What actually gets deducted from an intraday trade? More than just brokerage. Brokerage is typically a flat fee or a small percentage of order value, whichever is lower, charged on both the buy and sell side. On top of that sits Securities Transaction Tax, exchange transaction charges, GST, SEBI turnover fees, and stamp duty, each calculated differently, each quietly shrinking your actual return. The only way to know your real cost is adding every single one of these up, not eyeballing the gross price move and assuming that's what lands in your account.
How is intraday brokerage typically charged?
Most discount brokers in India use a similar structure, a flat fee per executed order, or a small percentage of the order's value, whichever works out lower for that specific trade. And here's the part beginners miss constantly: it's charged twice per round trip, once on the buy, once again on the sell, since each is a separate executed order.
Exact rates differ meaningfully from broker to broker, and brokers do revise them from time to time. Don't lean on a number you half-remember from somewhere online, check your own broker's current, official pricing page directly before calculating anything that matters.
Which taxes and other fees apply?
STT, exchange charges and regulatory fees
Brokerage is just the headline number. Several other charges stack on top of it, and together they can matter more than brokerage itself, especially on a smaller trade.
- Securities Transaction Tax (STT) works differently for intraday than for delivery trades, worth getting exactly right. For intraday equity, STT applies only on the sell side, at a lower rate than delivery STT, which applies on both sides. This is one of the more commonly misunderstood costs out there.
- Exchange transaction charges get levied by NSE or BSE on every trade, a small percentage of turnover, and they apply on both the buy and sell sides.
- SEBI turnover charges are a tiny, flat regulatory fee applied on both sides of the trade too, small individually, but it's one more line item in the total.
GST and stamp duty
- GST applies on top of brokerage and the exchange transaction charges specifically, not on the full trade value, worth knowing since it's easy to miscalculate if you apply it to the wrong base number.
- Stamp duty gets charged on the buy side only, at a rate set by state regulation, and it applies regardless of which broker you're using, since it's a government charge, not a broker-set one.
Worked example: calculating round-trip intraday costs
A full, illustrative calculation ties all these pieces together. These figures are for illustration only, use your own broker's current published rates for anything real.
Buy-side calculation
Say you buy 100 shares at ₹500, a ₹50,000 order. Illustrative brokerage on this side might come to roughly ₹15, assuming a typical flat-or-percentage structure. Add exchange transaction charges, a small percentage of ₹50,000, SEBI turnover charges, a tiny flat percentage, GST on brokerage plus exchange charges, and stamp duty on the buy side specifically. Altogether, buy-side charges might land somewhere around ₹25 to ₹30 for a trade this size, illustratively.
Sell-side calculation
Now say you sell those same 100 shares at ₹505, a ₹50,500 order. Brokerage again, roughly ₹15 illustratively. Exchange transaction charges and SEBI turnover charges again, calculated on this slightly higher sell value. STT applies here specifically, on the sell side only for intraday, a meaningful line item worth not forgetting. GST applies to brokerage and exchange charges again. No stamp duty this time, that's buy-side only. Sell-side charges might total somewhere around ₹40 to ₹45 illustratively, STT included.
Total charges and net P&L
Gross profit on this trade: ₹500 total, 100 shares, ₹5 move. Total charges across both sides, illustratively, land somewhere around ₹65 to ₹75. Net profit after costs: roughly ₹425 to ₹435, meaningfully below the gross number most traders glance at first. On a small move like this, costs eat a real, noticeable share of the gain, exactly why checking your actual broker's rate card before trading matters more than it sounds like it should.
How do costs change with trade size?
Not proportionally, and that's worth understanding clearly. A flat-fee brokerage structure means a small trade pays the same brokerage as a large one, up to whatever cap applies, so brokerage as a percentage of a small trade's value is disproportionately higher than on a large trade. STT, exchange charges, and GST, on the other hand, scale with trade value directly, a bigger trade means a bigger absolute charge on those specific items, even though the percentage stays constant.
Practical takeaway: very small intraday trades can see costs eat an outsized share of any realistic gain, since flat charges don't shrink along with a smaller trade size. Factor this into your position sizing, not just your entry and exit logic.
Additional charges and exceptions
Automatic square-off and special account conditions
A position your broker auto-closes because you didn't exit before their specific cut-off, covered in the companion fundamentals guide, sometimes carries an additional charge on top of standard brokerage, depending on the broker. Check this specifically, since it's an easy, avoidable cost to get caught by if you're not aware it exists.
Partially filled orders get charged based on the quantity actually executed, not the quantity you originally requested, brokerage and other percentage-based charges scale down accordingly. And rates can sometimes differ between equity intraday, futures, and options on the same platform, don't assume one rate card covers every segment identically, check the specific segment you're trading.
How do you verify your own trading costs?
Every executed trade generates a contract note, a detailed, itemized breakdown of exactly what was charged, brokerage, STT, exchange charges, GST, stamp duty, listed line by line. Treat it as the actual source of truth, not an estimate or a general calculation like the illustrative one above. Most brokers also offer a charges calculator on their own platform or website, useful for estimating costs before placing a trade, though the contract note after execution is what confirms the real, final number.
Intraday charge components at a glance
| Charge | Applies to | Typical structure |
|---|---|---|
| Brokerage | Both buy and sell | Flat fee or percentage, whichever is lower, varies by broker |
| STT (intraday) | Sell side only | Lower rate than delivery STT |
| Exchange transaction charges | Both sides | Small percentage of turnover |
| SEBI turnover charges | Both sides | Small flat regulatory fee |
| GST | On brokerage and exchange charges | Not on full trade value |
| Stamp duty | Buy side only | State-regulated rate |
Understanding the cost structure matters, but seeing exactly how charges hit a real position builds the habit of checking net numbers, not gross ones. Neostox's paper trading lets you practice entries and exits against live NSE and BSE conditions with virtual money, so you can build that habit before any of it touches real capital and real charges.