Zerodha

What is Zerodha?

Zerodha is an Indian discount stockbroker founded in 2010 by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath. The company is headquartered at 153/154, 4th Cross, Dollars Colony, JP Nagar 4th Phase, Bangalore 560078, and remains privately held by the founding family with no outside venture capital on the cap table. The legal entity that holds the broking license is Zerodha Broking Limited; commodity activity runs through a sister entity called Zerodha Commodities Private Limited.

The firm operates as a flat-fee discount broker rather than a full-service house, meaning it does not bundle research recommendations, relationship managers, or portfolio advisory into the trading account. Group affiliates extend the offering: Coin for direct mutual funds, Kite Connect for developer APIs, Varsity for free trader education, and Streak (partner) for retail algorithmic strategies.

For the financial year ending March 2024 (FY24), the broker reported revenue of ₹8,320 crore and net profit of ₹4,700 crore, figures published in CEO Nithin Kamath's public disclosure. The same disclosure flagged that a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) circular on uniform exchange fees, effective October 2024, would compress revenue going forward.

Which regulators license Zerodha?

The broker discloses a primary registration with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India's federal markets regulator, under registration number INZ000031633. Active status for this number can be confirmed on the SEBI public register (sebi.gov.in). The same registration covers equity, futures and options, and currency derivative business.

Three exchange memberships extend the SEBI license to specific trading venues: National Stock Exchange (NSE) member code 13906, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) member code 6498, and Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) member code 46025. The MCX membership is held under the sister entity Zerodha Commodities Private Limited rather than the main broking entity. Depository participation runs through CDSL under DP code IN-DP-431-2019.

Investor protection follows SEBI's standard framework: client funds segregated from broker funds, daily settlement to clearing corporations, and access to the SEBI Investor Protection Fund (IPF) capped at ₹25 lakh per investor per defaulting member. India is not covered by the FCA FSCS, SEC SIPC, or EU ICF; investors outside India cannot open a Zerodha account.

No public warning, license suspension, or enforcement order against the entity appeared in SEBI's published orders list during the scan window. Three documented platform outages were reported in 2024 (one in January, two in June) and further disruptions on September 3, 2025 and October 6, 2025; these are operational incidents rather than regulatory findings.

Trading platforms

The broker runs a fully proprietary stack rather than offering MetaTrader 4 / 5 (MT4 / MT5) or cTrader. The flagship platform is Kite, available as a web terminal at kite.zerodha.com and as native iOS and Android apps under the name "Kite by Zerodha." Charting is powered by integrated TradingView and ChartIQ libraries, and order entry supports market, limit, stop-loss, stop-loss market, cover, bracket, and basket order types.

Companion tools cover the rest of the workflow. Console is the back-office portal for tax reports, ledger, and holdings; Coin handles direct-plan mutual funds; Sentinel provides price alerts; and the Kite Connect REST API exposes the same order endpoints to third-party software at a flat ₹2,000 per month, with a separate ₹2,000 historical-data plan.

Mobile rating

The Kite Android app carries a 4.4-star Google Play rating across roughly 700,000 reviews. Reviewer feedback splits between praise for the clean order ticket and frequent complaints about latency during the first 15 minutes after market open and during high-volatility expiry sessions.

Account types

Onboarding produces a single integrated account that combines Demat (CDSL), trading (NSE + BSE + MCX), and currency derivatives access. There is no separate "Standard," "ECN," "Pro," or "VIP" tier; brokerage and feature access are identical across all retail clients.

• Equity Trading + Demat: cash market on NSE and BSE, plus delivery into a CDSL Demat account.
• F&O: equity and index futures and options on NSE.
• Currency Derivatives: USD/INR, EUR/INR, GBP/INR, JPY/INR futures and options on NSE.
• Commodity: futures and options on MCX (gold, silver, crude, natural gas, base metals, agri).
• Coin: direct-plan mutual fund and bond holdings, sitting in the same Demat account.

Non-Resident Indian (NRI) accounts are accepted with a separate NRO/NRE bank linkage and a higher account-opening fee. Corporate, HUF, and partnership accounts are also supported. Fully foreign retail (non-NRI) clients cannot open an account, since SEBI rules restrict that route to registered Foreign Portfolio Investors.

Minimum deposit

No minimum deposit applies to opening a Zerodha account. Account opening costs ₹200 for resident individuals (₹100 trading + ₹100 Demat) and ₹500 for NRIs. The trader funds the account only when placing a trade that requires margin. For equity delivery, the funding requirement equals the trade value plus statutory charges; for intraday and F&O, the funding requirement equals the exchange-prescribed SPAN plus exposure margin.

Deposit and withdrawal methods

The funding rail is rupee-only and uses Indian banking infrastructure exclusively. Three methods are supported: UPI (instant, free), net banking via the broker's bank-partner panel (instant, ₹9 per transfer on most banks), and IMPS/NEFT/RTGS bank transfer (manual, free, value-dated to the next clearing window). No card funding, no e-wallets, no cryptocurrency, no foreign-currency transfer.

Withdrawals are processed back to the registered bank account by 18:30 IST for requests placed before 16:00 IST on a trading day; settlement under T+1 means equity sale proceeds become withdrawable one working day after sale.

Tradeable instruments

The instrument universe is concentrated on Indian listed markets. Forex in the global retail sense, namely spot EUR/USD or GBP/USD pairs through a CFD contract, is not available; SEBI rules confine retail currency trading to INR-pair exchange-traded futures and options.

• Equities and ETFs listed on NSE and BSE (roughly 5,500 active scrips combined).
• Equity and index futures and options on NSE (Nifty, Bank Nifty, Fin Nifty, individual stocks).
• Currency futures and options: USD/INR, EUR/INR, GBP/INR, JPY/INR on NSE.
• Commodity futures and options on MCX (precious metals, energy, base metals, select agri).
• Government securities, sovereign gold bonds, treasury bills via the NSE goBID window.
• Mutual funds (direct plans only) and listed corporate bonds via Coin.

Spread and commission structure

The broker prices on a flat-fee model rather than a spread mark-up. Published rates as of the scan date:

• Equity delivery: ₹0 brokerage (zero).
• Equity intraday: lower of ₹20 or 0.03% per executed order.
• F&O (equity, index, currency, commodity): flat ₹20 per executed order.
• Mutual funds via Coin: ₹0 brokerage on direct plans.

Statutory charges sit on top of brokerage and are non-discretionary: Securities Transaction Tax (STT) at exchange-set rates, SEBI turnover charges at ₹10 per crore, exchange transaction charges, stamp duty, and 18% GST on the broker-side fee components. From March 2026 a ₹40 short-fall penalty applies on F&O positions where collateral cash margin falls below the SEBI-mandated 50% threshold.

Leverage and margin requirements

Retail leverage in India is fixed by SEBI rules, not by the broker. Intraday equity carries a maximum of roughly 1:5 using the broker's MIS product, well below the 1:30 ESMA retail cap and an order of magnitude below the 1:500 offshore band. F&O margin equals the exchange-published SPAN plus exposure margin and cannot be reduced. Currency derivatives carry SEBI-set lot sizes (USD/INR = 1,000 USD per lot) and exchange-set margin.

Customer support

Support runs on a ticket-first model through the Console portal, plus an inbound call line at +91 80 4040 2020 during market hours (09:00 to 17:30 IST, Monday to Friday). There is no 24/7 phone desk and no chat channel for retail clients. Call-and-trade orders carry an extra ₹50 per executed order, which discourages phone-routed execution in normal market conditions.

Mobile app and trading experience

The Kite app exposes the full order ticket, charting, watchlists, alerts, and Demat holdings on a single mobile surface. iOS and Android builds share feature parity. The interface language is English only on the Kite app; Console reports are available in English with limited Hindi support. The app has been the subject of repeated outage reports during peak NSE sessions, most recently the October 6, 2025 trading-day disruption, which the firm acknowledged and later restored.

Fees beyond the spread

Several recurring and event-driven charges sit outside the per-order brokerage line:

• Annual Maintenance Charge (AMC): ₹300 + 18% GST per year on the Demat account.
• Demat debit transaction: ₹13.5 + GST per scrip on the sell side.
• Pledge / unpledge: ₹30 + GST per ISIN per request.
• Physical CMR/DIS booklet: ₹100 + GST.
• Auto square-off (intraday positions left open): ₹50 per executed order.
• Margin shortfall (F&O): penalty in line with SEBI's prescribed slab, separate from the new ₹40 cash-shortfall charge.

Who is Zerodha best for?

The fit is narrow and specific. The broker serves resident Indian and NRI traders who want flat ₹20 pricing on F&O, zero brokerage on equity delivery, and a single integrated Demat + trading + currency-derivatives account. Active client base sits near 6.89 million in FY26, second behind Groww after the 2024 active-client crossover.

It does not fit international retail traders, anyone seeking MT4 / MT5 access, anyone who needs spot forex CFDs on EUR/USD or similar global pairs, or anyone whose intraday workflow cannot tolerate the platform outages documented in September and October 2025. The flat-fee model is durable, the regulatory footprint is clean, and the F&O cost structure is among the most aggressive in the Indian market; the operational risk lives in platform reliability under peak load.

Risk note: Currency derivatives and futures and options carry high leverage and can produce losses larger than the initial margin. This content is for information only, not investment advice. Verify the broker's current SEBI registration on sebi.gov.in and the exchange memberships on nseindia.com, bseindia.com, and mcxindia.com before any investment decision.