What is a good EUR/USD spread?

On a standard account 0.8–1.2 pips is typical. ECN or raw accounts quote 0.0–0.3 pips but charge commission, usually USD 3–7 per standard lot round turn. Add both together before comparing.

What leverage is allowed in the EU?

For retail clients ESMA caps leverage at 30:1 on major pairs, 20:1 on minors and gold, 10:1 on commodities and 5:1 on shares. Professional clients can access higher leverage but give up protections such as negative balance protection.

Are offshore brokers automatically untrustworthy?

No — but the risk profile is different. A licence from Seychelles, Belize or Vanuatu usually comes without any investor compensation scheme and with far lower capital requirements. If you trade there, only commit money you could afford to lose entirely.

Risk warning: CFDs and leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly. Investments can fall in value. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

Ranking

Best forex brokers 2026

In currency trading the spread decides the return. Half a pip on EUR/USD costs roughly USD 500 a month at 100 standard lots — a full year of edge given away. So we weight cost and execution quality far above education or research. Regulation matters just as much: a broker under FCA or ASIC supervision faces capital requirements and must offer negative balance protection. An offshore entity often does not.

Investor's country

Shows only brokers that accept clients from the selected country.

brokers rated: 35
Data as of: 30 Aug 2026

Country of residence:No country of residence chosen — all offers are shown.

Forex

The top 3 in detail

Why these three lead — derived from the criteria this category weights most heavily.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Interactive Brokers

The cheapest serious route to almost every market on earth — if you can live with the learning curve.

Ahead on Fees (4.9) and Safety & regulation (4.8) — together those two carry 55% of this category's weighting.

US stocks from USD 0.0035 per share on the Tiered plan, minimum USD 0.35 per order and capped at 1% of trade value
Currency conversion at 0.20 basis points (minimum USD 2) — an order of magnitude cheaper than most European brokers' 0.25%–1.5%
Roughly 160 market destinations in 36 countries from a single multi-currency account, with 28 settlement currencies
No inactivity fee since 2021, plus no custody fee and no platform fee

Group index 90/100Protection depends on your legal entity

SECFCACBIASIC

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForexCFDsCryptoBonds+4

4.5

Category score

Overall score: 4.5 / 5

Strengths in this category

Fees35%

4.9

Trading platform20%

4.8

Safety & regulation20%

4.8

Deposit & withdrawal10%

4.0

Stocks (per order): 0.05 %
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.1 pips

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Pepperstone

Raw spreads and five platforms for traders who care about execution cost, not about owning the asset.

4.5

Ahead on Fees (4.6) and Customer support (4.5) — together those two carry 45% of this category's weighting.

Razor all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
No inactivity fee, no account-keeping fee and no account closure fee, confirmed on Pepperstone's own costs page
Five execution venues on one account: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView and the in-house Pepperstone Platform

Group index 82/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCAASIC

StocksETFsForexCFDsCrypto+4

Strengths in this category

Fees35%

4.6

Trading platform20%

4.6

Safety & regulation20%

4.4

Stocks (per order): 0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit: US$10
EUR/USD spread: 0.8 pips

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

IG

The most complete leveraged-trading operation in Europe — and it prices like it knows that.

4.4

Ahead on Safety & regulation (4.9) and Trading platform (4.7) — together those two carry 40% of this category's weighting.

Around 17,000 tradable markets in a single account — shares, indices, FX, commodities, bonds, ETFs, turbo warrants and crypto CFDs, subject to regional restrictions
Six top-tier licences — FCA (FRN 195355), BaFin, FINMA, ASIC (AFSL 515106), MAS and JFSA — plus a mid-tier DFSA licence in Dubai; the FINMA licence among those six is a full Swiss banking licence at IG Bank S.A., which puts Swiss cash under esisuisse protection
Zero commission on UK and international shares, and the GBP 24 quarterly custody fee was scrapped outright in January 2026 rather than merely waived for active traders

Group index 100/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCABaFin

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+8

Strengths in this category

Fees35%

4.0

Trading platform20%

4.7

Safety & regulation20%

4.9

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Also worth a look

Rank 4 and below, ordered by category score.

CMC Markets

4.4

One of the best charting packages in retail CFD trading, wrapped around a narrower product range than the market count suggests.

Technical and chart-driven traders
UK and Irish spread betting

Stocks (per order): Free (CFD)
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

ForexStocksETFsOptions+6

Pros: Next Generation is one of the strongest charting suites bundled with a retail CFD account —115+ indicators, 70 chart patterns, 12 chart types and pattern-recognition scanners, at no extra cost
Cons: None of CMC's derivatives is exchange-traded: the options it quotes are OTC and cash-settled, and there are no cleared futures at all, so CMC is the counterparty on every derivative contract and no clearing house stands behind it

Group index 94/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Saxo

4.4

A Danish bank that trades like a professional platform — broad, polished, and no longer expensive.

Multi-asset portfolios
Bond investors

Tiered — Improved pricing at higher account tiers

Stocks (per order): 0.08 %
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

ForexStocksETFsOptions+7

Pros: Full Danish banking licence (Finanstilsynet licence 1149) and SIFI designation — a stronger structural safeguard than a broker-only permission
Cons: Currency conversion costs 0.25% over mid-market for EU and Swiss clients, and up to 0.60% at the UK entity's Classic tier — the single largest hidden cost for cross-currency investors

Group index 96/100

DFSAFCA

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Capital.com

4.3

A polished retail CFD platform in Europe, provided you accept that CFDs are the whole product.

Active CFD traders
Forex day trading

Stocks (per order): in the spread
Minimum deposit: US$20
EUR/USD spread: 0.7 pips

ForexStocksETFsCFDs+4

Pros: No commission on any CFD and no inactivity fee whatsoever — unusual in the CySEC/FCA CFD segment
Cons: 0.7% currency conversion markup on every trade settled outside your base currency — the single largest hidden cost here

Group index 77/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

XTB

4.3

One of the strongest trading platforms in the commission-free bracket - xStation 5 is a professional workspace attached to a zero-commission share account.

Serious charting on a budget
Commission-free European stocks

0% — 0% commission on stocks and ETFs up to the monthly volume cap

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

ForexStocksETFsOptions+4

Pros: xStation 5 is one of the strongest platforms in the commission-free bracket - a real screener, market heat map, sentiment data, economic calendar and news in one workspace, on web, desktop and mobile with near-identical features.
Cons: The 0.5% currency conversion charge (0.8% at weekends and on public holidays) applies whenever the instrument currency differs from your account currency. For a EUR investor buying US stocks it is charged on the way in and again on the way out, and it dwarfs the commission it replaces.

Group index 72/100

FCAKNF

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

IC Markets

4.2

One of the cheapest routes to raw institutional FX pricing - as long as you check which entity you are signing with.

Algorithmic and EA traders
Scalping and high-frequency FX

Stocks (per order): 0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit: €200
EUR/USD spread: 0.8 pips

ForexStocksFuturesCFDs+5

Pros: All-in EUR/USD cost of roughly 0.6 to 0.8 pips on Raw Spread - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
Cons: Most non-EU, non-Australian clients contract with Raw Trading Ltd under Seychelles licence SD018 - an offshore regulator with no investor compensation scheme behind it

Group index 70/100

ASICCySEC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

CapTrader

4.2

Interactive Brokers' market access wrapped in German regulation, German support and a German phone number.

German-speaking options and futures traders
Active traders who want IBKR pricing with German support

Stocks (per order): 0.1 %
Minimum deposit: €2,000
EUR/USD spread: n/a

ForexStocksETFsOptions+7

Pros: BaFin-supervised German investment firm (institution number 10156708) with a Düsseldorf address, German contract law and a free German hotline until 20:00
Cons: No Abgeltungsteuer is withheld. German investors gain a compounding advantage but must declare everything themselves via Anlage KAP, and a Freistellungsauftrag is not possible — for many people that alone rules CapTrader out

Group index 81/100

BaFinCBI

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Questrade

4.2

Canada's biggest independent broker, now genuinely commission-free — with a 1.5% currency spread as the sting in the tail.

Canadian self-directed investors
Registered account investing (TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP)

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 1.9 pips

ForexStocksETFsOptions+6

Pros: CAD 0 commission on every Canadian and US stock and ETF trade, on both the buy and the sell side, with no ECN fees at all on Canadian orders
Cons: The 1.5% CAD/USD conversion charge is high and unavoidable unless you deliberately manage currency; on a CAD 20,000 US-stock purchase it costs CAD 300, dwarfing any commission saving

Group index 76/100

CIROOSC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

ThinkMarkets

4.1

Raw-spread pricing, six licences and a strong mobile app - held back by its withdrawal record.

Active FX traders
Mobile-first traders

Stocks (per order): in the spread (CFD)
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 1.1 pips

ForexStocksETFsCFDs+4

Pros: ThinkZero all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus USD 3.50 per lot per side on forex and metals
Cons: 75 percent of ThinkMarkets UK retail accounts lose money trading CFDs, and disclosures across the group's entities have ranged from roughly 68 percent to 89 percent

Group index 79/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Trading 212

4.1

One of the cheapest mainstream ways to buy stocks and ETFs in Europe - 0% commission, 0.15% FX, and almost nothing else to pay.

Low-cost ETF investing
Monthly savings plans

EUR 8–100 reward — Reward via promo link or promo code

Note: this button leads to the Trading 212 home page and is not a promo link. The reward is only available through a promo link, or a promo code you enter no later than ten days after opening the account.

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: €1
EUR/USD spread: n/a

ForexStocksETFsCFDs+3

Pros: One of the lowest all-in costs among mainstream European brokers for buy-and-hold investors: no commission, no custody fee, no inactivity fee, free withdrawals with no minimum, and a 0.15% FX conversion fee.
Cons: Research is the weakest of any broker at this size. There is no meaningful screener, no analyst consensus, no fundamental data worth the name and no export tooling - you will make every decision using data from somewhere else.

Group index 75/100

FCABaFin

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Admirals (Admiral Markets)

4.1

The rare CFD broker that also settles real shares — broad, well-priced and unusually forgiving about dormant accounts.

Real share investing
MetaTrader users

Stocks (per order): US$0.02/share
Minimum deposit: €100
EUR/USD spread: 0.9 pips

ForexStocksETFsCFDs+4

Pros: Real share and ETF ownership through Invest.MT5 — roughly 4,800 listed companies and 200-plus ETFs from USD 0.02 per share with a USD 1.00 minimum, with no custody or platform fee.
Cons: Support is weekday office hours only, with no weekend desk — a genuine gap for anyone holding crypto CFDs over a Saturday.

Group index 72/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

ActivTrades

4.0

A twenty-five-year-old London CFD house that buys extra insurance for your money and charges nothing to hold it.

Safety-conscious CFD traders
MetaTrader and TradingView users

Stocks (per order): in the spread (CFD)
Minimum deposit: None
EUR/USD spread: 1.0 pips

ForexStocksETFsCFDs+5

Pros: FCA licence 434413 held since 2005, plus a CMVM-regulated EU entity, an SCB entity and a Brazilian brokerage - one of the longest continuous track records in retail CFDs
Cons: 82 percent of ActivTrades retail accounts lose money on CFDs - the highest disclosed rate among the fourteen FCA-regulated CFD brokers surveyed by The Investors Centre in 2026, against a 69.9 percent mean

Group index 68/100

FCACMVM

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

FP Markets

4.0

Twenty years of ASIC-regulated plumbing behind the widest platform choice in the CFD market.

DMA equity and futures CFD traders
Traders who want platform choice

Stocks (per order): US$0.02/share (CFD)
Minimum deposit: A$100
EUR/USD spread: 0.1 pips

ForexStocksETFsFutures+6

Pros: Raw account at USD 3 per lot per side with EUR/USD measured at 0.1 pips and GBP/USD at 0.1 — competitive across the majors
Cons: No options of any kind — exchange-traded, OTC or CFD — so options traders need a second broker

Group index 68/100

ASICCySEC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Quick comparison

The numbers that decide this category, side by side. Scroll right on narrow screens for every column.

Best forex brokers — Quick comparison
Broker	Category	Overall	Fees35%	Trading platform20%	Safety & regulation20%	EUR/USD spread	Minimum deposit	Regulation	Action
1Interactive Brokers	4.5	4.5	4.9	4.8	4.8	0.1 pips	None	SECFCA, CBI, ASIC, MAS	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
2Pepperstone	4.5	4.4	4.6	4.6	4.4	0.8 pips	US$10	FCAASIC, BaFin, CySEC, DFSA, SCB, CMA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
3IG	4.4	4.5	4.0	4.7	4.9	0.9 pips	None	FCABaFin, FINMA, ASIC, MAS, JFSA, DFSA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
4CMC Markets	4.4	4.4	4.3	4.8	4.6	0.7 pips	None	FCAASIC, BaFin, MAS	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
5Saxo	4.4	4.4	4.2	4.7	4.7	0.7 pips	None	DFSAFCA, FINMA, MAS, JFSA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
6Capital.com	4.3	4.3	4.4	4.3	4.3	0.7 pips	US$20	FCAASIC, CySEC	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
7XTB	4.3	4.3	4.2	4.6	4.2	0.9 pips	None	FCAKNF, CySEC, CNMV, DFSA, FSCA, FSC	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
8IC Markets	4.3	4.2	4.7	4.5	3.9	0.8 pips	€200	ASICCySEC, FSCA, FSA, SCB, CMA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Our methodology

How we build this ranking

No editorial gut feeling — a published calculation. This category shifts the weights of our rating model towards what its audience actually needs.

Weighting in this category

35 brokers rated

The pale tick marks the weight in the general Brokaro model.

Category weight
Base model

The formula

The category score is 70% the category-specific weighting and 30% the general overall score. A strong all-rounder therefore does not drop out simply because it fails to lead one single criterion.

Category score = 0.7 × Σ(w_i × s_i) + 0.3 × Overall score

Full methodology

Requirements to be listed

A broker that misses these never appears in this list, no matter how it scores.

The broker has to actually offer Forex — not merely advertise it.

Frequently asked questions about this category

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