Best Demat & Trading Accounts in India (2026)

The headline number is brokerage. It is the wrong number for most people. If you buy shares a few times a year and hold them, you pay almost no brokerage. You pay maintenance charges every year, and statutory charges on every trade, and neither depends on your broker.

Which demat account has the lowest total cost?

Figures are from broker tariff sheets as of 15 August 2026. They are reported, not verified against a regulator, so confirm on the broker’s own page.

Read the table by profile. A buy-and-hold investor should look at the maintenance column. An options trader should look at the F&O column, where the flat ₹20 has flattened the market. A full-service account like ICICI Direct is materially more expensive unless you are on a prepaid plan.

Can you pay zero maintenance on a small portfolio?

Yes, at any broker. SEBI’s Basic Services Demat Account rules do it for you. The circular is dated 28 June 2024 and took effect on 1 September 2024.

The eligibility ceiling is holdings of ₹10,00,000, debt and non-debt combined. Maintenance is nil up to ₹4,00,000 of holdings. Between ₹4,00,000 and ₹10,00,000 the charge is capped at ₹100 a year. Above ₹10,00,000 the account stops being a BSDA.

Two conditions apply. You must hold only one demat account as sole or first holder. And you may hold only one BSDA across all depositories. A later circular of 24 December 2025, in force from 31 March 2026, moved the eligibility reassessment to a quarterly cycle.

Brokers do not always convert you automatically. Ask.

What do you pay that has nothing to do with your broker?

Most of it. These charges are set by statute or by the exchanges, so they are identical everywhere.

Securities transaction tax changed on 1 April 2026 under the Finance Act 2026. Equity delivery is 0.1% on both buy and sell. Intraday is 0.025% on the sell side. Sale of a future is 0.05%. Sale of an option is 0.15% of the premium. An exercised option is 0.15% of intrinsic value. Most broker charge pages still show the older F&O figures.

Stamp duty is buy-side only: 0.015% on delivery, 0.003% intraday, 0.002% on futures and 0.003% on options. The SEBI turnover fee is ₹10 per crore on non-debt trades. GST at 18% applies to brokerage.

SEBI’s “true to label” circular of 1 July 2024, effective 1 October 2024, closed a gap here. Exchange charges must now be uniform and equal for all members, not slab-based, and what a broker collects from you must be what the exchange receives.

Will your demat be frozen if you skip nomination?

No. This is the most repeated wrong claim in the category.

SEBI’s circular of 29 May 2026, effective 1 September 2026, supersedes all its earlier nomination circulars, including those of January, February, July and December 2025. Nomination is now opt-out, not mandatory. A new single-holder account must give a nominee unless an opt-out declaration is filed. It is optional for joint accounts. You may name up to three nominees.

There is no deadline and no freezing. Depositories and registrars must only send half-yearly nudges by email and SMS, plus a pop-up at your first login of the day.

What happens if your broker fails?

The exchange investor protection fund pays, up to a cap, and the caps differ. The NSE fund pays up to ₹35,00,000 per investor per claim for members declared defaulters on or after 13 August 2024. The BSE fund pays up to ₹16,00,000 per client, or the claim admitted, whichever is lower.

That is a real reason not to keep large idle balances with a broker. SEBI’s running account rules help. You choose quarterly or monthly settlement, and the credit balance is returned on the first Friday of the cycle. If you have not traded for 30 days, your entire credit balance comes back on the next monthly settlement date regardless of what you chose.

Which account should you actually open?

If you buy stocks or ETFs and hold them, pick a zero-delivery, zero-maintenance account. Dhan fits. Zerodha fits once you accept ₹300 a year for a more stable platform and better documentation.

If you want mutual funds and stocks in one app, Groww is convenient, but be clear that it charges delivery brokerage where Dhan and Zerodha do not. If you actively trade options, all the discount brokers charge ₹20 an order, so choose on platform, not price.

If you plan to buy gold through the market, a demat account is what makes the regulated route available. See gold ETF versus digital gold. For bonds, see government securities, and for new issues, the IPO calendar. Deeper broker notes sit on our broker reviews.