PayPulse FAQ
Questions and answers about the CTC to in-hand salary calculator. Everything it does happens in your browser.
Last Updated: November 9, 2026
1. General Questions
Q1: What is PayPulse?
A1: A salary calculator for India. Type your CTC once and it shows the pay that reaches your bank each month with both income tax regimes, an estimated payslip and ways to keep more. It also lines up salaries you know beside yours, compares job offers, plans a resignation date and the notice period, and works out a freelance rate.
Q2: How much does it cost?
A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.
Q3: Do I need to install anything or create an account?
A3: No. Open the page in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your numbers are kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.
Q4: Is my salary sent anywhere?
A4: No. Every amount you type is worked out by this browser on your device and never sent to a server. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics like every page on ZeroDataUpload, but they never receive what you type.
Q5: Is this tax advice?
A5: No. PayPulse gives estimates for planning from the rules for tax year 2026-27 and the figures you type. Employers round, prorate and time deductions in their own ways, and your payslip and your tax return are the final word. For decisions about your own tax, speak to a chartered accountant.
2. Your Pay and the CTC
Q6: What is a CTC?
A6: Cost to company: everything an employer spends on you in a year. It is your gross pay (basic, HRA and allowances) plus the employer's share of PF, the gratuity set aside for you, any employer NPS or health insurance, and variable pay at full target.
Q7: How is the monthly in-hand pay worked out?
A7: Gross pay for the year, less your own PF, professional tax and the income tax on your fixed pay, divided by 12. Variable pay and one-off cash are shown separately, after tax, because they arrive once a year.
Q8: How is the CTC split?
A8: The way most Indian employers do it: basic pay at 50% of monthly pay (change it under How the CTC is split), HRA at 50% of basic in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad and 40% elsewhere, bills paid back if you add them, and a special allowance for the rest. Gross pay is solved so that it, the employer's PF, gratuity and NPS add up to the CTC less variable pay and insurance.
Q9: What do "12% of wages" and "Capped at 3,000 a month" mean?
A9: You and your employer each put 12% of your wages into PF. Many employers instead cap it at 12% of the EPF wage ceiling, which is 25,000 a month since 17 September 2026, so 3,000 a month each. The capped choice puts more in your hand each month and less into PF.
Q10: What changed with the Labour Codes?
A10: Since 21 November 2025 the Labour Codes count allowances above half of your pay as wages. PayPulse therefore works PF and gratuity out on at least half of your pay (bills paid back left out), even when basic pay is set lower.
Q11: Why is gratuity inside my CTC?
A11: Many employers set aside 4.81% of wages each month (15 days' wages a year) for the gratuity they owe when you leave after 5 years. It is counted in the CTC but is not paid monthly. Untick "Gratuity is inside the CTC" if your offer letter leaves it out.
Q12: How is professional tax worked out?
A12: From the slabs of the state your city is in: for example 2,500 a year in Karnataka and Maharashtra (300 in February), 2,400 in Telangana, Gujarat and West Bengal at most pay levels, twice a half-year's tax in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and none in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. For "Another city" and "Remote" 2,500 a year is assumed from 25,000 a month; type your own amount if it differs.
Q13: How is variable pay taxed?
A13: In the year it is paid, on top of your fixed pay, so it is often taxed at your highest rate. PayPulse shows what it adds after that tax. If you expect less than the full target, type a lower amount or, under Compare offers, the share you expect.
3. Income Tax
Q14: Which tax rules does PayPulse use?
A14: Tax year 2026-27 (from 1 April 2026) under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which kept the earlier rates. New regime: slabs of 4 lakh from 5% to 30%, a 75,000 standard deduction, no tax up to 12 lakh of taxable income (a rebate of up to 60,000) with marginal relief just above it. Old regime: 2.5, 3 or 5 lakh tax-free by age, a 50,000 standard deduction and a rebate up to 5 lakh. Surcharge with marginal relief and a 4% cess in both.
Q15: Which regime should I choose?
A15: The one with less tax for you, which PayPulse shows side by side. The new regime is the default and usually wins unless your deductions are large. The note under the table says how much the old regime's deductions must add up to before it wins.
Q16: Which deductions does the old regime take?
A16: HRA exemption on the rent you pay, professional tax, 80C up to 1.5 lakh including your own PF, 80D health insurance (25,000 for you and your family, 50,000 from age 60, and the same again for your parents), your own NPS up to 50,000 under 80CCD(1B), home loan interest up to 2 lakh and other deductions you type. Employer NPS is deducted in both regimes.
Q17: How is employer NPS taxed?
A17: It is counted as pay and then deducted up to 14% of basic in the new regime and 10% in the old. When your employer's PF and NPS together pass 7.5 lakh in a year, the part above is taxed as pay.
Q18: What is the "12 lakh line"?
A18: In the new regime there is no tax up to 12 lakh of taxable income. Just above it, marginal relief keeps the tax no higher than what you earn above 12 lakh. PayPulse tells you when you are just over the line and how employer NPS or bills paid back could bring you under it.
Q19: What are the "Ways to keep more"?
A19: Ideas worked out for your pay, each with the tax it saves: switching regime, employer NPS up to the tax-free share, phone and internet bills paid back, the rest of your 80C limit, your own NPS, health insurance, and the PF cap. They are options to discuss with your employer, not instructions.
Q20: How does "How much CTC for a set amount in hand?" work?
A20: Type the monthly amount you want and PayPulse finds the smallest CTC that gives it with your split, city, PF and tax regime, and how far it is from your CTC now.
4. Am I Paid Fairly?
Q21: Where do the salary figures come from?
A21: From you. PayPulse has no built-in salary survey. Add salaries you know, such as offers you had, what friends in the same role earn or figures from job sites, with a name that says where each came from.
Q22: What does the comparison show?
A22: How many of your salaries are above and below your CTC, the middle of your list, the lowest and highest, and every salary as a bar with what it puts in your hand each month. In hand is worked out with your settings under Your pay, so every salary is compared the same way.
Q23: How many salaries should I add?
A23: As many as you can for the same role, experience and city. With fewer than five, treat the result as a rough check: pay for the same title varies a lot with skills, the company and negotiation.
5. Compare Offers
Q24: What does Compare offers compare?
A24: Up to three offers and, if you like, your current job: the CTC, pay in hand each month, the rise on CTC and in hand, the first year's money after travel costs, what each is worth over one to four years with a yearly raise, pay per hour of work and travel, and the hours a year.
Q25: How are stock and a joining bonus counted?
A25: A joining bonus in the first year and stock in the year it vests, both after tax at your rate that year. Stock is valued at today's price and can vest evenly, more later or more early over the years you type. Gratuity is left out, because it is paid only after 5 years.
Q26: What is "Living costs there, compared with now"?
A26: A percentage you type for each offer: 20 if that city costs about a fifth more in rent, travel and prices than where you live now, -10 if it costs less. The offer's money is divided by it, so offers in dearer cities are compared fairly. PayPulse has no built-in city price levels.
Q27: How is the score worked out?
A27: Each thing that matters (money in hand the first year, money over the years, your time, days from home, learning and growth, job security, health cover, a short notice period) scores from 0 to 1 against the best offer, and the sliders under "What matters to you" weigh them. The score is out of 100.
Q28: What is the Negotiating box?
A28: The CTC each offer would need to match the best one in hand, with its own city, PF and variable share, and the rise your current employer would need to pay to match it. It helps compare in hand, not CTC, in a counter-offer.
6. Growth
Q29: How do the growth paths work?
A29: Each path grows your CTC by its yearly raise, with a bigger rise on promotion years or switch years. You can compare up to three paths over 3 to 30 years, in future rupees or in today's rupees after the price rise you type, with the year each path crosses 25 lakh, 50 lakh, 1 crore and 2 crore.
Q30: How are the savings worked out?
A30: A share of your pay in hand each year, with today's tax rules, growing at the yearly return you type. It is an estimate: real returns go up and down, and tax rules change.
7. Leaving a Job
Q31: How is the last working day worked out?
A31: Your resignation day plus the notice period, less any leave you use to shorten it, and never before the day you resign. Check your offer letter: some employers count the notice from the next day.
Q32: Should I serve the notice or buy it out?
A32: PayPulse compares both from your resignation to the end of the full notice: pay from this job, pay from the new job, the buyout you pay (on gross or basic pay, less any share the new employer pays), and the bonus, stock and gratuity each path keeps. The better one is named with the difference.
Q33: How is gratuity worked out?
A33: 15 days of wages for each completed year of service, a part year above six months counting as a year, with a month's wages divided by 26. Wages are basic and DA, at least half of pay under the Labour Codes. It is due after 5 years of service, or one year on a fixed-term contract, and is tax-free up to 20 lakh for most private employees.
Q34: How is leave paid out?
A34: The days you get paid for times basic pay divided by 30, tax-free up to 10 months of basic and 25 lakh in all. If you use leave to shorten the notice instead, it is not paid out.
Q35: When should I receive the full and final settlement?
A35: Under the Code on Wages, within two working days of your last day. It holds the last month's pay, leave paid out, gratuity and any bonus, less a notice buyout and tax. Your PF is separate: move it to your new employer with your UAN. Ask for Form 130, the salary tax certificate that replaced Form 16 from tax year 2026-27.
8. Freelance Rate
Q36: How is the freelance rate worked out?
A36: PayPulse finds what clients must pay you in a year so that, after platform and transfer fees and income tax, you keep the take-home you aim for plus your costs and a cushion for slow months. That amount is divided by the hours you can bill: days a week, less holidays, festivals and sick days, times the share of hours you can bill.
Q37: What is presumptive tax?
A37: Professionals with receipts up to 75 lakh a year (when almost all of it arrives by bank) can declare half of what clients pay as profit and pay tax on that, without detailed accounts. PayPulse uses it by default with the new regime's slabs; choose Actual profit to pay tax on receipts less fees and business costs.
Q38: Do I need to register for GST?
A38: Once receipts pass 20 lakh a year. Services to clients abroad are zero-rated under a letter of undertaking (LUT); for Indian clients 18% GST is added on top of your rate and is not your income. PayPulse shows a note when you pass the line.
Q39: Which exchange rates does it use?
A39: The European Central Bank's reference rates of 6 November 2026 as a starting point, with the UAE dirham fixed to the US dollar. Nothing is fetched from the internet: type today's rate in the form, and the rupees you need stay the same.
9. Your Data
Q40: Where are my numbers kept?
A40: In this browser's storage on this device, so they are there next time. Nothing is kept until you type something, and nothing is kept on a server. Clearing the browser's data, or a private window, removes them, so save a backup now and then.
Q41: How do I keep a backup or move to another device?
A41: In the Help window, Save a backup downloads a file with every number and setting. On the other device, choose Restore a backup; the file replaces everything PayPulse holds in that browser after you confirm.
Q42: How do I delete everything?
A42: In the Help window, Delete everything removes every number and setting PayPulse keeps in this browser, after you confirm. The rest of the site is not touched.
Q43: What does Hide amounts do?
A43: It blurs every amount on the page, for when someone can see your screen. Press it again or press H to show them. The Help window can blur them every time PayPulse opens.
Q44: Can I print my estimate?
A44: Yes. Print, under Your pay, or the browser's own Print command prints an estimated payslip, where the CTC goes and both regimes on one page, without the rest of the site. It is marked as an estimate, not a payslip from an employer.
Still have a question?
The help page walks through every part of the tool. For anything else, use the contact form; please do not send your salary or other figures.