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India’s largest stockbrokers are losing users. But one player is still growing.
In early 2026, India’s active retail investor base on NSE stood at around 4.5 crore. That’s lower than the peak of nearly 5 crore seen in early 2025. In simple terms, lakhs of investors have stepped back from active trading over the past year.
But in the middle of this slowdown, Groww has continued to add users, crossing roughly 1.25 crore active clients and tightening its grip on the market. Zerodha and Angel One, the other two big names, have seen far slower growth and even periods of decline.
At first, it just looks like a simple list of who’s ahead and who’s behind.
Groww is No. 1 with around 12 to 13 million active users. Zerodha and Angel One are clustered around 6 to 7 million each. Everyone else, from ICICI Direct and HDFC Securities to Kotak and SBI Securities, is much smaller, mostly in the 1 to 2 million range. But this is not just about who is winning. It is about how the entire broking industry is changing.
Go back a few years. Between 2020 and 2023, India saw a massive retail investing boom. Cheap data, easy-to-use apps, Covid lockdowns, and a rising market pulled in millions of first-time investors. Demat accounts exploded. By March 2025, India had crossed 19 crore demat accounts, and crossed 20 crore just a few months later. Everyone wanted a piece of the market.
But here’s the catch. Not all of these investors stayed active.
By mid-2025, the cracks started showing. The top four brokers together lost close to 20 lakh active users over a few months. This wasn’t because people stopped investing completely. It was because trading behaviour changed. And the biggest trigger behind this shift was derivatives.
SEBI’s own study revealed that 93% of individual traders in the F&O segment lost money between FY22 and FY24. The total losses crossed ₹1.8 lakh crore. That’s not a small number. In response, regulators tightened rules around derivatives trading. Position limits, margin requirements, and risk disclosures became stricter. Suddenly, the easy, high-frequency trading that had powered broker growth started slowing down.
And that hit brokers where it hurts. Because for many platforms, derivatives trading is where the real money is made.
This is where Groww’s strategy starts to stand out. Unlike earlier discount brokers that built their base on active traders, Groww focused heavily on first-time investors. Its simple interface, mutual fund-first approach, and mass-market positioning helped it attract a broader, less speculative audience. So even when trading activity cooled, Groww continued to add users.
Meanwhile, the industry itself is becoming more regulated and more serious. In 2025, exchanges identified a group of “Qualified Stock Brokers” based on their size and market impact. Names like Groww, Zerodha, Angel One, ICICI Securities, and HDFC Securities made the list. This means stricter compliance, tighter oversight, and higher expectations. Brokers are no longer just apps. They are becoming part of core financial infrastructure.
At the same time, SEBI introduced a new regulatory framework for stockbrokers in 2026 to simplify rules and modernise the system. There is also a push towards faster settlement cycles like T+0, which demands stronger backend systems. So the competition is no longer just about who has the slickest UI or lowest brokerage. It is about who can scale responsibly.
All of this points to a deeper shift. India’s broking market is moving from a hyper-growth, user-acquisition phase to a more mature, quality-driven phase. The number of people entering the market is still rising, but active participation is stabilising. Easy gains are fading. Discipline is replacing excitement.
And the leaderboard reflects that reality.
Groww is not just leading because it has more users. It is leading because it adapted to where the market is heading. Zerodha and Angel One are still massive players, but they are operating in a tougher environment than before. Traditional brokers are holding their ground with legacy trust, but they are no longer setting the pace.
So the real story is not who has the most users today. It is about who is building for the next version of India’s investing journey.
Because the gold rush phase is over. Now comes the part where the market grows up.
