How Does Zerodha Make Money?

Zerodha charges zero brokerage on delivery trades: buy shares and hold them, and you pay Zerodha nothing per trade. Yet it's one of India's most profitable startups, built without venture capital, and earning thousands of crores in profit a year.

So where does the money come from? Mostly from active traders, especially in futures and options (F&O). That's also why new SEBI rules in 2024–25 hit Zerodha's revenue hard.

🎯 Quick Answer (30-Second Read)

  • Delivery (long-term) trades: ₹0 brokerage.
  • Intraday and F&O trades: a flat fee of up to ₹20 per executed order. This is the main revenue engine.
  • FY25 (per RoC filings reported by Entrackr): operating revenue about ₹8,847 crore (down from ₹9,993 crore), net profit about ₹4,237 crore (down ~23%).
  • Why it fell: SEBI's F&O rules and the end of exchange volume rebates reduced trading activity and broker income.
  • Other income: interest on funds, margin trading, account charges, and services built on its platform.

Zerodha in Numbers

₹0
brokerage on delivery trades
₹20
max per intraday / F&O order
~₹8,847 Cr
FY25 operating revenue
~₹4,237 Cr
FY25 net profit
xychart-beta title "Zerodha revenue and profit (₹ crore, per RoC filings)" x-axis ["FY24 revenue", "FY25 revenue", "FY24 profit", "FY25 profit"] y-axis "₹ crore" 0 --> 10500 bar [9993, 8847, 5496, 4237]

Zerodha doesn't publish exact financials itself; these figures come from Registrar of Companies filings reported by the press.

Where the Money Comes From

flowchart TB Z["Zerodha revenue"] Z --> F["F&O and intraday
₹20 per executed order
(the biggest share)"] Z --> I["Interest income
on funds and margin"] Z --> C["Account and service charges
(e.g. AMC, call & trade)"] Z --> O["Other platform income"] D["Delivery investors
₹0 brokerage"] -.->|"build trust, scale,
low acquisition cost"| Z

1. Active Traders Pay the Bills

Long-term investors pay no brokerage. Traders placing many intraday and F&O orders pay up to ₹20 per order. A small share of very active users generates most of the revenue. That's why Zerodha's fortunes track market trading volumes, not just its customer count.

2. Interest and Float

Brokers earn interest income on funds and on margin-related activity, within SEBI's rules on client money. This income rises with market activity and interest rates.

3. Low Costs: The Real Secret

Key takeaway: Zerodha's profit comes as much from low costs as from revenue. It famously spends very little on advertising, grows by word of mouth and education (Varsity), and built its own tech (Kite, Console, Coin). That lets a flat ₹20 fee be extremely profitable.

Why FY25 Revenue Fell

From late 2024, SEBI introduced rules to cool speculative F&O trading among retail investors, such as larger contract sizes and fewer weekly expiries. Separately, SEBI's "true to label" rules required exchanges to charge uniform fees, ending the volume rebates brokers used to keep as income.

Result: fewer F&O trades and less income per trade. Press reports based on filings show revenue falling about 11% and profit about 23% in FY25. Later reporting suggests FY26 profit stayed roughly flat.

Zerodha vs Groww

Zerodha Groww
Funding Bootstrapped VC-funded, now listed
Core users Active traders + investors First-time investors, mutual funds
Delivery brokerage ₹0 Charged per trade
Growth style Word of mouth, education Simple app, heavy reach in smaller cities

Groww overtook Zerodha in active clients in recent years, but Zerodha remains highly profitable thanks to its trader base and low costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Zerodha make money with zero brokerage?

Zerodha charges zero brokerage only on equity delivery trades. It earns most of its revenue from intraday and futures and options trades, charging up to ₹20 per executed order, plus interest income and account-related charges.

What was Zerodha's profit in FY25?

According to Registrar of Companies filings reported by Entrackr and others, Zerodha's net profit was about ₹4,237 crore in FY25, down around 23% from FY24, on operating revenue of about ₹8,847 crore. Zerodha itself doesn't publish exact figures.

Why did Zerodha's revenue drop?

SEBI's 2024–25 measures to curb speculative F&O trading reduced retail trading volumes, and new rules ended exchange volume rebates that brokers had kept as income. Both cut into Zerodha's main revenue sources.

Conclusion

Zerodha gives long-term investing away for free and earns from active traders, mainly through a flat fee on intraday and F&O orders, plus interest and account charges. Its very low costs made that hugely profitable, but its dependence on trading volumes showed in FY25, when SEBI's rules cut revenue and profit.

Sources

Last verified: 2 November 2026.

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