How to buy fractional shares on Interactive Brokers?

Written by
Bence András R.
Fact checked by
Gyula L.
Updated
Mar 2023

How to buy fractional shares on Interactive Brokers?

At Interactive Brokers you have the possibility to buy fractional shares. Fractional shares mean that you don’t have to own a whole share, you can also buy a portion of a company’s stock.

At Interactive Brokers almost all US and EU stocks can be bought in fractions. Here you can find a step-by-step guide on how to buy fractional shares using the Interactive Brokers web trading platform.

Visit Interactive Brokers

 

Step by step: how to buy fractional shares on Interactive Brokers

 

  • Go to the Interactive Brokers website.
  • Click the red ’Log in’ button.
  • Go to the ’Client Portal Login’ or the ’Account Management’ link and enter your name and password, and clear the two-factor authentication.
  • Fund your account to make the trade you want.
  • In the web trading platform click the blue ’Trade’ button on the top right corner.
  • Type in the name or symbol of the stock you would like to trade and choose it.
  • Then you can provide the amount of shares you would like to buy or the amount of currency (for example USD) you would like to spend. If you choose to provide the shares amount, it will display below the amount of USD you will have to pay. If you choose to provide the amount of USD you would like to spend, it will display below the amount of shares you can buy.
  • After that choose the desired order type and time-in-force and click 'Preview'.
  • If you have found everything in order on the preview tab click 'Transmit Order' or click ’Back’ and then ’Submit Buy Order’.
  • A warning message will pop up stating the following: „Your order size uses fractional shares. If this was not your intent, please modify your order quantity before submittings.”
  • Since buying fractional shares was our intent, click ’Accept’.

 

Costs of buying fractional shares on Interactive Brokers

 

The costs of buying fractional shares on Interactive Brokers can vary based on your pricing plan.

If you have an IBKR Lite Plan you can buy US stocks commission free. However for UK stocks you have to pay a commission. This commission is 0.05% of the trade value with a minimum value of £3. So in case you buy shares for less than £6,000 your commission will always be £3, but let’s say you buy shares for £10,000, then your commission will be £5. The same commission applies for IBKR Pro Plan users with fixed pricing.

If you have an IBKR Pro Plan, then you can choose between fixed or tiered pricing. If you choose tiered pricing the amount of commission varies on the amount of your monthly trade value or the volume of monthly shares traded. With tiered pricing third party fees also occur.

If you choose fixed pricing, then for US stocks you have to pay $0.005 per share, with a minimum value of $1 and a maximum value of 1% of the trade value. So in case you buy less than 200 shares, your commission will always be $1. However if you buy for instance 300 shares your commission will be $1.5.

Interactive Brokers further reading:

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Author of this article

Bence András Rózsa
Bence András Rózsa

Bence is a former broker analyst for BrokerChooser. Having an MSc in international economy and finance, he focused on equities, cryptos and newcomer financial services. He also gained years of experience within the brokerage industry, specializing in stock and CFD/forex brokers, crypto providers and robo-advisors.

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

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