Zerodha’s referral program is back

A lot of our customers came to us the same way: someone they trusted told them to. We’ve never run a newspaper or TV ad, and we never plan to. A typical broker spends 10 to 15% of its revenue on marketing. We’d rather hand that money to the people who actually do the convincing.

That belief is as old as Zerodha; we were the first broker in India to share a slice of our brokerage with the clients who referred others, and we ran it that way right from day one in 2010. In fact, the first version of our website had only two utilities: the brokerage calculator, and a tool to guesstimate referral benefits. And just for nostalgia, here’s what it looked like:

At its peak, 50% of every new account at Zerodha came from someone simply telling a friend. Here’s the part we’re quietly proud of: even after we stopped sharing brokerage because of a regulatory mandate, with no monetary incentive of any kind on the table, nearly 30% of new accounts still come in the same way. People use Zerodha, like what they see, and refer their friends and family. The regulations have since caught up with what our clients were already doing, so we’re bringing the brokerage sharing programme back.

From June 1, once your referral opens an account and starts trading, you earn 10% of the brokerage they generate, plus 300 reward points for every successful referral.

How it works

For every account opened through your referral from June 1, you earn 10% of the brokerage paid. You will also continue to get 300 reward points for each successful referral. You can redeem these in Console for subscriptions to products like Tijori, MProfit, and Quicko, or put them towards your Account Maintenance Charge (AMC).

You can withdraw the referral brokerage share from Console once you accrue ₹500 from August 1, 2026.

One thing to note: only referrals made from June 1, 2026, are eligible for the brokerage share. Accounts referred under the older program won’t carry over.

How to refer someone

On the Kite app:

1. Tap on your user ID.
2. Scroll down and tap on Invite friends.
3. Tap on Share.

You can also generate an affiliate link on zerodha.com/refer to share with your friends and family. When someone opens an account via your link, we automatically capture the referral. 

Everything after that is trackable on the referrals page on Console: your referred accounts, your earnings, your reward points, and your payouts, all in one place.

A good time to tell a friend

There’s never been an easier time to bring someone on board. From June 1, anyone opening a fresh account won’t pay AMC for their first year. And if they’re moving holdings over from another broker, we’ll refund their transfer charges up to ₹500. Fewer reasons to hesitate for them, which means your referral is far more likely to go through.

So if there’s someone you’ve been meaning to nudge towards investing the right way, now’s the moment.

Happy referring.