A subscription-free soundbox for online sales

What is a soundbox, and what does it cost?

A soundbox is the small speaker on an Indian shop counter that says "Rs 250 received" when a customer scans the QR code. Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and Razorpay all make one, and between them they have made a box that announces money normal across India. The catch is the business model: a SIM inside, a monthly rental deducted from your settlements, and a box that hears only its own company's QR. Perchi Matrix is the desk version of the same idea for online sales: a 24x8 LED display that shows every Razorpay, Stripe, Shopify or Gumroad payment the moment it lands, keeps today's total, and needs no SIM and no rental. Here is what the soundboxes cost, checked on 18 September 2026.

Device	Up front	Recurring	Announces	Source
Paytm Soundbox	INR 1 (marked down from INR 499)	INR 125 a month, deducted from settlements; INR 250 to deactivate	Payments on the Paytm QR	paytmmall.com listing; rental terms via a third-party guide
PhonePe SmartSpeaker	INR 318 setup (monthly plan) or INR 999 (zero-rental plan)	INR 125 a month, or INR 25 a month on the zero-rental plan	Payments on the PhonePe QR	PhonePe merchant help, search snippet; the page itself did not load
Google Pay SoundPod	INR 499 (monthly plan), INR 249 (half-yearly plan) or INR 1,499 (yearly plan)	INR 125 a month, INR 750 per half year, or nothing further on the yearly plan	Successful payments on the Google Pay QR only	Google Pay merchant support page
Razorpay Bharat Soundbox	Quote only; INR 450 to 850 reported	Not stated	Payments on the Razorpay UPI QR	razorpay.com; YourStory and Medianama reports

Over a year, a Paytm or Google Pay monthly plan is INR 1,500 in rental alone; PhonePe's zero-rental plan is INR 999 up front and INR 300 a year after that. Reasonable for a shop that takes a hundred QR scans a day; the wrong model for someone whose money arrives through a payment gateway on a website.

What can a soundbox not do?

Three things, and they are the things an online business needs.

It does not hear online sales. A Paytm box announces Paytm QR scans; a Razorpay Bharat Soundbox announces Razorpay QR scans at the counter. A Razorpay payment on your website, a Stripe subscription from abroad, a Shopify order at 2 am or a Gumroad download is invisible to every box on that table.

It hears one company's QR. A counter that takes PhonePe and Paytm needs two boxes, two SIMs and two rentals, and there is no box for Stripe at all. Shopify's own counter, made by Smiirl, is listed at USD 99 and USD 149 on shopify.supply and showed "Notify me when in stock" on 18 September 2026; the same unit sells for USD 459 and USD 629 on smiirl.com. The software route is a Shopify app such as Cha-Ching at USD 3.99 to 9.99 a month or PingBell at USD 30 to 75 a month, which is the rental problem again.

It is loud on purpose. Razorpay's Bharat Soundbox specifies a 110 dB speaker: right for a busy shop, wrong for a desk in a shared flat, a co-working space or a bedroom office. Most online sellers already get the gateway's push notification on their phone; what they lack is a glanceable, silent, always-on number that does not live on the phone.

What is the desk version?

Perchi Matrix is a connected LED desk display: 24x8 RGB pixels (192 LEDs) at launch, driven by an ESP32-S3 running Perchi OS, paired from a browser in under a minute with no app to install. Its store has 70+ apps, and four of them are sales announcers:

• Razorpay payments shows "Rs 499 RECEIVED" the instant Razorpay captures a payment, including UPI, and keeps today's total, reset at midnight. Setup is one webhook URL. See the Razorpay payments app.
• Stripe sales today shows today's revenue and sales count with a cha-ching animation per sale and reconciles against Stripe every 15 minutes. See the Stripe sales app.
• Shopify orders today shows today's orders and revenue with an effect per order. It is in beta with Shopify client credentials today; the Shopify App Store version is waiting on Shopify's review. See the Shopify orders app.
• Gumroad sales today shows today's sales and revenue with an API key. Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee and Patreon do the same for creators, RevenueCat MRR for app businesses; all are in the app library.

Webhook events travel over a signed WebSocket and light up on the display in under a second; a celebration is one of 14 pixel effects, from cha-ching and confetti to fireworks, and milestones ("every INR 10,000 today") fire on their own. Numbers format the Indian way when you want them to, so INR 1,50,000 reads as 1.5L. Every app carries a freshness badge, and an expired value is drawn as two dashes, never as a stale total pretending to be live. If you also own a Perchi, the desk companion with the OLED face, the same payment arrives there as a moment: the face goes into party mode, then a small card with the amount slides in beside it, as described on the Perchi page.

How do you set it up in three steps?

Razorpay is the quickest because it needs no API key.

1. In the MyPerchi dashboard, install Razorpay payments on your display. The dashboard gives you a webhook URL.
2. In the Razorpay dashboard, add that URL as a webhook for the payment.captured event with a signing secret, and paste the same secret into the app's settings so every event can be verified.
3. Send a test delivery from the Razorpay side. The display shows the amount and the dashboard's delivery log shows the event as received and processed; deliveries stay in the log for 7 days.

Stripe takes one more step: create a restricted API key, paste it in, and add the webhook URL from the Stripe preset. Shopify uses client credentials from your store's admin while the App Store version is in review. Every one of the 15 provider presets verifies incoming events with the provider's own signing secret, so a forged request is refused; the presets are listed on the developer page.

On the safety question people ask first: the display is an inbound endpoint. A Razorpay webhook is a notification that a payment was captured; the device receives the amount and the time and shows them. Nothing on the display or in the dashboard can refund, capture or move a payment, and keys you do enter (Stripe, Gumroad) are stored encrypted per record and never shown again.

Why is it silent by design?

Perchi Matrix has no speaker. "Cha-ching" on it is a pixel animation, and that is a decision, not an omission. People who want a sales counter on a desk usually share the room: a partner, flatmates, colleagues, a sleeping child. A box that shouts every sale is switched off inside a week; a display that flashes and settles back to today's total stays on all year. If a room needs an audible alert, keep the payment app's own phone notification on; the display is the silent, always-visible layer. Quiet hours turn the display off on a schedule, and a celebration that lands during quiet hours is not shown, so a 3 am Stripe payment does not light up the bedroom.

What does it cost over a year?

A soundbox on a monthly plan costs INR 1,500 a year in rental before the device, and a Shopify notifier app costs USD 48 to 900 a year. Perchi Matrix costs its launch price, printed on the pricing page with GST included, and then nothing: no rental, no SIM, no monthly line. You never need a subscription to use your display; optional plans exist only for studios running many displays. It plugs into a 5 V supply, 3 A or more recommended for the 24x8 size.

Where Perchi Matrix fits, and where it does not

It fits an online business: a Razorpay checkout on your own site, Stripe for customers abroad, a Shopify or Gumroad store, a creator with tips and patrons, or all of those on one display, each with its own daily total in a playlist of up to 32 apps. It does not replace a soundbox at a counter that takes Paytm, PhonePe or Google Pay QR scans, which announce through their own boxes; keep that box for the counter. It needs Wi-Fi and a 5 V supply, so it is not portable, and on 24x8 the normal font fits about four characters, so a long amount scrolls. The Shopify App Store and Stripe App versions are still in provider review. And we are in the reservation phase: nothing is charged until your unit is bench-tested, and the current estimated wait is on the reserve page.

Sources

Checked on 18 September 2026.

• Paytm Soundbox rental plan (paytmmall.com) and a third-party guide to its rental terms
• PhonePe SmartSpeaker charges (search snippet; the page returned an error when opened)
• Google Pay SoundPod plans
• Razorpay Bharat Soundbox and YourStory on its reported price
• Shopify Counter on shopify.supply and the same counter on smiirl.com
• Cha-Ching and PingBell on the Shopify App Store

Questions

Does it announce in-store QR payments like a soundbox?

No. Perchi Matrix shows payments that arrive through an online gateway you connect: Razorpay (any payment Razorpay captures, including UPI), Stripe, Shopify, Gumroad and the creator platforms. A QR scan that goes to a Paytm, PhonePe or Google Pay QR is announced by that company's own soundbox; Perchi Matrix shows only what reaches a webhook you connect.

Does it need a SIM card or a monthly rental?

No. Perchi Matrix connects over your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and plugs into a 5 V supply; there is no SIM, no rental and no deactivation fee. You pay the launch price once and never need a subscription to use your display; the optional plans for studios running many displays do not gate showing your own sales.

Can one display show Razorpay, Stripe and Shopify together?

Yes. A display runs a playlist of up to 32 apps, so Razorpay payments, Stripe sales today and Shopify orders today can all be installed at once, each with its own daily total and celebration effect. If you want one number, the no-code builder can add fields from different apps into a single figure, and the desk pet app cheers every sale from all of them.