The brokers Arthalab supports for live algo trading are Zerodha, Upstox, Groww, Dhan and brokers running on the XTS platform. Any of them will execute an automated strategy. The differences that matter are not the ones usually advertised.
Two things about that list are worth knowing before you choose.
XTS is enabled on request
Zerodha, Upstox, Groww and Dhan are available to every account and you connect them yourself from Broker Setup. XTS is supported but enabled on request rather than self-serve, because it is a platform several brokers run on and the connection needs your broker's own API base URL rather than a standard one. If you trade through an XTS broker and want it connected, ask support.
XTS does not need a daily login from you
XTS also differs in how its daily session is kept alive. On the self-serve brokers you complete a login each morning yourself. On XTS the platform renews the session server-side, so there is no daily step for you — which is the main practical reason traders ask for it.
What actually differs between brokers
Brokerage per order gets all the attention and is rarely the deciding factor for an algo trader. These four matter more:
| What to compare | Why it matters for an algo |
|---|---|
| API reliability | A broker whose API is slow or flaky at the open will cost you more than a few rupees of brokerage ever will |
| Daily login flow | Every supported broker expires the API session daily. How painful that is varies |
| Rate limits | A multi-leg strategy fires several orders at once and can hit per-second caps |
| Order type support | Some strategies need stop-loss orders placed at the broker rather than tracked in software |
Brokerage still counts, of course — it just counts less than execution quality. A rejected or badly filled order on an expiry-day entry is worth many months of the difference in per-order charges.
The limit nobody checks until it bites
Rate limits deserve more attention than they get. A four-leg strategy entering and exiting fires eight orders, and if the broker caps requests per second your legs can arrive out of sequence or not at all. It rarely shows up in testing with one strategy and becomes obvious the day you run three at once.
What an algo trader needs that a manual trader does not
Choosing a broker for automated trading is a different exercise from choosing one for clicking buttons, and the usual review criteria mostly do not apply.
| Matters for manual trading | Matters for algo trading |
|---|---|
| App design and charts | API documentation quality |
| Mobile experience | API uptime during the first ten minutes |
| Research and tips | Rate limits |
| Brokerage per order | Order types available through the API |
| Customer support hours | How quickly an API issue is acknowledged |
The right-hand column is almost never covered in broker reviews, because the audience for those reviews is the left-hand column. That is worth remembering when you read a recommendation.
The proxy worth using
Documentation quality in particular is a better proxy than it sounds. A broker with clear, current API docs is usually a broker that treats the API as a product rather than an obligation — and that correlates with it working on busy days.
The requirements that apply to all of them
Every broker in this list requires API orders to arrive from a registered address. That means a static IP is not optional for live trading, whichever broker you pick. The whitelisting guide covers the setup.
The second universal requirement is the daily login. Indian broker API sessions do not survive overnight, on any broker, and no platform can waive it.
The third is margin. Option selling margins are set by the exchange risk model and move with volatility, so a position that was comfortably funded last month can be short today without your strategy changing at all.
How to connect one
1
Create an API app with your broker
Done in the broker's developer or API portal, not the trading app. You receive a key and a secret.
2
Whitelist your dedicated IP
Paste the address into the API app's allowed-IP field, exactly as shown.
3
Add the credentials to Arthalab
Broker Setup, then your broker. Credentials are encrypted before they are stored.
4
Complete the broker login
Most brokers use a redirect-based login that returns an access token valid for the day.
5
Validate
Run IP validation. A small order is placed and reversed so the whole path is proven before a real signal depends on it.
Can I use more than one broker?
Yes. You can hold several broker connections and choose which one a strategy deploys to. There are two sensible reasons to do it.
- Separating capital. Running different strategies through different accounts keeps their P&L and margin independent.
- Redundancy. If one broker's API has a bad morning, a second connection means you are not entirely stopped.
What it costs you
The cost is that each connection needs its own API app and its own whitelist entry, and each self-serve broker adds a daily login. Two of those means two logins every morning, which is a real tax on a routine you have to complete before the open. XTS is the exception — its session is renewed server-side, so it adds no daily step.
Switching brokers
Moving is straightforward but not instant. You create an API app with the new broker, whitelist the same address, add the credentials, log in and validate. Your strategies do not need rebuilding — they are not tied to a broker.
What does need attention is open positions. A strategy running on the old broker holds positions in that account, and deploying the same strategy to a new broker does not move them. Square off first, then switch.
What to test before you trust a broker connection
A connection that works once is not a connection you should put a strategy behind. These are worth exercising deliberately, in paper or at minimum size, before anything depends on them.
- A multi-leg entry — do all legs arrive, and in what order?
- A mid-session exit — does a stop loss actually close the leg?
- The end-of-day square-off — does everything close at your exit time?
- A deliberate rejection — place something you know will fail and read the error
- The morning routine, several days running
The fourth is the one nobody does and the one most worth doing. Knowing what a rejection looks like in the logs, before it happens on a live signal, turns a confusing morning into a two-minute diagnosis.
Picking one
If you already have an account with a supported broker, use it. The setup work — new API app, new whitelist, new daily login habit — is rarely justified by a small pricing difference.
If you are opening an account specifically for algo trading, weigh API stability and the daily login flow above brokerage. You will interact with those every single trading day, and the brokerage difference on a retail-sized account is smaller than one badly filled order.
- Does the broker have a documented, public API?
- Is API access included or charged separately?
- How many addresses can you whitelist?
- What does the daily login actually involve?
- Are there rate limits that a multi-leg strategy would hit?
What API access actually gives you
A broker API is a way for software to do what you would otherwise do by hand: read your positions, read prices, and place or cancel orders. It is not a separate kind of account and it does not change your brokerage or your margin.
The parts of an API connection
The pieces you will encounter:
| Piece | What it is | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| API key | Identifies your application | Until you regenerate it |
| API secret | Proves the request came from your application | Until you regenerate it |
| Access token | Proves a human logged in today | One trading day |
| Whitelisted IP | Proves the request came from a known address | Until the address changes |
Three of those four are stable. The access token is the one that expires daily, which is why the morning login exists and why it cannot be skipped.
A realistic first-week timeline
Connecting a broker is not a five-minute job the first time, and planning for that avoids rushing it on a morning you wanted to trade.
- Day one. Create the API app in the broker's developer portal. Some brokers approve this instantly, some take a day.
- Day one. Get your dedicated address and whitelist it.
- Day two. Add credentials, complete the login, run validation. Expect at least one failure and read the error rather than retrying blindly.
- Day two onwards. Paper trade while the routine beds in. The connection is live but nothing depends on it yet.
- Week two. Go live at minimum size, once the morning routine has been done enough times to be automatic.
Before any of this matters
Make sure the strategy is worth running first. Backtest it and then paper trade it — neither step needs a broker connection, a static IP or any capital. Connecting a broker is the last step before real money, not the first step in building a strategy.
The short version
Broker choice matters less than most comparisons suggest, and in different ways than they measure.
- API reliability at the open matters more than brokerage per order
- Every supported broker needs a daily login and a registered IP
- Documentation quality is a reasonable proxy for how the API behaves under load
- If you already have a supported broker, the switching cost rarely pays
- Backtesting and paper trading need no broker at all
Connect a broker as the last step before real money, not the first step in building a strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Read the documentation. Clear, current docs usually indicate a broker that treats the API as a product rather than an obligation, and that tends to correlate with it holding up on busy mornings.
Only if your current broker is genuinely unreliable. Execution quality matters, but it is rarely the reason a strategy underperforms — the strategy usually is.
Paper trading needs no broker at all, so it cannot test the connection. Validation places a tiny real order and reverses it, which is the smallest meaningful test available.
Zerodha, Upstox, Groww and Dhan are available to every account. XTS is also supported, enabled on request, and differs in that its daily session is renewed server-side rather than by you. More brokers are being added.
Not for live order placement. You can still build, backtest and paper trade, because none of those send orders to a broker.
Some brokers charge for API access and some include it. Check your broker's current API pricing directly — it changes, and a third-party page is the wrong place to rely on for a number you will be billed for.
Yes. You can hold several broker connections and choose which one a strategy deploys to. Each needs its own API app, whitelist entry and daily login.
No. Your funds stay in your own broker account at all times. Arthalab sends order instructions to your broker; it never takes custody of your capital.
They are encrypted at rest and decrypted only in memory at the moment an order is placed. They are never shown back in the interface, including to admin users.
They stay in the old broker's account. Deploying the same strategy to a new broker does not move them, so square off before you switch.
This changes, and any fixed answer dates quickly. What matters more than peak speed is consistency at the open, which is when most intraday strategies act.
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