For active day traders, trading costs add up fast. A difference of half a pip can be worth hundreds or thousands a year. Tell this calculator what and how often you trade, and it ranks the brokers available in your country by what they would cost you each month.
Trading Cost Calculator
Compare what brokers would cost you per month for the way you trade.
Exchange rates: ECB reference rates of 28 Oct 2026. Costs are based on the typical spreads in our broker reviews; actual spreads vary with market conditions and account type. Results are estimates for information only, not financial advice. Trading on leverage carries a high risk of losing money.
How To Use The Calculator
- Pick the market you’re interested in or trade the most: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, the FTSE 100, crude oil, Apple shares or Bitcoin.
- Enter your usual trade size. The unit changes with the market: lots for forex, stake per point for the FTSE 100, barrels for oil, shares for Apple and coins for Bitcoin.
- Enter how many trades you make per month. Count each round trip (open and close) as one trade.
- Choose the currency you want to see the costs in.
The calculator lists the brokers that accept traders from your country, cheapest first, with the spread we recorded, the cost per trade and the total cost per month. Click a broker’s name to read our review, or visit the broker’s site directly.
How The Cost Is Calculated
Monthly cost = spread × value per pip or point × trade size × trades per month.
Some accounts offer raw spreads close to zero and charge a commission instead. Where a broker’s spread is 0.4 pips or less, we add an estimated commission of $7 per standard lot per round trip, which is typical for these accounts. Those brokers are marked incl. est. commission.
Why Trading Costs Matter For Day Traders
Every time you open and close a trade, you pay the spread: the gap between the buy and sell price. Some brokers also charge a commission, which is a fixed fee per trade.
One trade may only cost a few dollars, but day traders make many trades. At 40 trades a month, an extra 0.5 pips on 1 lot of EUR/USD costs $200 a month, or $2,400 a year.
Costs are one of the few things in trading you can control, and choosing the right broker for the way you trade is the easiest way to cut them. You can also check our rankings of the cheapest brokers for active traders.
Good To Know
- Spreads come from our own broker tests and the brokers’ published figures. They change during the day and widen around news and at market open and close. Slippage can also occur.
- Brokers without spread data for the market you choose are not listed.
- Overnight financing, inactivity fees and currency conversion are not included. Use the currency conversion cost calculator to see what conversion costs you.
- The cheapest broker is not always the best. Check regulation, platform and execution in our broker reviews too.