Intraday Brokerage and Charges Explained (STT, GST, Exchange Fees)
Every intraday trade in the Indian stock market carries a set of charges beyond the price of the stock itself. Brokerage is only one of them. There is also securities transaction tax, exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, stamp duty, and GST on some of those components. Most beginners look only at the price they bought at and the price they sold at, and think that difference is their profit. It is not. The real profit is the price difference minus all of these charges, and on a single intraday trade these charges can easily eat ₹150 to ₹250 even before the market moves in your favour.
This article breaks down each charge, walks through one complete worked example on a ₹1,00,000 intraday trade, and then shows how the same trade would cost differently if held as delivery or traded as an option. If you are learning to trade, understanding this schedule matters as much as reading a chart, because it tells you the minimum move you need just to break even.
What STT is and why it exists
STT stands for securities transaction tax. It is a tax collected by the government on every trade executed on a recognised stock exchange, and it is deducted automatically at the time of the trade, you never have to calculate or pay it separately. It was introduced to bring transparency to markets and to capture tax revenue directly from trading activity rather than relying only on capital gains reporting.
The STT rate depends on the type of trade. For intraday equity trades (buy and sell on the same day, called MIS or similar), STT is charged only on the sell side, at 0.025% of the sell turnover. For equity delivery trades (where you actually hold the stock, called CNC), STT is charged on both the buy side and the sell side, at 0.1% each. This is one reason delivery trades cost more in STT than intraday trades, even though delivery has zero brokerage on many platforms.
What stamp duty is
Stamp duty is a state government charge on the transfer of securities, similar in spirit to the stamp duty you pay when registering property, just at a much smaller rate. It applies only on the buy side of a trade, never on the sell side. For intraday equity trades the rate is 0.003% of buy-side turnover, and for delivery trades it is 0.015% of buy-side turnover. It is a small amount on any single trade, but it is still a real, non-negotiable cost.
What exchange transaction charges are
When you place a trade, it is matched and executed on an exchange, NSE in most cases for Indian equities and derivatives. The exchange charges a small transaction fee for providing this infrastructure, matching engine, and settlement guarantee. For equity intraday and delivery trades this is about 0.00307% of turnover. For F&O options it is about 0.0355% of the premium value, and for F&O futures it is about 0.00183% of turnover. This fee goes to the exchange, not to your broker.
What the SEBI turnover fee is
SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, is the regulator that oversees exchanges, brokers, and listed companies. It charges a small turnover fee on every trade to fund its regulatory functions, currently ₹10 per crore of turnover, which works out to 0.0001%. It is the smallest charge on the list by a wide margin, but it still shows up on every contract note.
Why GST applies on some charges and not others
GST, at 18%, is a tax on services. Brokerage is a service your broker provides, so GST applies to it. Exchange transaction charges and SEBI turnover fees are also treated as charges for a service rendered, so GST applies to them too. STT and stamp duty, on the other hand, are taxes in their own right, not fees for a service, so GST is not layered on top of them. In short, GST is calculated only on the sum of brokerage plus exchange transaction charges plus SEBI turnover fee, and nowhere else.
Worked example: ₹1,00,000 intraday trade (MIS), buy and sell
Assume you buy shares worth exactly ₹1,00,000 in the morning and sell the same shares for exactly ₹1,00,000 later the same day, a flat trade with no price movement, just to isolate the cost of trading itself. Here is every charge, calculated on each leg where relevant.
- Brokerage: 0.03% of turnover per order, capped at ₹20. On buy: 0.03% of ₹1,00,000 = ₹30, capped at ₹20. On sell: same, ₹20. Total brokerage = ₹40.
- STT: 0.025% on sell side only. 0.025% of ₹1,00,000 = ₹25. Buy side STT = ₹0. Total STT = ₹25.
- Stamp duty: 0.003% on buy side only. 0.003% of ₹1,00,000 = ₹3. Sell side = ₹0. Total stamp duty = ₹3.
- Exchange transaction charge: about 0.00307% of turnover, on both legs. Buy: ₹3.07. Sell: ₹3.07. Total = ₹6.14.
- SEBI turnover fee: 0.0001% of turnover, on both legs. Buy: ₹0.10. Sell: ₹0.10. Total = ₹0.20.
- GST: 18% on (brokerage + exchange transaction charge + SEBI fee) = 18% of (₹40 + ₹6.14 + ₹0.20) = 18% of ₹46.34 = about ₹8.34.
- Grand total charges = ₹40 (brokerage) + ₹25 (STT) + ₹3 (stamp duty) + ₹6.14 (exchange) + ₹0.20 (SEBI) + ₹8.34 (GST) = about ₹82.68 for the full round trip.
So on a flat ₹1,00,000 intraday trade with zero price movement, you lose about ₹82.68 to charges alone. That means the stock needs to move by at least about 0.083% in your favour, roughly ₹83 on a ₹1,00,000 position, just for you to break even. If you are trading with 5x intraday leverage and your actual margin deployed is ₹20,000, the ₹82.68 charge is still calculated on the full ₹1,00,000 turnover, so it represents about 0.41% of your margin, a much bigger bite than it looks at first glance. This is exactly why scalping for tiny moves is harder than it seems, the charges alone can wipe out a thin profit before you even account for slippage.
Run your own numbers in the free intraday brokerage calculator, it covers delivery and F&O too
How the same trade costs differently as delivery (CNC)
If you bought ₹1,00,000 of the same stock and held it as delivery instead of squaring off intraday, the charge structure shifts. STT applies on both buy and sell at 0.1% each, so STT alone becomes ₹100 on buy plus ₹100 on sell, ₹200 total, roughly eight times the intraday STT. Stamp duty is also higher on delivery, at 0.015% on the buy side, ₹15 instead of ₹3. Brokerage on delivery is often ₹0 on many platforms since there is no leverage risk to manage, so that partly offsets the higher STT and stamp duty. Delivery trades also carry a DP (depository) charge, a flat fee of roughly ₹15-20 charged once per stock sold per day regardless of quantity, so selling 5 shares or 500 shares of the same stock on the same day costs the same DP charge. Overall, delivery trades usually cost more in absolute rupees when STT and DP charges are considered, but you are also not paying for intraday leverage, and you are free to hold the position for as long as you want.
How the same trade costs differently as an F&O option
Options work on premium value, not the value of the underlying stock, so the numbers look different. Brokerage is typically a flat ₹20 per executed order regardless of premium size. STT is about 0.15% on the sell-side premium only, a rate that was raised from 0.1% in the 2026 Union Budget. Exchange transaction charges are proportionally higher on options, about 0.0355% of premium, since options are priced much lower than the underlying and the exchange fee is a percentage of a smaller base. Stamp duty is 0.003% on the buy side. Because options premiums are usually a small fraction of the equivalent stock value, the rupee charges are usually much smaller in absolute terms than an equivalent-value equity trade, but as a percentage of the premium paid, charges can be a much larger share of your capital, especially on far out-of-the-money options bought for a few rupees each.
Why tracking charges matters as much as tracking price
A trader who only watches gross profit and loss is looking at half the picture. Two trades with identical entry and exit prices can have very different net outcomes depending on whether they were intraday, delivery, or options, because the charge schedule is not the same across product types. A trader who wins on price but ignores charges can still end the month in the red purely from transaction costs, especially with high trade frequency. This is one of the quiet reasons many beginners underperform, not because their market calls were wrong, but because they never accounted for what every trade actually costs to enter and exit.
Building the habit of checking net P&L, after charges, rather than gross P&L, before charges, is one of the most useful things a new trader can do early on. It changes how you think about trade frequency, position sizing, and how large a move you actually need before a trade is worth taking.
How Tenth Trader shows this on every simulated trade
Tenth Trader runs live NSE prices across close to 2,700 stocks, indices, and derivatives, and every simulated order, intraday, delivery, or F&O, is charged using a schedule modelled on real exchange, SEBI, and government charges, the same categories explained above: brokerage, STT, stamp duty, exchange transaction charge, SEBI turnover fee, DP charge on delivery sells, and GST where applicable. Nothing here is real money, there are no real trades and no rewards of monetary value, it is a practice environment built to reflect real costs accurately. The charge breakdown appears on the order itself, so you see net P&L, not just gross price movement, from your very first trade. That way, the habit of checking charges before calling a trade profitable forms while you are still practising with virtual capital, well before it matters with real money.