Every charge, explained

The charge map

Charges on a demat account come in three layers, and the layers are owned by different people. Knowing which layer a fee belongs to tells you who sets it, when it can change, and whether asking for a discount has any chance of working.

The account layer charges you for holding the account, not for using it. The trading layer charges you per transaction, and its amounts are the numbers brokers advertise against each other. The statutory layer is identical at every broker in the country, because no broker sets it, which is why it deserves its own treatment further down this page.

One consequence of the split is that shopping around changes only two of the three layers. A cheaper broker can lower your brokerage, DP charges and AMC, but the STT, stamp duty and exchange fees on the same trade move with the trade value, not with the broker. Comparing total contract note cost between brokers is therefore more honest than comparing any single advertised number.

Each charge in detail

The opening fee is the easiest line to understand because it is zero: Upstox charges nothing to open the demat and trading account together, and the same ₹0 shows up at the other discount brokers. The AMC is the charge most people never see coming, because it starts in year two. For a non-BSDA account it is ₹300 plus GST per year, collected in quarterly instalments, whether you trade or not.

Brokerage is the per-order fee, and its structure is the thing to memorise. Delivery and intraday use whichever-is-lower pricing: ₹20 or 0.1% for delivery, ₹20 or 0.05% for intraday. Futures use ₹20 or 0.05%, and options cost a flat ₹20 per order. The crossover where 0.1% equals ₹20 sits at ₹20,000 of order value, so every delivery order above that size pays the same ₹20 regardless of size.

One charge confuses everyone: DP charges. This is the fee for moving shares out of the depository record when you sell. It applies per scrip, per day, so selling three different shares on the same day incurs it three times, and at ₹20 plus GST per line it is the dominant cost of a small sell. Buys never carry it, because nothing leaves the demat.

Mutual funds and IPOs are the quiet rows: zero commission on direct mutual funds, zero application fee on IPOs. An account used purely for SIPs and IPO applications can run for a year without a single broker fee line, which is why the AMC from year two is the one recurring cost that deserves planning.

The BSDA route to a lower AMC

A Basic Services Demat Account caps the AMC by regulation. If you hold one demat account and your total holdings stay under ₹4 lakh, your AMC is ₹0; between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh it is capped at ₹100 plus GST per year. Above ₹10 lakh the account stops being a BSDA and the regular ₹300 plus GST applies. SEBI introduced the structure so small investors never pay annual fees on small portfolios, and under the June 2024 circular the conversion is automatic for eligible accounts.

The catch is the one-account rule: you must be the sole or first holder of exactly one demat account to qualify. A spare second account anywhere, at any depository, ends the benefit. For most first-time investors the practical AMC is therefore zero, and the ₹300 figure only appears when holdings grow past the ceiling or a second account breaks the rule.

Two worked examples

Example one: you buy 10 shares of a company at ₹1,000 each, hold them for a year, and sell at ₹1,200. Both orders are delivery trades at Upstox, and the sell is a single scrip on a single day. Here is the full charge sheet, computed line by line from the verified rate card:

About ₹74 in total fees on a ₹2,000 gain, and the single largest line is not brokerage: it is the combination of the DP charge and STT, which apply identically at every broker in India. The brokerage itself comes to ₹22, which is the cheapest layer on the sheet.

Example two: you sell 20 shares of a different company at ₹100 each, a ₹2,000 sell, shares you bought long ago. The same rate card produces this:

The DP charge is ₹23.60 of a ₹28.02 bill, roughly 84% of it, and the whole bill is 1.4% of the sale proceeds. The flat, fixed charges fall hardest on small sells, which is one reason small investors hold positions rather than trade in and out of them. Both totals match the verified charge ledger used across this site.

Estimate your own annual cost

Drag the sliders to your typical month. The estimator applies the published rate card and shows the account from year two onwards, when the AMC applies, so the figure you see is the realistic steady-state cost rather than the first-year offer.

The statutory layer, one line each

These charges appear on every contract note in the country at the same rates, because the government and the exchanges set them. No broker can waive them, discount them or absorb them, and any comparison that ignores them understates the real cost of a trade.

The statutory layer is why the buy side and sell side of the same trade cost different amounts. The buy carries stamp duty, the sell carries STT and the DP charge, and both carry exchange charges and GST. A trade where the two sides have equal brokerage will still show unequal totals, and the inequality is regulation, not the broker.

What people usually get wrong

Questions people ask

Sources

• Upstox. “Brokerage charges.” Accessed 16 August 2026.
• SEBI. “Circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD1/P/CIR/2024/91: Facility for Basic Services Demat Account,” dated 28 June 2024. Accessed 16 August 2026.
• Zerodha. “Charges: equity, F&O, currency and commodity.” Accessed 16 August 2026.
• Groww. “Pricing.” Accessed 16 August 2026.