by Zerodha Broking Limited
Zerodha was founded in 2010 by Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath in Bengaluru, bootstrapped entirely without venture capital — a rarity in Indian fintech. Kite is Zerodha's flagship trading platform, used by over 1.6 crore (16 million) customers to place 2+ crore orders every single day. Zerodha is India's largest stock broker by active clients and daily trading volume, having single-handedly disrupted the brokerage industry with its flat-fee model. Kite's core proposition is simplicity and speed: zero brokerage on equity delivery trades, flat Rs 20 per F&O trade, millisecond order execution, and a clean interface that doesn't overwhelm beginners. The platform offers advanced charting with 100+ technical indicators and 15+ chart types powered by ChartIQ, GTT (Good Till Triggered) orders for automated trading, and basket orders for executing multiple trades simultaneously. In February 2026, Zerodha launched Terminal Mode — a customizable multi-panel layout where traders can arrange marketwatch, charts, order books, and positions side by side with up to 10 saved workspaces. Kite is free to use — no account maintenance charges, no software fees. Brokerage is zero on equity delivery and Rs 20 (or 0.03%, whichever is lower) per executed order on intraday and F&O. The Coin platform integrated within Kite allows direct mutual fund investments with zero commission. Zerodha also offers Varsity (free stock market education), Console (portfolio analytics), and Sentinel (price alerts) — all free. Kite is best suited for self-directed investors and traders who don't need hand-holding or advisory services. The platform excels at execution but deliberately doesn't offer stock recommendations, research reports, or relationship managers. High-frequency F&O traders may find the Rs 20/lot fee adds up compared to flat-fee competitors. Customer support is ticket-based and can take 24-48 hours, which is frustrating when you need help during market hours.
Zerodha Broking Limited
4.3/5 on Google Play Store · Last verified 2026-09-15
The app itself is free — no software or platform fee, and individual account opening is free too (NRI accounts are Rs 500, per zerodha.com/charges/ checked 15 September 2026). What isn't free is trading: equity delivery brokerage is zero, but intraday, futures and options attract per-order brokerage plus statutory charges like STT, exchange fees and GST that apply on every trade regardless of who you trade through.
Per zerodha.com/charges/ (checked 15 September 2026): equity delivery is zero brokerage; equity intraday and F&O futures are charged at 0.03% or Rs 20 per executed order, whichever is lower; F&O options are a flat Rs 20 per executed order. These brokerage rates haven't changed recently — what has changed sharply is the statutory charges stacked on top, see below.
More than most traders assume, and it got noticeably more expensive in 2026. Budget 2026 raised Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on F&O effective 1 April 2026: futures STT (sell side) went from 0.02% to 0.05% of turnover, a 150% jump, and options STT (on premium, sell side or on exercise) went from 0.10%/0.125% to a flat 0.15%. On top of STT you also pay exchange transaction charges, SEBI charges (Rs 10/crore), stamp duty on the buy side, and 18% GST on brokerage plus SEBI and exchange charges — all confirmed live on zerodha.com/charges/ on 15 September 2026. For an options seller, STT alone can now exceed the Rs 20 brokerage on a single lot, so quoting 'Rs 20 per F&O trade' understates the real cost of trading today.
Rs 15.34 per scrip, charged only when you sell shares out of your demat holdings — that's Rs 3.50 CDSL fee plus Rs 9.50 Zerodha fee plus 18% GST, per zerodha.com/charges/ (checked 15 September 2026). It applies once per company per day no matter how many shares of that company you sell that day, and it doesn't apply to intraday or F&O trades since there's no delivery involved.
Individual account opening is free (NRI accounts are Rs 500). Demat AMC is free for the first year for resident individuals. From the second year, BSDA accounts pay nothing on holdings up to Rs 4 lakh, Rs 100/year plus GST for Rs 4-10 lakh, and Rs 300/year plus GST above Rs 10 lakh; non-BSDA accounts pay a flat Rs 300/year plus 18% GST regardless of holding value, billed quarterly. Source: zerodha.com/charges/, checked 15 September 2026.
Zerodha is SEBI-registered and India's largest broker by client count, but Kite has a real, documented history of outages, disproportionately on high-volatility days when traders need it most. On 3 June 2024, Kite web access broke down during the exit-poll rally that sent the Nifty up 2.65% in a single session; a second glitch hit on 21 June 2024, within 15 days of the first. Zerodha's own transparency disclosures page (zerodha.com/marketintel/disclosures/) lists further short outages through 2025-2026, including a Cloudflare-driven global outage on 5 December 2025 (2:26-2:42 PM) and a fund-addition/UPI issue on 6 July 2026 (9:21-9:49 AM). None of these are catastrophic multi-day failures, but they cluster around exactly the volatile sessions where a few minutes of downtime costs real money.
Kite is the trading terminal — where you place equity, F&O, currency and commodity orders. Console (console.zerodha.com) is the backoffice and reporting dashboard — contract notes, tax P&L statements, fund statements and holdings reports live there, not in Kite. Coin is Zerodha's direct mutual fund platform, with zero commission and zero DP charges on fund purchases. All three sit under one Zerodha login but are separate apps built for separate jobs, rather than one unified interface.
Hand-picked videos to help you get started — tutorials, demos, and reviews.
Complete Zerodha Kite tutorial for Beginners
Zerodha Kite Tutorial For Beginners 2026 — Kite App Kaise Use Kare
Zerodha Kite — Introduction and app overview
Intraday Trading tutorial in Zerodha Kite app | Intraday Trading for beginners | Vishal Techzone
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