Zerodha has launched US stock investing in beta mode on its Kite platform, allowing resident Indian individuals to buy American shares and exchange traded funds from the same account they use for Indian markets, according to Inc42 and Moneycontrol reports published on October 19 and 20, 2026.

The offering covers about 2,000 US-listed companies and about 1,000 exchange traded funds, with fractional buying starting at $1, so a buyer does not need the full price of a single share. Customers can switch on the international segment inside Kite without opening a separate demat account. Non-resident Indians, joint account holders and non-individual entities such as companies are not eligible.

How Orders and Money Move

Orders travel through India INX Global Access, the BSE-owned platform at the International Financial Services Centre in GIFT City, and the US securities are held with the overseas broker rather than in an Indian demat account. Zerodha’s investing guide names ViewTrade as its US brokerage partner. To fund purchases, investors transfer money from a linked Indian bank account into a dollar denominated Global wallet through netbanking, with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDFC FIRST Bank among the supported banks. UPI, debit cards and credit cards are not accepted, and the first transfer must be at least $50, with later transfers at least $100.

Charges, Taxes and Currency Costs

Brokerage is 0.1% of transaction value, with a floor of $0.01 and a cap of $10 per executed order, on both buys and sells. An 18% GST applies on brokerage, along with an IFSCA turnover fee of 0.005% of trade value and US regulatory transaction fees on sell orders. Under this structure, a $20,000 trade pays $10, not $20. Currency conversion adds further cost, since Zerodha’s guide lists a negotiated bank markup of 0.5% to 1.2% over the RBI reference rate, and banks may also levy remittance charges and taxes.

Read more: Kissht Parent OnEMI Gets BSE, NSE Nod For Rs 832 Crore Share Issue. The listed-markets pipeline is widening at the same time that brokers are opening overseas equities to retail investors.

Eligibility, Limits and Permitted Trades

Only delivery based buying is allowed, through market and limit orders, and SIPs in eligible US stocks are supported. Intraday trading, margin trading, derivatives and applications for US IPOs are not available. ETFs must hold more than $250 million in assets, and Bitcoin and leveraged ETFs are excluded. Overseas investing runs under the RBI Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which allows $250,000 per financial year per resident, and tax collected at source and foreign asset disclosure rules also apply.

Rivals Move Into US Equities

Zerodha is not alone in this push. In June 2026, the International Financial Services Centres Authority cleared Zerodha, Groww, Upstox and Angel One to offer international and US stocks from GIFT City. Groww launched in September 2026 with Alpaca Securities as its US brokerage infrastructure provider, offering more than 10,000 US stocks and ETFs, while Upstox launched the same month with more than 8,000 US stocks and over 2,000 ETFs. Angel One began rolling out to select users on the launch day, with a wider rollout planned by mid November 2026, and charges zero brokerage until December 2026 before moving to 0.1% per trade with a minimum of $0.99. INDmoney and HDFC Securities already offered US investing.

According to the reports, brokers are diversifying beyond domestic equities as retail investors seek exposure to global technology companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, and want to hedge domestic concentration.

Company Background and What Comes Next

Zerodha was founded in 2010 in Bengaluru by brothers Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath, and it is bootstrapped, having never raised outside equity funding. According to Inc42 and Moneycontrol reports from August 2026, the company reported FY26 revenue of about Rs 8,500 crore and net profit of about Rs 4,240 crore, up roughly 1% year on year. Earlier, it had reported a 23% fall in FY25 net profit to about Rs 4,237 crore after regulatory changes on charges and volumes.

The service remains in beta, so access is being opened in phases to eligible users. The company has not yet given a date for a full public rollout.