There is no single app with the lowest brokerage charges across every trade type. Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, Angel One, and Dhan each publish their own fee schedule, and which one costs least depends on whether you trade delivery, intraday, or futures and options. This guide lays their published fee categories side by side, with a dated rate check, so you can compare structures instead of marketing claims of zero brokerage.
How brokerage charges actually work
How brokerage charges actually work
Brokerage is the fee a broker charges for executing your buy or sell order.
Indian discount brokers typically use one of two models: a flat fee per executed order, or a percentage of the trade value, whichever is lower. Which model applies usually depends on the segment you are trading in.
Equity delivery trades, where you buy and hold shares beyond the same day, are commonly priced differently from intraday trades, where you buy and sell within the same session. Futures and options (F&O) carry their own separate fee line, usually a flat amount per executed order regardless of trade size.
Brokerage is only one line on your final bill. Every trade on an Indian exchange also carries statutory and exchange-level charges that apply no matter which broker you use: securities transaction tax (STT), exchange transaction charges, GST on brokerage and fees, SEBI turnover fees, and stamp duty. These are set by regulators and exchanges, not by the broker, so they do not change based on which app you pick.
Separately, some brokers charge an account opening fee, an annual maintenance charge (AMC) for holding shares in your demat account, or a fee for offline order placement (calling in a trade instead of placing it in the app). A broker advertising "zero brokerage" is usually referring to one segment only, most often equity delivery, not every kind of trade.
Brokerage charges compared
Brokerage charges compared: Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, Angel One, Dhan
Fees as of 27 July 2026. Every figure below must be reconfirmed against each broker's own live pricing page before this table is published, since brokers can and do change rates without notice.
Before comparing individual brokers, it helps to understand what a broker actually does in a trade.
What is a stock exchange?
Understand how stock exchanges work and where your orders are routed and matched.
Zerodha: Equity delivery brokerage ₹0; Equity intraday brokerage ₹20 or 0.03%, whichever is lower; Account opening ₹0 (₹500 for NRI/offline HUF/corporate); AMC free yr 1, then ₹0 (≤₹4L BSDA) / ₹100+GST (₹4-10L) / ₹300+GST (>₹10L).
Groww: Equity delivery brokerage ₹20 or 0.1% (min ₹5), whichever is lower; Equity intraday brokerage same as delivery; Account opening ₹0; AMC ₹0.
Upstox: Equity delivery brokerage ₹20 per executed order; Equity intraday brokerage ₹20 or 0.1%, whichever is lower; Account opening free; AMC ₹0 yr 1, ₹300+GST after.
Angel One: Equity delivery brokerage ₹20 or 0.1% (min ₹5), whichever is lower; Equity intraday brokerage same as delivery; Account opening ₹0; AMC BSDA ₹0 (≤₹4L) / ₹100+GST/yr (₹4-10L), non-BSDA ₹60+GST/quarter.
Dhan: Equity delivery brokerage ₹0; Equity intraday brokerage ₹20 or 0.03%, whichever is lower; Account opening ₹0; AMC ₹0 lifetime.
This table covers five brokers. 5paisa and Paytm Money are deliberately excluded: 5paisa's own site gives conflicting delivery-brokerage figures, and Paytm Money does not publish fee figures on its own pricing pages. A shorter table of verified figures is more useful than a longer one with gaps. F&O charges are also out of scope here, since derivatives are not a beginner starting point.
Fees and charges as of 27 July 2026. Check each provider's current pricing page before acting on these figures.
This table is a structure, not a verdict. It exists so a reader can hold each broker's published categories side by side and see where a fee applies to them specifically, rather than deciding based on which app markets itself as cheapest.
Brokerage charges in Groww, explained
Brokerage charges in Groww, explained
Groww started as a mutual fund platform before adding stock and F&O trading, and its brokerage structure follows the same delivery, intraday, and F&O split as other discount brokers.
Groww's intraday charges apply to any equity trade you open and close within the same trading session, separate from the rate applied to trades you hold overnight.
Reading Groww's fee schedule the same way as any other broker means checking four things: the delivery brokerage rate, the intraday rate, the F&O rate, and whether an account opening or annual maintenance charge applies. Groww's own pricing page is the only current source for these figures, since third-party listicles and comparison sites often carry outdated numbers.
How to calculate your own intraday brokerage cost
How to calculate your own intraday brokerage cost
An intraday brokerage calculator is really just a formula applied to your trade value. You do not need a dedicated tool to work it out once you know your broker's published rate.
Find your broker's published rate
Check whether your broker charges a flat fee per executed order or a percentage of trade value for intraday trades, and note whichever is lower under their stated cap.
Apply the rate to both legs of the trade
Intraday brokerage is usually charged on both the buy order and the sell order, so double the per-order fee if it is flat, or apply the percentage to both trade values.
Add statutory and exchange charges
Add STT, exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, and stamp duty, all of which apply regardless of broker.
Add GST
Goods and Services Tax applies on top of the brokerage and exchange charges, not on the trade value itself.
Subtract the total from your gross gain or loss
The result is your net profit or loss on the trade after all charges, not just after brokerage.
What else affects your real trading cost
What else affects your real trading cost beyond brokerage
Brokerage is one line on the bill, but buying power and account structure also shape how much a trade actually costs you to hold.
A platform offering higher buying power lets you take a larger position with the same capital, which changes your exposure and your potential fees on that position, separate from the brokerage rate itself.
Cronos app is a mobile-first trading app that puts tokenized stocks and crypto in one account, with up to 10x buying power available in India. It is non-custodial, meaning you hold your own assets rather than the platform holding them for you, and it runs 24/7 with no fixed market close. None of this replaces the brokerage comparison above. It is a separate factor worth understanding alongside fee schedules when you weigh where to trade.
How to read a brokerage fee schedule
How to read a brokerage fee schedule before you sign up
Check every segment separately
A "lowest brokerage" claim on a homepage usually covers one segment. Confirm delivery, intraday, and F&O rates individually before assuming they all apply.
Look for the account maintenance line
An AMC is charged annually regardless of how often you trade, so factor it in even if the per-trade brokerage looks low.
Confirm the date on the page
Brokerage schedules change without notice. A fee page with no visible update date should not be treated as current.
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