Master comparison

Best Stock Brokers in India (2026): Full Comparison of Pricing, Platforms & APIs

Every major comparison metric for the brokers we track, drawn from official pricing pages and cited published comparisons - with the gaps labelled honestly instead of papered over.

By the Indian Broker Test editorial desk · Published 8 July 2026 · Data last reviewed 9 July 2026 · Independent

India's retail broking market splits into a few broad camps: flat-fee discount brokers (Zerodha, Upstox, Groww, Angel One, Dhan, Fyers, 5paisa, Alice Blue, Paytm Money, Pocketful, Sahi), a low-latency specialist (Arrow), zero-brokerage outliers (Shoonya), and full-service houses including bank-backed ICICI Direct and Kotak Neo and long-established IIFL Securities that bundle research and, in the bank cases, banking integration. The right choice depends on whether you optimise for cost, speed, tooling, or hand-holding - so rather than invent a universal ranking, we put the verifiable facts side by side and rank only on the dedicated single-metric pages linked below. For head-to-head matchups, see our broker comparison hub (Zerodha vs Upstox, Groww vs Dhan, and 120 more).

Brokerage excludes statutory charges (STT/CTT, exchange transaction fees, SEBI fees, GST, stamp duty), which apply at every broker. Verify current schedules on each official pricing page before opening an account.

Broker summaries

5paisa

5paisa, part of the IIFL group and listed on Indian exchanges, was one of the earliest flat-fee discount brokers in India. It charges a uniform ₹20 per order across segments and layers optional subscription packs for research and higher-touch features. Its execution-speed figure here (median ≈ 85 ms) is taken from the independent AlgoTest Broker Speedtest, where its place-order latency is measured live during market hours. Full profile →

Alice Blue

Alice Blue is a Bengaluru-headquartered discount broker known for aggressive per-order pricing and a free API that plugs into several retail algo-trading platforms. It competes primarily on cost. Full profile →

Angel One

Angel One (formerly Angel Broking) is a listed Mumbai brokerage that converted from traditional full-service pricing to a flat-fee model while keeping its research desk. Its free SmartAPI is one of the most-used retail trading APIs in India for algorithmic strategies. Its execution-speed figure here (median ≈ 95 ms) is taken from the independent AlgoTest Broker Speedtest, where its place-order latency is measured live during market hours. Full profile →

Arrow

Arrow is a low-latency retail broker (the retail platform of iRage Broking) that markets itself on order-execution speed, stating on its website that 95% of its orders execute in under 2.9 ms and 99% in under 4 ms - figures it self-reports, measured by placing orders from the AWS Mumbai region. It offers free equity delivery, flat ₹20-or-0.03% intraday and ₹20-per-order options pricing, zero account-opening and AMC charges for individuals, and Python/Go API clients. Because these speed figures are self-reported rather than independently audited, we label them accordingly. Full profile →

Dhan

Dhan, operated by Moneylicious Securities, is a newer Mumbai-based discount broker aimed squarely at active traders. It differentiates on tooling - deep TradingView integration, an options-specific app, and the free DhanHQ API - while matching the free-delivery, flat-fee pricing of the largest discount brokers. Dhan reports on its own blog that its in-house DEXT engine executes over 95% of orders in under 25 ms (most in the 10-20 ms range), measured end-to-end from order placement to exchange submission - a self-reported figure we show as such rather than independently audited. Full profile →

Fyers

Fyers is a Bengaluru-based discount broker popular with technical and algorithmic traders. Its platforms are built around TradingView charting, its API is free, and equity delivery carries no brokerage - a combination that shows up repeatedly in third-party "best for traders" lists. Fyers reports p99 order-processing latency of 4-5 ms on its app/web and 5-7 ms via API - about 7 ms of the roughly 65 ms a trader typically experiences, with the remainder being network travel - and says a CISA-certified independent firm audited the figure against real customer orders in December 2025. Because it measures the broker’s internal processing rather than a full round-trip, it is not directly comparable to the AlgoTest medians. Full profile →

Groww

Groww is a Bengaluru-based investment platform that grew from mutual-fund distribution into full-service discount broking. Published NSE active-client data has placed it at or near the top of Indian brokers by user count. Its focus is simplicity for first-time investors rather than professional trading tooling. On execution speed, Groww states on its own site that the platform now supports “sub-50ms order latency” - a self-reported figure with no published percentile or methodology, which we show as self-reported rather than independently audited. Full profile →

ICICI Direct

ICICI Direct is the broking arm of ICICI Securities and one of India’s largest bank-backed full-service brokers. Its appeal is integration - a 3-in-1 account with ICICI Bank - plus institutional-grade research. Its pricing is plan-based, with flat-fee plans introduced to compete with discount brokers. Full profile →

IIFL Securities

IIFL Securities (IIFL Capital) is a long-established Indian full-service broker offering equity, derivatives, commodity and currency trading with in-house research and a free trading API for its customers. Its execution-speed figure here is taken from the AlgoTest Broker Speedtest, where it is measured as IIFLNest. Delivery and intraday brokerage are percentage- and plan-based, so they are shown against the official rate card rather than a single flat number. Full profile →

Kotak Neo (Kotak Securities)

Kotak Neo is Kotak Securities’ modern trading platform, pairing a bank-backed full-service brokerage with discount-style flat-fee plans and a free trade API. It targets both traditional Kotak banking customers and younger flat-fee traders. Full profile →

Paytm Money

Paytm Money is the investment arm of One97 Communications (Paytm). It started with direct mutual funds and expanded into flat-fee equity and derivatives broking, positioning itself as the investing layer of the Paytm ecosystem. Full profile →

Pocketful

Pocketful is a New Delhi-based broking platform from the Pace group offering free APIs aimed at algo traders. It publishes free equity delivery (with a ₹0.01 minimum per order), flat ₹20-or-0.03% intraday and flat ₹20 F&O pricing, and zero account-opening and AMC charges. On execution speed, Pocketful states on its own blog that it “executes orders in under 50 ms” - a self-reported figure with no published percentile or methodology, appearing in a self-published ranking, which we show as self-reported rather than independently audited. It does not appear in the AlgoTest Broker Speedtest we cite for round-trip medians. Full profile →

Sahi

Sahi is a new, SEBI-registered trading platform aimed at active F&O and intraday traders, founded by ex-Swiggy and ex-Kotak Securities leaders. It charges a flat ₹10-or-0.05% per order (₹10 flat on F&O), with zero account opening and zero AMC, and bundles in-house Sahi charts and AI-based market intelligence. A public trading API is on its roadmap but not live at review time, so the API field is shown as Not Disclosed. Sahi does publish an order-execution figure on its own blog - a P95 latency of 6.61 ms and a mean end-to-end time of about 5.92 ms, measured from its EMS to the exchange across 9,089,472 real orders (13-30 March 2026) - which we show as self-reported rather than independently audited. Because it measures an internal EMS-to-exchange path rather than the full round-trip the AlgoTest speedtest records, it is not directly comparable to the median figures for the other brokers. Full profile →

Shoonya (Finvasia)

Shoonya, by Chandigarh-based Finvasia, advertises zero brokerage across every segment - traders still pay statutory charges (STT, exchange fees, GST, stamp duty). Combined with a free API and zero AMC, it is the lowest headline-cost broker in this comparison. Its execution-speed figure is taken from the AlgoTest Broker Speedtest, where it is listed under the Finvasia name. Full profile →

Upstox

Upstox is a Mumbai-based discount broker backed by, among others, Ratan Tata and Tiger Global. It pairs a flat-fee pricing model with a mobile-first platform and a free public API. Its execution-speed figure here (median ≈ 135 ms) is taken from the independent AlgoTest Broker Speedtest. Upstox separately markets "sub-millisecond" latency, but that refers to its internal datastore rather than a full place-order round-trip, so we cite the third-party measured figure instead. Full profile →

Zerodha

Zerodha is a Bengaluru-based discount broker and, by published NSE active-client counts, the largest retail stockbroker in India. Its pricing model - free equity delivery and a flat fee of up to ₹20 per executed order for intraday and derivatives - set the template most Indian discount brokers now follow. Its Kite platform and the Kite Connect API are frequently cited in third-party comparisons for reliability and developer support. Full profile →

How to choose

Long-term delivery investors should weight delivery brokerage and AMC - the free-delivery, zero-AMC combinations are hard to beat, since statutory charges are identical everywhere. Intraday and options traders should weight per-order fees, platform stability and, where published, execution speed (see the speed comparison). Systematic traders should start from the API comparison. Investors who want research and a single banking relationship are the natural audience for the bank-backed full-service brokers, accepting plan-based pricing in exchange.

Conclusion

On the published record, no broker dominates every column - which is exactly why single-winner "best broker" headlines should be read sceptically, including ours. Use the table, follow the official source links, and match the trade-offs to how you actually trade.