MCX brokerage charges, crude-oil trading costs and timings

Price the contract before comparing the brokerage headline

This MCX brokerage charges comparison uses the same standard crude-oil futures lot and assumed prices at four brokers. It separates brokerage from CTT, exchange fees, SEBI charges, stamp duty and GST. The resulting figures are model estimates before a broker’s contract-note rounding, not actual bills or a preferred broker.

The standard CRUDEOIL specification linked by MCX for January 2026 contracts onwards gives a trading unit of 100 barrels and a quote in rupees per barrel. The example assumes a buy at ₹6,500 and a sale at ₹6,520, with one executed order on each side. Those prices are chosen inputs; no current market price or recommendation is implied.

Use the commodity cost calculator to change the inputs. For the concepts before the arithmetic, see how commodity trading works.

The same assumed crude-oil round trip at four brokers

Official broker tariffs checked 14 October 2026. Alphabetical; standard non-agricultural MCX crude futures, 100 barrels, assumed ₹6,500 buy and ₹6,520 sell. All totals are modelled, rounded once at the end.

Broker	Checked futures brokerage	Two-order brokerage	Estimated total cost	₹2,000 gross less model cost	Source ID
Dhan	₹20/executed order for commodity F&O	₹40.00	₹159.20	₹1,840.80	d
Flattrade	NIL commodity-futures brokerage	₹0.00	₹112.00	₹1,888.00	f
Groww	₹20/executed order for equity/commodity F&O	₹40.00	₹159.20	₹1,840.80	g
Zerodha	Lower of 0.03% or ₹20/executed commodity-futures order	₹40.00 for these assumed values	₹159.20	₹1,840.80	z

Brokerage comes from each row’s official tariff. Shared statutory/exchange inputs: ctt, mcx-fee, z. Assumes no dealer, liquidation, delivery, account or financing event; those fees are not treated as zero for actual users. The ₹47.20 model difference is ₹40 brokerage plus its 18% GST, not a quality ranking.

Sources: [6], [8], [7], [5], [4], [2]

Download this table (CSV)

The ₹20-per-order model, line by line

Assumed prices and one executed order each way. CTT is applied to the futures sale value, not to the price difference. Components are retained unrounded until the final total.

Buy: ₹6,500 × 100 barrels; sell: ₹6,520 × 100 barrels

₹6,50,000 and ₹6,52,000

Brokerage: 2 executed orders × ₹20

₹40.00

CTT: ₹6,52,000 × 0.01%

₹65.20

MCX: ₹13,02,000 × 0.0021%

₹27.342

SEBI: ₹13,02,000 × ₹10/crore

₹1.302

Buy-side stamp duty: ₹6,50,000 × 0.002%

₹13.00

GST: (₹40 + ₹27.342 + ₹1.302) × 18%

₹12.35592

Estimated trading costs, rounded once

₹159.20

Sources: [1], [2], [4], [5], [6], [7]

CTT uses the sale value even when the price move is small

The assumed price movement is ₹20 per barrel, or ₹2,000 across 100 barrels. The CTT calculation still uses the ₹6,52,000 sale value. Using the profit as its base would substantially understate that line. The Income Tax Department’s section 117 table sets 0.01% for the sale of a commodity derivative, payable by the seller; this model applies it to non-agricultural crude futures.

MCX’s own circular MCX/F&A/631/2024, dated 24 September 2024, sets the futures fee at ₹2.10 per lakh of turnover from 1 October 2024. That is 0.0021%, applied here to buy and sell turnover. The original circular was read from MCX’s filing with BSE after the MCX routes failed.

For a zero-brokerage model, remove ₹40 and recalculate GST. GST becomes ₹5.15592, making total costs ₹111.99992, rounded to ₹112.00. The tax and exchange lines remain. These MCX inputs match the charges changelog; equity-F&O STT rates are not substituted for CTT.

MCX sessions in the verified March 2026 hours notice

All times IST. MCX/TRD/068/2026, dated 9 February 2026, effective 9 March 2026 for the US daylight-saving period. This is a session table, not a broker’s intraday exit deadline.

Category in circular	Trade start	Trade end	Scope reminder
Non-agricultural commodities	09:00	23:30	Category covering the crude-futures example.
Select agricultural commodities	09:00	21:00	Cotton, Cotton Oil and Kapas as named in the notice.
All other agricultural commodities	09:00	17:00	Do not assume every MCX product has the late close.

The 23:30 close is the US daylight-saving timing; NSE’s matching circular NSE/COM/72699 runs it to 30 October 2026. From 2 November 2026 the non-agri close moves to 23:55: NSE’s circular NSE/COM/76446 (21 September 2026) sets that for NSE until 12 March 2027, and Zerodha’s 30 September 2026 bulletin reports MCX circular 550/2026 making the same change on MCX, with agri hours unchanged. We could not open MCX’s own copy of that notice. Holidays and special sessions can also change the close.

Sources: [3], [9], [10], [11]

Margin cannot be compared using one permanent rupee amount

The MCX crude-oil specification lists initial margin as the higher of a 10% minimum or SPAN, plus a minimum 1% Extreme Loss Margin, and allows additional or special margins. That 10% floor is not the working minimum for crude oil today. NSE Clearing’s circular 0171/2026 (14 May 2026) set a 30% minimum initial margin for all CRUDEOIL variants from 18 May 2026, and its 8 September 2026 margin-framework circular keeps 30% from 1 October 2026. For MCX, a TeamLease RegTech summary reports that MCX’s clearing corporation cut its crude-oil minimum from 33% to 30% in notice MCX/MCXCCL/283/2026 of 14 May 2026; we could not open MCX’s own copy. None of these is an all-inclusive margin or a broker quote today.

A useful margin comparison needs the same contract, expiry, portfolio and timestamp. Ask what the calculator includes and whether a broker-specific buffer or funding condition applies. A displayed premium, notional value and margin requirement are different quantities. The standard lot’s ₹1-per-barrel tick corresponds arithmetically to ₹100 across 100 barrels; it says nothing about an appropriate risk budget. A futures loss is not capped at the margin you deposit; a large move against you can cost more.

We have not run matched live margin calculators for these brokers, so there is no invented margin leaderboard. Contract specifications and actual account requirements should be checked before relying on a stale example from a comparison article.

A practical sequence for checking a commodity account

1. 1

   Confirm the segment and exact product

   MCX membership or a commodity landing page does not establish that your account is activated for every contract. Ask about futures and options separately.

2. 2

   Obtain the applicable tariff

   Record whether brokerage is per executed order, percentage-based or plan-based. Add dealer and RMS events only when their applicability and rates are verified.

3. 3

   Check contract size and expiry treatment

   Use the exchange specification for the selected standard or mini contract. Do not carry the standard crude lot into a mini product, or a futures fee into an option.

4. 4

   Verify timing for the actual date

   Read the exchange session notice and the broker’s intraday cut-off separately. A seasonal clock change or holiday needs a fresh check.

5. 5

   Reconcile the estimate with the contract note

   Use executed quantities and turnover, and keep the broker’s rounding and any account-specific fees visible. An estimate is not a replacement for the actual bill.

Which brokers do not offer MCX? Avoid an undated blacklist

All four brokers in this table publish commodity tariffs. We therefore cannot put any of them in a “without MCX” list. Older comparison snippets still show Groww commodity access as unavailable, but its current official pricing explicitly covers equity/commodity F&O. The current source is more relevant than the old comparison cell.

A defensible exclusion needs a current explicit statement about the service and account concerned. An absent menu item, unactivated account or missing search result is insufficient. This page does not claim to have checked every Indian broker or every NRI account.

Ask about both futures and options, and the specific instrument you intend to understand. The availability of one product is not a blanket promise about the other. This approach leaves gaps visible instead of turning incomplete research into a universal yes-or-no table.

Where the futures example stops applying

Product distinctions checked 14 October 2026. No options/devolvement cost estimate is claimed.

Question	What this model establishes	What needs another check
Exchange fee base	MCX futures turnover at 0.0021%.	Options use premium turnover; MCX circular says 0.0418%.
Broker fee-source consistency	Flattrade futures NIL and 0.0021% agree with the model.	Flattrade options row 0.041% differs from MCX 0.0418%; no option total supplied.
Tax and settlement	Before-expiry sale of standard non-agricultural crude futures.	Option exercise, devolvement and expiry-specific treatment require their own evidence.

The options-rate disagreement is recorded, not silently corrected in a broker quote. No statutory rate is inferred from an equity-options example.

Sources: [2], [8], [4], [1]

A common price assumption is a comparison method

The table holds buy and sell prices equal across brokers so that the tariff difference can be isolated. It does not demonstrate that four real orders would have filled at those prices. A different actual fill changes both the trading result and the turnover-based charges, so the estimate should be recalculated from the contract note.

Keep the model’s omissions separate from a zero fee. An account-opening charge, financing debit, dealer order or broker-initiated exit is outside this two-order scenario. Its absence from the total means the event was excluded, not that the service is free. The same applies to delivery or option-expiry events that were never part of this futures example.

When comparing your own activity, first match the product and events, then compare the tariff. Combining a futures trade with an option premium example or an expiry event would hide more than a brokerage-only difference.

Costs are one selection criterion alongside account fit

This model gives a repeatable cost for stated activity. It does not measure outages, support quality, fill prices or suitability. Those would require different evidence. The net figures also assume the illustrative buy and sell both execute at the chosen prices; they are not a forecast.

Keep your contract notes, product settings and cost assumptions together when comparing them with a trade record. A fee difference can explain part of a result, but it cannot justify a larger position or establish a preferred broker. Recheck the official tariff when a plan changes, and recheck the exchange specification whenever a contract or session notice is revised.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of these. Each was checked on the date shown.

1. [1]MCX crude-oil specification, January 2026 contracts onwards · checked 14 Oct 2026
2. [2]MCX/F&A/631/2024, 24 September 2024, original filed with BSE · checked 14 Oct 2026
3. [3]MCX/TRD/068/2026, 9 February 2026: hours from 9 March · checked 14 Oct 2026
4. [4]Income Tax Department: Finance Act 2013 Chapter VII, section 117 · checked 14 Oct 2026
5. [5]Zerodha current commodity tariff · checked 14 Oct 2026
6. [6]Dhan current commodity F&O brokerage · checked 14 Oct 2026
7. [7]Groww equity/commodity F&O tariff · checked 14 Oct 2026
8. [8]Flattrade current commodity tariff · checked 14 Oct 2026
9. [9]NSE commodity circular NSE/COM/72699 (07/2026), 9 February 2026: hours 9 March to 30 October 2026 · checked 14 Oct 2026
10. [10]NSE commodity circular NSE/COM/76446 (58/2026), 21 September 2026: hours from 2 November 2026 · checked 14 Oct 2026
11. [11]Zerodha bulletin, 30 September 2026: commodity hours from 2 November 2026 (links MCX circular 550/2026) · checked 14 Oct 2026
12. [12]NSE Clearing circular 0171/2026 (NCL/COM/74227), 14 May 2026: crude oil minimum initial margin · checked 14 Oct 2026
13. [13]NSE Clearing circular 0326/2026 (NCL/COM/76230), 8 September 2026: commodity margin framework from 1 October 2026 · checked 14 Oct 2026
14. [14]TeamLease RegTech summary of MCX/MCXCCL/283/2026, 14 May 2026 (secondary report) · checked 14 Oct 2026