Intraday trading charges in India: what one trade costs at each broker

An intraday trade pays seven charges: brokerage, STT, exchange charges, the SEBI fee, stamp duty, GST, and sometimes a fee if the broker closes the trade for you. On a ₹1 lakh intraday buy and sell at the same price, they come to about ₹83 at every major discount broker. On smaller trades the brokers differ, and the cheapest cost half as much as the others, or less.

Each charge on an intraday trade

You pay brokerage on the buy order and again on the sell order. An intraday trade pays no DP charge, because the shares never reach your demat account. STT and stamp duty are a quarter or less of what a delivery trade pays.

Brokerage is the largest charge on an intraday trade. With the GST on it, it makes up more than half the bill. That is the opposite of a delivery trade, where STT is the largest charge.

What a trade costs at each broker

A buy and a sell at the same price, every charge included:

Rates are as each broker published them on 20 October 2026. At 0.03%, brokerage reaches the ₹20 cap at an order of about ₹67,000. At 0.1%, it reaches the cap at ₹20,000. Above ₹67,000, all six brokers charge ₹20 an order and cost the same.

The broker comparisons put any two of these brokers side by side, for delivery and margin trades as well.

The move you need to break even

Divide the charges by the trade size and you get the move a trade needs before it makes anything. At a 0.03% broker it is about 0.11% on any trade up to ₹67,000. At a 0.1% broker it is about 0.27% on a trade of ₹20,000 or less.

That is a large share of a small intraday move. If you aim for a 1% move on a ₹10,000 trade, charges take more than a quarter of the profit at a 0.1% broker, and about a tenth at a 0.03% broker.

What charges add up to in a month

Say you make four intraday trades a day, each ₹50,000, for the 22 trading days in a month. Charges come to about ₹4,700 a month at Zerodha, Dhan or Fyers, and about ₹5,700 at Groww, Angel One or Upstox. Over a year that is about ₹56,000 against ₹69,000.

Both figures assume every trade closes where it opened. Profit has to cover these charges first, so work out your yearly charges before you decide how often to trade.

Two things that raise the bill

• Auto square-off. If you don't close an intraday position before the broker's cut-off time, the broker closes it and charges a fee. Zerodha charges ₹50 + GST an order for this and for orders placed by phone through its dealers. Since the closing auction started in August 2026, the cut-off for stocks in F&O is around 3:10 pm. Intraday leverage (MIS) lists the times and charges at each broker.
• Leverage. Most brokers let you take an intraday position several times larger than your cash. Every charge in this guide is a percentage of the full order value, so a ₹20,000 deposit used for a ₹1 lakh trade pays the charges on ₹1 lakh.

Tax on intraday profits

Intraday profit is taxed as speculative business income, at your income tax slab rate, not as capital gains. A loss from intraday trading can only be set off against speculative income, and you can carry it forward for four years. The capital gains calculator works out the tax on intraday profit at your slab rate.

Work out your own trade

The charges calculator shows every line for any trade you enter and compares intraday with delivery and MTF. What a stock trade costs explains each charge in more detail, and broker charges compared covers delivery and margin trades at the same six brokers.

Intraday charges = 2 × brokerage + 0.025% of the sell + 0.003% of the buy + exchange charges + SEBI fee + 18% GST on brokerage, exchange charges and SEBI fee

Statutory rates are as published on Zerodha's charges page, checked on 25 October 2026. Each broker's brokerage comes from its own charges page as published on 20 October 2026.