Options
Where an option trade starts to make money, once the and charges are paid.
Breakeven after charges
23,521.02
bought at ₹120.00 against a strike of 23,400, this CALL is level at 23,521.02 after charges — 1.02 points further out than the premium alone puts it.
Break-even is the index level where the result is ₹0, and charges push it a little further.
The break-even is rounded to a whole paisa on the safe side. So the result there sits just above ₹0.
At 23,521.02 · Before charges +₹66.30 · After charges +₹0.47
Horizontal axis: hypothetical underlying levels from 22,230 to 24,570. Vertical axis: net profit or loss on 65 units. The solid line is drawn after the ₹65.83 of round-trip charges itemised above, held flat wherever the option ends in the money. It therefore crosses zero at the after-charges breakeven of 23,521.02, while the dashed line — the textbook premium-only version — crosses at 23,520. The gap between the two is what the charges cost. The plain grey vertical line is the strike, 23,400. Where the option ends worthless, nothing is sold, so only the opening charges come off. That flat leg, ₹7,827.11, is the most it can lose at expiry. Just past the strike the line steps down by ₹38.72, the closing charges.
The two payoff lines are only the charges apart, ₹65.83. At this scale they look like one line.
| Underlying at expiry | Before charges | After charges |
|---|---|---|
| 22,230 | -₹7,800.00 | -₹7,827.11 |
| 22,620 | -₹7,800.00 | -₹7,827.11 |
| 23,010 | -₹7,800.00 | -₹7,827.11 |
| 23,400 · strike | -₹7,800.00 | -₹7,827.11 |
| 23,520 · breakeven before charges | ₹0.00 | -₹65.83 |
| 23,521.02 · breakeven after charges | ₹66.30 | ₹0.47 |
| 23,790 | ₹17,550.00 | ₹17,484.17 |
| 24,180 | ₹42,900.00 | ₹42,834.17 |
| 24,570 | ₹68,250.00 | ₹68,184.17 |
Where the charges go
Round trip on this contract
Without the charges it would be 23,520 — the textbook strike-plus-premium figure. The gap between the two is what the charges cost, and it is arithmetic on the numbers above, not a view on where the index will go.
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Continue: how would this option's premium move? → Carries the underlying, CALL or PUT, the strike and the premium you entered into Market X-Ray: Option Premium as an observed premium — never replaced by a model value.
This total includes the brokerage you typed.
How it adds up
The same sum, worked by hand on the starting figures.
The formula
Call = + premium + charges ÷ quantity
Breakeven is the underlying price where an option position neither gains nor loses money. A call adds premium to the strike. A put subtracts it. Brokerage, , exchange and SEBI fees, stamp duty and GST move that level against the holder. Divide the charges by quantity to find the shift.
The calculator produces two numbers. The first is the textbook identity. The second replaces the premium in that identity. In its place goes the premium the position would have to be closed at to come out level. That closing premium is higher than the premium paid on a bought option. It is lower than the premium received on a sold one. STT is a percentage of the sale value, so the charge depends on the closing premium. The closing premium, in turn, depends on the charge. The calculator solves the two together rather than adding a fixed estimate.
Bought at a premium of ₹120, one of 65 units, brokerage ₹20 per order, on 4 September 2026. The premium outlay is 120 × 65 = ₹7,800. The textbook breakeven is 25,000 + 120 = 25,120. The lot size is filled in from the published contract specification, and it stays editable.
| Charge | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Brokerage (buy + sell order) | Flat per order × 2 | ₹40.00 |
| Securities Transaction Tax (STT) | 0.15% | ₹11.80 |
| Stamp duty | 0.003% | ₹0.23 |
| Exchange transaction charge | ₹3552.99/crore | ₹5.57 |
| Investor Protection Fund (IPFT) | ₹0.01/crore | ₹0.00 |
| SEBI turnover fee | ₹10/crore | ₹0.02 |
| GST (18%) | 18% | ₹8.21 |
| Total | on a ₹7,800 premium | ₹65.83 |
₹65.83 spread over 65 units is ₹1.010 after dividing by quantity. The option must therefore be worth ₹121.02 to come out level. That figure is rounded up to the next paise, because premiums trade in paise. Put it back into the identity and the breakeven is 25,000 + 121.02 = 25,121.02. That is 1.02 index points further away than the textbook number. Sell the same call instead and the arithmetic mirrors. The position can only be bought back at ₹118.98 or less, so its breakeven sits at 25,118.98 rather than 25,120.
Read the result
The textbook breakeven on an option is simple. For a call it is the strike plus the premium. For a put it is the strike minus the premium. That assumes the trade cost nothing to place. It did. This options profit calculator has two tabs. breakeven gives the profit at expiry and the breakeven after charges. Close before expiry gives the profit on an entry and exit premium you type, after brokerage.
Profit if you exit before expiry. You know the premium you paid and the premium you closed at. Use the Close before expiry tab. It gives the profit after brokerage and every other charge.
Profit at expiry. You hold the option to expiry. Use the Expiry breakeven tab. It shows the profit or loss at a range of index levels, and where the trade breaks even.
What the premium might be before expiry. This needs a pricing model, and the calculator does not have one. The model example below shows how the index, time and each move a premium. Market X-Ray shows the same effects on real past days.
A standard pricing model (Black-Scholes) shows how this happens. Take a NIFTY 23,400 call with the index at 23,400, 4 days left and implied volatility at 15%. The model prices it at ₹159.68.
Now one day passes. NIFTY rises 50 points, and implied volatility falls 2 points. The rise adds about ₹28.09. The lost day takes about ₹21.64. The lower volatility takes about ₹17.98. The premium ends at ₹148.15, down ₹11.53.
A put works the same way in reverse. The matching 23,400 put, with NIFTY falling 50 points over the same day, goes from ₹134.05 to ₹125.93. These are model figures with an assumed interest rate of 10%, not prices from a market. Market X-Ray shows how real NIFTY premiums moved on past days.
This calculator prices a square-off: two orders on the exchange. An in-the-money option left to expire is settled by exercise or assignment. STT on an exercised option is charged on the intrinsic value, not on the premium. That is a completely different base. On a deep in-the-money contract it can dwarf every other line above.
On one lot, ₹40 of brokerage is 61% of the ₹65.83 total. Ten lots of the same contract shift the breakeven by about 0.36 points instead of 1.02. That is because the flat fee is spread over 650 units. The percentage charges do not shrink, so the shift falls toward a floor. It never reaches zero. Even a zero-brokerage plan still shifts the example by 0.29 points.
If the premium received is smaller than the round-trip charges, no closing price makes the position level. The calculator says so rather than printing a number.
Before expiry an option also carries time value. The position's value at a given underlying level is therefore not the payoff diagram. The breakeven here answers one question: where does the payoff cross zero at expiry? It does not answer what the contract is worth right now.
What moves it instead is four sensitivities pulling at once. Option Greeks: the four sensitivities and the units they are quoted in works an example where a favourable ₹20 move still leaves the premium slightly lower. Vega and theta were pulling the other way.
Exchanges change index-option lot sizes from time to time. The lot size here is filled in from the published circular for the instrument and trade date entered. The full table, with the circular behind each row, is on the index lot size page. The field stays editable, because a contract opened before a revision can still be running on the previous lot. The calculator says so when that applies. SENSEX options trade on BSE, which publishes its own transaction charge. Switching instrument changes that line too.
Percentage-based brokerage plans, depository charges and any broker-specific fees are not modelled. The statutory and exchange charges are the published ones for the trade date entered.
Option payoffs, breakeven points and are covered in the option-payoffs chapter of the NISM Series VIII: Equity Derivatives certification. It is mandatory for approved users and sales personnel of trading members in the equity-derivatives segment. The syllabus gives the breakeven identities for long and short calls and puts. Add the Indian charges to those identities. Find the full syllabus and published exam format on the NISM Series VIII hub. Use the official NISM study material for exam preparation. LearnNifty is not affiliated with or endorsed by NISM.
Questions
The breakeven price is the underlying level where an option position ends expiry with no profit and no loss. For a call it is the strike plus the premium. For a put it is the strike minus the premium. A NIFTY 25000 call bought at a premium of 120 therefore breaks even at 25,120, before any charges are counted.
Charges are money the position must earn back to break even. Divide total charges by quantity, then add that amount to the premium in the call's breakeven identity. For a put, subtract it with the premium. Take one NIFTY lot of 65 units at a premium of 120, with 20 rupees per order. The round-trip charges of 65.83 rupees work out to about 1.01 after division by quantity. That moves the breakeven from 25,120 to 25,121.02.
Six charges apply besides brokerage. The first is Securities Transaction Tax on the sale of the option. Then come stamp duty on the purchase and the exchange transaction charge. After those come the SEBI turnover fee and the exchange investor-protection levy, where one is published. The sixth is 18 percent GST on brokerage plus the transaction charges. Every one of them is charged on the premium, not on the contract's notional value.
On a normal square-off, STT is charged on the option premium. The rate is 0.15 percent of the sale value of the option, effective 1 April 2026. It was 0.1 percent from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2026. A quote for a trade dated before that still prices at the old rate. The notional value of the contract, strike multiplied by lot size, is not the base. An option that is exercised at expiry is treated differently. It is charged on the intrinsic value instead. That is why letting an in-the-money option expire is not the same trade cost as closing it.
Use the Close before expiry tab. Enter the premium you paid or received, the premium you closed at, and the lots. The gross profit is the premium difference times the quantity. The tab then takes off the charges on both orders, brokerage included, and shows the net. It also shows the exit premium at which the trade comes out level.
At expiry a call is worth the index minus the strike, if that is above zero. A put is worth the strike minus the index. Take that value, subtract the premium paid, and multiply by the quantity. The Expiry breakeven tab does this for a range of index levels, after charges.
Only for a premium you enter. Before expiry, the premium moves with the index, with time and with implied volatility. This calculator does not model those. Further down, a model example works through how each one moves a premium. Market X-Ray covers the same effects on real past days.
The identity is the same for both: strike plus premium for a call, strike minus premium for a put. In practice, though, charges push the level in opposite directions. A buyer needs the option to be worth more than the premium paid plus charges. That pushes the level further away. A seller keeps the premium received minus charges. The level the position can withstand therefore moves back toward the strike.
Yes, and it is not a rounding problem. A bought option's breakeven moves away from the strike by the charges. Some underlying level therefore always covers them. A sold option's breakeven moves the other way, back towards the strike, and it can run out of room. The cheapest the position can ever be closed at is nothing. If the premium received is smaller than the round-trip charges, there is no closing price that leaves it level. The calculator says so rather than printing a number. That is the asymmetry between the two sides. A buyer's loss is capped at the premium paid. A seller's gain is capped at the premium received, and the loss on the other side of it is not.
Flat per-order brokerage does not grow with size, so it is spread across more units. Take 20 rupees per order on a 65-unit NIFTY lot. Charges shift the breakeven by about 1.02 points on one lot. On ten lots the shift is only about 0.36 points. STT, stamp duty and exchange and SEBI fees depend on the transaction amount. Increasing quantity does not spread these percentage charges thinner. The shift approaches that floor and does not disappear.
Keep learning
Strike plus premium is where the textbook stops. This is the distance the index itself has to travel, and why it is further than the premium suggests.
Read the lesson Then thisSettlement date calculatorLeaving derivatives for the cash market: the indicative day an equity trade settles on. It counts settlement days from the trade date, with holidays and published clearing exceptions applied. A contract settles on its own cycle.
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Rates and the lot size follow the trade date in the form.
Source: Finance Act (for STT) and the NSE/BSE transaction-charge circulars
Source: NSE and BSE index derivative contract-size circulars
Last checked on 5 October 2026.
Paper Trading Try it on the practice trading desk
Breakeven is the point at which a defined result is exactly zero.
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 moreLot size is the number of units of the underlying that one derivatives contract stands for.
Read moreExpiry day is the last day on which a derivative contract can be traded.
Read moreImplied volatility is the market's assumption about how much the underlying will move before expiry.
Read moreMoneyness describes where an option's strike sits relative to the current level of the underlying.
Read more