PIXEL Play

Joining ₹500 · Annual ₹500 · Renewal fee waived on spends of ₹1,00,000 or more in the 12 months before the renewal date. The ₹500 joining fee is waived on ₹20,000 of spend within 90 days of issuance. HDFC has separately run the card as lifetime-free for eligible applicants in promotional windows and its product page has at times described it as lifetime free

Earns CashPoints. 1 CashPoint = ₹1, but it is not automatic cashback: CashPoints sit in the reward balance inside the PayZapp/PIXEL app and must be manually redeemed, at which point they transfer to the PayZapp CashPoint account for statement adjustment, vouchers or purchases at 1:1. Minimum balance of 1,000 CashPoints required to place a redemption request, and unredeemed CashPoints lapse 2 years after accrual. No redemption handling fee is documented for this card. Points are floored to the whole integer per transaction (₹230 at 5% pays 11, not 11.5), and fractions never accrue. A real drag on small tickets.

Verified 9 Aug 2026

Forex markup3.5%

GolfNone

ConciergeNone

Domestic loungeNone

International loungeNone

EMI₹99 to ₹699 plus GST at a merchant, up to ₹849 plus GST converting a statement balance processing fee · A converted purchase stops earning rewards · HDFC's fee follows the merchant and the scheme rather than your card, so the same tenure can cost ₹99 at one shop and ₹699 at another. It is not refunded if you cancel or pre close. Cancelling inside 7 days is free, after that pre closing costs 3% of the principal left plus GST. · EMI transactions earn nothing. Choosing EMI at checkout on a 5% or 3% merchant forfeits the accelerated rate, and converting a spend to EMI later claws back the points already credited. A negative CashPoint balance for two consecutive statement months is charged back to the card account

Fuel surcharge1% on fuel transactions of ₹400 to ₹5,000, capped at ₹250 per statement cycle. No fuel surcharge waiver on UPI payments. UPI carries no surcharge to waive

Return by category

Category	Return	Notes
Online spend	3%	500 CashPoints per calendar month (~₹16,667 of spend on the chosen platform) · USER-SELECTABLE: exactly one of PayZapp, Amazon or Flipkart, changeable every 3 months. 3% does not apply to RuPay UPI Scan & Pay or UPI e-commerce transactions (those fall to the 1% UPI bucket), nor to Amazon Pay wallet loads. Selecting PayZapp also upgrades SmartBuy-via-PayZapp spends to 5%. Nykaa, Myntra and MakeMyTrip transacted on SmartBuy pay 5% if those packs are selected.
Amazon	3%	Uses its online rate
Flipkart	3%	Uses its online rate
Subscriptions & OTT	3%	Uses its online rate
Offline spend	1%	Base rate
UPI spending	1%	500 CashPoints per calendar month (~₹50,000 of UPI spend) · RuPay variant only. The card is dual-issued on Visa and RuPay, and only the RuPay card links to UPI. 1% on all eligible UPI spends with its own 500 CashPoint monthly ceiling, separate from the 5%, 3% and base buckets. The 3% e-commerce rate never applies over UPI. NPCI-restricted categories earn nothing: P2P, P2PM, digital account opening, lending platforms, cash withdrawal at merchant or ATM, e-RUPI, IPO, foreign inward remittances, mutual funds. Fuel, rent, wallet loads and government MCCs are excluded on UPI as elsewhere, and no fuel surcharge waiver exists on UPI payments. UPI limit is ₹1 lakh/day per card (₹2 lakh for MCC 5960, 6300, 6529), and only ₹5,000/day for the first 24 hours after linking.
Dining	1%	Requires selecting the 'Dining & Entertainment' pack (Zomato + BookMyShow). USER-SELECTABLE: only two of the five packs can be active at once, so this 5% is available but not simultaneously with every other 5% category listed here. Swiggy is not a PIXEL Play pack merchant. The dining merchant is Zomato. Restaurants outside the pack earn the 1% base.
Swiggy	1%	Uses its dining rate
Zomato	5%	500 CashPoints per calendar month for the whole 5% pack bucket (~₹10,000 of 5% spend) · Requires selecting the 'Dining & Entertainment' pack (Zomato + BookMyShow). USER-SELECTABLE: only two of the five packs can be active at once, so this 5% is available but not simultaneously with every other 5% category listed here. Swiggy is not a PIXEL Play pack merchant. The dining merchant is Zomato. Restaurants outside the pack earn the 1% base.
Groceries	1%	The 5% grocery pack is narrow: Blinkit online and Reliance Smart Bazaar stores only. Every other supermarket, JioMart and the other ten-minute apps earn the 1% base.
Quick commerce	1%	Uses its groceries rate
Swiggy Instamart	1%	Base rate
Blinkit	5%	Shares the 500 CashPoints/calendar month 5% pack bucket · Requires selecting the 'Grocery' pack, and it is narrow: only Blinkit (online) and Reliance Smart Bazaar physical stores qualify. Other supermarkets, JioMart and other quick-commerce apps earn the 1% base. 'Electronics' (Croma + Reliance Digital, excluding JioMart online) and 'Fashion' (Nykaa + Myntra) are the two remaining 5% packs.
BigBasket	1%	Uses its groceries rate
Movies & shows	1%	The 5% needs the Dining and Entertainment pack selected, and inside it the ticketing merchant is BookMyShow. Any other cinema or ticketing site earns the 1% base.
BookMyShow	5%	Shares the 500 CashPoints/calendar month 5% pack bucket · BookMyShow, via the same 'Dining & Entertainment' pack as Zomato. Picking that one pack covers both. No free-ticket benefit.
PVR INOX	1%	Uses its movies rate
Fuel	0%	No CashPoints on fuel spends. 1% HDFC fee also applies above ₹15,000/month
Travel (general)	1%	Requires selecting the 'Travel' pack (MakeMyTrip + Uber). Uber qualifies only on MCC 4121 and 7512. Separately, SmartBuy pays 5% on flights, hotels, bus, rail, Instant Vouchers, IGP and Apple Imagine/Tresor with its own 500 CashPoint monthly ceiling. But SmartBuy cashback cannot be clubbed with the 5%/3%/1% merchant rates, and only applies to full payment (no part-points bookings).
Flights	1%	Uses its travel rate
Hotels	1%	Uses its travel rate
MakeMyTrip	5%	Shares the 500 CashPoints/calendar month 5% pack bucket. SmartBuy 5% is a separate 500 CashPoints/calendar month bucket · Requires selecting the 'Travel' pack (MakeMyTrip + Uber). Uber qualifies only on MCC 4121 and 7512. Separately, SmartBuy pays 5% on flights, hotels, bus, rail, Instant Vouchers, IGP and Apple Imagine/Tresor with its own 500 CashPoint monthly ceiling. But SmartBuy cashback cannot be clubbed with the 5%/3%/1% merchant rates, and only applies to full payment (no part-points bookings).
IRCTC rail	1%	Uses its travel rate
International	−2.5%	1% reward − 3.5% forex markup
Utilities & bills	1%	Base rate
Rent	0%	No CashPoints on rent. 1% HDFC fee applies on every rent transaction, capped ₹4,999
Education fees	1%	Base rate
Insurance premiums	1%	Base rate
Government & tax	0%	Government-related transactions earn no CashPoints (MCC 9211, 9222, 9223, 9311, 9399, 9402, 9405, 9950 and others explicitly listed)
Wallet loads	0%	Wallet/prepaid reloads and gift-card loads (MCC 6540) earn nothing. 1% HDFC fee above ₹10,000/month. Amazon Pay wallet loads also void the 3% rate
Anything else	1%	Base rate
Jewellery	1%	Base rate

Rates are the card's own published rates, before any spend profile. Add this card inMy cards to rank it against the rest of your wallet.

Also worth knowing

THE CATEGORY RATES ABOVE ARE USER-SELECTABLE, NOT ALL SIMULTANEOUS. The cardholder picks exactly two of five 5% packs. Dining & Entertainment (Zomato + BookMyShow), Travel (MakeMyTrip + Uber), Grocery (Blinkit + Reliance Smart Bazaar stores), Electronics (Croma + Reliance Digital stores), Fashion (Nykaa + Myntra). Plus exactly one 3% e-commerce platform from PayZapp, Amazon, Flipkart. Selection happens in the app after approval. The first pick is free and packs can be swapped every 3 months, with both the 5% and 3% choices swappable in the same request. Only transactions settled after a change request earn under the new selection. The rates recorded here reflect the best available selection per category
Dual-issued on Visa AND RuPay, so it does earn on UPI (1%, capped 500 CashPoints/calendar month). But only on the RuPay variant. A Visa PIXEL Play earns nothing on UPI
Digital-first card managed entirely in PayZapp: DIY choice of statement billing date, choice of card design from a pre-set list, free unlimited app-theme changes. Physical card re-issuance with a customised or existing design costs ₹100. Design cannot be changed while the card is blocked or delinquent
Accelerated CashPoints are matched on merchant TID/MID, so an in-scope merchant billing through an unlisted terminal silently pays only 1%
Insurance spends capped at 2,000 CashPoints per day
HDFC has run PIXEL Play as lifetime-free for eligible applicants in promotional windows and its product page has described it as lifetime free, while the Fees & Charges page and MITC state ₹500 joining and ₹500 annual. Fees recorded here follow the official fee schedule. Treat lifetime-free as an offer that depends on the applicant and the application window
HDFC bank-wide 1% transaction fees, each capped ₹4,999 per transaction: rent (every transaction), wallet loads above ₹10,000/calendar month, online skill-based gaming above ₹10,000/calendar month, fuel above ₹15,000, utilities above ₹50,000/calendar month, and education paid via third-party apps (direct payments to institutions exempt)
Every cap on this card runs on the calendar month, not the statement cycle, and each bucket (5% packs / 5% SmartBuy / 3% e-commerce / 1% UPI) has its own separate 500 CashPoint ceiling. So the realistic accelerated ceiling is ₹2,000/month of CashPoints across all four, plus uncapped 1%
A FIFA World Cup 2026 co-branded PIXEL Play Visa variant also exists as a separate product page

Other exclusions

Voucher and gift-card purchases earn no CashPoints
EMI transactions earn nothing. Choosing EMI at checkout on a 5% or 3% merchant forfeits the accelerated rate, and converting a spend to EMI later claws back the points already credited. A negative CashPoint balance for two consecutive statement months is charged back to the card account
Cash advances and payment of outstanding balances, fees and charges earn nothing
No reward points on online skill-based gaming (HDFC-wide). 1% fee above ₹10,000/month

Sources

Every figure above comes from the issuer's own pages and documents. Last verified 9 Aug 2026.

PIXEL Play

Return by category

Also worth knowing

Other exclusions

Sources

Other HDFC Bank cards