Equity fund exit loads: what 569 schemes charge

The number

Of the 521 equity funds outside ELSS with a Scheme Summary Document on file, 484 charge an exit load. Of those, 82% charge 1% at the top of their scale, and 39% keep the load for a full year.

An exit load is a charge for selling early, taken out of what you redeem. It exists to discourage short-term money in a fund meant for the long term. Unlike an expense ratio it costs nothing if you stay past the window.

The figures come from each fund's Scheme Summary Document, the standard filing every fund house publishes, as we fetched them between 25 and 30 September 2026. They cover the direct-plan Growth option of 569 equity schemes, out of 593 current ones. Loads apply the same way to direct and regular plans.

How long the load lasts

One year is the most common window, but it is not a majority. More than half of the funds that charge a load drop it within three months.

How much it costs

The rate is the highest one in each fund's scale. A few funds step down, charging more in the first weeks and less later.

136 funds add an allowance: a share of your units, usually 10%, can be sold inside the window without the load, and only the rest is charged. Some allow 12%, 15% or 25%.

The common structures

Nine structures cover 455 of the 484 funds that charge a load. The rest are variations, mostly on rate.

The outliers

Three funds charge 2%.

• Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund and Quantum Value Fund charge 2% on units sold within a year and 1% in the second year, after a 10% free allowance. They are the only two equity funds here with a load that lasts beyond twelve months.
• Edelweiss Recently Listed IPO Fund charges 2% within 180 days.

At the other end, 32 equity funds outside ELSS state no exit load at all. They include five large cap funds and four flexi cap funds.

By category

Small cap funds are the most likely to hold the load for a full year: about half of them do. Sectoral and thematic funds lean shorter: 74 of the 241 use a one-month window and 69 a three-month one.

What this does not tell you

A fund house can change its exit load. The new load applies only to units bought after the change; units you already hold keep the load they were bought under. The figures here are the loads stated in late September 2026.

Every SIP instalment starts its own clock. The window runs from the date each unit was allotted. A redemption from a SIP can be partly inside the window and partly outside.

A few documents could not be read. Four Motilal Oswal funds outside ELSS answer the exit-load question with just "Yes", and one other gives an unreadable figure. They are left out of the counts above.

Where to go from here

Each fund's own page shows its current exit load beside its expense ratio, and the screener finds any fund. The guide to what a fund really costs puts the two together, and when to sell a fund covers the decision a load is meant to slow down.

For the running cost every fund charges, see the most expensive equity funds by expense ratio.

ELSS funds have a lock-in instead of an exit load; see ELSS fund returns and the 3-year lock-in.