The cheapest Indian broker on ALL charges (2026): AMC, MTF interest, brokerage & the fee nobody escapes

Two things get advertised loudest by every broker in India, and both are things they are basically forced to give away. Opening an account is free. So is applying to an IPO. So, at most of the big discount brokers now, is delivery brokerage — buy shares, hold them, and pay ₹0 to buy. That is a lot of zeroes on the banner.

None of those zeroes is where the cost of investing actually lives. The real money leaks out of four places the banner never leads with: the annual maintenance charge (AMC) on the demat account, the interest on a Margin Trading Facility (MTF) position if you ever use leverage, the delivery brokerage at the brokers that still charge it — and a small statutory-plus-depository charge on every single sell that no broker escapes, not even the "zero-brokerage" ones.

This is the master post: one all-charges comparison across the cheapest brokers in India, focused on Dhan, Pocketful, INDmoney and Paytm Money, with Angel One, Upstox and Zerodha as reference points. It ties together the two narrower posts I wrote this cycle — the cheapest broker for IPO investing and the MTF interest slab rates, broker by broker — into a single verdict on who is genuinely cheapest once you add everything up.

Every fee in this post is time-sensitive. Broker charges change often, and several of these numbers changed in the weeks before this was written. Each figure here was checked against the broker's own pricing page this cycle — but re-verify on the official page before you open an account or place a trade. Where a widely-repeated claim could not be confirmed, I flag it as unverified or refuted rather than passing it on as fact.

Applying is free — so where does the cost actually hide?

Start by throwing out the fees that are the same everywhere, because they cannot be a differentiator. A big chunk of what you pay on any trade is statutory and pass-through: Securities Transaction Tax (STT), stamp duty, exchange transaction charges, the SEBI turnover fee, and GST on the brokerage and exchange components. These are set by the government and the exchanges, the broker merely collects them, and they are identical at every broker on the same trade. Nobody is cheaper on STT. Nobody is cheaper on stamp duty. If a broker claims to be, they are confusing you.

So the honest comparison strips those out and looks only at what the broker actually controls:

AMC — the recurring annual fee for keeping the demat account open.
Delivery brokerage — what you pay to buy-and-hold equity.
MTF interest — the rate on borrowed money if you trade on margin.
The DP-sell fee — the per-scrip depository charge on every sell.

Get those four right and you have found the cheapest broker for your pattern of use. Everything else is either identical across brokers or advertising.

And notice how these four fees hit different investors. A pure long-term holder who buys index-fund-style baskets and never sells feels only AMC — the delivery brokerage is ₹0 at the good brokers, MTF is irrelevant because they never borrow, and the DP-sell fee almost never fires. A leveraged swing trader feels almost nothing but MTF interest, because it ticks daily on a large borrow while a ₹300 AMC is a rounding error. An IPO flipper feels the DP-sell fee on every listing-day exit and the AMC on the account in between. There is no universal "cheapest broker" — there is a cheapest broker for each of those patterns, and the master table further down lets you find yours. That is the whole reason to read a fee stack instead of a headline: the headline is written for the average, and you are not the average of anything.

The full cost stack, and the jargon that hides it

Before the tables, the vocabulary — because most of the "free broker" confusion is just people not knowing what each fee is.

AMC (Annual Maintenance Charge). A recurring fee — billed yearly or quarterly — for keeping your demat account open. This is separate from the trading account and separate from brokerage. A broker can charge ₹0 brokerage and still bleed you ₹300 a year in AMC. This is the fee long-term holders feel most, because it is charged whether you trade or not.
DP (Depository Participant). Your broker is a DP — the front desk to the actual depository (CDSL or NSDL) that holds your shares in electronic form. Two DP-related charges matter: the AMC above, and the DP-sell fee below.
The DP-sell fee — the fee nobody escapes. Every time you sell shares from your demat, the depository levies a flat per-scrip charge (per company, per day, regardless of quantity), and the broker passes it through — plus GST. This is not brokerage, so a "zero-brokerage" broker still charges it. Sell three different stocks in a day and you pay it three times. It is small, but it is the one fee the marketing never mentions, and it is where the cheapest broker genuinely separates from the rest.
BSDA (Basic Services Demat Account). A SEBI-mandated account type for small investors: ₹0 AMC as long as your demat holdings stay at or below ₹4 lakh, and ₹100 + GST per year for holdings between ₹4 lakh and ₹10 lakh. You may hold only one BSDA across all brokers. This is the genuine zero-AMC route for a small long-term holder — but the moment your portfolio crosses ₹4 lakh, you tip into the paid band, and above ₹10 lakh you lose BSDA eligibility entirely.
MTF interest. With MTF you put up part of the purchase and the broker funds the rest; you take actual delivery, the shares sit pledged as collateral, and you pay daily interest on the borrowed portion until you sell or repay. The headline rate is almost always a teaser — a low number that applies only to a small first slab, or only on a paid plan. The rate that matters is the one on the band you actually borrow in. (This is the whole subject of the MTF slab-rates post; here I fold each broker's structure into the master comparison.)

Two structural details separate a genuinely cheap MTF broker from a merely cheap-looking one. First, tiered vs teaser: a tiered structure charges a rate per slab of borrowing that only rises as you borrow more, with no artificially-low introductory band — so the rate you see is close to the rate you pay. A teaser structure dangles one very low band (typically the first ₹1 lakh) and quietly reverts to a much higher rate on everything above it, so the blended rate on a real position is far worse than the banner. Second, MTF brokerage on top of interest: some brokers charge a separate per-order fee on MTF trades (e.g. 0.1% of the order value) in addition to the daily interest. Interest is unavoidable; that extra per-order brokerage is not, and it is the kind of line that never makes the headline. When you compare MTF, compare the true slab rate you will borrow in and check whether there is a per-order MTF brokerage lurking underneath.

The DP-sell and statutory fees nobody escapes

Two layers of every trade are outside the broker's control, and it is worth being blunt about which is which.

Statutory / pass-through (identical everywhere): STT, stamp duty, exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fee, and GST. Same trade, same amounts, every broker. Do not let a broker sell you on being "cheaper" here — they cannot be.

A quick word on each, because knowing what they are stops you blaming your broker for them: STT is a central tax on the transaction value, levied on both legs of some trade types and one leg of others. Stamp duty is a state-side charge on the buy side. Exchange transaction charges are what NSE/BSE levy on turnover. The SEBI turnover fee is a tiny regulator levy. And GST applies on top of the brokerage and the exchange transaction charge (not on the whole trade value). Every one of these is defined by a government or an exchange, not by the broker, and the broker simply collects and remits it. That is why a "zero-brokerage" broker's contract note still shows charges — those are the pass-throughs, and they would be identical on the same trade at any competitor. The only honest place to compare brokers on price is the four fees the broker actually sets.

The DP-sell fee (broker-passed, but it varies): this is the one exception where "everyone charges it" does not mean "everyone charges the same." The depository sets a base, and the broker adds its own markup on top before passing it through. On verified 2026 pricing:

Broker	DP-sell fee (per scrip, on sell)
Dhan	₹12.50 + GST (lowest verified)
Pocketful	₹13.50 + GST
Angel One	₹20 + GST
Upstox	₹20 + GST

If you sell often across many different stocks, this per-scrip fee compounds quietly — and Dhan's is the lowest of the verified set. For a buy-and-hold investor who sells rarely, it barely matters. Know which of those two you are.

To make it concrete: the fee is charged per company, per day, on the sell side — not per share and not per rupee. Sell 10 shares of one stock or 10,000 shares of the same stock in one day, and you pay the DP-sell fee once for that stock. But sell holdings in five different companies on the same day and you pay it five times. So the fee scales with how many different stocks you exit, not with how much money is involved. A long-term investor who trims one position a year pays it once a year and never thinks about it. A trader who books profits across a basket of ten names in an afternoon pays it ten times that afternoon — and at ₹20 + GST (Angel One, Upstox) versus ₹12.50 + GST (Dhan), that basket costs meaningfully more to unwind at the pricier broker. The gap per scrip looks trivial in isolation; multiplied across a year of active selling, it is a real, if quiet, edge for Dhan.

One more nuance worth knowing: the DP-sell fee applies to selling from your demat — i.e. delivery-based sells. Pure intraday trades that never take delivery do not incur it, because nothing leaves your demat. So the fee is a delivery-investor and MTF-exit concern, not an intraday one. That is another reason your use case decides which fees you should actually care about.

The master comparison: all charges, every broker

Here is the whole thing in one table. Read it as: what does this broker cost me across the four things it actually controls? Statutory charges are omitted because they are identical everywhere.

Broker	Opening	AMC	Delivery	Intraday / F&O	MTF interest slab	DP-sell	Best for
Dhan	₹0	₹0 (Individuals/HUF; ₹800 + GST NRI/corp)	₹0	₹20 or 0.03% / ₹20 per order	Tiered, no teaser: 12.49% ≤₹5L, 13.49% ₹5–10L, 14.49% ₹10–25L, 15.49% ₹25L–5Cr	₹12.50 + GST	Cheapest overall; MTF above ₹1L
Pocketful	₹0	₹0	₹0	₹20 or 0.03% / —	3-tier teaser: 5.99% ≤₹1L, 14.60% ₹1–25L, 16.00% >₹25L. MTF brokerage 0.1%/order	₹13.50 + GST	Fee-free base; tiny (<₹1L) MTF
Angel One	₹0	₹240 + GST/yr (non-BSDA); ₹0 via BSDA ≤₹4L	₹0 first 30 days, then ₹20 or 0.1% (min ₹5)	₹20 or 0.1% (min ₹5) / —	~14.99%	₹20 + GST	Existing Angel users
Upstox	₹0	₹0 first year (new customers from 14-Feb-2025), then ₹300 + GST/yr	₹20 per order (reintroduced)	₹20 or 0.05% / ₹20 per order	(verify on page)	₹20 + GST	IPO (free); mixed use
Zerodha	₹0	₹0 via BSDA <₹4L	₹0	—	Flat 14.6%	(verify on page)	Long-term holders under ₹4L
INDmoney	see note	not independently verified	not independently verified	not independently verified	not independently verified	(verify on page)	Confirm on indmoney.com
Paytm Money	—	UNVERIFIED	UNVERIFIED	UNVERIFIED	UNVERIFIED	(ancillary pledge fees only, confirmed)	Cannot recommend on price until verified

A few things that table is telling you, spelled out:

Dhan is the only broker in the set that hits ₹0 on opening, ₹0 on AMC (for individuals/HUF), ₹0 on delivery, and carries the lowest verified DP-sell fee — while running an MTF structure with no teaser gimmick.
Pocketful matches Dhan on the ₹0 base (opening, AMC, delivery) but its MTF headline is a classic teaser: the eye-catching 5.99% applies only to the first ₹1 lakh you borrow. Cross ₹1 lakh and you jump to 14.60%, above ₹25 lakh to 16.00% — plus a 0.1% per-order MTF brokerage Dhan does not levy. It also charges ₹25 per ISIN for pledge/unpledge and ₹25 for call-and-trade.
Angel One and Paytm Money are the pricier all-in options — Angel because of the ₹240 + GST AMC (unless you use the BSDA route) plus ₹20-or-0.1% delivery after the first 30 days, and Paytm because its core numbers could not be verified at all (more on that below).

MTF interest, lined up side by side

Because MTF interest is where the biggest rupee differences hide for anyone using leverage, here it is on its own, focused on the two brokers that publish clear tiers:

Borrowed amount	Dhan (tiered, no teaser)	Pocketful (teaser)
First ₹1 lakh	12.49%	5.99% (teaser)
₹1L – ₹5L	12.49%	14.60%
₹5L – ₹10L	13.49%	14.60%
₹10L – ₹25L	14.49%	14.60%
₹25L – ₹5Cr	15.49%	16.00% (>₹25L)

Read that carefully. Pocketful wins only in the very first ₹1 lakh, where its 5.99% beats Dhan's 12.49%. The moment you borrow more than ₹1 lakh — which is most of the point of using MTF — Pocketful's blended rate climbs above Dhan's, because the 5.99% only ever applied to that first slice. Dhan carries the cheapest true rate on every band above ₹1 lakh. Zerodha's flat 14.6% and Angel One's ~14.99% sit above Dhan across the board too.

Per-use-case verdicts

There is no single "cheapest broker" — there is a cheapest broker for how you actually invest. Four common profiles:

The long-term delivery investor

You buy, you hold for years, you rarely sell. Your enemies are AMC (charged whether you trade or not) and delivery brokerage. Everything else is noise.

If your holdings stay under ₹4 lakh: a BSDA at any broker gives you ₹0 AMC. Zerodha and Angel One both offer the BSDA route explicitly. Just remember: one BSDA per person, and you tip into ₹100 + GST/yr between ₹4–10 lakh.
If your portfolio is or will grow past ₹4 lakh: BSDA stops being free, so you want a broker with ₹0 AMC outright plus ₹0 delivery. Dhan (individuals/HUF) and Pocketful both deliver that with no ceiling. Dhan's lower DP-sell fee is a tiebreaker on the rare sell.

The trap here is subtle: a small holder opens a BSDA for ₹0 AMC, the portfolio quietly compounds past ₹4 lakh over a few years, and the AMC silently switches on (₹100 + GST between ₹4–10 lakh, then full AMC above ₹10 lakh where BSDA no longer applies). If you expect your holdings to grow — and a long-term investor should — starting at a broker with ₹0 AMC regardless of holding size (Dhan for individuals, Pocketful) sidesteps that switch entirely. You never have to migrate your demat later to dodge a fee that crept up on you. For a genuinely small, static holding that will stay under ₹4 lakh, BSDA is fine and free anywhere that offers it; for anything you expect to grow, the no-ceiling ₹0-AMC brokers are the cleaner long-run choice.

The IPO flipper

Apply, get allotment, sell on listing day. Applying is free everywhere (ASBA over UPI — SEBI does not allow a charge). Your only costs are the AMC on the account holding the shares briefly, plus the DP-sell fee when you exit. The full analysis is in the IPO-broker post, and the answer lands on the same broker: Dhan — ₹0 AMC for individuals, ₹0 delivery, and the lowest DP-sell fee, so the listing-day exit costs the least.

The MTF / leveraged holder

You use margin to hold a bigger position for weeks. Here MTF interest dominates every other fee — a ₹300 AMC is a rounding error next to interest on a ₹10 lakh borrow. Ignore the teaser banners and look at the band you will actually borrow in.

Borrowing under ₹1 lakh, briefly: Pocketful's 5.99% teaser genuinely wins — but only in that narrow case, and watch its 0.1% per-order MTF brokerage.
Borrowing more than ₹1 lakh (the usual case): Dhan wins outright. Its tiered rate (12.49% up to ₹5L, rising to 15.49% at the top band) is the cheapest true rate above ₹1 lakh, with no teaser distortion. Full slab detail is in the MTF post.

Put rough numbers on it. Suppose you borrow ₹5 lakh on MTF and hold for a month. At Dhan's 12.49% up to ₹5L, that is roughly ₹5,00,000 × 12.49% ÷ 12 ≈ ₹5,200 for the month in interest. At a flat 14.6% (Zerodha) it is closer to ₹6,080, and at ~14.99% (Angel One) about ₹6,245. Pocketful's blended cost is worse still once you cross ₹1 lakh, because only the first ₹1 lakh sees the 5.99% teaser and the remaining ₹4 lakh sits at 14.60% — plus its 0.1% per-order MTF brokerage on top. A few hundred rupees a month may not sound like much, but across a leveraged position held for several months, on a large borrow, the difference between the cheapest and priciest true rate is real money — and it is the only fee that scales with how long you hold. AMC and DP-sell are one-off; interest ticks every single day. That is why the leveraged holder should weight MTF rate above everything else, and why the teaser banner is exactly the wrong number to choose on.

The intraday / F&O trader

You square off the same day; delivery brokerage and AMC matter less, per-order brokerage matters most. Dhan and Pocketful both charge ₹20 or 0.03% on intraday (Dhan being explicit at ₹20/order on F&O too) — among the lowest going. Angel One's ₹20-or-0.1% (min ₹5) works out pricier on small orders. If you trade high volume, the flat ₹20/order structure at Dhan is the one to model against your own turnover.

The combined verdict: Dhan, with honest caveats

Add up all four controllable fees and the cheapest broker overall, on verified 2026 pricing, is Dhan:

₹0 AMC for individuals/HUF (no BSDA ceiling to worry about),
₹0 delivery brokerage,
the lowest verified DP-sell fee at ₹12.50 + GST, and
the cheapest true MTF band on every slab above ₹1 lakh, with no teaser gimmick.

Pocketful is a close second — genuinely fee-free on the base (opening, AMC, delivery) and a fine choice if you never touch MTF above ₹1 lakh. Its only real weakness is that headline 5.99% MTF rate, which helps only sub-₹1-lakh borrowers.

Angel One and Paytm Money are pricier all-in — Angel because of AMC plus post-30-day delivery brokerage, Paytm because its price cannot be trusted from its own page (below).

Now the caveats, because a comparison you can trust is one that tells you what it couldn't confirm:

Teaser vs true rate. Every "MTF from 5.99%" banner is a first-slab number. Blend it across your actual borrow and it disappears fast. Judge MTF on the band you will use, not the banner.
Paytm Money — UNVERIFIED. Paytm Money's core numbers — MTF interest, AMC, and delivery/intraday brokerage — could not be verified from its own pricing page this cycle. Only some ancillary pledge fees were confirmable. Treat every Paytm price you see quoted elsewhere as an unconfirmed lead until you read it on paytmmoney.com yourself. I am not ranking it on price because I cannot honestly do so.
INDmoney — not independently verified. INDmoney's exact AMC, MTF and delivery figures could not be confirmed from its own page for this comparison. Confirm the current numbers on indmoney.com before you rely on them; do not take a third-party quote (including this one) as authoritative.
Statutory charges are identical. STT, stamp duty, exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fee and GST are the same at every broker. Any "cheaper on taxes" claim is marketing.

Your decision checklist

Run down this list before you open (or switch) an account:

How will I mostly use this account? Long-term delivery, IPO flips, leveraged MTF holds, or intraday/F&O. Your answer picks the fee that matters most.
Will my holdings stay under ₹4 lakh? If yes, a BSDA gives ₹0 AMC at many brokers — but only one BSDA per person, and it stops being free past ₹4L.
Will I ever use MTF, and roughly how much will I borrow? If it is more than ₹1 lakh, ignore every teaser rate and compare true slab rates — Dhan wins that comparison today.
How often will I sell, across how many stocks? Frequent multi-scrip sellers should weight the DP-sell fee (Dhan lowest at ₹12.50 + GST); rare sellers can ignore it.
Did I re-verify on the broker's own page? Every number here can change. The whole point of reading the fee stack instead of the ad is to stop trusting the marketing — so finish the job and confirm on the source.

Currency of these figures, and the usual disclaimer

All figures in this post are as of 13 August 2026 and were checked against each broker's own pricing page this cycle. Broker charges change frequently and without much notice — some changed in the weeks before this was written — so treat every number as a lead to confirm, not a permanent fact. Anything marked unverified (Paytm Money core numbers) or not independently verified (INDmoney figures) should be checked on the official page before you act.

This is general education, not financial advice. MTF and leverage carry real risk of loss beyond your invested margin; only experienced investors who understand margin calls should use it. Choose a broker for your own situation, and confirm every current charge on the official source before committing money.

Sources

Every fee should be re-verified on the broker's official pricing page before you act — the figures below reflect verification this cycle and are subject to change.

SEBI — Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA) eligibility (₹0 AMC up to ₹4L; ₹100 + GST for ₹4–10L; one BSDA per person): sebi.gov.in.
Dhan — pricing / brokerage & MTF (₹0 AMC individuals, ₹0 delivery, ₹12.50 + GST DP-sell, tiered MTF 12.49%–15.49%): dhan.co/pricing.
Pocketful — pricing / charges (₹0 opening/AMC/delivery; MTF 5.99% first ₹1L then 14.60%/16.00%; 0.1% MTF brokerage; ₹13.50 DP-sell; ₹25 pledge/ISIN; ₹25 call-and-trade): pocketful.in.
Angel One — charges (AMC ₹240 + GST/yr non-BSDA; BSDA ₹0 up to ₹4L; delivery ₹0 first 30 days then ₹20 or 0.1% min ₹5; MTF ~14.99%; ₹20 DP-sell): angelone.in/charges.
Upstox — pricing (₹0 AMC first year for new customers from 14-Feb-2025, then ₹300 + GST; ₹20/order delivery reintroduced; ₹20 DP-sell; IPO free): upstox.com/brokerage-charges.
Zerodha — pricing / BSDA (₹0 delivery; BSDA-based ₹0 AMC under ₹4L; MTF flat 14.6% — verify current): zerodha.com/charges.
INDmoney — pricing (AMC / MTF / delivery not independently verified for this comparison — confirm on the official page): indmoney.com.
Paytm Money — pricing (core MTF / AMC / brokerage numbers UNVERIFIED from the official page this cycle; only ancillary pledge fees confirmed): paytmmoney.com.
CDSL / NSDL — depository (DP) charge schedules brokers pass through on every sell: cdslindia.com and nsdl.co.in.
Related reading: The cheapest broker for IPO investing in India and MTF interest charges in India, slab by slab.