Best free paper trading apps in India, compared

What should you check before trusting a paper trading app?

1. Does it charge you like a real broker would?

A round trip on an NSE index option has six cost lines: brokerage, STT (Securities Transaction Tax), exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, stamp duty and GST.

Brokerage is flat per order, commonly ₹20, so any F&O round trip costs at least ₹40 before anything else. STT is charged only on the sell side, stamp duty only on the buy side. GST is 18% of brokerage plus exchange plus SEBI fees, and of nothing else.

Skip the charges and a simulator shows you a green trade where your broker would show red. It's not a small error either. Catch ₹0.50 of premium on 300 units and the charges are bigger than the whole gross profit. The full arithmetic is in what a round trip actually costs.

2. Is the price live or delayed?

Delayed prices teach you to read a chart, not to trade one. A delay removes the very thing you're learning: acting while a premium moves.

3. Who picks your fill price?

Almost nobody checks this. If the app lets you type your own entry price, then your P&L, win rate and expectancy (average profit per trade) are numbers you chose, not numbers you earned. An app that lets you buy an ₹800 share at ₹0.01 has stopped being a simulator.

4. Are the statistics gross or net?

Tool	Cost	Data	F&O	Charges modelled	Ranking
Neostox	Free tier, paid plans above it	Delayed (their own note)	Yes	Not stated	No
Moneybhai	Free	Live	No	Partial	Public board, by return
TradingView	Free tier	Live on NSE	Charts yes, simulated F&O no	No	No
Sensibull	Free via several brokers	Live	Yes	Partly	No
Streak	Free for Zerodha users	Live	Yes	In backtests	No
DhanX	Free tier, ₹99 / ₹149 a month above it	Live NSE	Yes, selling on paid tier	Not stated	No
thepapertrade.com	Free	Real NSE and BSE	Yes	Full contract note	Scored leaderboard

Say you had a ₹15 gross win that cost ₹40 in charges. If your win rate counts that as a win, it's measuring money you never had. Profit factor, expectancy, average win and drawdown all need to be worked out after charges.

Which free trading simulators are worth using?

Neostox

The biggest dedicated Indian simulator, and the one most people find first. Equities, futures and options, a proper order pad, basket orders, an option chain and day-wise P&L reports. It's built for practice, not a practice mode added onto something else.

The free access is a trial tier. Paid plans differ on trades per day, starting virtual capital and how much trade history you keep. And the site's own footer says prices are delayed: fine for learning the buttons, less fine for learning how a premium behaves in the last hour of expiry day.

Moneybhai

Moneycontrol's simulator. Free, ₹1 crore of virtual capital, and the most established leaderboard culture in Indian retail: a public national board plus private leagues with friends.

It covers NSE and BSE equities, mutual funds, fixed deposits and bonds. It doesn't cover F&O, which is most of what Indian retail actually trades. Good for a stock portfolio. For a weekly option, it can't help at all. Its leaderboard ranks by portfolio return (we come back to that below).

TradingView

Nothing else charts as well. Paper trading sits right on the chart: place market, limit or stop orders from the price axis, drag your stop, watch the position marker move. You get about ₹1,00,000 of virtual funds and live NSE data on a free account.

But it isn't an Indian F&O simulator. Fills are idealised, and Indian charges (flat brokerage per order, STT on one side, stamp duty on the other) aren't in the model. Practise reading and order placement here, but don't treat its P&L as what a strategy would pay.

Sensibull

The best options analysis in the Indian market, free through several brokers. Option chain, strategy wizard, payoff graphs, IV (implied volatility) and greeks, which help you decide what to put on. Virtual trading lives inside all that.

It's an analysis platform with a practice mode. If you don't know what a calendar spread does to your P&L at 2:30pm, go here.

Streak

Free for Zerodha users. Backtesting, live scanning and virtual deployment of a strategy. You write the rules, Streak runs them, and you see what they'd have done with no money at stake.

So it's the best tool here for testing a rule, and the worst for practising judgement. It won't teach you what to do when the premium is ₹8 below your stop. It tells you whether your rule had an edge, which is also useful.

DhanX

The closest to what we build. Live NSE data, a clean option chain with open interest, basket mode, and market, limit and after-market orders. It also has a good idea nobody else here has: ₹10,00,000 of virtual money that you drag down with a slider to match what you'd really trade, so the lessons carry over.

Despite the name, the site says it's independent and not affiliated with any broker. Option selling, bigger wallet restores and 5x intraday leverage sit behind Pro (₹99 a month) and Pro Plus (₹149 a month). Nothing on the site claims brokerage or statutory charges are simulated, so apply check 1 yourself before trusting a P&L from it. There's no leaderboard and no ranking.

NSE Paathshala

Half the articles out there still list it. It's discontinued, so stop looking.

How does thepapertrade.com compare?

Disclosure: this one is ours. Judge it on the same four checks.

It's free. No subscription tier, no cap on trades per day, nothing behind a plan, and that includes option selling.

Live NSE and BSE prices. SENSEX and BANKEX contracts trade here, not only the NSE indices.

A contract note, not just a P&L. Brokerage is a flat ₹20 per order. An order bigger than the exchange's freeze quantity for that underlying goes to the market as two orders, with two ₹20 lines. That's the most commonly missed cost in retail F&O. STT is on the sell leg, stamp duty on the buy leg, exchange and SEBI charges on both. GST is on brokerage plus exchange plus SEBI, and nothing else. BSE option rates differ from NSE, and we charge them that way.

Margin the way the exchange asks for it. Buying an option costs the premium. Selling the same contract blocks a percentage of the underlying's notional value (the full value of the lot), not of the premium. So a short that "collected ₹3,000" ties up what it really would.

₹1,00,000 to trade, not ₹1 crore. Money you can refill whenever you like is money you don't respect. A top-up only brings a fallen balance back up to ₹1,00,000, never above it, and never while a position is open. So a losing trade can't be rescued, and a winning account can't buy more ammunition. No leverage slider either, because sizing on ₹1 crore of pretend money teaches nothing for a ₹1 lakh account.

The rest of a trading desk. Stops and trailing stops checked on every tick, targets, and an option chain for NIFTY, BANKNIFTY and SENSEX where a strike goes on in one tap. Intraday positions square off at 15:10. Delivery and carry-forward positions are held overnight, with delivery charges and short-option margin re-sized each evening. See intraday or overnight.

Every statistic is net. Win rate, expectancy, average win and drawdown are all after charges, so a trade that was green before charges and red after counts as a loss. On the leaderboard, a win smaller than twice its own charges counts as a scratch, not a win.

Why our leaderboard doesn't rank by return

Every simulator that ranks anything ranks by percentage return. That board is always won by whoever bet the whole account on one out-of-the-money weekly option and got lucky. The biggest return in a month belongs to the biggest gamble that survived, and with a hundred people playing, someone's always does. So the top advertises the worst habit in Indian retail options.

Our board ranks on a score in points, built so that gamble scores badly even when it wins. Three parts, each with a fixed limit:

• Result, up to ±600 points. Measured as expectancy in R: what you make per unit of risk you took. R is the one unit where a small account and a big one say the same thing, and size can't pass for skill. It's capped, so one freak month can't own the board.
• Habits, 0 to +300 points, never negative. Five of them: consistency across green days, cost efficiency (how much of your gross the charges ate), not sizing up after a loss, keeping scratches down, and not overtrading. Good habits give credit to a disciplined losing month. They never rescue one.
• Risk taken, 0 to −300 points, never positive. Four readings: your largest single trade's risk, largest margin commitment, peak-to-trough drawdown, and worst single day. Only the worst of the four counts. They ask one question four ways, and an average would let three calm answers hide the real one.

A return board can't have that third part. A winning all-in bet leaves a rising equity curve and no drawdown, so no performance figure sees the risk. Concentration and exposure do, and charge for it either way.

The result limit is four times the habits limit on purpose, so trading outweighs paperwork.

Who qualifies, and when does it reset?

You need 10 closed trades across at least 5 separate days, a confirmed email and a public profile. One lucky afternoon won't rank.

The monthly board resets to zero for everyone, so joining in month three isn't joining a race that ended in month one. The all-time board is a trimmed average of your months that drops your best one, so a single amazing month is worth nothing on its own.

Why is there no rupee column?

R and percentages speak to skill, rupees to wealth. Showing your money on your profile needs its own separate yes from you, and a rupee column would be a back door around that.

See the board at /leaderboard. Every profile on it is public because its owner switched it on.

So which paper trading app should you pick?

• A stock portfolio and a friendly competition: Moneybhai.
• Learning what a spread does before you put it on: Sensibull.
• Testing a mechanical rule: Streak.
• Charts to practise on: TradingView.
• A dedicated Indian practice platform with a paid path: Neostox or DhanX.

If you want to see whether your trading survives the contract note, and how it looks once risk is counted, start here. It costs nothing.

Quick answers

Is there a free paper trading app in India with F&O?

Yes. Neostox, Sensibull, Streak and DhanX all cover F&O in some form, and so do we. Moneybhai doesn't cover F&O at all.

Which paper trading apps use live prices?

Most in this list. Neostox's own site says its prices are delayed.

Why do charges matter in paper trading?

A trade that looks green without charges can be red after them. On F&O, brokerage alone is at least ₹40 per round trip.

Whatever you pick, keep the four checks. A simulator that fails them is teaching you a game, and the game doesn't pay.

Listed by half the articles you will read. It is discontinued. Mentioning it only so you stop looking for it.

thepapertrade.com

Disclosure: this is ours. Judge it on the same four checks.

It is free. No subscription tier, no trades-per-day cap, nothing behind a plan — option selling included.

Real NSE and BSE prices. SENSEX and BANKEX contracts trade here, not only the NSE indices.

A contract note, not a P&L. Brokerage is flat ₹20 per order — and an order larger than the exchange's freeze quantity for that underlying reaches the market as two orders and two ₹20 lines, which is the most commonly under-counted cost in retail F&O. STT on the sell leg, stamp duty on the buy leg, exchange and SEBI charges on both, GST on brokerage plus exchange plus SEBI and nothing else. BSE option rates differ from NSE and are charged as such.

Margin the way the exchange asks for it. Buying an option costs the premium. Selling the same contract blocks a percentage of the underlying's notional value, not of the premium — so a short that "collected ₹3,000" ties up what it really ties up, and the size you get comfortable with is a size you could actually carry.

₹1,00,000 to trade, not ₹1 crore, and no way to top yourself up at will. Capital you can refill on demand is capital you need not respect. A top-up can only bring a fallen balance back up to ₹1,00,000, never past it, and never while a position is open — so a losing trade can never be rescued and a winning account can never buy more ammunition. There is no leverage slider. Practising position sizing on a crore of imaginary money teaches nothing you can carry to an account with a lakh in it.

The rest of a desk. Stops and trailing stops watched on every tick, targets, baskets for multi-leg entries, and an option chain for NIFTY, BANKNIFTY and SENSEX where a strike goes on in one tap. Everything squares off at 15:10 like an intraday desk, so nothing carries overnight.

Every statistic is net. Win rate, expectancy, average win, drawdown — all after charges. A trade that finished green by less than its own round-trip cost is counted as a scratch, not a win, because calling it a win teaches exactly the wrong lesson.

No ads on the trading screen.

The leaderboard, and why it is not a return leaderboard

Every simulator that ranks anything ranks percentage return. It is the obvious choice and it is the wrong one, for a reason that shows up the first month you run one.

A raw return board is won, every single time, by whoever bet the whole account on one out-of-the-money weekly option and got lucky. Not usually. Structurally. The largest return in any given month belongs to the largest survivable gamble, and with a hundred participants somebody's gamble always survives. So the top of the board becomes a public advertisement for the single worst habit in Indian retail options, and everybody below it learns that the way to climb is to size up.

The board here ranks on a score in points instead, and the whole design is about making that gamble score badly even when it wins. Three components, each with a fixed budget it cannot exceed:

• Result — up to ±600 points. Not return: expectancy in R, which is what you make per unit of risk you took. R is the only unit in which a small account and a large one say the same thing, and the only one in which size cannot be mistaken for skill. It is bounded, so one freak month cannot own the board.
• Habits — 0 to +300 points, never negative. Five of them, each earning its own budget: consistency across your green days, cost efficiency (what fraction of your gross the charges ate), not sizing up after a loss, keeping your scratches down, and restraint against overtrading. Good habits recognise a disciplined losing month. They never rescue one.
• Risk taken — 0 to −300 points, never positive. Four readings: your largest single trade's risk, your largest margin commitment, your peak-to-trough drawdown, and your worst single day. The worst of the four counts, not the average — they are four ways of asking one question, and averaging lets three calm answers bury the true one.

That third component is the part a return board cannot have. A winning all-in bet leaves a rising equity curve, no red day and no drawdown; nothing in a performance figure can see the risk it took. Concentration and exposure see it, and they charge for it whether the bet came off or not.

The result budget is four times the habits budget on purpose, so a board about trading cannot quietly become a board about paperwork.

Qualification is 10 closed trades across at least 5 separate days, a confirmed email and a public profile — enough that one lucky afternoon does not rank. The monthly board resets to zero for everyone, so joining in month three is not joining a race that was over in month one, and the all-time board is a trimmed average across your months that drops your best one, which makes a single spectacular month worth nothing on its own.

One thing the board will never carry: a rupee column. Expectancy in R and a percentage are claims about skill. A rupee figure is a claim about wealth. Publishing money takes its own separate, deliberate yes on your profile, and a leaderboard with a rupee column would be a back door around that consent — read by everyone, chosen by nobody.

You can see the board at /leaderboard, and every profile on it is public because its owner switched it on.

Which one

If you want a stock portfolio and a friendly competition: Moneybhai. If you want to learn what a spread does before you put it on: Sensibull. If you want to test a mechanical rule: Streak. If you want charts to rehearse on: TradingView. If you want a dedicated Indian practice platform with a paid path: Neostox or DhanX.

If you want to find out whether your trading survives the contract note — and whether it looks like anything once risk is priced — start here. It costs nothing.

Whatever you pick, keep the four checks. A simulator that charges you properly, prices you off a live tick, refuses to let you choose your own fill and reports everything net is teaching you the market. One that does not is teaching you a game, and the game does not pay.