Which ETF tracker is free to use in India in 2026?
Quick Answer: NSE's ETF page is the free ETF tracker, listing all 351 ETFs with live price and NAV, free and without login (29 September 2026). Fund houses publish each ETF's tracking error daily and tracking difference monthly on their sites and AMFI, as SEBI requires. You do not need a paid tracker for this data.
An ETF tracker is really four data feeds stitched together: market price, NAV, expense ratio and tracking quality. In India all four are published free, because SEBI requires most of them to be.
What paid products sell is the stitching. Knowing which parts are free at source tells you exactly what you would be paying for.
Which ETF tracker is free to use in India?
The exchange itself is the free one, and it is the source everything else copies. NSE's exchange traded funds page listed 351 ETFs with live price and NAV as of 29 September 2026 at 10:23, at no charge and with no login.
Fund houses publish the rest. Under SEBI's master circular, every ETF must disclose tracking error daily and tracking difference monthly on the AMC's own website and on AMFI's, which covers the quality measures the exchange page does not carry.
Platforms aggregate the two. Multibagg's ETF section lists ETFs traded in India with expense ratios and holdings, which is the comparison view neither source gives on its own.
How many ETFs trade in India in 2026?
NSE's own list carried 351 ETFs as of 29 September 2026 at 10:23, spanning equity index funds, gold and silver, debt and overseas exposure. That count moves as new schemes list, which is why the as-of stamp matters more than the number.
That list is wider in range than its label suggests. Nippon India Silver ETF tracks the domestic price of silver based on LBMA, while liquid ETFs hold government securities, and both sit in the same 351.
Under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 2026, an ETF's units must be listed and traded on a recognised stock exchange. That listing requirement is what makes a live exchange price exist at all.
What should a free ETF tracker show: price, iNAV and tracking error?
Five fields, and a tracker showing only price is showing the least useful one. Market price is set by orders; NAV is the fund's own valuation; iNAV is the intraday estimate the exchange publishes continuously during trading hours; tracking error measures how far the fund drifts from its index.
Price and NAV diverge routinely, which is the whole reason iNAV exists. SEBI requires iNAV to be disclosed on a continuous basis on the exchange where the units are listed, updated through the trading session.
Expense ratio is the fifth. It is the standing cost the fund charges, and it compounds against returns whether the ETF tracks well or badly.
How do you check an ETF's expense ratio and tracking error for free?
On the AMC's website and on AMFI, both of which SEBI requires to carry the figures. SEBI's master circular for mutual funds, as on 20 March 2026, sets the disclosure: tracking error daily, tracking difference monthly.
Tracking quality disclosures SEBI requires (SEBI Master Circular for Mutual Funds, 20 March 2026)
| Measure | Frequency | Published on | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracking error | Daily | AMC website and AMFI | Not to exceed 2% for ETFs and index funds other than debt |
| Tracking difference | Monthly, for 1, 3, 5 and 10 years and since allotment | AMC website and AMFI | Averaged over one year, not above 1.25% for debt ETFs and index funds |
| iNAV | Continuous during trading hours | The stock exchange where units are listed | No stated cap |
The 2% ceiling is the part most trackers omit. A fund breaching it is a disclosure matter, not a market opinion, and the figure is published daily by rule.
Debt funds are measured on the other number. Their cap is a tracking difference averaged over one year of 1.25%, and a breach of either threshold has to be taken to the trustees with whatever corrective action the AMC has taken.
Definitions are worth knowing before comparing two figures. Tracking error is the annualised standard deviation of the daily return gap between the index and the fund NAV over a rolling year, while tracking difference is the annualised gap itself.
Tracking difference over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years is the longer-horizon view, and our explainer on what Nifty BeES tracks and why its price drifts from NAV works through the same mechanics on one fund.
Can you track ETFs in Google Sheets or a free portfolio app?
Yes, and the limiting factor is the data source rather than the spreadsheet. A sheet can hold units, cost and current price, but SEBI's tracking error and tracking difference figures have to be pulled in from the AMC or AMFI, because no exchange feed carries them.
Return maths is the other gap. Units bought at different dates need a cash-flow-weighted return rather than a simple percentage, which our note on calculating XIRR across stocks and funds covers.
A portfolio app removes the manual entry. Multibagg's portfolio dashboard shows allocation across connected broker holdings, ETFs included.
What does a free plan leave out?
Usually history, alerts and breadth rather than the current numbers, because the current numbers are the part SEBI already requires to be free. Long price histories, screening across all 351 funds at once, and automated alerts are the common paid additions.
Commodity ETFs make the point about depth. Gold and silver schemes must hold at least 95% of net assets in the metal and related instruments, with physical silver as 30 kg bars of 999 fineness, and a free tracker rarely surfaces that the way a fund document does.
Portfolio composition is the other omission. Equity and debt ETFs must disclose their top 7 issuers or stocks and their top 7 groups as a percentage of NAV every month, and a price-and-NAV tracker carries none of it.
Index changes are invisible too. When a periodic review changes an index constituent, an equity ETF has 7 calendar days to rebalance, so a fund can hold something its index no longer does.
Our note on lump-sum limits in a gold ETF is one example of scheme-level detail that lives in the fund's own documents rather than in any tracker.
Compare the funds before the tracker
Choosing a tracker matters less than knowing that price, NAV, iNAV, expense ratio and tracking error are all published free by rule. A tool is worth paying for only where it saves work you would otherwise do across those sources.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. Multibagg AI is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst, and it does not provide investment, financial, legal or tax advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or invest in any security. Market data is shown as of the dates stated and may have changed since. Please consult a SEBI-registered adviser before making any investment decision.
Aaditya Aanand is the founder and CEO of Multibagg AI. An IIT Kanpur alumnus, he has worked across technology and financial markets at Goldman Sachs and American Express. His writing explores investing, markets and AI.