GeM Portal Registration: How to Register as a Seller, Step by Step

GeM, the Government e-Marketplace at gem.gov.in, is where central ministries, departments and public sector bodies buy goods and services online. Registering as a seller is free. GeM dropped its caution money in 2025, and you can register with Aadhaar or with your PAN.

Central ministries and departments must buy the goods and services available on GeM through GeM (GFR 2017, rule 149). Up to ₹50,000 they may buy from any seller there; from ₹50,000 to ₹10 lakh, from the lowest-priced seller among at least three manufacturers; above ₹10 lakh, through a bid or reverse auction on GeM. These limits apply from July 2024; before that they were ₹25,000 and ₹5 lakh.

This guide is for sellers and service providers; a short section near the end covers government buyers. It follows GeM’s own training material, FAQs, terms and policies, which we checked on gem.gov.in on 17 October 2026.

What you need before you start

GeM’s seller FAQ lists:

• Aadhaar (or a Virtual ID) with the mobile number linked to it, or your personal PAN with a mobile number
• your business PAN, and the CIN if you are a company
• a bank account number and IFSC
• income tax returns for the last three years. They are needed to take part in bids if your business is more than 24 months old
• an active email address and your registered address
• optional: Udyam registration, DPIIT startup recognition and GSTIN. GSTIN is not mandatory to register

The person registering should be authorised to act for the firm: the owner, proprietor, karta, partner, director, CEO or another authorised person. GeM says the authorised signatory of the income tax return should be the primary user, and a proprietorship must be registered by the proprietor. You can create only one seller account with one email.

How to register on GeM

1. Open gem.gov.in, go to Sign Up and choose Seller/Service Provider.

   

2. Choose your business or organisation type, read the prerequisites, and accept the terms and conditions.
3. Enter your organisation’s name, twice.
4. Verify your identity, one of two ways:
   • Aadhaar: enter your Aadhaar number and its linked mobile, give consent, and enter the OTP sent to that mobile.
   • PAN: enter your PAN and date of birth, then a mobile number for its OTP, and choose your role in the organisation.
5. Fill in your personal details and confirm that you are the key person of the organisation.
6. Verify your email with the OTP GeM sends.
7. Set your user ID and password and click Create Account. Registration is complete, and GeM takes you to the seller home page to finish your profile.

Choose the user ID with care: GeM says a user ID cannot be edited or deleted once created. For logging in afterwards, see our GeM login guide.

Complete your profile

GeM advises a complete, up-to-date profile before you list products or apply for vendor assessment. Under Business Profile, it walks you through:

1. business PAN validation, then business details. For a company, GeM maps it after checking the CIN
2. additional details: DPIIT startup recognition and MSME status through Udyam (“Verify and Save”)
3. office location: the registered address is mandatory, plus the billing address, your GSTIN if you have one, and an email OTP
4. key person validation
5. bank account
6. the e-invoice declaration and the Rule 144(xi) declaration, each confirmed with an OTP
7. tax assessment: your income tax return details, which GeM checks against your ITR records. GeM can take your return only two days after you file it

GeM verifies what you enter against official databases: Aadhaar or PAN for identity, MCA-21 for the company, the GSTN for your GSTIN, your income tax returns for turnover, Udyam for MSE status and the DPIIT database for startups.

Add your team. The primary user can create up to 50 active secondary users under My Account, then Users, then Add New Secondary User, and give each one roles: bids and reverse auctions, catalogues, order fulfilment and push button procurement. Each secondary user gets an activation link by email.

What it costs

Orders awarded before your orders that year reach ₹20 lakh carry no transaction charge. The charges come from GeM’s revenue policy, version 1.6, in force from 26 August 2025. They are due within 15 days of the award, before your first invoice or by the first delivery date, whichever is earliest, and GeM suspends a seller account until an unpaid charge is paid.

Paid caution money before? Withdraw it from your dashboard: Manage Caution Money Account, then Recalculate Threshold, then Withdraw Excess Funds. GeM says the money reaches your account within 24 hours, and needs a verified bank account marked as primary.

Vendor assessment and approvals

GeM’s Vendor Validation Policy (version 5.0, 25 September 2026) sets these timelines:

• vendor assessment: 15 working days expected, though GeM says applicants cannot claim it as a right
• an exemption from assessment: 2 working days
• service provider validation: 5 working days
• the report stays valid for 3 years; apply again at least 2 months before it expires

Under GeM’s brand and product approval policy, a brand takes 4 working days and a product or catalogue 3. Service providers must also revalidate their catalogues at least once in six months: GeM will deactivate catalogues not validated in the last 180 days by 15 November 2026.

Fixes for common problems

Key person validation fails

It fails when the name on the user’s Aadhaar differs from the authorised person named in the income tax return. GeM notes that key person validation is not mandatory. To pass it, update the Aadhaar to that of the return’s signatory. This is not possible if you registered with PAN instead of Aadhaar.

PAN validation fails

For a proprietorship, enter the name exactly as on the PAN, and the proprietor must be the return’s authorised signatory. For a company or firm, enter the organisation’s name exactly as on its PAN. PAN details cannot be changed after this one-time validation, so check them before you submit.

The Aadhaar OTP never arrives

The mobile you enter must be the one linked to your Aadhaar. If it is not, register with your PAN instead, which takes any mobile number.

MSE status does not verify

The business name, constitution and PAN on GeM must exactly match your Udyam certificate, and the Udyam number must validate.

You cannot upload a catalogue

Check that every profile section is complete, including the e-invoice declaration, which GeM makes mandatory for all sellers.

Registering as a government buyer

Buyer accounts are for government organisations, and GeM’s buyer FAQ sets them up in two levels:

• The primary user, usually the head of department, registers with Aadhaar and the mobile linked to it, and an email on an NIC-hosted government domain such as gov.in or nic.in. A department whose email domain is not with NIC can register it with NIC, or apply to GeM for a gembuyer.in address. The primary user also names a verifying authority, an officer of the same rank or one rank higher, who approves the registration by email. The primary user cannot buy.
• Secondary users, such as buyers, consignees and the officers who pay bills, are created by the primary user. Each activates their account with Aadhaar and its linked mobile; their email no longer has to be a government address.

Choose the primary user’s ID with care: it cannot be changed. When the primary user retires or is transferred, they hand the account to a successor from My Profile before leaving.

What is on GeM

We counted the open GeM bids on Tenderkart on 17 October 2026:

• Mostly goods. 35,860 open bids were for goods and 12,084 for services.
• Defence buys the most. The Department of Military Affairs had 10,991 open bids, then Defence Production, Atomic Energy, Indian Railways and Health and Family Welfare.
• Quick turnaround. 25,206, about half, closed within 7 days.
• Many small bids. Of the bids that showed a value, about half were for ₹10 lakh or less, the size of order that carries no transaction charge.

What changed recently

• 2025: caution money was cut and then dropped. GeM’s terms have exempted all sellers since version 1.26 of November 2025.
• 26 August 2025: revenue policy 1.6, with no transaction charge on orders up to ₹10 lakh.
• 25 March 2026: terms version 1.29. GeM says it does not receive or store Aadhaar numbers, and offers PAN-based verification as an alternative.
• 18 June 2026: GeM and CSC agreed to open GeM Suvidha Kendras, local centres that help sellers from registration to catalogue listing.
• 25 September 2026: Vendor Validation Policy 5.0.
• By 15 November 2026: service provider catalogues not validated in the last 180 days will be deactivated.

Some older pages on gem.gov.in still mention caution money. GeM’s current terms and conditions are the ones that apply.

Helpdesk

• GeM helpdesk: 1800-419-3436, 1800-102-3436 or 14550, 9 am to 10 pm, Monday to Saturday. Email [email protected], or raise a ticket on gem.gov.in.
• Walk-in: 2nd Floor, Jeevan Tara Building, 5 Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001, 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Friday.
• Vendor assessment (RITES): [email protected], +91-9667629900, Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5.30 pm.

GeM warns sellers about fraudulent calls that promise help in winning contracts in return for payment. Enter your login details only on gem.gov.in.

Questions people ask