Currency Trading Cost Calculator: NSE Futures and Options

This currency trading cost calculator estimates a buy-and-sell trade using entered prices, quantity and a fixed brokerage assumption. It covers NSE-style currency futures and currency options. Retail forex accounts with separate dealing spreads and overnight financing need different inputs. Small charges and the Breakeven Move round to whole rupees, so a zero display can hide a positive cost. The option-brokerage shortcut may differ materially from your actual tariff. Check the contract note before treating the result as a final bill.

Enter the contract’s quote multiplier, not a forex lot

There is no currency-pair selector, broker selector, brokerage override, spread input or overnight-financing input. The form does not retrieve exchange rates or a broker’s fee schedule. Replace all starting prices and quantities with a coherent scenario; the initial example values do not identify a valid currency contract.

NSE specifies USDINR, EURINR and GBPINR contract quantities of 1,000 units of the foreign currency. Their quotes are rupees per foreign-currency unit, so a 1,000 multiplier converts the quote into rupee contract value. For JPYINR, the contract holds 1,00,000 yen but the quote is per 100 yen. Its effective quote multiplier is therefore 1,00,000 ÷ 100 = 1,000. Entering the raw yen amount against a per-100-yen quote would overstate value.

For more background, see currency futures explained. This multiplier explanation covers the specified INR pairs; do not assume it establishes conversion for cross-currency contracts.

Currency contract specs at a glance

NSE lists futures and options on four rupee pairs: USDINR, EURINR, GBPINR and JPYINR. The exchange's contract specification page gives a minimum price step (tick) of ₹0.0025, a quarter of a paisa, and trading hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday. One contract of USDINR stands for 1,000 US dollars. Settlement is in rupees. Check the live specification page before you trade, because the exchange can change it.

The tick value is a plain multiplication: ₹0.0025 × 1,000 = ₹2.50. A full ₹0.10 move in USDINR is 40 ticks and ₹100 per contract.

The charges used by this form

The following explains the rate assumptions, checked on 16 October 2026. NSE circular NSE/FA/64232, dated 27 September 2024 and effective 1 October 2024, sets currency futures transaction charges at ₹0.35 per lakh per side and currency options charges at ₹31.10 per lakh of premium per side. Those correspond to 0.00035% and 0.0311%. The broker tariff also lists these rates.

Zerodha’s published currency options brokerage is flat ₹20 per executed order, while this tool also applies its percentage shortcut to options. That can understate brokerage for low option-premium values. The form also has no strike-price input or separate charge-base controls. Do not assume it reconstructs every component of a currency-option contract note.

Which charges apply to currency trades

A currency contract note has fewer lines than an equity F&O one. The ones that apply are brokerage, the NSE transaction charge, the SEBI turnover fee, GST and stamp duty. STT (securities transaction tax) is a tax on equity and equity-derivative trades, so the currency branch of this form shows zero for it. Check your own contract note, as your broker's tariff decides the brokerage.

• NSE transaction charge on futures: ₹0.35 per lakh, each side (0.00035%).
• NSE transaction charge on options: ₹31.10 per lakh of premium, each side (0.0311%).
• Source of both rates: NSE circular NSE/FA/64232, from 1 October 2024. NSE's 27 February 2026 circular NSE/FA/73061 revised only the cash market and equity derivative rates, so the currency rates were not part of that change.
• SEBI fee: ₹10 per crore of turnover, plus 18% GST on it.

Worked futures example: the actual displayed numbers

Use a fictional USDINR futures round trip: buy at ₹84, sell at ₹84.10, Quantity 1,000 and Number of Lots 1. These are assumed prices, not live exchange rates. The calculation assumes one executed buy order and one executed sell order.

• Buy value: ₹84 × 1,000 = ₹84,000.
• Sell value: ₹84.10 × 1,000 = ₹84,100.
• Total Turnover: ₹84,000 + ₹84,100 = ₹1,68,100.
• Gross P&L: (₹84.10 − ₹84) × 1,000 = ₹100.

Before display rounding, the model’s exchange charge is ₹0.58835 and SEBI charge ₹0.1681. GST is ₹7.336161 and stamp duty ₹0.084. With the ₹40 brokerage, total estimated charges are ₹48.176611 and net profit is ₹51.823389. The calculator displays ₹48 and +₹52 respectively. Adding the rounded component cards can therefore differ from the rounded total.

Dividing the unrounded charges by 1,000 gives ₹0.048176611 per quoted unit. The Breakeven Move display rounds that to 0/unit. It does not mean a flat-price trade has no costs. It is also a cost-per-unit estimate at the entered prices; changing the eventual sale price changes some fees, so it is not a precisely solved future exit price.

Ticks to break even

The Breakeven Move card shows rupees per unit and rounds to a whole rupee, so it reads 0 for a USDINR trade. Ticks are more useful here. Take the total charges of ₹48.18 from the worked example above and divide by the tick value of ₹2.50. The answer is about 19.3 ticks, which is about ₹0.048 on the quote, before you make anything.

Most of that cost is the fixed ₹40 brokerage, so the tick count falls if your tariff is lower and rises with more orders. People often ask how many pips to break even. NSE does not quote pips, so count ticks of ₹0.0025 instead.

Positive inputs matter

A blank or zero numeric entry can silently become a preset positive price or quantity. A zero lot count can become a positive count too. Do not use zero to mean no position, a worthless option exit or a deliberately missing price. Keep a separate record when a genuine zero-price outcome matters.

Buy Price and Sell Price identify the two price sides. There is no long-or-short selector. For a short position the sell execution may happen first; keep the actual chronology in your notes. Profit is still sell value minus buy value for the equal quantity represented here. Multiple entries, partial exits or extra orders need separate reconciliation.

Currency options and futures costs side by side

Futures charges are worked on the full contract value, but options charges are worked on the premium paid or received. A premium is usually a small fraction of the contract value, so the exchange charge on an option is tiny in rupees even though its percentage is higher.

Brokerage is where options differ most. If your broker charges a flat ₹20 per order, a ₹500 premium trade pays far more brokerage than exchange charge, while this form applies the lower of ₹20 or 0.03% and so can show less. Use the form for the exchange side and your broker's tariff for the rest.

Costs outside the displayed estimate

The estimate excludes a broker-specific clearing surcharge, subscription or platform fee unless already represented by the fixed model. It does not calculate financing, convert foreign account currency or assess whether you are eligible to enter a currency-derivative position. Confirm current access and documentation requirements with your broker and the relevant official rules.

A bid-ask spread is the difference between buying and selling quotes. If you use actual executed prices, that spread’s effect is already reflected in those prices; adding another assumed spread charge could count the same price difference twice. For a retail forex account’s separate financing and commission structure, use a tool designed for those inputs.

The brokerage and charges guide explains bill items. The currency journal guide helps organise manual trade records for comparison with statements.

Currency charges versus equity F&O charges

Equity F&O traders pay STT and a higher exchange rate. Since 1 April 2026 STT is 0.05% on index futures sold and 0.15% of premium on options sold. Currency trades carry no STT. The NSE equity futures charge is ₹183 per crore each side including the IPFT (investor protection fund) share, against ₹35 per crore for currency futures. See the F&O trading cost calculator for the equity side.

Lower charges do not make currency trading cheaper overall, because the bid-ask spread and the price swing you need to cover can matter more than the fees. OneTradeJournal logs trades by hand, estimates charges per trade and has no live rates. See also our brokerage and charges guide.

Currency-cost questions

Sources

• NSE: currency transaction-charge circular (checked 16 October 2026).
• NSE: INR-pair contract specifications (checked 16 October 2026).
• NSE: regulatory fees and levies (checked 16 October 2026).
• Zerodha: currency tariff comparison (checked 16 October 2026).