Internship with pay for students: how much interns earn and how to find paid roles

How much does an internship with pay give?

A Ministry of Corporate Affairs release carried by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on 22 April 2026 says PM Internship Scheme interns are paid no less than ₹9,000 a month, though the portal's FAQ still quotes the pilot's ₹5,000. National Apprenticeship Training Scheme (NATS) apprentices get a stipend at the minimum rate prescribed for their category under the Apprentices Act, 1961, which since 11 September 2025 is ₹12,300 a month for a graduate apprentice. On listing boards, each employer names its own figure and its own unit.

Those are different kinds of number. The first is a scheme amount, the second a legal floor that varies by category, and the listing figures are offers that change every day. A stipend is sometimes called an intern salary; whichever word a page uses, the table keeps each figure in the unit its source uses. The two listing rows are single pages read on 25 September 2026, not averages.

Route	What the source states	Unit as written	Source, date
PM Internship Scheme (pilot phase)	At least ₹9,000 (the pilot FAQ says ₹5,000)	Monthly	PIB release, 22 April 2026; PMIS FAQ page
NATS apprenticeship	Minimum rates for each category: ₹12,300 for graduate apprentices, ₹10,900 for technician apprentices, ₹9,600 for technician (vocational) apprentices	Per month	NATS About page; Gazette notification G.S.R. 610(E), in force 11 September 2025
Ministry of External Affairs internship	INR 10,000, described as an honorarium "to defray basic costs"	Per month	MEA internship portal, read 25 September 2026
Work from home listings, first page	38 paid listings, monthly figures from "₹ 1,000 - 1,100 /month" up to "₹ 25,000 - 40,000 /month", and 12 marked "Unpaid"	36 per month, one per week, one lump sum	Internshala, 25 September 2026
Chennai listings, first page	50 paid listings, monthly figures from "₹ 2,500 - 9,000 /month" up to "₹ 40,000 - 45,000 /month"; none marked "Unpaid"	49 per month, one lump sum	Internshala, 25 September 2026

Read the listing rows as the spread on one day. A figure from a board is an offer from one employer for one role, so compare a listing against the others in your own field and city.

What does the PM Internship Scheme pay, and who can apply?

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs runs this scheme and places interns with large companies. Under a PIB release dated 22 April 2026, each intern's monthly payment is no lower than ₹9,000, applicants may be anywhere from 18 to 25 years old, and students in the final year of an undergraduate or postgraduate course now qualify.

The scheme's FAQ page was written for the pilot and quotes ₹5,000 monthly for a year-long placement, open at 21 to 24. Before you count on any amount, look it up on pminternship.mca.gov.in.

Final-year applicants hand in an NOC, a No Objection Certificate from the college, stating that the internship leaves their academic requirements unaffected. The release says the scheme's older eligibility conditions still apply to them. Those criteria have their own page: the guide to PM Internship Scheme eligibility goes through them.

The scheme is still a pilot. The 22 April release said the third round of the pilot phase was underway, with companies posting opportunities on an ongoing basis, and that more than 300 companies had taken part in the pilot. The official PMIS portal says the scheme is meant for young people "not in full time employment".

Two cautions for a student reading older pages. The April change names final-year students, so a first-year or second-year student should check eligibility before planning around this money. And the April release does not say how the ₹9,000 is shared between government and company, so check any split you read elsewhere against the portal.

What does an apprenticeship under NATS pay?

A NATS apprentice is paid a stipend tied to the "minimum rates" the Apprentices Act, 1961 sets, category by category, and half of it is reimbursable to the employer from the Government of India, according to the scheme's About page. The page calls NATS a one year programme in one place and gives training a duration of 6 months to 1 year in another.

The same page says the scheme covers graduate, diploma and vocational certificate holders, in the categories Graduate, Graduate Sandwich, Technician, Technician Sandwich and Technician Vocational. It lists Technical and Engineering disciplines and says the scheme "shall be extended" in future to Management, Commerce, Humanities and Arts. That is a stated plan, so a BA or BCom student should confirm on the portal whether their discipline is open before applying.

For the amount, G.S.R. 610(E), the gazette notification of the Apprenticeship (Amendment) Rules, 2025, set new minimum monthly stipends from 11 September 2025. Graduate or degree apprentices get at least ₹12,300 a month, technician apprentices and diploma holders ₹10,900, and technician (vocational) apprentices ₹9,600; the lowest category, school pass-outs of classes 5 to 9, gets ₹6,800.

The floor goes up 10% in an apprentice's second year and another 15% in the third. An employer may pay more, so read the rate for your own seat on the NATS portal on the day you apply.

A PIB release of 26 May 2025 counts over 5.23 lakh apprentices enrolled under NATS in FY 2024-25, a scheme it describes as aimed at graduates and diploma holders.

Which government internships pay a stipend?

Some ministries run their own internships with a fixed monthly sum. The Ministry of External Affairs internship portal says "An honorarium of INR 10,000 per month will be paid to each intern to defray basic costs". The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy page says "A stipend amount of Rs.15,000/- per month will be provided for physical internships only".

The MEA programme is open to Indian citizens with a graduate degree, and to final-year students whose curriculum makes an internship compulsory in that year. The age limit is 25, reckoned at 31 December in the year of internship. The ministry takes interns in two six-month terms, April to September and October to March, with a maximum of 30 interns a term, and engages each intern for one to three months.

MEA meets the cost of one to-and-fro air journey to Delhi from the intern's home state or college, up to what an economy ticket from the state capital to Delhi costs. The intern pays for a room and meals in Delhi, so set the honorarium against rent before you apply.

The MNRE page offers internships to 20 students or persons a year, preferably for 2 to 6 months. The page shows "Last Updated: January 23, 2023", so read the guidelines PDF linked from that page for the current terms. The two ministries name different sums, so read each ministry's own notice.

What stipend units appear on listings: per month, per week, lump sum?

The first page of Internshala's work from home internships on 25 September 2026 used four formats. Thirty-six listings gave a monthly figure or range, one gave "₹ 1,000 - 1,500 /week", one gave "₹ 1,500 - 15,000 lump sum", and 12 said "Unpaid". Of the 36 monthly listings, five named a single amount and 31 a range.

A weekly figure and a monthly figure with the same digits are different sums; four weeks of ₹1,000 is ₹4,000. A lump sum covers the whole engagement, so it means nothing per month until you know how long the internship runs. A range means the employer decides where in it you land, and you can ask on what basis before you accept.

The words around the number matter as much as the number. Stipend, lump sum and incentive are not the same promise, and the guide to the money words on an internship listing separates them.

Before you accept any paid role, ask for five things in the offer letter: the amount, the unit, the duration, the date payment is made, and any condition attached, such as attendance. The AICTE National Internship Portal says of its own postings that stipends are stated before you start and paid into your bank account.

Does "paid" on an internship page always mean you get paid?

No. On Skill India Digital Hub, a government portal, the internships listing puts the options "Free" and "Paid" under a filter headed "Internship Fee", and each card carries one of those two tags. On that page the word describes what the internship costs you.

Read the heading above a filter or tag, not the word alone. A role that pays you names an amount and a unit, such as "/month" or "lump sum". A programme that charges you names a fee. Where a page could mean either, ask in writing which way the money moves before you register.

Are work from home internships paid less often?

On one day's snapshot, the remote page had more unpaid listings: on 25 September 2026, 12 of the 50 remote listings on Internshala's first page were marked "Unpaid", against none of the 50 on the first page for Chennai the same day. Two pages cannot give a rate for the whole market, so if you want a paid internship work from home, check each listing rather than the category.

The remote page's title that day counted 2330 work from home internships. On its first page, 14 of the 50 listings had a lower figure of ₹9,000 a month or above, which is the monthly minimum in the PM Internship Scheme's April 2026 release. On the Chennai first page, 21 of 50 did. Both counts will have moved by the time you read this.

Online paid internships have their own trade-offs on hours, supervision and proof of work, which the guide to work from home internships for students covers.

An unpaid listing and a listing that charges you are different things. If a role asks for a registration, training or kit fee before any stipend is paid, read the guide to internship fee scams before you pay anything.

What does an internship with stipend in Chennai show on one listing page?

Internshala's Chennai page on 25 September 2026 carried the figure 2564 in its title. Its first page of 50 listings showed 49 monthly figures, one "₹ 15,000 lump sum" and no listing marked "Unpaid". The monthly figures ran from "₹ 2,500 - 9,000 /month" at the low end to "₹ 40,000 - 45,000 /month" at the high end.

Of the 49 monthly figures, 47 were ranges and two were single amounts. The single highest listing sat well above the rest of the page, where the next highest monthly range topped out at ₹35,000.

For a student in Chennai, the useful move is to filter the board by your own field and read each listing in full. Where the duration is missing, ask for it before comparing a lump sum with a monthly figure. The page counts change daily, so date any figure you write down.

Is an unpaid internship allowed?

Under AICTE's model, yes. The All India Council for Technical Education's AICTE Internship Policy: Guidelines and Procedures, its model guidelines for internships at degree and diploma level, allows an internship to be "compensated, non-compensated" or paid for part of its length. The policy's own formats carry an "Internship is:" line with Paid and Unpaid as the two choices. For a course under those guidelines, an unpaid internship is still an internship.

The same policy wants every internship to be meaningful and to benefit both sides, intern and organisation. Whether a particular employer may lawfully use unpaid interns is a different matter, which the guide to the legality of unpaid internships answers.

The AICTE Internship Policy is AICTE's model for degree and diploma internships. A university outside AICTE's remit may have its own rules on paid and unpaid placements, so your department's notice is the one that settles credit.

Which route fits you: scheme, apprenticeship, listing platform or a non-profit's own programme?

A final-year student aged 18 to 25 can weigh the PM Internship Scheme; an engineering or diploma graduate can weigh NATS; a graduate who meets a ministry's own conditions can weigh a ministry programme; anyone else starts with listing boards or a programme run by a non-profit. Judge each route to a paid internship for students on three criteria: how the pay is set and in what unit, who is eligible, and whether the work builds subject-specific technical skills.

• PM Internship Scheme. Pay is set by the scheme: at least ₹9,000 a month, per the April 2026 release, while the pilot-era FAQ shows ₹5,000. Eligibility is ages 18 to 25, with final-year students admitted from April 2026 on an NOC. Skills depend on the company and role you are placed in. It loses on eligibility, because the April 2026 change does not name first-year or second-year students.
• NATS apprenticeship. Pay is a stipend at the minimum rate for your category under the Apprentices Act, ₹12,300 a month for a graduate apprentice since 11 September 2025, half of it reimbursable to the employer by the Government of India. Eligibility covers graduate, diploma and vocational categories in technical and engineering disciplines. Training happens on the job, in your field. It loses on eligibility for arts, commerce and humanities students, whose disciplines the NATS page lists as future extensions.
• Ministry internship programmes. Pay is set in each ministry's own notice: a ₹10,000 monthly honorarium at MEA, and Rs.15,000 a month at MNRE for physical internships only. Eligibility is set programme by programme, and MEA's stops at age 25. Skills come from work attached to the ministry's divisions. It loses on intake: MEA caps it at 30 interns a term and MNRE at 20 a year.
• Listing platforms such as Internshala. Pay is set by each employer in its own unit, and on 25 September 2026 one first page held monthly, weekly, lump sum and "Unpaid" listings side by side. Eligibility is set listing by listing, and so are the skills; the guide to finding a first internship as a fresher sets out the other ways in. It loses on predictability: two listings for the same role can differ in the unit as well as the amount.
• Going straight to a non-profit. Pledge A Smile Foundation (the publisher of this guide) runs an online internship that is open to students of any stream and free to apply to and to do. Interns own a weekly target, send a weekly report and get feedback on it. There is a performance-based stipend and a certificate on completion. It does not teach subject-specific technical skills.

If more than one route is open to you, keep a dated note of each offer's amount, unit and duration, so you compare like with like.