Account opening now free under the age of 25
Update: Account opening is free for all resident individual accounts from June 29th, 2024.
Despite all the headline numbers about Indian markets growing, we’re still quite small. Compared to the pre-pandemic base, we’ve grown tremendously, but there are still just about 9 crore unique investors in India (out of 140 crore people). Thanks to the bull market in the last 4 years, capital markets are more mainstream than ever, but we need more Indians to invest.
One important data point that we track internally is the percentage of young users entering the markets. While it’s hard to figure this out at an industry level, only ~15% of Zerodha customers are under the age of 25. In our 13-year journey, we’ve done a bunch of things to make it easy for young and new investors to start trading:
- Great platforms and tools for people new to the markets.
- One of the few brokers to allow free investing in stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and government bonds.
- Simple and easy-to-understand educational material on all things markets through Varsity.
We have now also removed the ₹200 trading account opening fee for customers under 25 years of age to encourage young people to think about investing early.
We’ve been debating this internally for a while now — whether the account opening fee we charge was a barrier for youngsters to start investing. The account opening fee was the actual cost of opening and maintaining an account — KYC, documentation, eSign, human verification, etc. Without the account opening fee to recover these costs, the business could potentially be pressured to recover those costs in other ways since, when we started, we were bootstrapped.
One of the greatest hacks to build wealth is to start investing early. The obvious reason is more time equals more compounding, which means more wealth. But I think there’s a more underappreciated reason. Most of your investment learning will come from making mistakes. And the best time to make mistakes is when you have the least amount of money, i.e., when you are young. So open your Zerodha account, put in whatever little money you can afford to lose, and make all the mistakes now. By the time you grow in your career and start earning more, you will be well prepared to build wealth the right way. 🤞
I have a query regarding AMC.
So the scene is currently I’m having multiple demat accounts and now i want to open it with zerodha so my point is if i open my account (non-bsda obviously)with zerodha and I won’t keep it’s holding value >50,000 then in that scenario will the AMC (300+GST) applicable on me? If yes then what will be it’s criteria?
Secondly, if i open the account with zerodha nd dont do any trade in it for a certain period then in that case will i have to pay any charges(amc or any)?
Hi Anmol, even if your holding value is consistently below ₹50,000, AMC will still be charged since you hold more than one demat account. Explained here.
Secondly, yes again, AMC is charged for maintaining your demat account despite it’s activity status.
GOOD EVENING
What if I already have a Demat account with another broker, then close that account and open a new account with Zerodha? Will it be considered a BSDA or not? Please answer.
It will be considered BSDA, Himanshu.
I have opened 3 accounts for my friends 1 is charged 200rs and other 2 more than 25yrs of age are not charged 200rs.why?
Hi Megha, we have made account opening free for all resident individuals from June 29, 2024.
I was charged 200 rupees for account creating and I am 23 years old, (I created an account on 18 March 2023).Will I am eligible to get the refund ….?
Open is free but what about Annual maintenance ? How to make a demat a/c BSDA ?
Hi Tarak, there’s no specific process to convert to a Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA). However, if you have only one demat account across all depositories and your holdings are less than ₹50,000, your demat account is automatically considered BSDA. Whenever the AMC is deducted, your account undergoes a check to see if it meets the BSDA criteria. More here.
Can 11 yrs14 and 15 also open account
Hi Surendra, yes you can open a minor account for them. Explained here.
What is the minimum age to open a zerodha account?
How to invest in mutual fund? Lump sum/ SIP through Zerodha account.
Hi Dhirendra, we’ve explained how to place a lumpsum order here and an SIP here.
How do I open minor account in zerodha. Please send link.
Hi Padmaja, we’ve explained the process here.
Hi,
How do I open minor account for my daughter in zerodha. Can you share the link
We r waiting for tips for investment in share market.
What is the minimum age to open Dmat Account?
What is the AMS charges for under age of 25
Hi Saroja, if you are referring to AMC charges, we’ve explained this here.
Where do we see usually news page.. Can you page elaborate for the stocks..
I want NEWS page on every stocks.. your latest updates make the news page gone…plz bring news page back for all stocks
Hey I’m 25 year old just turned 25 on May 20th but it still asks 200 for opening account??? Can anyone give me a solution.
this is really useful development for young population and encouraging them to invest. as you have a nudge prompt for risky trades, this should also act as a warning to them whenever they are taking a wrong direction
Does this mean, I’ll get my refund back of 300 rupees since i opened my account when i was 20.
I am willing to open account in zerodha if there is no account opening fee below 25.
Tell me true are any account opening fee below 25@nithinkamath@nikhilkamath
Hi Vamshi, as stated in the article, there is no account opening fee for customers under 25 years of age.
I was charged 200 rupees for account creating and I am 22 years old, (I created an account on 29 April 2024). I created a ticket asking why was I charged 200 and got a reply with:
Thank you for writing to Zerodha.
We would like to clarify that there are no such offers run by Zerodha. The charge for opening an account online with Zerodha is Rs 200, which covers both the Equity and Demat accounts.
Is this fake marketing?
Hi Hemanth, we’re getting this checked. You will have an update on your ticket.
Zerodha is not updating its chart like buy and sell directly on the chart, due to multiple expiries market is very volatile happened now we have to put the stoploss and trail our stoploss very fast, in such a situation if we open another window and then put the PC, it gets very late and we incur loss or do not get full profit and also It is very important for scalping , otherwise one wrong move will wipe out the entire capital, but no one is paying attention to this.I know that Chart IQ has this feature but it seems to be hanging. Please tell me when will you add this feature so that we can decide whether we should continue or not.
Hai I’m 19 i opened account one year before. Now can I enable f& o for free?
Hi Kiran, there are no charges for activating the F&O segment.
Hi I am trying to open my account but it still asking for RS 200 to pay for the account opening charge.
Please do help.
Hi Rohit, we’re sorry about this. Could you please create a ticket on: https://support.zerodha.com/ with details of the issue, so we can have this resolved at the earliest?
Is the commodity account opening charge also waived off
After all that drama of claiming that there are actual costs involved, not taking it would force you to think about making customers overtrade etc, you guys do this?
Don’t hide business decisions (clearly done to get more users since Zerodha is no longer number 1 in India as per NSE stats) as something that is done solely for the benefit of users. This sounds extremely scummy.
Will these guys get notifications to do intraday and F&O now? You have to recover costs somehow right?
I am 21 years old but I opened my account with Zerodha one year ago. Will I be eligible for a refund. Also what happens when one is 25 years old, do you charge account opening fee then or is it free
Hi Arnav, if you have opened the account a year ago you will not be eligible for a refund. Anyone under the age of 25, as the title suggests, will not be charged an account opening fee.
what about the account maintenance charges ? will that be also free ? please let me know . And one more thing, its great that you did it free because the only reason i as a student was not opening account on zerodha was its account opening charges. so, now i’ll open it.
Hi Shreyash, AMC will be applicable. However, if you fall under the BSDA category you won’t be charged AMC, more on what BSDA is here.
Very Much Appreciate steps for Young Investors Sir. God Bless You
How to open AC for daughter who is minor. Can I use same account no for this purpose?
Hi Abhay, we’ve explained the minor account opening process here. You must use the bank account details of the minor.
Fear of jio. 😂😂😂😂🤣😂😂
Then refund my 300 rupees as I comes under 25 age
Hi Ankit, your account was opened last year, you will now not be eligible for a refund.
What about the person whom age is under 25 and opened the account before this scheme will we get the refund ?
great step it gives lot of improvement in the user base in india .thank u and keep improving kite platform