Most course creators write their refund policy the week they get their first refund request, copying a paragraph from a competitor's site and hoping it holds up, which is exactly backwards, because a policy you write under pressure from one angry student tends to be either too generous, giving away money you didn't need to, or too defensive, triggering a Razorpay dispute that costs you more in fees and reputation than the refund would have. A clear policy written before you need it does two jobs at once, it sets honest expectations for buyers before they pay, and it gives you a specific, defensible line to point to when someone asks for their money back after the fact.
The refund windows that actually hold up
Three windows cover almost every legitimate use case, and picking one isn't about being generous or strict, it's about matching the window to how your course is actually consumed. A 7-day window suits lower-priced, fast-consumption courses where a student can reasonably judge fit within a week, this is the most common choice for anything under ₹5,000 and the one buyers expect by default in India. A 14-day window fits mid-priced courses or ones with a slower onboarding curve, giving a student enough time to get through the first module or two before deciding, without leaving the window open so long that they've finished the whole course before requesting a refund. A 30-day window tends to appear on premium, high-ticket offers above ₹15,000 or so, where the price itself demands more reassurance, and creators offering it usually pair it with a stricter condition, most often that the refund is only valid if the student hasn't progressed past a certain point in the material.
Conditional refunds that protect the content, not just the money
An unconditional refund window on a fully self-paced course has an obvious hole, someone can download everything, work through the whole thing, and request a refund on day six having already extracted the full value. The fix isn't to remove the refund window, it's to gate it to actual usage. The most common conditional structure caps the refund at a completion threshold, commonly 20% to 30% of the course, so a student who's watched two lessons out of fifteen is clearly still evaluating fit and gets a straightforward refund, while a student who's finished twelve lessons has already received the value they paid for and falls outside the window regardless of how many calendar days have passed. This single condition, tying eligibility to completion percentage rather than only to elapsed time, is the difference between a refund policy that protects genuinely uncertain buyers and one that quietly subsidises people who never intended to pay for the course in the first place.
- State the exact refund window in days, not a vague "reasonable time"
- Note any completion or usage conditions that void eligibility
- Specify the refund method and how many days it takes to process
- Publish it on the checkout page and inside your terms, not just in an FAQ someone has to search for
Why a written policy reduces disputes before they start
A Razorpay chargeback costs you the disputed amount plus a dispute fee regardless of who wins, and it happens almost exclusively when a buyer feels they have no other route to a refund, so the single biggest lever for avoiding disputes isn't a stricter policy, it's a visible one. A policy stated clearly on your checkout page before payment means a student who wants a refund messages you directly instead of going straight to their bank, because they already know the process and the timeline, and most disputes happen precisely when a buyer can't find a policy at all and assumes the platform is hiding something. It also protects you on the other side of the conversation, since a written policy with a clear completion condition gives you a specific, non-emotional line to hold when a student who's finished the entire course still asks for a refund on day five, rather than negotiating case by case and setting a precedent you'll regret the next time it happens.
Where to actually publish it
A refund policy that only exists in a Google Doc nobody links to isn't a policy, it's a private note. Put it in three places at minimum, a dedicated terms or refund page linked from your site footer, directly on the course sales page near the price so it's visible before anyone reaches checkout, and in the automated confirmation email a student receives right after paying, so there's no version of events where a buyer claims they never saw it. Keep the wording identical across all three, since a policy that says 7 days on your sales page and 14 days in your terms document creates exactly the kind of ambiguity that turns a routine refund request into a drawn-out argument.
A refund policy is a small piece of content that does an outsized amount of work protecting your revenue, and the creators who get burned aren't the ones with strict policies, they're the ones with no policy at all until the first dispute forces them to improvise one. Pick a window that matches your price point, gate it to a completion condition if your course is fully self-paced, and put the same wording everywhere a buyer might look for it before or after they pay.