Zerodha Review: Account Opening, Brokerage & Margin for Trading 2024

Zerodha is one of the best discount broker in India. In this post, we have tried to build an exclusive Zerodha review based on the ease of account opening, brokerage charges and margin available. With its growing popularity and presence, prospective investors are more keen to search about “Zero dha” or “Zerodhaa”. However, remember the correct name of this leading stock broker is “Zerodha” and let’s gather some useful insights on it.

Zerodha pioneered the discount broking space and has continued to disrupt the market with its innovative low cost product for retail investors. It is the only discount broker offering equity delivery at zero brokerage with an intent to encourage more of retail investors to participate in the equity market.

Let’s get started and have a look at the various salient features and the process of account opening with the Zerodha trading platform.

Zerodha Account Opening Process

Opening a Zerodha trading account is a piece of cake. Let us learn how…Here are the steps to go about opening a demat and trading account with Zerodha.

1. Account Opening with Zerodha:

Just head over to Zerodha Account Opening Page and start opening your Zerodha account. If you have certain doubts, you can also request a callback and the sales executive will call you to clear your doubts. As simple as that! You will need to have your photographs, ID proof and PAN card handy to either upload or send the documents alongside the filled form.

A Quick Link to Open Free Equity Investment Account with Zerodha

Let’s simplify it for you, a quick guide as to How to open a Demat account with Zerodha online?

• Visit the Account Opening Page and enter your mobile number to sign-up.
• You’ll get an OTP to confirm the mobile number. Next enter your name and email address. You again receive an OTP to confirm your email id. The information filled must be correct, since these are your details for further correspondence and updates from Zerodha.
• Fill information like your PAN, Date of Birth as required.
• Make the account opening payment through net banking/card/UPI. Select the checkboxes (uncheck the ones you don’t wish to trade in e.g. you don’t want to trade in commodity, so deselect that box) and click “Pay & Continue”.
• You’ll view a “Congratulations” message and a payment confirmation mail from Zerodha.
• It then requests you to connect your AADHAR details to Digilocker. Click on “Connect to Digilocker” and sign in. If you have a Digilocker account, great1 Otherwise you can easily create one! So, “Link your Digilocker with Zerodha”.
• To complete the process, you have to submit few more details like bank name, account number, IFSC code, your marital status, etc.
• Then comes the IPV or In-Person Verification that’s a crucial part while opening a demat and trading account in India. Herein a depository participants has to verify your documents in personal. You”ll be shown an OTP, jot down that OTP on a paper and hold it in front of your webcam/mobile camera. Three simple steps to be followed: “Start IPV”, “Take Video” and “Save Video”.
• Next, either sign the application digitally through your AADHAR (mobile OTP) or print and forward it.
• It’s time to upload scanned copy of your documents as required.
• Complete the eSign process as directed step-by-step.
• Finally, you have to download the “Demat Power of Attorney” form and send it to Zerodha address.

2. Documents Required: 

Here’s a list of few important documents that you’ll need to open a demat and trading account:

• PAN card copy
• AADHAR card
• Cancelled cheque
• Passport size photos
• Your current signature on a paper
• Income proof: If you wish to trade in futures and options. The income proof can be your Form 16, bank statement, salary slip, etc.

If you are applying online, keep these documents ready so they can be uploaded to achieve a faster online account opening.

Offline vs. Online Account Opening:

You have two options, to open an account online or offline. If you decide to continue opening an account online itself, it’s quite an easy and quick way to open an account with Zerodha as explained above.

Therefore, you can reduce all the above said process to paperless if you have an Aadhar card. Demat and trading account opening can be done digitally and seamlessly. Complete the eSign process, authenticate with an OTP and move ahead.

As stated earlier, some additional documents like salary statement, Form 16 etc. may be needed if you wish to trade in equity derivatives and want Zerodha to allow access to derivative segment.

However, you can also pursue the offline mode of account opening. You can download and print the application form, complete it, sign it, and send it to Zerodha. A copy of self-attested documents needs to be submitted alongwith necessary form. You also have the facility for Zerodha to pickup the form but that will cost 100 Rs extra. The pickup facility because Demat and trading account is a big form to fill and if a person comes to pickup, he can help you fill that form up.

Transaction	Fees
Trading & Demat Account Opening Charges	Rs.200 (One time) for Online Account Opening
Trading Account Maintenance Charges (AMC)	Free
Demat Account Maintenance Charges (AMC)	Rs.300

If you wish to get the forms couriered, there’s an additional fee of Rs.100 only.

The Zerodha accounting opening process is just so easy.

Apply Here for Zerodha Account

Callback Feature:

We also tried out the callback feature of Zerodha to check out their responsiveness. To our surprise we received a callback within few hours of registering a callback.

Zerodha Trading Segments

Zerodha allows trading into a lot segments. The segments include Equity (Intraday, F&O, Delivery), Trading commodities on MCX, Currency Derivative trading.

Zerodha Brokerage Charges

Zerodha is one of the first free flat brokerage player in the market. They were one of the few to change the tide from full service brokers to discount brokers. In trading, you get some other charges as well like STT etc. when you trade, we try to bring you all the charges you will get when you setup a trade on Zerodha.

Here is the list of charges by Zerodha over various segments:

	Brokerage	STT	Transaction Charges	GST	SEBI Charges	Stamp Duty
Equity Delivery	Zero brokerage	0.1% on buy & sell	NSE: 0.00325% BSE: 0.003% per trade	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Equity Intraday	0.01% or Rs. 20/executed order whichever is lower	0.025% on the sell side	NSE: 0.00325% BSE: 0.003% per trade	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Equity Futures	0.01% or Rs. 20/executed order whichever is lower	0.01% on sell side	NSE: 0.0019%	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Equity Options	Flat Rs. 20 per executed order	0.05% on sell side (on premium)	NSE: 0.05%(on premium) BSE: 0.003% per trade (on premium)	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Currency Futures	0.01% or Rs. 20/trade whichever is lower	No STT	NSE: 0.0009% BSE: 0.00022%	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Currency Options	0.01% or Rs. 20/trade whichever is lower	No STT	NSE: 0.035% BSE: 0.001%	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Commodity Futures	0.01% or Rs. 20/trade whichever is lower	0.01% on sell side (Non-Agri)	Group A: 0.0026% Group B: Pepper: 0.00005% Castorseed: 0.0005% KAPAS: 0.00005% RBDPMOLEIN: 0.001%	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	Agri: ₹1 / crore Non-Agri: ₹10 / crore	State Dependant
Commodity Options	0.01% or Rs. 20/trade whichever is lower	0.05% on sell side	Zero	18% on (brokerage + transaction charges)	₹10 / crore	State Dependant

The table can be overwhelming to study and contemplate the costs incurred at the trade. For easy access as per your trade, you can checkout the Zerodha Brokerage Calculator here.

Zerodha Margin for Trading

Just like other offline or full service brokers, Zerodha also offers margins for trading. Margins vary from segment to segment and stock to stock i.e you may get more margin in a particular segment or a particular Stock.

However, there is certainly an upper and lower limit to the margin that Zerodha will provide. Here is the amount of margin that you can expect in various kinds of Products:

• Equity Delivery/CNC: None, you must have all the cash in your account to take delivery.
• Equity Intraday: Zerodha provides 3x to 20x margin on Equity intraday trades depending upon the stock liquidity. You can check out the margins provided on stocks at Zerodha Site.
• Equity MIS: Zerodha squares off all the MIS trades at the day end even if the user doesn’t. They provide 3x-10x margin for the MIS trade.
• Equity Cover Orders : Cover orders are like MIS with a compulsory stop loss. Zerodha provides 6x-20x margin for the Equity CO.

Zerodha Futures Margin(Equity, Index), Commodity & Currency

Futures is a leveraged product by the exchange itself so buy a particular lot, you just need the margin amount in your account. This margin account is stipulated by exchange. This is called as NRML margin. Zerodha provides few options on top of that:

MIS Margins: 

• Equity & Index Futures : 40% of NRML margin with square off at 320P
• Commodity Futures : 50% of NRML margin with square off 25 minutes before market close
• Currency Futures : 50% of NRML margin with square off at 430P

CO Margins

Since cover orders are necessarily with a stop loss. The margins required are usually lesser than the MIS Margins.

You may also like: Best Discount Brokers in India

Zerodha Options Margin(Equity, Index) & Currency

Zerodha doesn’t provide margin on the options. So, the premium required for an option must be present in your account(NRML value). However, you can get some margin for Option Writing/Shorting. Checkout the Zerodha span calculator to calculate the amount that you will need as margin in your account.

Also have a look at How to apply online IPO with Zerodha through UPI app?

Zerodha Platform for Trading

Zerodha has a robust platform for traders to place their trades. In fact, they provide multiple tools for the traders to execute and manage their trades. Here are the tools that they provide:

• Zerodha Kite: An HTML5 web based tool to trade. It streams quotes, plots graphs and everything that you would expect a trading platform to do
• Zerodha Kite Mobile: Basically, a kite client for Android and iOS devices. Trade seamlessly from your mobile phone.
• Kite Connect:  An API to develop the trading platforms on fly on top of Zerodha.
• Zerodha Q: A Dashboard for all your reporting and backoffice activities.
• Zerodha Open Trade: Its a great way to follow great traders and passively observe their strategies. It can be a great tool to learn trading
• Zerodha PI: A desktop terminal to execute your trades.
• Zerodha Smallcase: Checkout the fundamental and other data of the companies you are interested in with small case.

That looks so massive build up and handy tools at your service. All in all, a great tool set for a trader to trade on Zerodha.

You may also like to have a look at our exclusive review on the Zerodha Brokerage Calculator.

Zerodha Review: A Final Take

There might be some technical glitches here and there at certain points of time while using this trading platform. However, we believe their team is really working upon to fix them. So, we are likely to see a magical customer experience in the coming days.

Overall, what we can say…Zerodha is a great platform to carry out your stock market trading. It provides a wonderful set of execution as well as variety of informational tools for your trade setup. Get Setup with Zerodha now !!

A Quick Link to Open Free Equity Investment Account with Zerodha

Disclaimer: There is a high degree of risk involved in trading. The information on this website cannot be constituted as professional advice in any regard. Please follow due diligence before investing your money with any of the trading platforms in India.

For an in-depth analysis on this best discount broker, you may visit Zerodha Review

We had a great experience using this trading platform. What about you, did you have the same? Was this Zerodha Review helpful to you? With which trading platform, have you opened your Demat and Trading account? Do share your experiences and feedback on Zerodha or any of the discount brokers in India.