When we started Zerodha, we consciously decided to charge an account opening fee for two reasons:

• There was no Aadhaar or eSign until 2016–17. Account opening was completely offline, which meant there was a cost involved. So we had to charge an account opening fee to cover the cost.
• We wanted to attract users who were serious because there’s an ongoing cost for every user we add.

But things have changed over the years with fully digital onboarding, etc., and we had to change our stance. A few months ago, we made account openings free for those under 25 to encourage them to start investing early. But now we are making it free for all resident Indians.