The plain answer
Yes, with precision: the account can genuinely cost nothing to open and nothing to keep. Groww publishes ₹0 opening and ₹0 AMC with no time limit, and the SEBI BSDA rules cap the AMC at ₹0 for any broker while your single account holds under ₹4 lakh. What no account is free of is usage: brokerage on trades, DP charges on sells and statutory charges on every order.
The sentence worth memorising is: free to open, possibly free to hold, never free to use. Every claim in this page is built on that sentence. The rest of the page shows which items sit on which side of it, what the fine print says, and what ten years of each option actually costs.
What can genuinely be free
Four line items can sit at a permanent ₹0, and at the major brokers they usually do. These are the items every “free account” advertisement is talking about, and the claims are true.
| Item | Can it be ₹0 permanently? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Account opening | Yes, at every major broker | Published ₹0 opening, fully online |
| AMC | Yes | Groww’s no-AMC policy, or the BSDA tier under ₹4 lakh holdings |
| Mutual fund commissions | Yes | ₹0 commission on direct mutual funds at discount brokers |
| IPO applications | Yes | ₹0 application fee |
Read the AMC row carefully, because it carries two different mechanisms. Groww’s policy is commercial: the broker simply publishes no AMC, for anyone, with no time limit. The BSDA tier is regulatory: SEBI’s June 2024 circular sets the AMC at ₹0 for a BSDA holding under ₹4 lakh, ₹100 plus GST between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh, and the regular schedule above ₹10 lakh, at every broker, automatically.
The two mechanisms answer the same question for different people. The BSDA route suits anyone with a single small account, and it applies wherever the account lives. Groww’s policy suits anyone who wants the ₹0 regardless of account size or count. Both are real, and both are permanent while their conditions hold.
What is never free
The other side of the ledger is just as fixed. Four items can never be ₹0, because they are the price of execution itself.
| Item | Why it cannot be ₹0 |
|---|---|
| Brokerage on stock orders | The broker’s fee for executing the trade |
| DP charges on sells | The depository debit fee plus the broker service fee |
| STT, stamp duty, exchange fees, SEBI fees | Set by regulation, identical at every broker |
| GST | 18% on the chargeable items, by law |
The statutory block deserves a worked look, because it is the gap between what people expect and what the contract note shows. A ₹50,000 delivery buy at a discount broker pays ₹20 in brokerage. The statutory charges on the same order come to roughly ₹63: STT of ₹50, stamp duty of ₹7.50, an exchange transaction charge of about ₹1.49 and GST of about ₹3.87. The account can be free for life; the order never is, because the government and the exchanges charge for every one of them.
The two routes to zero
Route one is structural: the BSDA. Hold one demat account, keep holdings under ₹4 lakh, and the AMC is ₹0 automatically, at every broker, without an application. Between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh the capped AMC is ₹100 plus GST per year. The account type appears on your monthly CAS, so you can see the tier working. Only two events end it: holdings crossing ₹10 lakh, or opening a second demat account anywhere, because the BSDA is a small-investor facility and its conditions define who qualifies.
Route two is commercial: Groww publishes no AMC at all, unconditionally, which removes the only recurring fee a passive account faces. There is no tier to watch and no condition to hold, because the policy applies to every account. The trade-off to understand is that the policy is a commercial choice, not a regulation: Groww can change its schedule the way any broker can, while the BSDA tiers are set by SEBI. Today, as published on 16 August 2026, both routes land at the same ₹0.
Route one and route two can also combine. A BSDA-eligible investor at Groww simply pays nothing under both the commercial policy and the regulatory tier. The point of distinguishing them is not to choose between them but to know which one is protecting you, and what would end it.
What changes in year two
The first-year-free AMC is the most common “free” claim, and it is a waiver with an expiry date. Here is what the published schedules say, read from each broker’s pricing page on 16 August 2026.
| Broker | Year one | Year two onwards (non-BSDA) |
|---|---|---|
| Upstox | ₹0 | ₹300 + GST per year |
| Zerodha | ₹0 for accounts opened from 1 June 2026 | ₹300 + GST per year, charged quarterly |
| Groww | ₹0 | ₹0 (no AMC published) |
| Angel One | ₹0 | ₹240 + GST per year, charged after your first trade each quarter |
| ICICI Direct | ₹0 | ₹700 + taxes per year |
Three details in that table matter more than the headline numbers. First, the GST: published AMC figures are before tax, so ₹300 is really ₹354 in the ledger, and ₹240 is ₹283.20. Second, the collection pattern: brokers typically debit the AMC in quarterly instalments from your trading account, and a short balance becomes arrears that block the account until cleared. Third, the conditions: Zerodha’s first-year waiver applies to resident individual accounts opened from 1 June 2026, and Angel One collects its quarterly AMC only after your first trade in that quarter.
None of this is hidden. Every row above sits on the broker’s pricing page, and the GST note sits beside the fee. The reason year two surprises people is not secrecy; it is that the year-one number is the one the marketing uses, and the year-two number is the one the ledger uses.
Ten years, costed out
AMC decisions look trivial per year and serious per decade, so here is the decade view for a dormant non-BSDA account, using the published figures and 18% GST. Year one is free in every row.
| Option | AMC across 10 years | The number |
|---|---|---|
| Groww (any account) | ₹0 × 10 years | ₹0 |
| BSDA under ₹4 lakh at any broker | ₹0 × 10 years | ₹0 |
| Upstox, non-BSDA | 9 years × ₹354 | ₹3,186 |
| Angel One, non-BSDA | 9 years × ₹283.20 | ₹2,548.80 |
| ICICI Direct, non-BSDA | 9 years × ₹826 | ₹7,434 |
The table answers the page’s question with numbers. A free-for-life claim holds exactly in the first two rows: ₹0 across a decade at Groww, or ₹0 anywhere via the BSDA while holdings stay under ₹4 lakh. The remaining rows show what the same decade costs when the conditions do not hold, and the spread, from about ₹2,500 to about ₹7,400, is the real price of choosing a broker without reading the AMC row.
Two caveats keep the table honest. The figures use the schedules published on 16 August 2026; brokers change schedules, so the decade view is a comparison, not a forecast. And the table isolates the AMC: every trade, at every broker in the table, still carries brokerage, DP charges and statutory charges on top.
The fine print to read first
Before opening an account on a “free” promise, read these five rows on the pricing page. Each one has failed someone’s expectation at some point, and each one takes under a minute to check.
| Row to read | What it should say |
|---|---|
| Account opening fee | ₹0, without a condition attached |
| AMC, year one and year two | The waiver period and the schedule after it |
| Delivery brokerage | The per-order rate, including any minimum |
| DP charges | The per-scrip debit fee and its GST |
| GST note | 18% applies to the chargeable items |
The three-line test from earlier deserves its full form here. If the AMC row, the delivery brokerage row or the DP charge row is missing, or hidden behind a “contact us”, the account is priced, just not honestly. A published ₹0 across all three rows, with a GST note, is what a genuinely free structure looks like on paper.
One last check applies to the word “life”. A free-for-life claim survives only while the underlying facts do: the broker keeps its policy, or you keep your BSDA conditions. Neither is fragile in practice, and both are visible in advance. That visibility, not the marketing phrase, is what this page is about.
What people usually get wrong
A free account means free trading
Brokerage and statutory charges apply on every order at every broker. “Free” describes opening and maintenance, not usage.
The first-year-free AMC lasts forever
It is a one-year waiver. Year two brings the published schedule unless the BSDA tiers apply, and the GST note rides on top of the published figure.
Zero AMC means zero bills
A dormant no-AMC account bills nothing. A used one bills for its usage: brokerage, DP charges and statutory fees on every trade.
You must apply to get the BSDA rates
The BSDA tiers apply automatically while you hold one account and stay within the limits. The monthly CAS states the account type.
Questions people ask
Groww publishes ₹0 account opening and ₹0 AMC with no time limit, which removes the only recurring fee. The BSDA route achieves the same ₹0 AMC at any broker while your single account holds under ₹4 lakh. What no account removes is the per-use cost: brokerage on trades, DP charges on sells and statutory charges on every order.
Permanent while you meet the conditions: one demat account across all depositories and holdings under ₹10 lakh. Below ₹4 lakh the AMC is ₹0; between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh it is ₹100 plus GST per year. Crossing ₹10 lakh in holdings, or opening a second demat account, ends the BSDA status.
Nothing in year one at most brokers, then the AMC from year two unless your account is BSDA-eligible or you are with a no-AMC broker like Groww. A dormant account’s only bill is the AMC, which is exactly what the BSDA route removes. The other charges on this page all require an action from you.
The opening is genuinely free, and the recurring AMC can genuinely be zero. What is not free is using the account: every trade carries brokerage and statutory charges at every broker, no exceptions. The honest summary: free to open, possibly free to hold, never free to use.
Yes, at the brokers that publish it. Upstox waives the AMC for the first year for newly onboarded users, and Zerodha waives it for resident individual accounts opened from 1 June 2026. The waiver is automatic, but it is a waiver, not a permanent rate: year two brings the published schedule.
The BSDA conversion happens without an application: hold one demat account and keep holdings within the limits, and the depository applies the BSDA tiers automatically, with the account type stated on your monthly CAS. Exceeding the limits or opening a second account moves you back to the standard schedule.
Sources
- Groww. “Pricing.” Accessed 16 August 2026.
- SEBI. Circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD1/P/CIR/2024/91 on the BSDA facility, 28 June 2024.
- Upstox. “Brokerage charges.” Accessed 16 August 2026.
- Zerodha. “Charges: equity, F&O, currency and commodity.” Accessed 16 August 2026.
- Angel One. “Pricing and brokerage charges.” Accessed 16 August 2026.