Comparing Brokerage Calculators: Which One is Right for You?

The world of trading is being rapidly digitized. From bearing the pain of doing physical transactions on paper, things have changed a lot over the past two decades. Moreover, as new and advanced trading services providers like investing applications and websites become a part of the game, the ease for traders is increasing. There have been a lot of advanced tools launched in the past few years which have helped people to plan their investment journey even before they step into it. A brokerage calculator is an excellent tool that helps you in your trading journey. To ease your investment plans and help you achieve them easily, here is all you need to know about them. In this blog, we will compare various brokerage calculators available and help you choose the right one for you.

What is a Brokerage Calculator?

Every time you make a transaction, say buy or sell in the market, regardless of the type of commodity you trade, there are several extra charges that are imposed. These charges include brokerage fees, transaction fees, GST, Securities Transaction Tax (SST), and other similar charges. This might create an imbalance in your budget since the overall amount might go beyond the one you planned to trade. Therefore, brokerage calculators help you to know well in advance about all such charges, even before you have traded any commodity in the market. With a set of information that includes your share quantity, price, order type, and exchange market, you get a complete insight into your investment journey within a few seconds. Since there are a lot of platforms offering a variety of brokerage calculators with different features, let us compare some of the best calculators and pick the right one for you.

Comparing Different Brokerage Calculators

There are a lot of platforms offering a completely free-of-cost brokerage calculator service in the market. But the availability of a wide variety of calculators creates confusion among customers to choose the best one. While every calculator comes with different features and some unique aspects, here is a comparison among a few well-known brokerage calculators.

1. Groww Brokerage Calculator

One of the most widely used brokerage calculators in the market, the Groww brokerage calculator comes with a variety of features to ease your investment journey. Having a simple and easy interface, this brokerage calculator comes with multiple outputs for brokerage charges, including intraday, delivery, future, and options trading. With just a few basic inputs that include your share count and price along with the market you want to trade in, this calculator will show you a complete breakdown of every charge imposed on your transaction along with the net payable amount.

• Pros

1. A complete breakdown of the net payable amount is generated.
2. No charges are ignored. Even the most minimal charge is displayed in the output.
3. Brokerage charges can be calculated for any type of trading.

• Cons

1. The calculator also includes charges imposed by Groww, which might differ with various platforms. Thus, it shows a specific result customized for investments made through Groww only.

2. Zerodha Brokerage Calculator

The Zerodha brokerage calculator is another famous calculator used by a lot of traders out there. Compared to the Groww brokerage calculator, Zerodha offers a more in-depth calculation of charges for different commodities. This means that you get options to calculate brokerage charges for a lot of other commodities like copper, gold, lead, etc. This prevents you from looking for different calculators to calculate the brokerage of different commodities. Along with this, the Zerodha calculator presents before you even the most minimal brokerage charges included in your transaction, along with the net payable amount.

• Pros

1. Get brokerage calculations for equities, F&O, and commodities as well.
2. Simple interface without any useless features.
3. A complete breakdown of the net payable amount.

• Cons

1. The calculator can be a bit complex to be used by beginners. This is because of the certain complex trading terms about which new investors might not know.

3. Upstox Brokerage Calculator

The Upstox brokerage calculator is another popular and well-known calculator in the market. Including almost all the similar features of the Groww brokerage calculator, Upstox offers complete insight on brokerage charges, transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, GST, and any other charge which might be included in your transaction. An additional feature of this calculator is that it allows you to calculate the brokerage charges for any particular stock specifically. Therefore, you can specifically calculate the brokerage charges for the company you want to invest in.

• Pros

1. Although a 100% accuracy for any brokerage calculator cannot be guaranteed yet, the Upstox brokerage calculator shows you the closest payable amount for your transactions.
2. You can easily adjust your investing strategy with the help of this brokerage calculator.
3. Specifically, search for any stock for which you want to calculate the brokerage fees.

• Cons

1. The calculator offers brokerage calculations for only intraday and delivery orders. Therefore, there are limited options available to calculate the brokerage charges.

4. 5 Paisa Brokerage Calculator

The brokerage calculator offered from 5 paisa is another simple calculator that comes with clear pricing and a breakdown of charges for any transaction. Available to be used on websites and applications, the most unique thing about this calculator is that it lets you explore all its features right on the first screen. This makes the calculator extremely easy to use. Whether it is intraday or delivery mode, you can calculate brokerage charges for any order. Along with this, the calculator also lets you choose your desired product, including cash, futures, and options. All you need to do is enter the quantity, buy and sell price and leave the rest on this efficient brokerage calculator.

• Pros

1. The calculator maintains complete transparency for any type of transition.
2. All the features of the calculator are displayed on the first window without you having to search for them.
3. Upfront details of transactions to help you make better decisions towards your investments.

• Cons

1. The calculator does not show the complete net payable amount.
2. The option to calculate brokerage charges for a particular stock is not available in the calculator.

Samco Brokerage Calculator

Lastly, you can also consider the Samco brokerage calculator, which is another efficient choice for calculating brokerage charges along with all the hidden charges included in a transaction. You can calculate the brokerage charges for equity F&O, currency and commodity trades. The calculator takes a variety of inputs from you, including the buy and sell price, quantity bought, your location and brokerage percentage. Thereafter, the calculator includes the imposed charges on your transaction, including the stamp duty, GDT, STT and other similar charges, to give the most accurate output.

• Pros

1. Multiple options to calculate customized brokerage charges for your investments.
2. Does not ignore any type of charges imposed.
3. Simple interface which can be used by anyone.

• Cons

1. Might not give 100% accurate results.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Brokerage Calculator

Now that you know all the major brokerage calculators in the market, you can probably decide the best one for your investment plans. But, when selecting the perfect brokerage calculator for yourself, there are certain facts that you must keep in check to select a calculator that would meet your investment needs. While every individual might have different investment goals, here are certain common factors that you must consider in any brokerage calculator you choose.

• Accuracy: One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a brokerage calculator is its accuracy. Even if your brokerage calculator generates some similar outputs to that actual amount, it can cause a big difference. Therefore, you must ensure that your calculator must be accurate enough to give the exact calculations.
• Compatible with Platforms: Choosing a brokerage calculator that is limited to making calculations for a particular platform can be a major disadvantage. Since you will not be able to calculate exact brokerage charges when planning to invest through any other platform. Thus, your brokerage calculator must generate a generic result compatible with investments done on any platform.
• Good Support: A brokerage calculator must come with excellent support staff to assist you with any inconvenience faced. The support staff must be educated about the concepts of the brokerage calculators to guide you out of any trouble.
• Transparency: Your brokerage calculator must offer a completely transparent calculation of charges. This means that there must not be any hidden charges that the calculator might ignore. Therefore, you must keep in check that the calculator you choose should display even the most unusual charge imposed on any transaction.
• Real-time Updation: Although this is a unique and rare feature for a brokerage calculator, considering a brokerage calculator with real-time updates can be of great help. This includes that your brokerage calculator must be able to generate outputs based on current happenings of the market. Moreover, it must adapt to the changes in the market along with any unexpected events or change in fees.

When choosing a brokerage calculator for yourself, there are certain factors that you must consider. Regardless of the brokerage calculator you consider, the above factors are what will help you refine the results for the brokerage charges of any transaction.

Conclusion

To conclude, brokerage calculators have emerged as an excellent tool to ease your investment journey. Although, when using these brokerage calculators, you must consider the fact that these calculators might not generate results with 100% accuracy. Moreover, any unexpected event in the market might vary the charges of a transaction, about which the brokerage calculators will not be able to know. Samco also offers an excellent brokerage calculator to help you calculate charges with complete transparency. Open a free demat account today with Samco and start your investment journey. You can not only plan your investments with the Samco brokerage calculator but also invest in the stock market easily and quickly.