Charges call and trade auto square-off RMS square off zerodha charges dealer charges phone trading

Call and Trade charges at Zerodha

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Zerodha levies Rs 50 per executed order, plus 18 per cent GST, for two distinct events that are booked under the same head: an order placed for you by a dealer through the call-and-trade desk, and a position squared off by Zerodha’s risk-management (RMS) desk when you did not close it yourself. This is why a client who never phoned Zerodha still sees a call-and-trade charge: the auto square-off of an open intraday (MIS) or margin-shortfall position is charged at the identical Rs 50 per order and appears under the call-and-trade and square-off line. The all-in figure is Rs 59 per order once GST is added (zerodha.com/charges, as of 20 June 2026). This page is the canonical answer to “I never called Zerodha but was charged call-and-trade”: the charge is real, it is for a square-off, and it is separable from a genuine phone order.

The fee was Rs 20 per executed order until 19 March 2020, when Zerodha raised both the call-and-trade charge and the RMS square-off charge to Rs 50, stating that the lower fee had not reduced the number of positions its desk had to square off (Zerodha Z-Connect bulletin, 19 March 2020). The increase applied to both events at once, which is the structural reason the two charges share a value and a label to this day. The charge applies across all segments: equity delivery, intraday, futures and options , currency, and commodity.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure. This guide is published by the WebNotes Editorial Team for informational purposes and is written independently. WebNotes operates a Zerodha account-opening referral programme, disclosed on the pages that carry the referral link; this guide does not carry it and earns no referral commission from the procedure described here.

The Rs 50 charge and its two triggers

The charge sits on the trade as a per-order surcharge over and above normal brokerage, which is zero for delivery and Rs 20 for intraday and F&O. It is charged on execution, not on placement: a call-and-trade order that never fills, a limit order that the market does not reach, carries no charge, because the fee attaches to an executed order. The figure is flat at Rs 50 per executed order regardless of quantity or value, plus Rs 9 GST, for Rs 59 all in.

What the charge is not is a brokerage. It is a dealer or risk-desk service charge, distinct from the per-order brokerage, and it stacks on top of brokerage, exchange transaction charges , STT , and stamp duty . On an intraday order squared off by RMS, the client pays the Rs 20 brokerage on the original order, then the Rs 50 square-off charge plus GST on the squaring-off order, plus the usual statutory levies on both legs.

Case A: dealer-placed call-and-trade

The first trigger is the service the charge is named for. A client who cannot reach the Kite platform, during travel, a platform outage, or a local connectivity failure, can phone Zerodha’s dealing desk and have a dealer place the order. Every order the dealer executes on the client’s behalf carries Rs 50 plus GST. The desk exists as a fallback for clients locked out of the app, not as a routine channel, and the surcharge is set high enough to keep it that way.

This is the only trigger most clients expect, and it is the one they can see coming, because they made the call. A trader who places five dealer orders in a session during an outage pays Rs 295 in call-and-trade charges for that session (5 orders at Rs 59). Placing orders in advance through GTT (good till triggered) or after-market orders, before connectivity is lost, avoids the need for the desk entirely.

Case B: RMS and auto square-off of MIS or margin-shortfall positions

The second trigger is the one that surprises clients, because no call is involved. Zerodha’s RMS team squares off positions in two situations, and each squaring-off order carries the same Rs 50 plus GST. The first is the intraday auto square-off: an open MIS position that the client has not closed before the segment cut-off is closed by RMS automatically. The cut-offs are about 3:20 pm for equity, 3:25 pm for equity derivatives, 4:45 pm for currency, and 11:05 pm for commodities (Zerodha support, as of 20 June 2026). The second is a margin-shortfall square-off: when an account no longer holds the margin its open positions require, RMS closes positions to bring the account back within limits, and margin trading facility (MTF) positions are squared off under the same Rs 50-per-position policy.

Because both are booked under the call-and-trade and square-off head, the contract note and the funds ledger show a call-and-trade charge for an order the client never placed. The charge is legitimate: the client held a position that the rules required to be closed, and Zerodha’s desk closed it. The fee is the cost of having the desk do what the client did not. A client who leaves three MIS positions open past 3:20 pm pays Rs 177 in square-off charges (3 orders at Rs 59), on top of the brokerage and statutory levies on those closing trades.

When it is waived or reversed

Zerodha reverses the charge where the square-off was caused by a verified failure on its own side rather than by the client. A documented platform outage that prevented the client from squaring off a position before the cut-off, or a system error that triggered an unwarranted square-off, is the kind of case Zerodha reviews and reverses on request. The reversal is not automatic; the client raises a ticket on console.zerodha.com with the order ID and the date, and the desk checks the cause against its own logs.

The charge is not reversed where the cause was the client’s own. A position the client simply forgot to close, a margin shortfall the client allowed to develop, or a genuine dealer-placed phone order is not reversible, because the desk did exactly what the rules and the client’s inaction required. The distinction is cause, not inconvenience: a charge the client could have avoided by acting before the cut-off stands; a charge caused by Zerodha’s own failure is the one open to reversal.

Comparison with other discount brokers

Phone-order and square-off pricing varies across discount brokers, and Zerodha’s Rs 50 per executed order sits at the higher end of the range. Several peers charge for the dealer desk on a similar per-order basis, and the gap reflects each broker’s intent to push clients onto self-service platforms rather than the dealing desk. The figures below are indicative and change with each broker’s published schedule, so verify the current number on the broker’s own charges page before relying on it.

BrokerCall-and-trade or square-off charge (indicative)
ZerodhaRs 50 per executed order plus GST
UpstoxAbout Rs 20 per order on some plans, plus GST
Angel OneBundled into some plans; a per-order fee on others
HDFC SecuritiesAbout Rs 25 to Rs 50 per order by segment, plus GST

The point of the comparison is the direction, not the decimal: a discount broker prices the dealer desk and the avoidable square-off as a deterrent, and Zerodha’s Rs 50 is squarely in that band. For a client who never uses the desk and closes positions on time, the charge is irrelevant; for a client who relies on either, it is a material and recurring cost.

How to avoid the charge

The avoidable form of the charge, Case B, is removed by closing your own positions. Square off an MIS position yourself before the segment cut-off, and the RMS square-off never runs. Keep enough margin in the account that a shortfall square-off is never triggered. For the dealer-desk form, Case A, place orders yourself on Kite, and where you expect to lose connectivity during market hours, set up GTT orders or after-market orders in advance rather than relying on the phone. The charge is one of the few on a Zerodha account that a disciplined client can drive to zero, which is the behaviour the Rs 50 price is designed to encourage.

A trader who finds themselves paying the square-off charge repeatedly is usually carrying intraday positions too close to the cut-off or running too thin on margin. The fix is process, not appeal: closing earlier and funding the account adequately removes the charge at source, where a reversal request after the fact will not succeed for a self-caused square-off.

See also

External references

References

  1. Zerodha, charges schedule, call-and-trade and auto square-off at Rs 50 per executed order plus GST, zerodha.com/charges (accessed 20 June 2026).
  2. Zerodha Z-Connect, “Update: fee increase on Call & Trade and RMS Square off,” increasing the charge from Rs 20 to Rs 50 per executed order, dated 19 March 2020.
  3. Zerodha, intraday auto square-off timings and RMS square-off policy, support.zerodha.com (accessed 20 June 2026).
  4. SEBI Master Circular for Stock Brokers, SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2023/72 (disclosure of charges).
  5. Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017, Section 9 (GST on dealer service charges).

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Frequently asked questions

Why was I charged call-and-trade when I never called Zerodha?
Zerodha levies the same Rs 50 per order when its risk team (RMS) squares off your open intraday or margin-shortfall positions. The fee is booked under the call-and-trade and square-off head, so it shows as a call-and-trade charge even though no call was made. It is an auto square-off charge for a position you did not close yourself.
How much is the Zerodha call-and-trade charge?
Rs 50 per executed order plus 18 per cent GST, which is Rs 59 per order. It applies to every order placed through the dealer desk and to every position squared off by Zerodha’s RMS team, across all segments. It is charged on execution, not on placement.
What is the Zerodha auto square-off charge?
When you do not close an intraday (MIS) position before the square-off cut-off, or your account is in margin shortfall, Zerodha’s RMS squares off the position and charges Rs 50 per executed order plus GST. It is the same fee as the call-and-trade charge and is booked under the same head.
Is the Zerodha call-and-trade charge ever waived or reversed?
Zerodha can reverse it where the square-off was caused by a verified system or platform failure on its side rather than by the client. A genuine dealer-placed order or a self-caused failure to square off is not reversed. Raise a ticket on console.zerodha.com with the order details to request a review.
What time does Zerodha auto square-off happen?
Open MIS positions are squared off from around 3:20 pm for equity, 3:25 pm for equity derivatives, 4:45 pm for currency and 11:05 pm for commodities. Squaring off before these times avoids the Rs 50 per order RMS charge.
Does the call-and-trade charge apply per order or per trade?
Per executed order. One call-and-trade order or one RMS square-off is one Rs 50 charge plus GST, regardless of quantity. If the order fills in several parts, Zerodha treats it as a single executed order for this fee in normal cases.
How do I avoid the Zerodha call-and-trade and square-off charge?
Close your own intraday positions before the square-off cut-off, keep enough margin to avoid a shortfall square-off, and place orders yourself on Kite rather than through the dealer desk. Use GTT or after-market orders in advance if you expect to lose connectivity.

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