How to read your contract note
Every line on a contract note, what it is and who takes the money.
On this Delivery note with a turnover of ₹2,05,000.00, the charges come to ₹231.80 and the net result is ₹4,768.20.
A delivery round trip normally spans two contract notes, one for each leg. Both are shown together here so you can see STT landing on each of them.
A tax on the trade itself, collected by the exchange and paid to the central government.
It is charged on the transaction, not on your profit, so you pay it on losing trades too. Which leg it falls on changes with the segment — both legs on delivery, the sell leg only everywhere else — and that asymmetry is the single most common misreading of a contract note. Options carry a second STT event this page does not model: let an in-the-money option run to expiry and be exercised, and STT is charged again on the intrinsic value, which is why holding a deep in-the-money option to expiry is usually dearer than squaring it off.
What this note comes to
- Turnover · buy value plus sell value₹2,05,000.00
- Total charges · every line in the note above₹231.80
- Charges ÷ quantity · total ÷ the shares on this note₹2.32
- Charges as a share of turnover0.113%
- Gross profit or loss · before any charge₹5,000.00
- Net profit, after every charge₹4,768.20
The sell price that would leave this note at exactly zero is ₹1,002.27 — ₹2.27 above the buy figure entered. That gap is the charges, nothing else.
Rates as at 5 September 2026
Try one change
Each button changes exactly one input and says what that did to the headline figure. Reset undoes it.
Each file lists the source and the check date for every rate. The CSV comes as two files, the figures and their sources.
Four things that catch people out
This total includes the brokerage you typed.
What this calculator does and does not do
What this calculator does
- Lays out every charge line on a contract note for delivery, intraday, futures and options, one segment at a time.
- Names who receives each amount and the circular the rate comes from, with the date a human last read it.
- Prices the note at the rates in force on the trade date you enter, so an older note is priced at the rates that applied then.
What it does not do
- Reproduce your broker's own brokerage slab, or any charge a broker levies outside the statutory and exchange set.
- Replace the note itself. This is an explanation of one. The note your broker sent is the final word, and a difference is worth asking them about.
- Cover the currency or commodity segments.
Show the method and assumptions
The method
- Each line of a contract note is rebuilt from the trade figures you type.
- Every charge uses the rate in force on your trade date.
- Lines are grouped by who sets them: the law, the exchange or your broker.
- If you type your own note's figures, each difference is shown line by line.
What it assumes
- One trade in the segment you pick: delivery, intraday, futures or options.
- Brokerage follows the model you pick: none, flat per order, or a percentage.
- For futures and options, quantity = lots × lot size.
- The DP charge is per stock per selling day, not per share.
Sources, effective dates and exclusions
- Calculated on
- today
Rates follow the trade date in the form, not today's date.
Source: NSE charges circulars and the SEBI turnover-fee schedule
- Rules in force from
- 1 Mar 2026
- Source published
- not listed
- Last reviewed
- 5 Oct 2026
Source: Finance Act (for STT) and the NSE/BSE transaction-charge circulars
- Rules in force from
- 1 Apr 2026
- Source published
- not listed
- Last reviewed
- 5 Oct 2026
Source: Finance Act (for STT) and the NSE equity-derivatives transaction-charge circulars
- Rules in force from
- 1 Apr 2026
- Source published
- not listed
- Last reviewed
- 5 Oct 2026
Source: The CDSL tariff schedule
- Rules in force from
- 1 Oct 2024
- Source published
- not listed
- Last reviewed
- 5 Oct 2026
Source: NSE and BSE index derivative contract-size circulars
- Rules in force from
- 28 Oct 2025
- Source published
- 3 Oct 2025
- Last reviewed
- 5 Oct 2026
Not included
- STT when an option is exercised.
- Reading a contract note file. You type the figures.
- Your full income-tax bill.
What could change this?
- The segment. Delivery, intraday, futures and options carry different lines at different rates, and some lines simply do not exist in some segments.
- The trade date. Each line is priced from the rule in force on that date, so an older note reconciles against the rates that applied then.
- The brokerage model. Flat per order, a percentage, or a percentage with a cap change the brokerage line and, through it, the GST line.
- The DP charge. It is per ISIN per debit day on a delivery sale, billed by the depository plus your broker's own fee. It often appears on the ledger rather than the note.
What does each segment actually get charged?
Every figure in this table is read from the same effective-dated rule set the calculator above uses, as at 2026-10-18. Nothing in it is typed by hand.
| Segment | Charged on | STT | Stamp duty | Exchange charge | DP charges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery | turnover | 0.1%, both legs | 0.015%, buy leg | ₹306.99 per crore, both legs | Yes, on the sell |
| Intraday | turnover | 0.025%, sell leg | 0.003%, buy leg | ₹306.99 per crore, both legs | No |
| Futures | traded value | 0.05%, sell leg | 0.002%, buy leg | ₹182.99 per crore, both legs | No |
| Options | premium | 0.15%, sell leg | 0.003%, buy leg | ₹3,552.99 per crore, both legs | No |
The exchange charge is quoted before the Investor Protection Fund contribution, which the note prints as its own line. The two together are what the exchange actually bills. The SEBI turnover fee and GST apply in every segment and are shown in full in the calculator. DP charges are ₹3.50 per ISIN per debit day plus your broker's own fee.
The order a note reads in
Most people open a note at the last line and read upwards. That is the one order in which a mistake is invisible, because every figure above the total is what makes the total what it is. Forwards, a note is five steps. Each one either matches the reader's own record of the trade or it does not. The first one that does not is the thing worth asking about.
- Identity. Client code, broker, exchange, segment and trade date. For a derivative, also the , the and whether it is a call, a put or a future. Two contracts can look almost identical in a list and be different instruments.
- Executed quantity. Not the quantity you asked for. One order can fill in several pieces, and a part-filled order still produces a note.
- Execution price. Not the price on your screen when you pressed the button. Where an order filled in pieces, the note shows the fills. The trade value is built from those, not from a single quoted price.
- Charges, by category. Brokerage separately from the statutory and exchange lines. A depository debit or an account fee may not be inside the same subtotal at all. It can appear in the ledger rather than on the note.
- The net amount. Only now. It is the arithmetic on the four steps above, and it means nothing until they have been read.
When a note and an app disagree, their definitions are worth comparing before either is assumed wrong. One may be showing a gross figure and the other a net one. One may be a whole day and the other a single trade. An open position, a part fill or a day boundary explains most apparent mismatches. State the difference in one sentence, with the order and trade identifiers attached. Something like “the trade record shows fifty units, this summary shows forty” is what a broker can investigate. A folder of statements with no sentence in front of it is not.
Knowing which record to open is half of that. Demat, trading and bank accounts: three records, three different jobs sets out what the bank ledger, the order history, the contract note and the depository statement each answer, and why an unexplained difference is a charge to look up rather than a charge to name.
What this does not tell you
And what your profit is not. Sale value is what the shares sold for, before any costs are subtracted. Gross profit is the price difference times quantity. Subtract charges to find net profit. One contract note records that round trip, rather than a whole day, month or year. Take 50 units bought at ₹200 and sold at ₹204. The note carries ₹10,200 in sale value and ₹200 in gross profit. Charges leave a smaller net figure.
A contract note records what happened. It does not tell you whether the trade was a good idea. It is not a tax computation either. The charges here are transaction levies, separate from income tax on your gains. For that, use the capital gains calculator.
Two figures on this page are yours rather than the market's: brokerage, and your broker's share of the DP fee. Both default to a plain assumption. Both should be replaced with what your own broker charges. Every other line is identical at every broker in India. That is exactly why they are worth understanding once.
Option exercise is not modelled. If an in-the-money option is allowed to run to expiry and is exercised, is charged again. It is charged on the rather than on the , and on a separate note. The practical consequence is that squaring off a deep in-the-money option is usually cheaper than letting it be exercised. This decoder prices a round trip that is bought and sold.
NSE only. The futures and options segments here price NSE contracts. BSE publishes no equivalent separately-itemised Investor Protection Fund levy on derivatives premium. Inventing one would be worse than saying so.
Where this appears in NISM Series VIII
Trading costs sit under Unit VI (Trading Mechanism) of the NISM-Series-VIII: Equity Derivatives curriculum. Those are brokerage, exchange transaction charges and the SEBI fee. The taxation of derivative transactions is in Unit IX (Accounting and Taxation). See the NISM Series VIII syllabus and exam format.
Common mistakes
- Expecting every charge to be on the note. A depository debit is posted to the ledger, usually the same day or the next, and the GST on it goes with it — a note that looks short is not necessarily wrong.
- Reading a paisa difference on one line as an error. Brokers round and aggregate differently. The reconciliation mode shows the difference line by line so the one that matters stands out from rounding.
- Assuming only brokerage differs by broker. Brokerage does, and so do the broker's own DP, account and service fees. The statutory and exchange lines are the same everywhere.
Questions people ask about contract note charges
Why is STT charged on both legs of a delivery trade but only on the sell leg of an intraday trade?
Securities Transaction Tax is levied by segment, and the statute sets a different rate and a different chargeable side for each one. Delivery trades attract it on both the purchase and the sale. Intraday equity, futures and options attract it on the sale only. The practical consequence is that the composition of a contract note changes far more between delivery and intraday than the headline brokerage figure suggests, so comparing two notes line by line without checking the segment is misleading.
Why do I pay stamp duty only when I buy?
Stamp duty attaches to the instrument that transfers ownership, and the purchase is treated as the chargeable event, so it is levied on the buy leg only, in every segment. Rates have been uniform across all states since 1 July 2020. Before that date they varied with the state in which the broker was registered, which is why an older contract note may show a different figure for an identical trade.
Is GST charged on STT or on stamp duty?
No. GST applies to the service charges on a contract note: brokerage, the exchange transaction charge, the Investor Protection Fund contribution, the SEBI turnover fee and any depository charge. It is not applied to STT or to stamp duty, because those are themselves taxes and charging GST on them would be taxing a tax. A GST figure that looks too large when a note is added up by hand is almost always the result of including one of those two in the base.
Why do DP charges appear only when I sell shares I hold?
The charge is for debiting securities out of a demat account, which happens when delivery shares are sold. Buying credits shares into the account and carries no equivalent charge. Intraday positions never reach the demat account at all, and futures and options contracts are not held in demat form, so no depository debit occurs in any of those cases.
Are DP charges per share or per transaction?
Neither: they are charged per ISIN per debit day. Selling one share of a stock and selling ten thousand shares of the same stock on the same day attract the same single charge, even if the sale is executed in several tranches. Selling three different stocks on one day attracts the charge three times, because three separate ISINs are debited.
Which charges on a contract note can I actually reduce?
Only brokerage, and the broker's own share of the depository fee. Every other line is fixed by statute or by the exchange and is identical whichever broker executes the trade, so a comparison between brokers comes down to those two figures plus the quality of execution. A calculator that shows a large difference on any other line is applying a rate incorrectly.
Why does the Investor Protection Fund line show as zero on my note?
From 1 March 2026 the NSE contribution was rolled back to a very small per-crore figure and the exchange transaction charge was raised by the same amount, with the stated intent that the total members pay is unchanged. On a retail-sized trade the contribution now rounds to zero rupees. The line is still shown rather than dropped, because it is a real line on the real note and its absence would make the note harder, not easier, to reconcile.
Does this cover the STT charged when an option is exercised?
No. An in-the-money option that is allowed to run to expiry and is exercised attracts STT a second time, on the intrinsic value rather than on the premium, and that charge appears on a separate note. The decoder prices a round trip that is bought and sold, so it deliberately does not model an expiry event. The practical implication is that squaring off a deep in-the-money option before expiry is usually cheaper than letting it be exercised.
Next
Trade cost calculator
The sell price at which a trade turns even
Open →Options breakeven calculator
After charges, with the payoff drawn
Open →Index lot sizes
Units per contract, with the circular
Open →Settlement date calculator
When the money and shares on the note actually move
Open →NISM Series VIII: Equity Derivatives
Where these charges appear in the syllabus
Open →Where to go from here
The note lists the charges. This explains why each one exists, which of them scale with the position and which are flat per order.
Read the lesson Then thisStock average calculatorFor a delivery or intraday buy on this note, add a second purchase: the new weighted average, and the sell level at which the combined position covers the round-trip charges on both legs (the depository charge excepted).
OpenLast checked on 5 October 2026.
Expiry day is the last day on which a derivative contract can be traded.
Read moreThe strike price is the level at which an option can be exercised.
Read moreSecurities Transaction Tax (STT) is a statutory tax the Government of India levies on purchases and sales of securities.
Read moreIntrinsic value is the part of an option's premium that would survive if the contract expired at this instant.
Read more