FUCK PW
On YouTube, education was free. On the app, a subscription. At the refund desk, an upgrade. This site keeps the receipts.
scroll for the case file ▾
01: the free channel
The paywall was never arithmetic
"We build communities over social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook… and then we monetise them through our app. We have not found the need to spend exorbitant amounts on marketing and advertising." Prateek Maheshwari, co-founder, Business Today, 11 Sep 20238
Per paying student: 22.85B views over 4.46M paid users is about 5,124 free views sold before a rupee of subscription920. The classroom was monetised long before the checkout.
| Channel | Subs | Lifetime views | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| @PhysicsWallah | 14.4m | 3,235,567,771 | 2014 |
| @PW-Foundation | 6.76m | 2,391,547,074 | 2020 |
| @PW-NEETWallah | 4.88m | 2,629,824,317 | 2021 |
| @PW-JEEWallah | 3.4m | 2,057,781,465 | 2021 |
| @NCERTWallahClass12PW | 2.95m | 887,573,307 | 2021 |
| @prachand-neet | 1.36m | 502,809,980 | 2023 |
| @Class10Udaan | 1.35m | 331,649,494 | 2023 |
| @pwudayclass11th | 1.27m | 277,148,518 | 2024 |
| @CollegeWallahbyPWSkills | 1.09m | 160,573,259 | 2022 |
| @Class9-NEEV | 995k | 208,983,953 | 2023 |
| @pwnursingwallah | 478k | 77,550,785 | 2023 |
| @pw-artswallah | 234k | 45,427,280 | 2023 |
Hand-summed: ~39.2M subscribers, ~12.8B views, worth ₹768–2,305 cr of ad value (ESTIMATE). 8.8 subscribers for every paying student: the audience dwarfs the paying list9.
Their own pages run the mechanics: batches launch as "First Class FREE on YouTube"20, and a free Neev Series sits one click from paid NEEV24. The syllabus behind the demo is the subscription. As for "not found the need": FY25 ads ₹276 cr, IPO earmark ₹710 cr910.
| What the ad buys you | Tier seen | Price shown |
|---|---|---|
| NEEV 2027 (Class 9) / Udaan 2027 (Class 10) | Regular | ₹2,200 (MRP shown ₹4,500) |
| Lakshya NEET 2027 | Offer tier | ₹4,800 |
| UPSC Prarambh 2.0 | Early-bird | ₹24,999 |
| Udaan Power Batch 2027 | Top tier | ₹45,518/yr (₹54,999 total) |
| Lakshya Power Batch JEE 2027 | Top tier | ₹59,003 (MRP shown ₹91,231) |
The affordability story starts at ₹2,200 and ends at ₹59,003 behind a ₹91,231 strikethrough22.
The machine also fills the search engines: pw.live's news sitemap alone lists 3,888 pages of exam-recruitment SEO, fetched 22 Oct 202664. Attention first; the syllabus is the subscription.
the teacher cut
- PW's own flagship batch page lists Nitin Raghuvansi, Aradhya Awasthi, Mohit Kumar, Abhijeet Panwar, Sunil Kataria, Shivam, Sikander Rahamani, Ram Chandra, Sudhir Singh as faculty. Nine teachers, one paid batch22.
- Their personal channels, hand-checked the same day: the biggest of the set runs ~830 subscribers, most sit under 300, several in single digits56.
- Even the famous 2023 exits, Tarun Kumar, Manish Dubey, Sarvesh Dixit (EX-teachers, src-41), never built an audience: the Sankalp Bharat home counts ~735, Manish Dubey's ~10456.
- The pattern: the teacher is the product and never the owner. Ratings, vote-outs, exits19. The 39.2M belongs to the company, not to any face on the payroll.
the ask: alakh, flip the switch
You own 39.2M subscribers on the 12 pillars alone. Your catalogue prints ₹1,371–4,113 cr of ad value, up to 1.4x a year's revenue2025. Teach every batch, in full, free, on YouTube, and you still out-earn the toll booth. The day you do it, we retire the word extortion from this site. Until then the receipts stay up.
Their side of the ledger: "Our courses start from between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000… we wanted to create for the 80 per cent"8. Fair: ₹2,200 beats the ₹1 lakh bracket. The critique starts where the ladder hits ₹59,00322.
and the ask for students
Read a buy page twice before you pay it. If one burned you anyway: file the receipt. Dates, amounts, mail subjects. The boring details win, and verified ones go on the public record.
02: the thesis
Three versions of one company
What they say
"Quality Education should be free for Every kid of India", Alakh Pandey told the Prime Minister, 15 Aug 20266. Also: "never become business wallah"34, "every penny spent at PW will be spent for student welfare"7. He calls the free era now "a marginal amount of money"7.
03: receipt № 001
Two U's. One classroom. ₹2,300 held hostage.
-
22:59, Oct 6, 2024
The page said Class 11: UDAY 3.0 2025. Clicked; the page that opened wanted money for UDAAN RELOADED 2025, Class 10. Late night, the check was one letter: both start with U. Paid.
-
23:39
The 4-hour promise. Ticket filed at night. Auto-reply: "a personalized solution within 4 hours via email or Call during our working hours (9 AM–10 PM)".
-
10:33, Oct 7
The refusal. "We will not process your batch shift request as per our Batch Shift policy." The one door offered: buy the right batch at full price, then PW will "fully refund your previous batch money". Previous batch access removed. Offer dies in 30 days.
-
21:51, Oct 7
The float begins. ₹2,300 out: ₹460 registration + ₹1,840.20 for UDAY 3.0 2025, invoice on file. In the same day's mail: "please refund the money as soon as possible as I have an urgency of that money."
-
08:42, Oct 8
"Please wait." 7–10 working days promised. Plus a 15-second satisfaction survey, and: "thank you for being a champ."
-
19:41, Oct 8
₹2,098 initiated. "Credited within 10–14 working days." From noreply@pw.live: "Kindly DO NOT reply to this email."
The desk cites "our Batch Shift policy". No such policy is published anywhere this audit can find2. The policy that is published allows the swap1. A student who wanted out had to pay in to get out.
Their words, kept verbatim
- "We will not process your batch shift request as per our Batch Shift policy."
- "…purchase your desired batch and fill out the form… it won't be processed after 30 days of purchase."
- "The previous batch's access will be removed."
- "Thank you for being a champ." (to a student waiting on ₹2,098 of their own money)
- "Kindly DO NOT reply to this email."
- The same auto-reply warns about scammers, then plugs PW's support YouTube channel.
Receipt № 002: the fine print
- "Your purchase is not entitled for any refund."1
- "If you purchase any batch by mistake, you can request to change it to another batch of the same amount within 10 days."1 The swap the desk refused is in their contract.
- PW-owned Edutoos: a course change costs money, and "in case, the cost is less then there will be no refund for the same."45 Downgrades are confiscated.
The pattern, from the public record
- "I accidentally purchased the Arjuna batch… both batches were priced at ₹4,999. Now… it shows Lakshya is showing a higher price… Now they are not replying." Reddit, June 202627.
- "…their agent told me to first buy the new batch and apply refund… they are not answering email or message." Voxya, June 2023, the same buy-first routine a year before26.
- J&K consumer commission, Mar 2026: ₹35,000 paid, access never granted. ₹95,000 ordered. PW did not appear5.
- Mar 17, 2026: a consumer court orders PW to pay ₹50,000 for a NEET course that stayed locked after payment. Deficiency of service, on the record57.
- PW's own DRHP: complaints up from 7.4 lakh to 10 lakh in a year; dropouts up 58% to 46,019; refund payouts ₹26 cr19.
- Support hours: 9 AM–10 PM in the auto-reply, "24 x 7" on the contact page49, "No, not right now" on the FAQ2.
04: the numbers
Follow the crores
FY22's ₹98 cr profit was standalone, pre-consolidation33. The group record never shows profit again; Q1 FY27 reopened at −₹88 cr while standalone lost just ₹23 cr, so the subsidiaries carry the bleed16.
Supply waves: anchor unlocks Dec 14 2025 and Feb 12 2026; ~26 crore pre-IPO shares (≈₹2,949 cr) freed May 18 2026. The next promoter lock runs to ~May 202713.
The street split: Motilal Oswal opens Buy with a ₹200 target and 66% upside (Sep 4, 2026); Kotak, alone, flags "anti-consensus" reduce (Oct 7, 2026). Both agree on what the stock is: a bet on the funnel63.
| Target | When | Consideration | Footnote |
|---|---|---|---|
| iNeuron Intelligence | Dec 2022 | ~₹250 cr (upskilling rollout as PW Skills) | 15 |
| Xylem Learning (Kerala) | 2023 → Dec 2025 | ~₹500 cr plan; staged buy-up to 77.27% | 10 |
| Utkarsh Classes (Jodhpur) | 2024 → 2026 | staged to 75.5%; 100% targeted by Mar 2028 | 10 |
| Sarrthi IAS | 2025 → Aug 2026 | 51% control; ₹71.8 cr second tranche | 10 |
| Drishti IAS | Called off Jun 2025 | would have been ₹2,500–3,000 cr | 10 |
The prospectus earmarks the rest of the fresh money to buy more companies. Raise, advertise, acquire10.
05: voices
They noticed too
Short attributed quotes, linked. Reddit text verbatim from the public Arctic Shift archive38; posters' opinions are their own.
"I believe in this community and i hope you guys will help me with stopping this Kota scam… It feels like a being a part of cult, and then realising it's a cult."
"Physics Wallah has basically turned into Irrelevant Wallah now… 70–80% of those questions go straight over students' heads."
"An opaque process was followed in the name of performance review. We were never informed about the metrics used to evaluate us."
"The centre heads let go of teachers at their whim and fancy. You have to be in their good books or else tomorrow you won't have jobs."
"PhysicsWallah has a unique risk / Source: Company DRHP."
"It's the best online coaching in India… What we don't like about pw is it's fanboys."
Exhibit A: the teacher ledger
- Mar 2023: star teachers Tarun Kumar, Manish Dubey, Sarvesh Dixit resign over "the company's atmosphere" and found Sankalp Bharat. PW-linked voices counter-allege ₹5 cr rival bribes. PW declines to comment41.
- Nov–Dec 2023: 70–120 employees laid off "for performance reasons"18. Mid-2025: ~20 more "Mutual Separations"; ex-staff allege one month's severance against two promised19.
- Faculty attrition per PW's own DRHP: 18% → 40.4% → 26% (FY23–FY25). The Hindu called it "silent terminations" before the IPO18.
- Teachers can be voted out; pay rides on student ratings they get no say in19. Employee-side scores: 3.6/5 on AmbitionBox (~3.4k reviews)46.
Exhibit B: the quality desk
- The Ken: "Physics Wallah's Rs 15 lakh 'BTech' comes without a BTech degree." 30+ students of the 2023 IOI batch dropped out "citing chaos in the system and unkept promises"35.
- PW's own DRHP admits iNeuron, the ~₹250 cr buy15, "does not have any active business operations or employees"36. The same filing shows ₹127 cr of loans to subsidiaries36.
- Oct 2025: the "PW Pi OTT box" pitched as an "AI box" turns out to be a Raspberry Pi in a case39.
- May 2026: PW's NBFC arm FinZ Finance starts lending to students, ₹500 penalty per missed EMI42. Local press (Dainik Bhaskar, Aug 2026) reported parents in Giridih protesting loans taken without consent; PW's regional manager said loans follow video-KYC consent51. Oct 4, 2026: the same PW assigned its ₹95.79 cr student-loan portfolio to Auxilo Finserve; the loan book left their books53. Oct 5: the stock popped up to 6% on the partial retreat from lending59.
- Jun 1, 2026: the CCPA fines PW ₹5 lakh for dark patterns: a pre-ticked ₹10 donation box (₹2.47 crore from ~21.37 lakh users across 22 months), "confirm shaming", and data-gated "free" courses. A Dec 22, 2025 inspection still found the pre-tick. "Visibility is not consent"60.
- The lending U-turn ledger: Sep 2025, IPO-bound and planning to lend to students directly61. May 2026: ₹120 cr poured into the NBFC arm FinZ. Jun 4, 2026: the direct-lending plan is scrapped within weeks; shares surge 16–18%62. Oct 4–5, 2026: the ₹95.79 cr loan book is sold off, shares pop 6%5359. Three pivots inside one year, and the street paid for every one of them.
- Nov 2025: a PW ad shoot drove 6 Scorpios through a protected Gulmarg forest; an FIR followed52.
- Aggregate scores: PW's footer advertises "4.8"48; trackers log 4.55★/1.42M on Play31, 1.9–2.3/5 on Trustpilot28.
Exhibit C: the IPO's own meme economy
- Day-1 subscription 0.06x; final 1.81x2110. Below issue price within ~70 days; the "Byjus 2.0" jokes followed the −52% slide13.
- Nov 13, 2025, r/IndianStreetBets (608 points): screenshots of alleged influencer DMs on PW's IPO script. An allegation with a documented trail, no PW denial found. Labeled as allegation40.
- The same DRHP that warns about student-teacher incidents prices ₹710 cr of fresh issue money for commercials3710.
06: the alternative
What a real free PW looks like
- Teach the batch, don't trailer it. The first class is the ad; the syllabus is the product20. Their marketing budget alone would bankroll whole free batches at ad RPMs25.
- Lateral swaps, honored in writing. Their ToS already promises same-amount swaps within 10 days1. Do what the contract says.
- A refund window that exists. "Not entitled for any refund"1 is a trapdoor, not a policy.
- Support that answers at night. Students study at night, and so do buy pages2.
- Posters that match checkout. Class on the page = class in the cart. No pre-ticked boxes: the regulator already made that law for them3.
07: the tip line
Send a receipt
PW's refund desk never opens. Ours does: … receipts sit on the desk right now. One confirmation step, then yours joins. Nothing goes up unchecked.
Prefer mail? refund@letsfuck.pw. The only refund that goes through is the one that lands in our inbox.
08: standards
How this audit stays fair
Sources or it didn't happen
Every factual claim links to a primary document or dated reporting. Rumors that failed verification were cut, not printed. Opinions are labeled ours.
People, not pawns
Founder, teachers, staff: named only for publicly documented business conduct. PW sued a competitor over a nickname, "Sasta Wallah", and won an injunction47; an ex-employee was restrained from posting "defaming" videos58. The same court cautioned, Aug 2026, that personality rights cannot extinguish parody, caricature or satire58. We answer names with sources.
Corrections, fast and public
Send the primary source and we correct visibly, dated. First-person stories are labeled first-person. Everything links back to its record.