India · Travel
Estimate your refund and the charge deducted when you cancel a train ticket — under the new rules effective 1 April 2026.
Pick your ticket class
Choose 1A/EC, 2A, 3A/CC/3E, SL, or 2S — the flat cancellation charge depends on it.
Pick the ticket type
Confirmed, RAC, and waitlisted tickets follow different rules; Tatkal has its own.
Enter fare and passengers
Use the total fare paid for the ticket and the number of passengers on it.
Set the departure time
Enter the scheduled departure date and time (a countdown shows hours remaining), or type hours directly.
Read the result
The calculator shows the refund, the amount deducted, and exactly which rule produced it.
From 1 April 2026, Indian Railways stretched every cancellation window. The old 48/12/4-hour slabs became 72, 24, and 8 hours: cancel a confirmed ticket 72 hours or more before departure and you lose only the flat cancellation charge for your class; between 72 and 24 hours, 25% of the fare goes; between 24 and 8 hours, half the fare goes; and inside 8 hours there is no refund at all. The percentage deductions are always subject to the flat charge as a minimum — a cheap ticket cancelled in the 25% window still pays at least the class charge.
The flat charge is per passenger and depends on class: ₹240 for AC First and Executive Chair Car, ₹200 for AC 2-Tier, ₹180 for AC 3-Tier, AC Chair Car, and AC 3 Economy, ₹120 for Sleeper, and ₹60 for Second Sitting. GST at 5% is added on top of the AC-class charges (making them ₹252, ₹210, and ₹189 respectively) but not on Sleeper or Second Sitting.
RAC and waitlisted tickets ignore the time slabs entirely. They can be cancelled up to 30 minutes before departure for a flat clerkage of ₹60 + GST (₹63) per passenger — after that, nothing. And confirmed Tatkal tickets are the harshest case: voluntary cancellation refunds nothing, whether you cancel five days or five hours before the train leaves. Tatkal tickets still on RAC or waitlist follow the normal clerkage rule.
One deadline that surprises people: online self-service cancellation closes 8 hours before departure for confirmed tickets. Past that point the only path to any refund is a TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) claim with a valid reason — a manual process that typically takes 60–90 days.
The family ticket, cancelled two days out. Two passengers in AC 3-Tier, total fare ₹2,400, cancelled 48 hours before departure. That lands in the 72–24 hour window, so 25% of the fare — ₹600 — is deducted (comfortably above the ₹189-per-passenger minimum), and ₹1,800 comes back. Had they cancelled a day earlier, past the 72-hour line, the deduction would have been just the flat ₹378 for the two of them.
The early sleeper cancellation. One Sleeper-class ticket, fare ₹800, cancelled four days (about 100 hours) before departure. Only the flat ₹120 sleeper charge applies — no GST on non-AC classes — so the refund is ₹680. A waitlisted version of a similar booking works differently: a ₹1,500 WL ticket for two passengers, cancelled 40 hours out, loses only the clerkage of ₹63 × 2 = ₹126 and refunds ₹1,374 — the slabs never enter the picture.
The flip side of cancellation timing is booking timing. If your travel dates might shift, the shape of these rules argues for booking early anyway — a cancellation 72+ hours out costs only the flat charge — and deciding by the 72-hour mark. Our IRCTC advance booking calculator tells you exactly when the 60-day general window (and the one-day Tatkal window) opens for your journey date, so you can plan both ends of the trip.
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Last reviewed
July 11, 2026
Content update
Auto-updated on Jun 28, 2026
Scope: Refund output models the published Indian Railways cancellation rules effective 1 April 2026. Edge cases (partial confirmations, concessions, agent bookings, TDR outcomes) are decided by IRCTC and can differ.
Primary references
Most people discover the cancellation charge only after cancelling — the refund arrives smaller than expected and the deduction is never itemized clearly. This page answers the question before you cancel: given your class, ticket type, fare, and how far away departure is, it shows the refund, the deduction, and the exact rule that produced it.
It implements the Indian Railways rules effective 1 April 2026, which extended the old 48/12/4-hour slabs to 72/24/8 hours. If your ticket was booked and cancelled before that date, the old slabs applied instead.
A ₹2,400 AC 3-Tier ticket for two passengers, cancelled 48 hours before departure, falls in the 72–24 hour slab: 25% of fare (₹600) is deducted because it exceeds the class minimum of ₹189 per passenger, leaving a refund of ₹1,800. The same ticket cancelled 80 hours out would lose only the flat charge; cancelled 6 hours out, it would refund nothing.
For confirmed tickets: deduction = fare × slab rate (0% / 25% / 50% / 100% by the 72h/24h/8h windows), floored at the class flat charge × passengers (₹240/₹200/₹180 + 5% GST for AC classes; ₹120/₹60 without GST for SL/2S), and capped at the fare. RAC/waitlisted tickets instead deduct a flat ₹60 + GST clerkage per passenger up to 30 minutes before departure. Confirmed Tatkal deducts 100% regardless of timing.
A TDR (Ticket Deposit Receipt) is a manual refund claim filed on IRCTC when self-service cancellation is no longer possible or a special situation applies — for example, the train ran 3+ hours late and you chose not to travel. It must be filed within 72 hours of the train’s scheduled departure, and processing typically takes 60–90 days because the claim is verified against travel records.
If an e-ticket is still fully waitlisted when the chart is prepared, IRCTC cancels it automatically and refunds the fare minus the clerkage charge — you do not need to cancel it yourself. RAC and partially confirmed tickets are not auto-cancelled, so cancel those manually (at least 30 minutes before departure) if you will not travel.
No. GST charged on AC-class cancellation charges and on clerkage is retained — the tax on the cancellation service itself is not returned. GST collected on the ticket fare portion that is refunded comes back with the refund.
For cards, UPI, and net banking, refunds are usually credited within 3–7 banking days of cancellation. Refunds to the IRCTC iPay / eWallet are typically instant. TDR-based refunds are much slower — commonly 60–90 days — because they go through manual verification.
If the railway cancels the train, e-ticket holders get a full automatic refund of the entire fare, regardless of how close to departure it happens — no cancellation charge, no TDR needed. If the train is delayed by 3 or more hours and you choose not to travel, file a TDR within 72 hours of scheduled departure for a refund.
Under the April 2026 rules, online self-service cancellation for confirmed tickets closes 8 hours before scheduled departure (RAC and waitlisted tickets can be cancelled up to 30 minutes before). After the cutoff, the only route to any refund is a TDR claim with a valid reason.