Zerodha Raises F&O Charges To ₹40 Per Order For Certain Intraday Trades

Stock broking platform Zerodha has doubled the brokerage fees for intraday F&O trades to ₹40 per order for accounts that do not comply with the 50% cash margin requirement.

As per a communication sent by the company to some of its users, Zerodha will charge a brokerage fee of ₹40 for intraday F&O trades from April 1, as against ₹20 currently, for user accounts which have cash and cash-equivalent collateral at below 50% of the margin required for the trade.

As a matter of fact, the platform’s terms and conditions already said that an additional brokerage fee would be charged if the account goes into debit. However, as per Inc42 sources, Zerodha had not implemented this till now and the company was contemplating if it should charge interest or additional brokerage for such transactions.

Zerodha cofounder Nithin Kamath took to the platform’s community forum to explain the rationale behind the move. 

He said that as per SEBI norms, 50% of the total margin required for F&O trading must be in cash or cash-equivalent instruments, while the rest can be in non-cash collateral like stocks. In case a user fails to maintain the required margin, platforms like Zerodha cover for the cash shortage. 

“If you pledge a stock and take collateral up to ₹1 Lakh and don’t bring in any funds, and you take a position for ₹1 Lakh, you are using the broker’s capital for 50% of that, or ₹ 50K. But if we are funding you ₹50K and don’t make any money on it, we are essentially losing money on that. So we had to charge something on those trades,” Kamath said. 

He added that margin trading has gone up like “bonkers” in recent times. “Also, since we started MTF (margin trading facility), the book has gone up to over 5K Cr in a short time. We are at a point where we might have to borrow funds in the near future to provide collateral for you all. Borrowed funds come at a cost,” Kamath said.

The development comes months after Kamath said that Zerodha might have to end its zero-brokerage model amid the government’s continuing crackdown on F&Os. However, the sources said that the platform doesn’t plan to introduce any charges on equity delivery brokerage. 

In her Budget speech for 2026-27, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an increase in Securities Transactions Tax (STT) on F&O trading. She said the STT on futures would be hiked to 0.05% from 0.02%, while options premium and exercise of options were both proposed to attract an STT of 0.15% from 0.1% and 0.125%, respectively, effective from April 1.

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