are paid for the same way on both the website and the app.

Prices come in steps

Google Play can only charge prices that were registered with Google in advance, so Sikhami keeps a fixed ladder of price points — and the ones below ₹5,000 come with the rung one rupee under them, so ₹99, ₹499 and ₹1,999 are prices you can actually set. When you type an amount in between, Sikhami rounds it up to the next rung and tells you what it saved. The smallest price is ₹25; anything dearer than ₹50,000 can only be sold on this website.

Every price on the ladder: ₹25, ₹49, ₹50, ₹74, ₹75, ₹99, ₹100, ₹199, ₹200, ₹299, ₹300, ₹399, ₹400, ₹499, ₹500, ₹599, ₹600, ₹699, ₹700, ₹799, ₹800, ₹899, ₹900, ₹999, ₹1,000, ₹1,499, ₹1,500, ₹1,999, ₹2,000, ₹2,499, ₹2,500, ₹2,999, ₹3,000, ₹3,499, ₹3,500, ₹3,999, ₹4,000, ₹4,499, ₹4,500, ₹4,999, ₹5,000, ₹7,500, ₹10,000, ₹12,500, ₹15,000, ₹17,500, ₹20,000, ₹22,500, ₹25,000, ₹30,000, ₹35,000, ₹40,000, ₹45,000, ₹50,000.

Selling for a period

Notes, meetups and study rooms are sold once and stay bought. A club is a place people pay to be part of for a while, so you price the periods you want to offer — 1, 3, 6 or 12 months — and the member picks one. A course works the same way with 6, 12 or 24 months, or lifetime. Price only the periods you want; the rest simply are not on sale.

Each period is its own price, so you can make a year cheaper than twelve single months. Sikhami's fee and Google's work exactly as above on whichever price is bought. When someone's period ends they lose access and are offered a renewal; members who joined before you set a price keep what they have.

When you are paid

Every sale is added to your balance on the Earnings page along with the invoice the buyer received. A sale stays on hold for a week in case it is refunded, then it becomes available, and Sikhami pays available balances to your bank account in regular payout runs — each one with a statement that adds up to what you were paid. Add your bank and tax details under Settings → Bank and tax details before your first sale; payouts start once Sikhami has verified them.

Tax on your sales

Sikhami deducts TDS under Section 194-O of the Income-tax Act: 0.1% of your sales, or 5% if you have not given a PAN. Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families with a PAN whose sales on Sikhami stay within ₹5 lakh in a financial year have nothing deducted. The TDS is deposited against your PAN, so it shows in your Form 26AS.

If you are registered for GST, Sikhami also collects GST TCS under Section 52 of the CGST Act: 0.5% of the taxable value of your sales, reported against your GSTIN. Sikhami's own fee already includes GST, so it does not change what you receive.

Both deductions are listed on every payout statement and totalled by quarter on your Earnings page, and Sikhami issues a monthly invoice for its fee. These are Sikhami's current rates; any other tax on your earnings is yours to manage, and your tax adviser can tell you how these apply to you.