TradingView free vs paid plans: which one is best for me?
If you are a starting investor, you may be wondering whether you can use TradingView's top-notch charting services and features for free, or if you need to sign up for one of its paid plans.
The good news is you can use TradingView for free. In our opinion, this is a user-friendly option for beginners, but if you plan to be an active trader (or just hate ads), it is worth upgrading to a paid plan.
I am an active trader with a lot of firsthand experience about TradingView. I subscribe to its Plus plan because it offers charts based on custom formulas, which I use regularly when trading stocks and forex. I took a closer look at TradingView's free plan, and when I would recommend upgrading to a paid subscription. This is what I found:
- The free plan is enough when you’re starting out, but paid is worth it for its perks.
- Essential features such as basic charting, price alerts and paper trading are all free.
- TradingView offers a wide variety of plans for investors of all levels of experience.
- Here you can connect brokers to TradingView for direct trading, which is also free.
Start with the free plan and upgrade if needed
TradingView is a widely used online platform that provides advanced tools and superb charting for traders and investors. If you’re just getting acquainted with TradingView and wondering if it has a free option, the good news is that yes, there is a free plan, called Basic. But it also offers a range of paid plans – is it worth paying for an upgrade?

Let’s get right to the bottom line:
We recommend that as a beginner, you start by using the free plan. Try it out, test its features: if it works for you and you don’t need more, then great. But if you run into some limitations, miss some additional features, or are just tired of seeing ads, then level up to a paid plan: our recommendation is Plus, which has a host of extras at a friendly price.
The free plan, which we’ll go into more detail below, provides essential features like basic charting, price alerts, and paper trading, which are ideal and easy to use for beginners.
However, for more active traders looking for an enhanced experience, which includes no ads, access to the TradingView community, more advanced tools and priority customer support, it is worth subscribing to a paid plan.
We recommend Plus especially, because of its affordable cost ($29.95/month), for which you already get plenty of extra features. What stands out for us is the 4-chart layout, and the ability to create and save charts based on your own custom formulas. These come in very handy for traders with experience, making this paid tier worth its salt.
The free plan includes all the essentials
TradingView’s free plan is called Basic. Designed for beginners, it includes essential tools like basic charting, market data coverage, over 110 drawing tools, and access to 100,000+ indicators. It supports paper trading, creating a risk-free space for experimentation and strategy development, as well as free screeners e.g. for stocks, and brokerage account integration (more on this later).

However, the Basic plan has its limitations. With a maximum of 2 indicators per chart, it might be insufficient for detailed analyses. It lacks access to some of the more advanced features that are available in the paid plans, such as multiple and more personalized charts, more historical data and extra social features. It is also ad-supported, which may be quite annoying after a while, and you should be aware that there is no customer support, only for subscribers.
Overall, the Basic plan is a great starting point for traders and investors who are new to the platform. The user-friendly interface ensures a smooth start, allowing users to visualize market trends, while price alerts help keep them informed. However, for in-depth technical analysis, an ad-free experience, and more community engagement, we recommend upgrading to a paid plan.
A wide variety of paid plans
TradingView provides a variety of paid plans, each tailored to meet diverse trader needs. It currently offers a total of 6 plans, which it categorizes into three non-professional (Essential, Plus, Premium) and three professional ones (Expert, Elite, Ultimate). The cost of these plans ranges from $14.95 to $599.95 per month, allowing flexibility based on individual preferences and budget constraints.

Traders opting to upgrade from the free (Basic) plan and start with the first paid tier, the Essential plan, can get distraction-free trading (no ads) and enhanced features, including more charts and indicators, fast data, social features, and customer support.
Stepping up to the Plus plan offers an even more comprehensive package: as noted earlier, this is our best recommendation, as here you can use a 4-chart layout and charts based on custom formulas, which are valuable additions for traders. You also get priority customer support from this tier on.
Basically, as you go up the tiers, you get more additional features as well as more and more of everything. For example, charts per layout ranges between 2-16 depending on the plan, indicators per chart from 5 to 50, price and technical alerts from 20 to 1000, etc. The full range of features on the platform becomes available from the Expert level ($239.95/month). Check the TradingView website for a detailed comparison of plans.
Subscribers can choose between monthly and annual billing, with the latter providing a substantial discount of around 17%, equivalent to two months of subscription fees. You may also catch some occasional promotions and discounts (e.g. Black Friday), which are worth keeping an eye out for. Additionally, there is a free 30-day trial for the paid plans, you may even get a special offer when you want to cancel a subscription.
Connect your broker to TradingView
One of the key features of TradingView is the ability to trade directly from its charts, by connecting TradingView with your brokerage account. The good news is that this feature is free, so you don’t need to sign up for a paid plan just because you want to use TradingView to trade through brokers.
TradingView currently supports trading for about 50 brokerage partners. Check the list below to find out whether a connection to TradingView is available for the quality brokers featured on BrokerChooser.
Our brokerage experts have also checked all of the 100+ legit and trusted brokers featured on our site and put together a list of the best brokers for TradingView for some great choices.
Further reading
- TradingView - an online platform for traders of all levels
- Paper trading at TradingView: A beginner's guide
- Free stock screener from TradingView
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.