Overview of Interactive Brokers fees and charges
It's safe to say that Interactive Brokers's fees are low in general. They either don't charge a brokerage fee for things other brokers do charge for, or they only charge a small amount. This means that you can use Interactive Brokers even in case you trade frequently like multiple times a week or daily.
Here's a high level overview of Interactive Brokers's fees
| Assets | Fee level | Fee terms |
|---|---|---|
| US stock fee | Low | $0.005 per share, min. $1, max. 1% of trade value. Free for US clients choosing IBKR Lite plan. |
| EURUSD fee | Average | Trade value less than $1 billion: 0.2 bps * trade value; min. $2 |
| US tech fund fee | Average | $14.95 per transaction or 3% of trade value, whichever is lower |
| Inactivity fee | High | $20 per month if you have less than $2,000 account balance and if you don't generate minimum $20 in commissions. $10 for accounts having at least $2,000 account balance, while no inactivity fee for US clients choosing IBKR Lite plan. |
Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers fees explained
Online brokerages in general charge much lower brokerage fees than traditional brokerages do - this is largely due to the fact that online brokerages' businesses can be much better scaled: From a purely technical standpoint it doesn't make that much of a difference for them if they have 100 or 5000 clients.
This is not to say however that they don't have any fees at all. They make money by charging you at various events for various rates. Usually you need to keep an eye on these 3 types of fees:
- Trading fees - these are brokerage fees that you pay when you actually do a trade, i.e. buying an Apple stock or an ETF. What you pay is either a commission, a spread or financing rate. Some brokers apply all of these.
- A commission is either based on the traded volume or it is fixed.
- A spread is the difference between the buy price and the sell price
- Financing rate or overnight rate is charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than one day.
- Non-trading fees. These occur related to some operations you make in your account, i.e. depositing money to your account, withdrawing money from it or not trading for an extended amount of time.
We compare Interactive Brokers fees with its closest competitors, Saxo Bank and DEGIRO.
Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers trading fees
Interactive Brokers's trading fees are low which makes it suitable for you even if you trade often (i.e. multiple times a week).
Let's break down the trading fees into the different asset classes available at Interactive Brokers.
Trading fees
Interactive Brokers's trading fees are low.
Stock fees and ETF fees
Interactive Brokers has low stock trading fees.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US stock | $1.0 | $10.0 | $0.6 |
| UK stock | $7.2 | $9.6 | $2.4 |
| German stock | $4.4 | $11.0 | $5.4 |
Forex fees
Interactive Brokers's forex fees are average.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSD benchmark fee | $17.9 | $15.7 | - |
| EURGBP benchmark fee | $13.0 | $10.4 | - |
Fund fees
Interactive Brokers fund fees are average.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutual fund | $15.0 | $0.0 | $10.3 |
| EU mutual fund | $4.4 | - | $10.3 |
Bond fees
Interactive Brokers has low bond fees.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Treasury bond | $5.0 | $88.0 | - |
| EU government bond | $10.0 | $88.0 | $10.5 |
Options fees
Interactive Brokers's options fees are low.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US stock index options | $6.5 | $40.0 | $5.0 |
| UK stock index options | $20.4 | $36.0 | - |
| German stock index options | $12.1 | $44.0 | $9.9 |
Futures fees
Interactive Brokers's futures fees are low.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US micro e-mini stock index futures | $2.5 | $40.0 | $5.0 |
| UK stock index futures | $20.4 | $36.0 | $0.0 |
| German e-mini stock index futures | $8.8 | $44.0 | $8.3 |
CFD fees
Interactive Brokers has low CFD trading fees.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple CFD | $1.1 | $10.1 | - |
| Vodafone CFD | $3.9 | $9.9 | - |
| Germany | $3.4 | $11.4 | $5.7 |
Crypto fees
Financing rates
Interactive Brokers financing rates are low.
If you want to trade on margin and prefer to hold your positions long, financing costs can be significant.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple CFD financing rate | 4.3% | 6.7% | - |
| Vodafone CFD financing rate | 1.7% | 5.2% | - |
| EURUSD financing rate | 3.7% | 3.9% | - |
| EURGBP financing rate | 2.3% | 2.0% | - |
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Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers non-trading fees
When it comes to looking at all the non-trading fees Interactive Brokers is an average broker. This means that some of the non-trading fees are high, but the others are low or not charged at all.
Non-trading fees include various brokerage fees and charges at Interactive Brokers that you pay not related to buying and selling assets. Among some others, typical non trading fees are withdrawal fee, deposit fee, inactivity fee and account fee.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Withdrawal fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Deposit fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Inactivity fee | Yes | Yes | No |
| Account fee | No | No | No |
Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers deposit fee
Deposit fees are applied when you send money to your trading account from your bank account. Usually brokers don't charge money for that and Interactive Brokers is not different: you will see the exact same amount on your brokerage account that you sent by any of the deposit methods Interactive Brokers offers.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Credit/Debit card | No | Yes | No |
| Electronic wallets | No | No | Yes |
| Deposit fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers withdrawal fee
Unlike the majority of the online brokers we have reviewed Interactive Brokers does not charge a withdrawal fee. This means that you'll see the same amount of money on your bank account that you transferred from your brokerage account.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank transfer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Credit/Debit card | No | Yes | No |
| Electronic wallets | No | No | Yes |
| Withdrawal fee with bank transfer | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Interactive Brokers fees
Interactive Brokers inactivity fee
Interactive Brokers does apply an inactivity fee and it is $20 per month if you have less than $2,000 account balance and if you don't generate minimum $20 in commissions. $10 for accounts having at least $2,000 account balance, while no inactivity fee for US clients choosing IBKR Lite plan.. This means that you need to be strategic about your trading activity to avoid getting charged after a longer time of no trade. The fact that Interactive Brokers charges an inactivity fee makes it less ideal for you if you are a buy and hold investor.
Interactive Brokers has high inactivity fee.
| Interactive Brokers | Saxo Bank | DEGIRO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inactivity fee | Yes | Yes | No |
| Inactivity fee | $20 per month if you have less than $2,000 account balance and if you don't generate minimum $20 in commissions. $10 for accounts having at least $2,000 account balance, while no inactivity fee for US clients choosing IBKR Lite plan. | In the UK, £25 after one quarter of inactivity. SIPP and ISA accounts are exempt from this fee. In non-UK countries, $100 after 6 months of inactivity. | No inactivity fee |
Read more about Interactive Brokers inactivity fee on their own site.
