Credit score
How to check your CIBIL score free — and the three other free reports you are entitled to
Checking your CIBIL score free is an RBI entitlement — and it runs to four free reports a year, one per bureau, not one in total. Where each link sits.
You are entitled to one free full credit report a year from each credit bureau registered with RBI — four of them, so four free reports a year, not one. TransUnion CIBIL’s sits at cibil.com/freecibilscore, and RBI requires every bureau to carry that link on its own homepage, so you never need to go through a third party to get it.
The part almost nobody mentions: the entitlement covers only people who already have a credit score with that bureau. If you have never borrowed, there is nothing to claim, and no service can conjure a score for you.
Where the free report comes from, and why there are four
The entitlement sits at para 21(7) of the Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Companies) Directions, 2025, dated 28 November 2025 and displayed as updated as on 1 July 2026: a bureau “shall provide access in an electronic format, upon request and after due authentication of the requester, to one Free Full Credit Report (FFCR) including credit score, once, at any time, during a year (January – December), to individuals whose credit score is available with them.”
The window is the calendar year, January to December — not a rolling twelve months from your last pull. And the duty sits on each bureau individually. Four credit information companies hold a certificate of registration from RBI: CRIF High Mark, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion CIBIL.
Para 21(7)(i) settles what you get: the same contents as the most detailed report that bureau sells to lenders, including the credit score. It is not a teaser version. Para 21(7)(ii) then requires each bureau to display the free-report link “on the homepage itself”, a duty introduced by RBI’s 26 October 2023 customer-service circular.
How to check your CIBIL score free online, bureau by bureau
All four URLs below returned a live page on 22 August 2026.
| Bureau | Free access page | What the bureau’s own page says |
|---|---|---|
| TransUnion CIBIL | cibil.com/freecibilscore | Free score and report “available only once a calendar year”; someone who claimed it on or after 1 January 2026 is next eligible on 1 January 2027 |
| Experian India | consumer.experian.in/ECV-OLN/view/angular/ | Its consumer FAQ states you can access an “unlimited number of free credit reports throughout the year” on the Experian website |
| Equifax India | equifax.co.in/support/free-credit-report/ | “One FREE credit report per year and available with subscription plans”; a documented offline fallback exists if the online route fails |
| CRIF High Mark | cir.crifhighmark.com/free-credit-report/freeflow | One free credit report per year, pulled with name, PAN and registered mobile number |
Experian’s unlimited claim sits well above RBI’s floor, and it is Experian’s own statement rather than a regulatory guarantee, so treat it as true on the day you read it. The 300–900 scale is required by RBI; the bands laid over it are not. TransUnion CIBIL publishes none beyond noting that above 700 is generally considered good, while CRIF High Mark publishes its own table — what the CIBIL score range actually means works through that asymmetry.
Equifax documents a paper route for when the online one has failed and a complaint has already been raised: its credit report request form with ID and address proof, and a stated seven days to share the report.
CRIF High Mark needs care. Its homepage carries a “GET FREE SCORE NOW” button that leads to the freeflow address above, and two other buttons that lead into a registration flow carrying a plan parameter. Use the freeflow link, and if any sign-up flow asks for card details to finish, back out and use another bureau. No bureau commits to a delivery time: RBI sets no deadline, and only Equifax publishes a turnaround, only for its offline route.
Who has no free report to claim
The wording of para 21(7) is narrow: “individuals whose credit score is available with them.” Earlier RBI instruments used the wider phrase credit history; the narrowing to score dates to 28 November 2025.
TransUnion CIBIL states the same limit in operational terms: a CIBIL report “is not available for those without prior credit or enquiries”, and a CIBIL score “is available for individuals who have had an active loan or credit card within the last 36 months, as reported to CIBIL.” CIBIL also publishes a minimum depth — an individual should have more than six months of credit information to be eligible for a score. So a first-time borrower has nothing to fetch, and neither does someone whose only account opened last month or whose last card closed four years ago. That is the system working as designed, not a fault to escalate.
It is also the point at which people get sold things, so keep CIBIL’s own sentence to hand: “Consumers are not required to pay a fee for improving their CIBIL Score, rectifying discrepancies or updating their credit information.” With no score, the route is to build a reported borrowing record — how to improve your CIBIL score covers it, a credit card against a fixed deposit is the usual way in when no issuer will start you unsecured, and a personal loan with a low CIBIL score sets out what is realistically available before that record exists.
What a “free score” from a bank, an app or a comparison site is doing
An entity that is not your lender pulls your file under one of two regimes. One is registration as a Specified User: for the class RBI addresses at para 14(4)(v) of the CIC Directions, enquiries “shall be in the nature of soft enquiry” and “shall not be tagged to the SU in the Credit Information Report of the individual”. A Specified User may not pass on what it receives — sharing credit information with anyone else, including credit institutions, breaches section 17(4) of CICRA. The other regime is your own consent, where para 24(2) requires the report to be used “solely for the limited end use as agreed” and deleted when that purpose ends.
Whether a bank showing you a score inside its own app is pulling as your lender or as a Specified User is not something either side discloses. The plain reading is that the free score is the front door and the loan or card offer beside it is why the door is open — so read the consent screen, and remember that going to the bureau direct needs none of it. If you bank with SBI, what an SBI credit score check actually involves sets out what has been announced, and what neither the bank nor the bureau has published.
The alert you should be getting when your report is pulled
One obligation is narrower than it sounds. Para 37(i) of the CIC Directions: “CIC shall send alerts through SMS/ email to customers when their CIR is accessed by the SUs, wherever mobile number/ email ID details of the customers are available.” A second sentence adds that the alert goes out only when the enquiry actually reflects in the customer’s report.
Three conditions have to line up: the access must be by a Specified User rather than by anyone who can see your file, the bureau must hold your mobile number or email — a concrete reason to complete your contact details when you claim the free report — and the enquiry must be one that appears in your report. An untagged enquiry triggers nothing.
The lender’s side carries a separate duty, about reporting rather than access: for a commercial bank, para 34(1)(i) of the Commercial Banks Credit Information Reporting Directions requires an SMS or email alert when it submits default or days-past-due information to the bureaus. Which text binds your lender depends on what your lender is — RBI issued nine lender-class instruments on 28 November 2025, and the Commercial Banks set expressly excludes small finance banks, payment banks and local area banks. Both duties have been live since 26 April 2024.
An alert about an access you did not initiate is an early warning of identity misuse, and worth acting on the day it arrives.
Why last week’s payment is not on the report
Because lenders report in batches, and the batch calendar changed on 1 July 2026. Under para 10(2) of the Commercial Banks Directions, a commercial bank submits credit information as on the 9th, 16th, 23rd and last day of the month, with the full month-end file due at the bureaus by the 5th of the following month and incremental accounts within four calendar days for the other three dates. That replaced the fortnightly regime that ran from 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2026. Those dates bind a commercial bank; an NBFC, a small finance bank or a co-operative bank reports under its own class Direction of the same date. Bureau help pages have not all caught up — Equifax India’s FAQ still described fortnightly reporting as current when we read it on 22 August 2026, so do not take a bureau’s timing page as authority.
Equifax’s own FAQ puts the consequence plainly: “your most recent payment will not reflect in real-time. It will appear on your Equifax report after your lender submits their next scheduled data file to us.” With no active credit facilities, the report will not change at all, because there is no new activity to record.
A second delay is rarely visible. If a lender’s file is rejected, the bureau shares the rejection report within three calendar days and the lender re-submits by the next reporting reference date — so a correction can genuinely take until the next cycle, and chasing it in week one achieves nothing.
How to dispute an error on your report
A dispute should not cost you anything, on CIBIL’s own wording quoted above, and there is one 30-day clock rather than several running in parallel. RBI writes the split itself, at para 41(1) Explanation (iii) of the CIC Directions: reading CICRA 2005 and the CIC Rules 2006 together gives the lender and the bureau “collectively, an overall limit of 30 days”, and “in effect, this would mean that a CI would get 21 days and a CIC would effectively get the remainder of nine days for complete resolution of the complaint.” Equifax explains why the lender is on the critical path at all: a bureau cannot modify anything in its database without confirmation from the institution that reported it.
If you quote the paragraph number in writing, quote the right one: the same Explanation was re-issued on 28 November 2025 at para 41(1) in the bureau-facing CIC Directions and at para 35(1) in the lender-side Credit Information Reporting Directions. Use the instrument that governs the entity you are complaining about.
If the complaint is not resolved within 30 calendar days of the date you first filed it, you are entitled to ₹100 for every calendar day of delay, paid into your bank account within five working days of resolution. RBI sets a separate trigger for the bureau’s own liability: failing to resolve within 30 calendar days of being informed, despite the lender having furnished the corrected information within 21 days.
Two limits on the money, and the first catches most people. The compensation attaches to delayed correction of wrong data. Para 41(8)(iii) of the CIC Directions expressly excludes disputes about the computation of the score or the scoring model, so a complaint that says only “my score is too low” earns nothing however long it drags. Nothing is payable either where the matter is already before a consumer commission, court or tribunal. A free corrected copy after the fix is a best practice a bureau “may” follow, not something you can demand.
When the Ombudsman becomes available
Waiting out the 30 days is one route to the RBI Ombudsman, not the only one. Under RB-IOS 2026 any one of three things opens the door: the complaint is rejected wholly or in part; or you are not satisfied with the reply you did get; or no reply arrives within 30 days of the regulated entity receiving it. A refusal on day three is enough — you do not have to sit out the month first. The filing deadline is then 90 days, running from the later of that response deadline expiring and the lender’s last communication to you.
One caveat decides whether the route is open to you at all: RB-IOS 2026 does not cover housing finance companies, or non-deposit-taking NBFCs below ₹100 crore in assets. If the entity that reported the disputed item sits outside the scheme, what you have instead is the bureau’s own published grievance escalation. If a declined application sent you here, what to do after a rejection covers the sequence.
Which free report to pull first, and when
Start with Experian, the only bureau claiming unlimited free access on its own site, which makes it the one you can check repeatedly at no cost. CIBIL next, because it is the report most Indian lenders and most readers actually mean — and claiming it spends your only free CIBIL pull until 1 January, so use it when you need the report rather than out of curiosity. Then Equifax and CRIF High Mark, spaced through the year.
Paid is worth considering only after that, and only inside an active dispute or while shopping for a large loan. These were the published consumer prices as at August 2026:
| Plan | Price | Period |
|---|---|---|
| CIBIL Basic | ₹699 | 1 month |
| CIBIL Standard | ₹999 | 6 months |
| CIBIL Premium | ₹1,499 | 12 months |
| CIBIL Premium Duo (2 users) | ₹1,999 | 12 months |
| CIBIL Starter | ₹118 | single purchase — the score is not included |
| Equifax single report | ₹100 | one-time |
| Equifax report with score and simulation | ₹450 | 3 months |
| Equifax report with score and simulation | ₹900 | 12 months |
Equifax’s ₹900 a year against CIBIL’s ₹1,499 is the comparison to make before subscribing to the more familiar name, and the ₹118 CIBIL Starter Plan is the one to avoid buying by accident. CRIF High Mark’s and Experian’s consumer prices are not listed here rather than estimated.
Whichever you pull, do it before you apply for anything, not after; that is Experian’s own advice.
Common questions
How many free credit reports can I get in a year in India?
Four, not one. RBI places the obligation on each credit information company separately, so every bureau registered in India owes you one Free Full Credit Report including the score, once during the January–December calendar year. Claiming CIBIL's does not use up Experian's, Equifax's or CRIF High Mark's. Experian goes further and states on its own consumer FAQ that you can access an unlimited number of free credit reports through the year on its website — that is Experian's own commitment rather than a regulatory floor, and it could withdraw it.
Does checking my own CIBIL score reduce it?
No, and both bureaus that address the question on their own sites say so plainly. TransUnion CIBIL states that checking your own CIBIL score does not impact it, and recommends checking at least once every month. CRIF High Mark calls a self-check a soft inquiry that does not affect your credit rating, and distinguishes it from the hard inquiries lenders make when you apply for credit. The thing that shows up in your file is the run of lender enquiries, not the times you looked.
Why does the bureau say no score is available for me?
Because the free entitlement covers only individuals whose credit score is already available with that bureau, and a score has to be built from reported borrowing. TransUnion CIBIL's own terms state that a CIBIL report is not available for those without prior credit or enquiries, and that a score is available for individuals who have had an active loan or credit card within the last 36 months as reported to CIBIL. A first-time borrower has nothing to fetch — that is not an error and no fee will fix it.
Will all four bureaus show me the same score?
Almost certainly not. Equifax India explains it directly: while all credit bureaus use the same 300–900 range, an individual is likely to have different scores at each bureau, because each one uses its own proprietary scoring model. Lenders also do not all subscribe to the same bureau, so an error sitting on one file may be absent from another. That is the practical argument for pulling more than one report rather than treating a single number as your credit standing.
What happens if the free report shows something wrong?
Raise a dispute — TransUnion CIBIL states that rectifying discrepancies carries no fee — and one 30-day clock starts. RBI describes the split itself: the credit institution that reported the item gets 21 days, and the bureau gets the remaining nine. If the complaint is not resolved within 30 calendar days of when you first filed it, you are entitled to compensation of ₹100 per calendar day, credited to your bank account within five working days of resolution. There is no compensation for a score you merely think is too low.
Sources
Rates and rules on this page were read directly from the following sources on the dates shown. Figures change — if you are about to act on one, confirm it at the source.
- Reserve Bank of India (Credit Information Companies) Directions, 2025 (Updated as on July 01, 2026)
- Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks – Credit Information Reporting) Directions, 2025
- Strengthening of customer service rendered by Credit Information Companies and Credit Institutions
- Free CIBIL Score and Report
- Check Your Free Credit Score & Report
- Consumer FAQ
- Free Credit Report | Support
- Select Your CIBIL Subscription Plan
- FAQs – Understand Your Credit Score and Report
- CRIF High Mark homepage
- FAQ
- My Personal Credit Report