Forex Broker Commissions (2026): The Real Cost per Lot
اکتوبر 31, 2026
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Every forex trade generates up to three separate costs: the spread, the commission, and the swap. The spread is the gap between the buy price and the sell price, measured in pips — the fourth-decimal price step on most major pairs — and it is built into the quote itself. The swap is the charge or credit applied when a position is held overnight. The commission is different from both: it is an explicit, contract-style charge, usually quoted per lot, that appears on the account statement as its own line item.
That explicitness is exactly why commissions get miscalculated. A headline of raw spreads from 0.0 pips looks free until you notice the $3.5 per-lot fee beside it, or until you discover the fee is charged per side rather than round-turn. The two pricing models bury the cost in different places, so traders who compare headline numbers alone can end up on the more expensive account.
This guide goes deep on commissions specifically: what a per-lot commission is, how commission pricing differs from spread-only pricing, what our 24 broker review records actually state, and a round-turn cost formula with worked examples. Spreads are covered in full in our separate guide to low spread brokers and appear here only where the total-cost arithmetic needs them. If you want the complete review set, our forex brokers hub lists all 24 reviews in one place.
What Is a Forex Broker Commission?
A commission is a fee a broker charges for executing trades, quoted separately from the spread. In forex it is almost always priced per lot. A lot is the standard contract size of the market: one standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency, so a one-lot EURUSD position controls 100,000 euros. Smaller sizes scale down from there — a mini lot is 0.1 standard lots, a micro lot is 0.01 — and a commission quoted per standard lot scales with them, so a 0.1-lot position costs one tenth of the fee.
The second key term is round-turn. A round-turn trade covers both the opening and the closing of the same position. Some brokers quote commission round-turn: one charge covering the completed trade. Others quote one-way, meaning per side, so the stated figure is paid twice on every completed trade. A quote of $3.5 per lot and a quote of $7 per lot round-turn can describe exactly the same cost. This is the single most common source of commission confusion, and short account descriptions — including the ones in our own review records — rarely spell it out.
Per-lot commissions are typical on raw spread and ECN accounts. ECN stands for Electronic Communication Network, a pricing model in which the broker routes orders into a pool of liquidity providers and passes the best available bid and ask through to the trader, charging a fixed commission instead of widening the spread. The trade-off is transparent on both sides: the broker earns a fixed fee per lot traded, and the trader sees the underlying market price plus that fee. Spread-only accounts invert the model — no commission line, but a wider spread.
Commission vs. Spread-Only Pricing
One piece of arithmetic drives this entire article: on a standard lot, one pip of EURUSD equals $10, so every 0.1 pips of spread costs $1 per lot, paid once per round-turn when the position opens. Everything else about how spreads behave is covered in the low spread guide.
| Commission account (raw / ECN style) | Spread-only account (standard style) | |
|---|---|---|
| Headline pricing | Raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus a fixed fee per lot | Spreads from roughly 1.0 to 1.5 pips, no commission |
| Where the cost hides | In the per-lot fee, and in whether it is one-way or round-turn | In the width of the spread, which varies by pair, session and news |
| Cost behaviour | Fixed per lot and predictable; the raw spread can still widen at news | Floating; the price you trade at is the cost |
| Typically suits | Active traders, scalpers, high monthly volume | Occasional traders, longer holds, smaller position sizes |
Neither model is automatically cheaper. What matters is total round-turn cost on the pairs and volumes you actually trade, which the formula below computes. Note that one broker often runs both models side by side: several recorded reviews in our dataset name both a raw or ECN account and a standard account for the same broker, so the sharpest comparison is frequently internal to one broker, not only between brokers.
What Our 24 Broker Reviews Record
Our review library covers 24 forex brokers, and for each one the commission and spread information is recorded verbatim — exactly as the broker states it, with no edits. The result is a three-state picture, and we report all three states honestly:
- Recorded: 12 of 24 brokers have a commission or spread statement in our records.
- Not stated: the other 12 have no commission or spread text in our records. That means not stated in our review records — it does not mean the broker charges nothing. Any of those 12 may charge commissions, spreads, or both; we have no recorded figure to quote, and we will not invent one.
- Recorded but not a commission: several of the 12 recorded statements describe spreads or account names rather than a commission, so they must not be read as commission numbers.
The table lists every recorded statement verbatim, with a plain label of what each one states:
| Broker | Recorded statement (verbatim) | What it states |
|---|---|---|
| Alpari | Commission of $3/lot on ECN accounts | Commission figure — ECN account |
| Exness | Raw Spread account with $3.5/lot commission | Commission figure — raw spread account |
| FBS | ECN account commission: $6/lot | Commission figure — ECN account |
| HFM | Premium account spreads from 0.50 | Spread figure only — no commission stated |
| HYCM | Standard account with 1.20 spread | Spread figure only — no commission stated |
| IC Markets | Offers Raw Spread and Standard accounts | Account types named — no figure stated |
| LiteFinance | ECN account with $3/lot commission | Commission figure — ECN account |
| Moneta Markets | Raw account: $3/lot commission | Commission figure — raw account |
| OpoFinance | Standard account with spreads from 1.20 | Spread figure only — no commission stated |
| Pepperstone | Razor account: $3.5/lot commission | Commission figure — raw account |
| RoboForex | Pro account spreads from 1.30 | Spread figure only — no commission stated |
| XM | Zero account has $3.5/lot commission | Commission figure — zero-style account |
Read together, the commission figures in our records cluster tightly. Six brokers state $3 to $3.5 per lot on a raw, ECN or zero-style account: Alpari, LiteFinance and Moneta Markets at $3, and Exness, Pepperstone and XM at $3.5. One broker, FBS, states $6 per lot on its ECN account — twice the $3 statements. Four recorded statements are spread-only headline figures between 0.50 and 1.30 (HFM, HYCM, OpoFinance and RoboForex), and one broker, IC Markets, names its account types without any figure at all.
Two cautions apply before you reuse these numbers. First, none of the recorded statements specify whether the quoted commission is one-way or round-turn — the text simply says per lot — so verify that detail directly with the broker before comparing. Second, the spread figures are account-level headline values, and real spreads float with the market. Everything above is quoted exactly as our records hold it, and the same three-state honesty applies to every field we publish.
The Round-Turn Cost Formula
Every completed trade reduces to one line:
Round-turn cost = spread cost + commission (if any) ± swap
Three constants and two assumptions drive the worked examples. Constants: one standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency; one pip on EURUSD equals $10 per standard lot; the spread is paid once per round-turn. Assumptions, stated plainly: the account currency is USD; positions open and close at the same quoted spread; swap is excluded because it depends on the pair and the holding time. These are illustrative examples built from generic FX math — not quotes from any broker in our records or anywhere else.
Scenario A — spread-only account. Assumed spread of 1.2 pips, assumed commission of $0. Spread cost: 1.2 × $10 = $12.00 per standard lot. Commission: $0.00. Round-turn cost excluding swap: $12.00 per lot.
Scenario B — raw account, round-turn commission. Assumed spread of 0.3 pips, assumed commission of $3.50 quoted round-turn. Spread cost: 0.3 × $10 = $3.00. Commission: $3.50. Round-turn cost excluding swap: $6.50 per lot.
Scenario C — raw account, one-way commission. The same assumed 0.3-pip spread, but the $3.50 is charged per side. Spread cost: $3.00. Commission: $3.50 × 2 = $7.00 round-turn. Round-turn cost excluding swap: $10.00 per lot. Scenarios B and C carry identical headline numbers; the real cost differs by $3.50 per lot.
| Scenario | Assumed pricing | Cost per standard lot (excl. swap) | 10 lots per month | 100 lots per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A — spread-only | 1.2 pip spread, $0 commission | $12.00 | $120.00 | $1,200.00 |
| B — raw, round-turn fee | 0.3 pip spread, $3.50 round-turn | $6.50 | $65.00 | $650.00 |
| C — raw, one-way fee | 0.3 pip spread, $3.50 per side | $10.00 | $100.00 | $1,000.00 |
The monthly columns assume a fixed number of round-turn standard-lot trades per month — 10 or 100 — on EURUSD, with the stated spread held constant and swap still excluded. Treat them as scale illustrations, not forecasts.
The break-even logic is the part worth internalizing. Moving from Scenario A to Scenario B saves 0.9 pips of spread, worth $9.00 per lot, against a $3.50 commission — the raw account wins by $5.50 per lot. But if the raw spread were 1.0 pips instead of 0.3, the saving would be $2.00 against the same $3.50 fee, and the spread-only account would win. The commission never decides the comparison on its own; the size of the spread reduction does.
When a Commission Account Is Cheaper — and When It Is Not
For high-frequency traders, the arithmetic usually favours commission accounts. A trader executing 100 round-turn standard lots a month pays $650 at Scenario B pricing and $1,200 at Scenario A pricing — a $550 monthly difference from account structure alone, before execution quality enters the picture. Scalpers benefit most, because their entire strategy lives in the space between the raw price and the fee.
For occasional traders the picture is less clear. Someone placing five round-turn lots a month saves $27.50 in Scenario B — real money, but small against the effort of managing two account structures. Frequency does not change the per-lot math; it changes whether that math is worth optimizing.
- Swap: headline comparisons ignore it, and overnight holders cannot afford to. Swap is charged or credited per night per lot and can exceed the entire commission-versus-spread difference on some pairs. Compute it for your actual holding pattern.
- Account gating: raw and zero accounts are sometimes reserved for higher deposit or volume tiers. Recorded minimum deposits across our 24 reviews range from $1 to $200, with several brokers stating no minimum or leaving the figure unstated. Where a raw account sits in the tier ladder of a broker is a question to ask, not an assumption to make.
- Spread stability: a headline of spreads from 0.0 is a best-case number. Spreads widen at news, at rollover and in thin sessions; a raw account trading at 1.5 pips during a news spike is more expensive than its own headline.
- Exotic pairs: the tightest raw spreads concentrate in the majors. On exotic pairs the gap between a raw account and a standard account can shrink to almost nothing, while the commission stays fixed.
The pattern: commission accounts are usually cheaper for traders who trade often, in size, in the majors, and hold overnight rarely. They are often not cheaper for occasional traders, small sizes, exotic pairs, or swap-heavy holding patterns. Both statements assume the quoted commission is round-turn — re-run the math if it is one-way.
Questions to Ask Before You Fund
Account-type pages advertise headlines; fee schedules carry the details. Before funding any account, get written answers to these questions:
- Is the commission quoted per side or round-turn per standard lot?
- Which account types charge commission, and which are spread-only?
- Do commissions scale down at monthly volume tiers, and from what threshold?
- Is there a minimum commission per order, and how is a 0.01-lot position charged?
- What are the swap rates, long and short, for the pairs I plan to hold overnight?
- How far do spreads widen during major news releases and at the daily rollover?
- Are there inactivity fees or minimum monthly activity requirements?
- If my deposit currency differs from my account currency, is a conversion fee charged? Conversion fees are commonly charged across the industry — verify the exact rate in writing.
A broker that answers these in a support ticket has given you something an advertising page cannot: a comparable, checkable fee schedule. Keep the answers with your account records and re-check them whenever the broker revises its terms.
Risk and Regulatory Warning
Cost is one input, and not the first one. Regulation and fund safety come before any per-lot calculation, because a cheap commission at an unreliable entity is not a saving. Confirm the licence on the public register of the regulator rather than trusting a logo on a website. Our review records list regulators such as the FCA, ASIC and CySEC for individual brokers, but licence claims should be verified against the register of the regulator itself, using the licence number the broker publishes.
Offshore registration shifts responsibility to you: the complaint channels, negative balance protections and compensation schemes that exist under top-tier regulators may not apply elsewhere. Forex and CFD trading carries a high risk of losing money, and leverage works in both directions. Never fund an account with money you cannot afford to lose, and treat every advertised cost figure as a starting point for verification, not a promise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do all forex brokers charge a commission?
No. Many standard accounts are spread-only, with broker revenue built into the spread instead of a separate fee. In our records, 7 of the 12 recorded statements name a per-lot commission figure, 4 state spread figures only, and 1 names account types without a figure. The remaining 12 brokers have no recorded statement either way — and no recorded statement is not evidence that they charge nothing.
Is $3 per lot high?
Context decides. Six brokers in our records state $3 to $3.5 per lot and one states $6, so $3 sits at the low end of what our reviews record. A $3 round-turn fee is competitive when the account delivers genuinely raw spreads; the same $3 on an account whose spreads are no tighter than a standard account is pure added cost. If the fee is per side, the real round-turn figure is $6, and the comparison changes.
What is the difference between round-turn and one-way commission?
Round-turn means one charge covering the opening and the closing of the same position. One-way means the charge applies per side, so a completed trade pays it twice: a $3.5 one-way commission costs $7 per lot round-turn. Account descriptions often leave this unstated — our records included — so ask the broker and get the answer in writing before comparing accounts.
Are commission accounts always ECN accounts?
Usually they are raw-spread or ECN-style accounts, but the label is marketing, not a guarantee of mechanics. Brokers name accounts Raw, Razor, Zero, ECN or Pro, and the underlying pricing schedules differ. What matters is the actual fee structure — the spread plus the commission, and whether that commission is one-way or round-turn — so read the fee schedule rather than the account name.
How do I compare two brokers on total cost?
Fix the variables first: the same pair, the same lot size, the same monthly volume and the same holding time. Apply the round-turn formula to both brokers, including swap for your typical holding period. A comparison that ignores swap, or assumes round-turn where the fee is one-way, will point you to the wrong account. Re-run it whenever either broker changes its terms.
Conclusion: Compare Costs per Lot, Not Headlines
A commission is the most transparent cost in forex trading, which makes it both the easiest to compare and the easiest to misread. Three numbers decide your real cost per lot: the spread you actually trade at, the commission and whether it is one-way or round-turn, and the swap on your holding time. Our 24 review records show commissions clustering at $3 to $3.5 per lot on raw and ECN-style accounts, one broker stating $6, four records with spread-only figures — and 12 brokers with no recorded figure at all.
Use the round-turn formula before you fund, put the eight questions above to the broker, and verify the answers in writing alongside the licence check. When you are ready to compare cost records across the whole review set, start from the 24 broker reviews hub on mqlicense.com.
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