Brokerage charges explained: every line on a trade receipt

A round trip is a buy followed by a sell of the same thing. Costing one gives seven lines. Four groups receive the money: the broker, the exchange, the depository that holds your shares, and the government and regulator.

The brokerage calculator shows all seven for a trade of your own. The broker pages show a worked example for each broker.

Brokerage is the fee your broker charges for carrying out an order. It is the one charge that differs from broker to broker. It may be nothing, a flat rupee amount per order, or a percentage of the order value with a limit, and many brokers charge different amounts for delivery, intraday, futures and options. Because plans and offers vary, we list each broker's published charges on its own page instead of quoting one figure here.

• Angel One
• Groww
• Upstox
• Zerodha

STT goes to the government. It is charged on the buy side, the sell side or both, depending on the segment, and options STT is worked out on the premium. The rates and their history are in the STT guide.

The exchange where your trade happens charges a small fee on the total value traded (buy value plus sell value; for options, on the premium). These are the rates in force on 30 Oct 2026.

A lakh is 1,00,000 rupees. Notes from the data on these rows:

• NSE: NSE rolled the IPFT levy back and folded it into the transaction charge with no change in the total outflow (circular NSE/FA/73061). The circular rate table is an image; the new figures are the 2024 charge plus Rs 9.99 per crore (cash, futures) and Rs 49.99 per crore of premium, matching Angel One (0.0030699%, 0.0018299%, 0.0355299%) and Zerodha (0.00307%, 0.00183%, 0.03553%). Also read: https://www.angelone.in/exchange-transaction-charges
• BSE: Equity Rs 375 per crore flat (unchanged by the Oct 2024 revision), futures nil, Sensex and Bankex options Rs 3,250 per crore of premium. Stock options and Sensex 50 options are Rs 500 per crore (0.005%), which this single options figure does not capture. Confirmed again on the Zerodha charges page and Business Today. The BSE notice itself (20240927-37) returned HTTP 403, so a broker bulletin and press report are the sources. No later BSE revision or dispute-driven change was found; recheck when the watcher flags the Zerodha page. Cross-checks: https://businesstoday.in/markets/stocks/story/bse-nse-hike-transaction-charges-new-rates-kick-in-from-next-month-447913-2024-09-28 and https://zerodha.com/charges/

Before 1 Oct 2024, exchange charges were set in slabs by trading volume. From that date the NSE charges one flat rate to every member. Flat charge for every member from 1 Oct 2024 (Rs 2.97 per lakh cash, Rs 1.73 per lakh futures, Rs 35.03 per lakh of premium), after SEBI circular SEBI/HO/MRD/TPD-1/P/CIR/2024/92 of 1 Jul 2024 ended volume slabs. Earlier trades are not supported for exchange fees because charges were volume-slab based. The separate IPFT levy (about 0.0001% cash and futures, 0.0005% options premium) is not included in this row.

That is why the exchange line on a trade does not depend on your broker, and why this site's charges calculators start at 1 Oct 2024. Source: NSE circular NSE/FA/64232 (27 Sep 2024), uniform transaction charges from 1 Oct 2024 (opens in a new tab).

GST (Goods and Services Tax) is 18%. It is charged on the brokerage, the exchange transaction charges and the SEBI fee, and on the DP charge. It is not charged on STT or stamp duty. It goes to the government even though your broker or the exchange bills it.

SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, is the market regulator. It charges a fee on the value traded: ₹10 per crore (0.0001%). A crore is 1,00,00,000 rupees.

Stamp duty is paid to the state, on the buy side only, as a share of the buy value. Since 1 Jul 2020 it has been one rate across the country.

A demat account holds your shares electronically, and a depository participant (DP) is the firm, usually your broker, that gives you access to it. When you sell shares out of demat, a DP charge is levied once for each stock sold, however many shares you sell. It has a fee for the depository and a fee for the broker, and GST is added to both. It applies to delivery sales only.

DP charge by broker

Some brokers waive or reduce their part in particular cases. These are listed in each broker's notes and are not included above.

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