Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal on Thursday announced that Blinkit Ambulance will introduce a charge of ₹2,500 for non-emergency transfers, while emergency ambulance services will continue to remain free of charge.
I started Zomato with a spirit of service. Blinkit Ambulance is what that spirit of service looks like today. In the last 2 years, we have served ~20,000 emergency cases (~42,000 cases in total). We haven’t charged a single rupee for any of them. And we want to keep it that way. With everything free, a growing share of bookings are for routine checkups, hospital visits and hospital-to-home transfers, trips that an Uber or private transport could have handled just as easily. Every such booking keeps a fully equipped emergency ambulance with paramedics off the road when someone’s life may depend on it. So we are making a change from now onwards: Emergency transfers – free, as always. Non-emergency transfers – ₹2,500, charged after the trip. Broadly in line with what private ambulances charge. This money goes to Eternal Foundation, which runs these ambulances and will help us scale them even further. We hope that this charge will dramatically drop the usage of our Ambulances for non-emergency cases. 10-minute ambulances have saved and can save thousands of lives, and we need to keep them available for emergencies that need them the most. One more thing. Scaling high quality ambulances is hard. The biggest bottleneck is trained, empathic paramedics. Our training academy is scaling as fast as we can without compromising on quality, and @albinder and team are committed to bringing Blinkit Ambulance to all major cities in India in the next 2-4 years. Stay well, and I pray you don’t need us. @sparsh_sehgal – I wish your grandma a speedy recovery, and I am so glad we were able to be there on time.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) November 5, 2026
Why Blinkit Ambulance is introducing the charge
Goyal revealed that over the past two years, Blinkit’s ambulance service had handled around 42,000 cases, including approximately 20,000 emergency runs, without charging patients a single rupee. However, the company had also observed that many people were using the service for routine doctor appointments, regular check-ups and transfers from hospitals back home, which could have been handled just as easily by an Uber or other private transport, he added.
“Broadly in line with what private ambulances charge,” Goyal said, explaining the new pricing structure. “So we are making a change from now onwards: Emergency transfers – free, as always. Non-emergency transfers – Rs 2,500, charged after the trip.”
He said the company hoped the charge would significantly reduce the use of its ambulances for non-emergency cases. “10-minute ambulances have saved and can save thousands of lives, and we need to keep them available for emergencies that need them the most,” he added.
Goyal further said the money collected from non-emergency trips would go directly to the Eternal Foundation, the organisation running the fleet, to help scale up operations. Scaling high-quality medical transport remains a difficult challenge, primarily because of a shortage of trained and empathetic paramedics, he added.
