Key takeaways
- Total cost is brokerage plus statutory levies, not brokerage alone.
- Delivery, intraday and F&O use different charge rules.
- Finaura compares default retail plans as of a stated verification date. Plans change.
- A cheaper calculated cost is not a reason to call a broker “best.”
If you only compare “₹0 delivery brokerage” with “₹20 per order,” you are comparing one line of a longer bill. Indian trades attract a stack of statutory charges that the broker usually passes through. Understanding the stack makes a contract note readable and makes a calculator useful.
Brokerage
Brokerage is what the broker charges for executing the order. Discount brokers often advertise zero brokerage on equity delivery and a flat cap (for example ₹20) or a percentage-with-a-cap on other segments. Full-service default plans may still use percentage brokerage. Finaura models publicly listed default retail plans, not every Prime or subscription add-on. See the last-verified date on the brokerage calculator.
STT
Securities Transaction Tax is a statutory levy on specified market transactions. Rates differ by segment (delivery versus intraday versus derivatives) and sometimes by buy versus sell. The calculator applies the STT treatment coded for the segment you pick. Those rates are set by law and have changed in the past; the tool is not a substitute for the current STT notification.
Exchange transaction charges
NSE, BSE and MCX publish tariff schedules. Brokers typically pass these through. They are small percentages of turnover, but they add up on high-frequency intraday trading. Finaura uses the schedules built into the brokerage engine as of the verification date — not a live feed from the exchange.
GST
GST (commonly 18%) applies to the broker’s taxable service value — typically brokerage plus certain exchange and regulatory fees, not on the share price itself. If brokerage is zero, GST on brokerage is zero, but GST may still apply to other fee components the law treats as taxable. The breakdown on the calculator is meant to show that split.
SEBI charges and other tiny levies
A SEBI turnover fee and, on some segments, exchange investor-protection or similar small levies appear as separate lines. Individually they look like rounding. On a busy intraday day they are still real. Stamp duty is a state-linked levy on specified instruments; equity delivery and derivatives are treated differently. Buy-side stamp often differs from sell-side.
Buy side versus sell side
A round trip is two orders. Some charges apply on both, some more heavily on one side (STT on delivery sales is the example people notice first). Always model buy and sell in the calculator rather than doubling a one-sided estimate.
Delivery versus intraday
Equity delivery (you take shares into demat) and equity intraday (you square off the same day) are different products for charges and for STT. Putting an intraday trade into a delivery calculator, or the reverse, produces a neat number that will not match the contract note. Choose the segment you actually used.
Try it yourselfCompare total charges for a tradeDefault plans for several brokers, with statutory levies, net P&L and break-even. Last-verified date is on the page.Zerodha, Groww and the others
Finaura includes well-known default plans so you can see cost differences on the same trade. That is not an endorsement. A broker can be cheaper on delivery and more expensive on options. Another can change its published tariff next month. If two calculated totals differ by ₹3 on a ₹1 lakh delivery trade, do not let that ₹3 decide where your demat should live — look at reliability, product access and customer service, which this site does not score.
How to update the data later
Broker plans live in BROKER_PLANS and the last-checked date in BROKER_PLANS_LAST_VERIFIED. Statutory rates live in the brokerage calculation module. When a broker or exchange publishes a new tariff, those files should change together with the date on the page. Until then, the calculator is an illustration as of that date.