Oanda Review 2023

Oanda has low forex fees but average CFD fees. Withdrawal fees are low but not in all cases, while there's also a small inactivity fee.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Oanda's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of Oanda for each asset class. For example, in the case of forex and stock index trading, spreads, commissions and financing rates are the most important fees.

We also compared Oanda's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Pepperstone and FXCM. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Oanda alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Oanda, let's start with trading fees.

Oanda trading fees

Oanda's trading fees are low. In general, Oanda charges spread costs instead of commissions per trade. Clients are charged a monthly inactivity fee if they don’t use their account for more than a year.

We know it's hard to compare trading fees for forex brokers. So we compared brokers by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for selected products.

We picked popular instruments within each asset class usually offered by forex brokers:

• Forex: EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, EURCHF and EURGBP
• Stock index CFDs: SPX and EUSTX50

A typical trade means buying the instrument, holding it for one week and then selling it. For volume, we chose a $20,000 position for forex and a $2,000 position for stock index CFDs.

Oanda leverage / Oanda margin requirements

The available leverage depends on your country of residence. For example, the maximum leverage is 50:1 for US customers. On the other hand, 30:1 is the maximum for EU customers.

Oanda interest rates (financing rates)

For positions held overnight, you have to pay interest. These are called financing rates. The value of the rate depends on a variety of factors, including daily rates, size of the position, chosen product, funding rates and so.

Overnight fees at Oanda usually range from -6% to 2%. These, however, change daily and some may fall outside the above ranges. At BrokerChooser, we incorporate these rates into our fee calculation.

Forex fees

Oanda charges low forex fees, matching its closest competitors in the case of most forex pairs.

Some brokers provide pip calculators to help you assess and manage your risks. With a pip calculator, you can calculate the value of a pip in the currency you are trading.

Oanda unfortunately doesn’t have such tools. However, they provide a Spread Cost Calculator you can use to calculate your absolute spread cost annually. There’s also a Currency Pair Units Calculator that helps you calculate the number of maximum units you can trade with your available margin.

Oanda minimum lot size

At Oanda, the smallest available lot size is micro lots, which is 1,000 units of a given currency. This trading size is available on MetaTrader 4.

CFD fees

Oanda has average stock index CFD fees.

Non-trading fees

Oanda has mixed non-trading fees.

There is no account or deposit fee. Oanda charges a reasonable $14 (£10) monthly inactivity fee if you don't use your account for trading for more than one year.

The first debit/credit card withdrawal in each calendar month is free, but there's a charge for subsequent withdrawals. The withdrawal fee is rather high for bank transfers and PayPal (GBP, EUR, USD only). For details, see our table on withdrawal fees here.

Oanda's account opening is straightforward and no initial minimum deposit is required.

Can you open an account?

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Oanda in USA and Canada

Oanda is deeply rooted in the North American continent. The broker was founded in Canada and has its HQ in New York. Both US and Canadian citizens can open an account at Oanda.

What is the minimum deposit at Oanda?

There is no minimum deposit at Oanda.

Account types

There is only one type of trading account at Oanda (in addition to a demo and a corporate account). However, you can open up to 19 sub-accounts. These are great if you want to have different base currencies under one account. E.g. you can have a USD account with EUR and GBP subaccounts.

Oanda also provides API possibility for exchanges - it might come in handy if you'd like to develop your own platform.

How to open your account

How long does Oanda account approval take?

From start to finish, you can open an account in less than 10 minutes. Account approval, though, can take multiple days, as we were asked to send some of our verification documents in email; but it's still quick if you respond to their emails in time.

You can open an account at Oanda in 8 steps:

1. Account details: set your username and password.
2. Personal details: enter basic personal information like your name, address and birth data.
3. Nationality: fill in your nationality
4. Home address: enter your home address
5. Employment: fill in information about your employment status, income and wealth
6. Trading experience: answer questions about your trading experience
7. Customer knowledge: fill out a short quiz to test your knowledge (e.g. Does changing leverage from 50:1 to 100:1 increase or decrease your potential profit/loss?)
8. Verify your identity: upload a copy of your ID/passport to verify your identity, and a bank statement or utility bill to verify your residency

How to delete an Oanda account?

To delete your account, you have to “cancel your subscription” on Oanda. You need to submit a separate form to request the removal of your account.

Oanda account types

There is only one type of trading account at Oanda (in addition to a demo and a corporate account). However, you can open as many as 19 sub-accounts. These are great if you want to have different base currencies under one main account. For example, you can have a USD account with EUR and GBP sub-accounts.

Oanda demo account

Oanda offers a demo account. It can be opened in minutes and you’ll be able to try out and learn Oanda’s desktop platform without risking your money.  

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Oanda charges no deposit and account fees. You can withdraw your money free of charge to a debit/credit card, but bank transfer withdrawals are quite costly.

Account base currencies

At Oanda, you can choose from 9 base currencies, a selection that compares well to the company's closest competitors.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. Digital banks offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

Oanda charges no deposit fees.

Deposit options vary depending on your residency and your account currency. We listed the main options below.

Electronic wallets supported by Oanda include PayPal (UK, Canada) as well as Neteller and Skrill (most of Asia and other emerging markets).

You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name. A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. For more information, visit Oanda's website.

Oanda withdrawal fees and options

Withdrawal options and fees vary depending on your residency and your account base currency. The main withdrawal options are the same as those for deposits.

As for fees, withdrawal to credit/debit cards is typically free, as is withdrawal to PayPal or other electronic wallets.

However, withdrawal via bank transfer is quite expensive in most cases. For example, withdrawals from USD or EUR accounts cost $/€20; while in many regions, subsequent withdrawals in the same calendar month cost even more, typically $/€35.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Oanda? Oanda says it can take anywhere between one and six business days, depending on the withdrawal method and your residency. In our tests, it took one business day using a debit card.

You can only withdraw money to accounts that are in your name.

Oanda's web trading platform is user-friendly and safe with good customizability. On the downside, you can't set price alerts.

At Oanda, you can choose from two web trading platforms: Oanda's own platform or MetaTrader 4. In this review, we tested Oanda's own platform.

Oanda's web trading platform is available in several languages:

Look and feel

Oanda's own trading platform is user-friendly and well-designed. It is also customizable, allowing you to change the position and size of the tabs.

Login and security

Oanda offers two-step login, which is safer than using only a username and a password. For two-step login to work, you'll have to install the Google Authenticator app, which is a compromise that's easy to live with for the sake of security.

To log into your account click on the Sign in button on the Oanda CFD + Forex page.

Search functions

The platform's search function is good, although its location is not very intuitive. You can browse available assets by category under the ‘Rates’ tab.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Take profit
• Stop loss
• Trailing stop

Only Good 'til Date (GTD) order time limit is available. To get a better understanding of these terms, read this overview of order types.

Alerts and notifications

You can't set price alerts and notifications on the web trading platform, although this function would be useful and is available at several other brokers.

Portfolio and fee reports

Oanda has clear portfolio and fee reports. You can find the summary of your spread costs, commissions and profit under the ‘Activity’ tab.

Oanda fxTrade vs MT4

Oanda clients chan use the broker's proprietary trading platform called fxTrade and MetaTrader 4, a popular trading platform among CFD and forex traders.

While both MetaTrader 4 and fxTrade are highly customizable, the former feels a bit more outdated in design than its in-house-built counterpart. Another key difference is that  you can build trading bots called Expert Advisors in with MetaTrader 4. fxTrade doesn’t have this MQL4 feature.

All in all, the two platforms are highly similar to each other. If you’d like to dig deeper, read our MetaTrader 4 / MetaTrader 5 review.

Oanda maintenance

Oanda publishes all maintenance times before starting work on their platform; you can check the latest info here.

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Oanda's mobile platform is similar to the web trading platform in functionality, and as a plus, you can also set price alerts.

Oanda fxTrade for Android

Oanda's mobile trading platform is available for both iOS and Android. We tested it on Android in English. The platform is available in the following languages:

Look and feel

The Oanda mobile trading platform is user-friendly. The chart tab is great, you can customize it well. This is not something you usually find at other brokers.

Login and security

Oanda offers two-step login, which is definitely safe, but you can't use biometric authentication (such as fingerprint or face recognition), which would make the process even more convenient.

Alerts and notifications

In a positive development compared with the web trading platform, it's possible to set alerts and notifications on the Oanda mobile platform.

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Oanda's desktop platform mimics the web platform in terms of functionality, meaning lots of user-friendly functions but no price alerts.

Oanda's desktop platform is similar to the web trading platform in terms of customizability, login, order types and portfolio reports. While the design is generally fine, it could use some brush-up. Like its browser counterpart, the desktop platform doesn't allow you to set price alerts.

Oanda download

The desktop platform Oanda fxTrade (sometimes referred to as Oanda Trade) can be downloaded from this page. The process takes only a few minutes.

Oanda Trade / Oanda fxTrade is available on Windows, Mac and Linux.

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78.3% of retail CFD accounts lose money

At Oanda, you can trade only forex and CFDs. A decent offer of forex, commodity, stock index and bond CFDs is offset by the complete absence of stock CFDs.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

CFDs, indices & forex on Oanda

Oanda has a wide selection of CFD products (including stock index, bond and commodity CFDs), and it offers a reasonable amount of currency pairs, too. The product lineup lacks ETF CFDs, individual stock CFDs and futures CFDs, though.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned the sale of crypto-derivatives to UK retail consumers as of January 2021.

We really liked the fact that you can set the leverage manually. At many other brokers, including some of Oanda's closest competitors, this feature is not supported. To set the leverage, go to the 'Manage Funds' tab.

Changing the leverage is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. Always be careful with forex and CFD trading, as preset leverage levels may be too high.

Currency cheat sheet

Oanda used to have a so-called “Currency cheat sheet”. It is a pocket-sized piece of paper, detailing the exchange rates between two currencies on a day for fast calculations.

Oanda Currency Converter

A better alternative to a paper-based currency cheat sheet is Oanda’s online currency converter. It has a clean, responsive design with plenty of pairs to compare. It uses its own data sources like Oanda Rates and touchstone FX.

Apart from prices, it shows the average and min-max spreads between currencies.

Historical exchange rates

Another feature at Oanda is a historical exchange rate calculator. It has plenty of settings such as range selection and data source selection (Oanda Exchange Rates, central banks). Most of the features, however, are tied to the Pro Account, which has a monthly fee of $75, or an annual fee of $750.

Live forex rates

There’s a separate page on Oanda for live spreads and forex rates for most pairs, indices, commodities, and metals. If you don’t see a pair on the list, you can also check their own pages, for example, see here the live exchange rate of XAU/USD.

Oanda has a wide range of research tools, including news, technical analysis and an API. However, these features are poorly organized on the site.

Oanda has many research tools, but they are scattered across several different pages, accessible via various (often overlapping) menus. Here's a list of Oanda's main tools:

• MarketPulse: Publicly available analyses written by Oanda's own research team. It also includes an economic calendar, videos and podcasts.
• News: MarketPulse articles plus a feed by Dow Jones Newswires, a prominent third-party information provider.
• Oanda Labs: Tools developed by Oanda's engineers. These tools are usually based on technical analysis, e.g. candlestick pattern analysis.
• Technical Analysis: Many technical analysis tools powered by Autochartist.
• Algo Lab: A powerful tool for API trading.

Research tools are available in multiple languages. The format and availability of some tools may depend on your region and which Oanda entity you're using.

Fundamental data

Oanda provides fundamental data through its built-in application 'Economic Analysis'.

Charting

Oanda has great charting tools. The charts are very responsive, easy to edit, and you can use more than 80 technical indicators.

TradingView Oanda

TradingView is available on Oanda, meaning you can use TradingView’s platform and charting features with Oanda.

These features include:

• Social trading

• Flexible alerts

• More tools to identify & test strategies

News feed

News is available on the ‘News’, ‘MarketPulse’, and ‘Economic Analysis’ pages. You can reach these pages from the trading platforms, but MarketPulse articles are also available publicly.

We think ‘MarketPulse‘ is your best bet if you want to be in the know. It offers well-written news and analysis with visual elements like charts or videos. You can also find a great economic calendar here. These elements are totally missing from the ‘News‘ page.

Other research tools you may enjoy

Oanda has great API options. You can make/use your own APIs in a great and very user-friendly environment. Algo Lab allows you to code and deploy your own automated trading strategies right from your web browser. Programming languages supported by Algo Lab are C#, Python and F#.

Oanda Autochartist

Oanda’s Technical Analysis tools are powered by Autochartist. This is a plugin, sort of an extension for fxTrade. It offers automated alerts, pattern recognition technologies, volatility analyses, and more.

Oanda API

Oanda provides an API for its users. Sample codes are in Javascript, Python, and Java. On Github, there are more Oanda repos.

Ironically, most links lead to 404s on Oanda’s developer page about APIs.

Compare research pros and cons

You can reach Oanda's customer service through several channels, but availability could be improved.

It is a big plus that you can contact Oanda in several ways:

• live chat (with an Oanda agent)
• chatbot (virtual assistant)
• phone
• email

Oanda's customer service is available 24 hours a day, but live chat and phone support is available only between Sunday evening and Friday evening. Although not 24/7, this is still good availability, but there are a few aspects that could be improved:

• On live chat, we got helpful answers and the response time was short (instant or in 1-2 minutes). Nevertheless, they wrap up the live chat quite quickly if you don't respond right away. A good feature though is that you can export message texts.
• The chatbot is unlikely to answer your questions directly, but it does a reasonably good job of detecting the subject of your query and pointing you to the relevant FAQ section of the website.
• On the phone, relevance could be improved. We didn't always get a fully satisfactory answer to our question (we wanted to get a good overview of fees). Response time is quite good, around 2-3 minutes.
• Email support gave relevant answers and their response was fast (replied in less than 4 hours).

Oanda forums and support

Oanda's Forex forum was unfortunately closed down in September 2020. Oanda doesn’t have a separate subreddit.

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Oanda offers articles, videos and webinars on topics ranging from the basics to expert trading, but this wide selection of educational materials is not always structured well.

It is great that you can use a range of tools for education:

• Demo account
• Educational videos
• Platform tutorial videos
• Webinars
• Texts

We enjoyed the quality of the videos, they were well produced. On the other hand, we felt they should be better organized; for example, a separate playlist for trading platform basics would be nice.

There are high-quality webinars available to everyone (both live and archived), covering basic trading topics from order types to risk management or technical analysis. Premium webinars are only accessible to Oanda customers. Educational articles are also available for reading, covering many of the same topics. All educational tools are available under the 'Learn' menu, though their navigability could be improved.

Oanda tutorial

As mentioned above, Oanda has its own dedicated educational page. The broker doesn't provide video tutorials on its platform, however, there are short summaries of its main functionalities.Opening a demo account is the most convenient way to practice how the desktop platform works.

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Oanda is regulated by top-tier authorities, but it doesn't have a banking license and is not listed on a stock exchange.

Is Oanda regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by several financial authorities worldwide, including top-tier regulators like the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Is Oanda safe?

To be certain, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

Oanda has seven legal entities, each serving clients from different parts of the world. This is important because the investor protection amount and the regulator differ from entity to entity.

Oanda provides negative balance protection for forex spot and CFD trading, but only for retail clients from the European Union. Professional and non-EU clients are not covered by any negative balance protection.

Background

Oanda is based in the USA and was founded in 1996. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully weathered previous financial crises.

Oanda publishes its annual financial statements and is regulated by a top-tier regulator. All of these are great markers of Oanda's safety.

Find your safe broker

Oanda is a great forex broker. It has user-friendly trading platforms that you will quickly learn to use confidently. It also provides powerful research tools, especially trading APIs. The account opening process is easy and quick.

Among some negatives, Oanda's product selection is limited to forex and CFD products. It doesn't have a banking background and is not listed on any stock exchange, two typical factors that enhance transparency and regulatory scrutiny. Customer support, while helpful, is only available 24/5.

With all that in mind, feel free to try Oanda: it is regulated by top-tier regulators, there is no minimum deposit, and the inactivity fee only kicks in after one year.

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What are Oanda's fees?

We detailed this in our Oanda fees article.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Oanda good for beginners.

Is Oanda legit or scam?

Take a look at the corporate background of Oanda in this article.

What is the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Oanda minimum deposit is updated regularly.

Check out the current account balance requirements at Oanda in our What is the minimum account balance at Oanda article.

How to withdraw money from Oanda?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Oanda.

How to start your Oanda account?

Look no further than our evaluation of Oanda account opening.

How good is Oanda's trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the Oanda trading app.

Can I trade options and silver on Oanda?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Oanda and  buying silver on Oanda guide.

Who are Oanda's competitors and alternatives?

We have created an overview of Oanda competitors here including a comparsion with FXCM, IG, Forex.com, Hugo's Way .