How to Calculate Intraday Brokerage: The Formula, Both Legs & the Flat-Fee Cap

"Intraday brokerage" is a per-leg calculation, not a single fee

When traders ask how to calculate intraday brokerage, they usually picture one number. But brokerage on an intraday trade is worked out per order — once when you enter and once when you exit — so a single round trip almost always carries two brokerage charges, not one. Get that wrong and you'll consistently under-estimate your cost.

This post walks through how the calculation actually works: the fee model most Indian discount brokers use, why it's charged on both legs, a worked example with live numbers, and — importantly — why brokerage is only one line on your true intraday bill. Every figure below comes from the same data this site's Brokerage Calculator uses, so there's one source of truth rather than a blog post drifting out of sync with the tool.

The intraday brokerage formula most brokers use

The single most common intraday brokerage model among Indian discount brokers is:

0.03% of trade value, or ₹20 per order — whichever is lower.

Read carefully, this is really two rules fighting each other, applied per leg:

• A percentage — 0.03% (i.e. 0.0003) of that leg's trade value (price × quantity).
• A flat cap — a maximum of ₹20 for that order, no matter how large.

You pay whichever comes out smaller. That single "whichever is lower" clause is what makes discount brokerage cheap at both ends of the size range: on a tiny trade the percentage is a few rupees; on a large trade the ₹20 cap holds your cost down. And because it's assessed on each order, you apply it twice for a full intraday round trip — buy leg and sell leg.

Not every broker uses exactly this model. Some charge a flat fee per order regardless of size (e.g. ₹5 or ₹10); a few charge ₹0; some full-service brokers charge a straight percentage with no flat cap at all. But the "percentage-or-flat-cap, per leg, both legs" shape is the one to understand first, because it's the most widely used and the others are just simpler cases of it.

A worked example (with live numbers)

Take a fairly typical intraday equity trade on NSE, using Zerodha's intraday rate (0.03% or ₹20 per order, whichever is lower) as the worked example: buy 200 shares at ₹800, sell the same 200 at ₹808, squared off the same day.

• Buy leg: trade value = 200 × ₹800 = ₹1,60,000. 0.03% of that is ₹48 — above the ₹20 cap, so the buy-leg brokerage is capped at ₹20.
• Sell leg: trade value = 200 × ₹808 = ₹1,61,600. 0.03% of that is ₹48.48 — again above the cap, so the sell-leg brokerage is ₹20.
• Total intraday brokerage = ₹20 + ₹20 = ₹40.00.

Notice the cap did the work on both legs here — the percentage never applied, because this trade is large enough that 0.03% exceeds ₹20 either way. Now flip to a small trade to see the percentage take over:

Buy 50 shares at ₹200, sell at ₹202. Buy-leg value is ₹10,000, so 0.03% = ₹3 — well under the ₹20 cap, so you pay ₹3, not ₹20. The sell leg is ₹10,100, so 0.03% = ₹3.03. Total intraday brokerage here is just ₹6.03 — the percentage won on both legs. Same broker, same formula; the "whichever is lower" clause simply resolved the other way.

Brokerage is not your total intraday cost

Here's the part that trips up almost everyone calculating intraday cost: brokerage is only one line on the bill. Every intraday trade also carries a set of statutory and exchange charges that are identical no matter which broker you use, set by law and by the exchange rather than by your broker:

• STT (Securities Transaction Tax) — 0.025% on the sell side only for intraday (no STT on the buy leg).
• Exchange transaction charges — a small NSE/BSE fee on both legs.
• SEBI turnover fee — a tiny regulatory fee on both legs.
• Stamp duty — 0.003% on the buy side only.
• GST — 18%, but only on your brokerage plus the exchange transaction charge (not on STT, SEBI fee, or stamp duty).

Fold those in, and the large worked example above — ₹40.00 of brokerage — becomes ₹104.37 in total charges once STT, exchange charges, the SEBI fee, stamp duty, and GST are added. In other words, the brokerage figure captured only about a third of the real cost of that round trip. On the small ₹10,000 trade, where brokerage was capped low by the percentage, the statutory charges make up an even larger share of a total of ₹10.69.

This is exactly why "calculate my intraday brokerage" and "calculate my intraday cost" are different questions — and why a broker advertising low or zero brokerage still leaves you with a real per-trade bill. For a full walkthrough of each of those non-brokerage charges and how they're set, see Trading Charges Explained: STT, GST, Stamp Duty & Every Fee on Your Trade.

Why intraday brokerage differs from broker to broker

Brokerage is the one line on that list your broker actually controls — everything else is fixed by law or the exchange and identical across brokers. That's why the brokerage portion is the only part worth comparing between brokers, and why it varies so much:

• Some brokers charge the 0.03%-or-₹20 model in the worked example above.
• Some charge a lower flat fee (₹5 or ₹10 per order) that beats ₹20 on large trades.
• A few charge ₹0 intraday entirely — though, as always, ₹0 brokerage is not ₹0 charges.
• Full-service brokers may charge a straight percentage with no flat cap, which gets expensive fast on large positions.

Because this is the one variable that changes with your choice of broker, it's worth comparing directly rather than in the abstract. The Brokerage Calculator applies each broker's real intraday rule to your specific trade size and shows the full breakdown — brokerage plus every statutory charge — so you're comparing true intraday cost, not just headline brokerage.

Frequently asked questions

Is intraday brokerage charged on both buy and sell?

Yes. Intraday brokerage is charged on each leg of the round trip — once when you buy and again when you sell — because each is a separate order the broker executes. With a typical discount-broker model of "0.03% or ₹20 per order, whichever is lower", a single intraday round trip that hits the cap on both legs costs ₹40 in brokerage, not ₹20. This is different from STT on intraday, which applies to the sell side only.

How is the "₹20 or 0.03% whichever is lower" brokerage worked out?

For each leg, the broker computes 0.03% of that leg's trade value (price × quantity) and also has a flat ₹20-per-order cap. You're charged whichever of the two is smaller. On a small trade — say ₹10,000 turnover — 0.03% is just ₹3, so you pay ₹3. On a large trade — ₹1,60,000 turnover — 0.03% would be ₹48, so the ₹20 cap kicks in and you pay ₹20. The cap is what makes discount brokerage cheap on large positions; the percentage is what makes it cheap on small ones.

Does zero-brokerage delivery mean intraday is also free?

No. Several brokers advertise ₹0 delivery brokerage but still charge for intraday — commonly the same "0.03% or ₹20 per order, whichever is lower" structure. "Zero brokerage" almost always refers to equity delivery specifically, and even then it's zero brokerage, not zero charges: STT, exchange transaction charges, SEBI fees, stamp duty, and GST still apply to every trade regardless of the brokerage headline.

Why is my total intraday cost higher than the brokerage figure?

Because brokerage is only one line on the bill. On top of it, an intraday trade also carries STT (sell side), exchange transaction charges (both sides), a SEBI turnover fee, stamp duty (buy side), and 18% GST on the brokerage plus exchange charge. On small brokerage-capped trades these statutory charges can add up to more than the brokerage itself, which is why the brokerage number alone understates your real cost.

How do I calculate intraday brokerage for a specific broker?

Pick your broker's intraday rule (flat per order, a percentage, or a percentage capped at a flat amount), apply it to each leg's trade value, and add the two legs together. Then add the statutory charges to get your true cost. Rather than doing this by hand for every trade, use the Brokerage Calculator on this site — it runs this exact calculation for each broker's real intraday rate and shows the full breakdown.

See intraday brokerage calculated for your broker

Every number above feeds directly into this site's brokerage calculator. Pick your broker below to see intraday brokerage — and the full charge breakdown — for your actual trade size:

The bottom line

Every figure in this post traces back to the same broker and regulatory data the calculators use — if a number here ever looks stale next to the calculator, trust the calculator and treat this page as due for a refresh.