India's discount brokerage industry sees sharp decline in clients
India's discount brokerages just had a rough year—major apps like Zerodha, Groww, Angel One, and Upstox lost hundreds of thousands to over a million users each.
By December 2025, active client numbers dropped to 4.49 crore from 5.02 crore last year, meaning over 53 lakh people stopped trading across all brokerages.
What's behind the drop?
Big names took the biggest hits: Zerodha lost 12.68 lakh clients, Groww dropped 10.32 lakh, and Angel One saw 9.96 lakh leave.
This wave of exits was fueled by stricter SEBI rules (think increased taxation and tighter margin requirements), plus a shaky stock market with lots of ups and downs and not-so-great company earnings.
Interestingly, a few brokerages like SBIcap Securities and Paytm Money actually grew their client base—proving some are still finding ways to thrive even when times get tough!