Smart Equity Invest

What a Trade Costs, and How to Choose a Broker

Zero brokerage is real, but a trade is never free. Most of what you pay goes to the government and the exchange, the same at every broker. The part that differs is smaller, and easy to check before you sign up.

Figures checked · How we calculate

₹238what buying and selling ₹1 lakh of shares costs at a zero-brokerage broker

Buy ₹1 lakh of a company's shares and sell them later at the same price. At Zerodha, which charges no brokerage on delivery trades, the round trip costs ₹237.82.

₹200 of that is . No broker can waive it.

Every charge on a ₹1 lakh trade

ChargeOn the buyOn the sellWho gets it
Brokerage (Zerodha, delivery)₹0₹0Your broker
Securities Transaction Tax, 0.1% each way₹100₹100The government
Exchange transaction charge, NSE 0.00297% plus 0.0001% investor protection fund₹3.07₹3.07The exchange
SEBI fee, ₹10 per crore₹0.10₹0.10SEBI
Stamp duty, 0.015% on the buy only₹15—The state government
GST, 18% of brokerage and the two fees above₹0.57₹0.57The government
DP charge, per company per day you sell—₹15.34Depository and broker
Total₹118.74₹119.08

If you check this in Zerodha's brokerage calculator, it shows ₹222.48. Every line above matches it, but the calculator leaves the DP charge out of its total and mentions it only in a note underneath. The ₹15.34 is still charged when you sell.

At a broker charging ₹20 or 0.1% per order, whichever is lower (Groww's tariff in September 2026), the same round trip costs ₹293. That adds ₹40 of brokerage, ₹7 of GST on it, and a DP charge of ₹23.60 in place of ₹15.34. On a ₹1 lakh trade the broker you pick changes the cost by ₹55. The government's share doesn't change.

The DP charge makes small sales expensive

The DP (depository participant) charge is a flat fee each time shares leave your . It is charged per company, per day, however many shares you sell. On a large sale it's nothing. On a small one it's most of the cost.

Selling ₹2,000 of one company's shares
  • At a zero-brokerage broker (DP ₹15.34)₹170.87% of the sale.
  • At a ₹20-or-0.1% broker (DP ₹23.60)₹321.58% of the sale, taken before any tax on the gain.

All charges on the sale only: STT, exchange and SEBI fees, GST, and the DP charge. Tariffs as published in September 2026. A brokerage calculator that leaves out the DP charge shows about ₹2 for this sale. Selling ₹1 lakh costs 0.12% at the first broker and 0.15% at the second, by comparison.

Two habits avoid it:

  • Sell in one go, not in pieces. Three ₹5,000 sales of the same company on three days pay the DP charge three times. One ₹15,000 sale pays it once.
  • Don't buy shares a few hundred rupees at a time if you'll sell them that way. A monthly ₹1,000 purchase of one share is cheap to buy and expensive to sell.

Trading often costs more than any broker's fee

Charges are paid on every trade, whether it makes money or loses it. Trade often enough and they become a large drag on their own.

₹1 lakh of capital for one year, traded three ways
  • Buy once, sell once₹2380.24% of the capital.
  • A round trip every month₹2,8542.9% of the capital.
  • Intraday, every trading day₹20,67020.7% of the capital, gone before a single trade makes or loses money.

Zerodha's tariff, September 2026. Intraday: ₹20 brokerage each way, 0.025% STT on the sell, 0.003% stamp duty on the buy, and 250 trading days a year. Monthly trades are delivery round trips at ₹238 each. Charges only, before any profit or loss.

The intraday trader needs to make 20.7% a year just to break even on charges. That's before tax on any gains, and before the trades that lose.

Futures and options cost more again. Since 1 April 2026, is 0.05% on the sale of futures and 0.15% on the premium when you sell an option, up from 0.02% and 0.1%. SEBI's own study of FY 2024-25 found that 91% of individual F&O traders lost money, with net losses of ₹1,05,603 crore after costs. This site doesn't cover F&O trading, and that figure is why.

Mutual funds cost almost nothing to buy

A ₹10,000 instalment into a direct mutual fund carries stamp duty of 0.005%, which is 50 paise, and no STT on the purchase. The fund's costs are inside its , which the direct vs regular and index fund guides cover.

You don't need a broker at all for direct plans. You can buy them from the fund house's website or from MF Central, which the two registrars, CAMS and KFintech, run together. A broker is useful once you buy shares or ETFs.

What the account itself costs each year

Beyond each trade, a demat account can carry an annual maintenance charge (AMC):

BrokerYearly charge (September 2026)
Zerodha₹300 plus GST, which is ₹354. Free in the first year for accounts opened from 1 June 2026.
Zerodha, Basic Services Demat AccountFree while holdings are below ₹4 lakh. ₹100 plus GST between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh.
Groww₹0

A Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) is a SEBI category, not a broker's offer. It is available if it's your only demat account and your holdings are worth ₹10 lakh or less. Ask for it when you open the account if you qualify. Over 20 years, ₹354 a year is ₹7,080, which is less than the cost of trading a few extra times a year.

Choose the broker by what you'll do, not by the app

  1. Check the registrationThe broker should be registered with SEBI and a member of NSE and BSE. Both exchanges publish member lists and the number of investor complaints against each broker.
  2. Price what you'll actually doDelivery brokerage, the DP charge per sale and the yearly AMC. For a long-term investor those three are the whole bill. Intraday and F&O rates don't matter if you won't use them.
  3. Make sure it sells direct mutual fundsIf you want funds and shares in one place, check the fund pages say 'Direct' in the scheme name. Some platforms sell only regular plans.
  4. Look at the home screenIf it leads with F&O, margin trading or a list of the day's top movers, it is built to make you trade. You can use it anyway, but know what it is for.
  5. One account is enoughSeveral demat accounts means several AMCs, and no Basic Services Demat Account. It also means more places to check when something goes wrong.

Opening the account takes about fifteen minutes

  1. Have four things readyPAN, an Aadhaar linked to your mobile number, a bank account in your name, and a photo of your signature.
  2. Complete e-KYC and the video checkThe broker verifies your identity online, usually with a short video call or a selfie with your PAN.
  3. Add a nomineeOr formally opt out. SEBI requires one or the other, and a nominee makes it far simpler for your family to claim the shares.
  4. Ask for a Basic Services Demat Account if you qualifyYour only demat account, with holdings of ₹10 lakh or less. It cuts or removes the yearly charge.
  5. Turn on two-factor login and read the first contract noteThen place a small first order and match every charge on the contract note against the table on this page.

Read every contract note

After every trading day, your broker emails a contract note listing each trade and every charge on it. The DP charge is the exception: it appears in your account ledger when you sell. Check the first few against the table above. If a charge appears that you can't match, ask the broker what it is before you trade again.

Your depository, CDSL or NSDL, also sends you an SMS whenever shares leave your account and a Consolidated Account Statement each month you trade. Those come from the depository, not the broker, so they are an independent check that your shares are where the broker says.

Questions people actually ask

Figures on this page are from the tariffs Zerodha and Groww published in September 2026, and the STT, stamp duty and exchange charges in force for FY 2026-27. They are examples, not a ranking. This site earns nothing from any broker (how the site is paid for). Exchange charges are NSE's. BSE's are slightly different. Brokers change tariffs without notice, so check the current charges page of any broker before you open an account.