Crypto options glossary
How are Delta Exchange option fees charged?
Delta Exchange India charges option fees as 0.01% of the underlying notional, capped at 10% of the option's premium, plus 18% GST. The fee is paid on entry and again on exit; an option left to expire pays the entry fee only. On cheap, short-dated options, fees can be a large share of the premium.
- Fee: 0.01% of notional (price × lots × lot size).
- Capped at 10% of the premium.
- Plus 18% GST on the fee.
- Paid on entry and on exit; expiry pays the entry fee only.
Premium paid
17.43 USDT
1,743 per BTC
Fee on entry
0.099 USDT
0.01% of notional + 18% GST
Entry and exit
0.198 USDT
1.1% of the premium
Notional: 83,927 × 10 lots × 0.001 BTC = 839 USDT. 0.01% of that is 0.084 USDT, plus 18% GST = 0.099 USDT. The 10% cap would apply only to an option cheaper than about 84 per BTC.
Exit fee estimated at today's price; a leg left to expire pays the entry fee only. Weekly expiry, Fri 2 Oct.
Questions people ask
Why do fees matter so much for option sellers?
Sellers often collect small premiums, especially on daily expiries, while the fee is a share of the full notional. On short-dated trades, fees can take a meaningful part of the premium.
Does Algoclear include fees in its numbers?
Yes. Paper trades and reports include Delta Exchange's fees and GST, so results are not flattered.
Are futures fees different?
Yes. Perpetual futures are charged on notional at a different rate. Check Delta Exchange India's fee page for the current schedule.
Is the fee charged on the premium or on the notional?
On the notional: Bitcoin's price × lots × 0.001, at 0.01%. The premium only matters for the cap, which limits the fee to 10% of the premium on very cheap options. GST of 18% is added on top.
Is there a fee when an option expires?
No exit fee. An option held to expiry, whether it ends in the money or worthless, has paid only its entry fee.
Do fees differ for buying and selling options?
No. Buying and selling are charged the same way, on entry and again on exit. Algoclear's estimates use the exchange's taker rate; Delta Exchange India's own fee page has the current schedule.
Keep going
- Lesson 8 · 4 minWhat is the Delta Exchange lot size for Bitcoin options?Lots and money
- GlossaryDelta Exchange options expiry: when do options expire?Expiry time
- Lesson 12 · 8 minWhat is a Bitcoin iron condor?Hedging both sides: the iron condor
- Use it in AlgoclearPaper, then liveEntries, stops and adjustments behave exactly as live.
The fee, worked at three sizes
Examples with round numbers, Bitcoin at 80,000. The fee is 0.01% of the notional, which is the price × lots × 0.001, plus 18% GST.
One lot: the notional is 80 USDT, so the fee is 0.008 USDT, and 0.0094 with GST. Ten lots: a notional of 800 USDT, a fee of 0.08, and 0.0944 with GST. A four-leg iron condor of ten lots a leg: four fees on entry, about 0.38 USDT, and up to the same again if all four legs are closed before expiry.
The fee as a share of the premium
The fee depends on Bitcoin's price, not on the option's. So the cheaper the option, the larger the share the fee takes. With Bitcoin at 80,000, the fee before GST is 8 per Bitcoin on every option:
| Option quoted at | Fee per BTC | Share of premium | With 18% GST |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,300 | 8 | 0.6% | 0.7% |
| 400 | 8 | 2.0% | 2.4% |
| 200 | 8 | 4.0% | 4.7% |
| 80 | 8 | 10.0% | 11.8% |
| 40 | 4 (the cap) | 10.0% | 11.8% |
The 10% cap starts to apply when the option is worth less than 0.1% of Bitcoin's price, 80 in this example. Those shares are for one side; a trade that is opened and closed pays twice.
What our own numbers show
In one Algoclear snapshot, with Bitcoin at 79,805 and a few hours left to the daily expiry, the fees to open and close a one-lot at-the-money straddle came to about 18% of its premium. Short-dated options are cheap, the fee is not, and the two meet on expiry day.
It is one snapshot, not an average, but it is why Algoclear's paper trades and reports always include fees and GST.
How traders keep fees down
Without changing the strategy.
- Letting a winning sold option expire rather than buying it back for a few dollars: expiry carries no exit fee. The trade-off is the risk of holding through the final hours.
- Avoiding very cheap, very short-dated options where the fee is a tenth of the premium.
- Counting legs. A condor pays four fees where a strangle pays two; the wings have to be worth it.
- Checking the fee against the target before entry. A target of a few dollars on a four-leg trade may be mostly fees.
Working out the fee
Notional is Bitcoin's price × lots × 0.001. For 10 lots with Bitcoin at 100,000, that is 1,000 USDT; 0.01% of it is 0.10 USDT, plus 18% GST: about 0.12 USDT on entry and the same on exit. The card above does this sum on a real option.
When the cap applies
The 10% cap matters only for very cheap options, whose premium is under about 0.1% of Bitcoin's price. For those, the fee is a tenth of the premium plus GST, a heavy cost for what they are.
Fees and strategy choice
A four-leg trade such as an iron condor pays four fees on entry and up to four on exit. On small positions and short expiries that adds up, so it pays to check the fees before trading.
Common mistakes with fees
They are small per trade and large per month.
- Judging a strategy on results that ignore fees.
- Forgetting GST, which adds 18% to every fee.
- Forgetting the exit. A position closed early pays the fee a second time.
- Setting a stop loss smaller than the fees already paid, so the trade starts beyond its own stop.
Written by the Algoclear team · Updated 22 September 2026 · Examples use Bitcoin options on Delta Exchange India.
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