Interactive Brokers Review (2026)
Interactive Brokers (IBKR) suits experienced investors who want foreign markets, low margin rates or a fee-free exit, and it offers two pricing plans: IBKR Lite with $0 US stock and ETF trades, and IBKR Pro with per-share commissions and better rates. The one thing to know: IBKR pays no interest on the first $10,000 of cash, and pays less on accounts under $100,000. Options cost $0.65 a contract on Lite, with a $1 minimum per order, and moving your account out costs $0.
By Wealthy Pot Editorial · Facts checked October 19, 2026
Facts checked October 19, 2026 against Interactive Brokers's own fee schedules, rate pages, disclosures and regulator records (19 sources, listed below). We re-check prices about once a month. We do not earn a commission from Interactive Brokers.
Interactive Brokers at a glance
| Stocks and ETFs | IBKR Lite: $0 on US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs, but Fixed pricing on OTC stocks, overnight trades and recurring investments. IBKR Pro Fixed: $0.005 a share, $1.00 minimum, at most 1% of trade value; Pro Tiered from $0.0035 a share plus exchange and clearing fees [1] |
|---|---|
| Options | Lite: $0.65 a contract on the first 1,000 US contracts a month, $1.00 minimum per order. Pro: $0.65, $0.50 or $0.25 a contract depending on the premium, plus exchange and OCC fees. $0 for US exercise and assignment [2] |
| Mutual funds | IBKR says over 20,000 funds have no transaction fee; US funds that do cost the lesser of 3% of the trade or $14.95 [5] |
| Account minimum | $0 on Lite and Pro, taxable and IRA; no maintenance fee [7] |
| Fractional shares | 24,047 US, Canadian and European stocks and ETFs as of July 23, 2026, from $0.01 a trade [9] |
| Account types | Individual, joint, custodial UGMA/UTMA (cash only), trust; Traditional, Rollover, Roth, Inherited, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. No HSA or 529 found [10] |
| Interest on cash | 0% on the first $10,000. Above that, Pro pays 3.38% and Lite 2.38%; the full rate needs $100,000 of account value and is scaled down below that. Optional FDIC sweep up to $5,000,000 (individual) [8] |
| Margin rates (October 19, 2026) | Lite: 6.38% on any balance. Pro: 5.38% up to $100,000, 4.88% from $100,000 to $1,000,000 [7] |
| Transfer out and IRA fees | $0 for outgoing ACATS transfers, full or partial; no IRA closing fee listed on the fee pages [6] |
| Overnight trading | 10,000+ US stocks and ETFs from 8:00 PM to 3:50 AM ET (Lite pays Fixed pricing on these trades) [11] |
| International markets | 175 markets in 29 currencies, IBKR says [9] |
| Premium tier | None. Lite and Pro are both free; you can switch between them [7] |
| SIPC and excess | SIPC $500,000 ($250,000 cash) plus Lloyd's cover of up to $30 million more per account ($900,000 cash), $150 million aggregate [12] |
| Payment for order flow | Yes on IBKR Lite stock orders; IBKR Pro SmartRouting does not take it on stock orders [14] |
| Company | Interactive Brokers LLC (CRD 36418), owned by Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IBKR), Greenwich, Connecticut [16] |
What a year at Interactive Brokers costs
| Situation | Cost or interest | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Open and close a 10-contract options trade, twice a month for a year | $312 | $13 a round trip x 24. |
| $10,000 left uninvested for a year | $0 earned | Interest on cash, IBKR Lite at 0% APY, if the rate held all year. IBKR pays 0% on the first $10,000 of cash; above that Lite pays 2.38% and Pro 3.38%, less for accounts under $100,000. Margin shown is IBKR Lite; Pro is 5.38% up to $100,000. |
| Borrow $10,000 on margin for a year | About $638 | 6.38% a year on a $10,000 balance. Interest accrues daily, so the exact figure varies a little. |
| Move the whole account to another broker | $0 | Full outgoing transfer (ACATS). |
Hypothetical examples, our arithmetic from Interactive Brokers' published fees, cash rate (as of October 19, 2026) and margin rates (as of October 19, 2026), read on October 19, 2026. Broker commissions and the broker's own per-contract fees only: the small SEC, FINRA, OCC and exchange fees passed through on sales and option trades are left out. Cash and margin rates move with the Federal Reserve's rate.
How Interactive Brokers works
Every IBKR account picks one of two pricing plans, and you can switch later. IBKR Lite charges $0 on US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs, generally routes those orders to market makers that pay IBKR for the flow, pays less on cash (the benchmark minus 1.5%) and charges more on margin (6.38% at any balance). IBKR Pro charges per share, from $0.005 with a $1.00 minimum on the Fixed plan, routes through IBKR's SmartRouting without payment for order flow on stocks, pays more on cash and charges 5.38% on margin up to $100,000. Lite is not always $0: OTC stocks, overnight trades and recurring investment orders are billed at Fixed rates on Lite too.
IBKR is built for reach. Its fact sheet lists 175 markets in 29 currencies, and fractional shares cover 24,047 US, Canadian and European stocks and ETFs as of July 23, 2026. You trade through the Client Portal on the web, IBKR Mobile, IBKR Desktop, the Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop platform, the simpler IBKR GlobalTrader app, or an API. The menus, order types and account settings take time to learn. Beyond stocks there are options, US futures from $0.85 a contract plus exchange fees, bonds, over 20,000 no-transaction-fee funds by IBKR's count, and crypto through Paxos or Zero Hash at 0.12% to 0.18% of the trade with a $1.75 minimum; IBKR says crypto is not covered by SIPC.
Cash works differently from most brokers. Uninvested dollars are not swept into a fund by default; IBKR pays interest on settled cash itself, but not on the first $10,000, and the full rate applies only when the account is worth $100,000 or more. A hypothetical Lite account worth $50,000, all in cash: $50,000 - $10,000 = $40,000 earns interest, at 2.38% x ($50,000 / $100,000) = 1.19%, which is $40,000 x 1.19% = $476 for a year if the rate held. The same account on Pro: 3.38% x 0.5 = 1.69%, so $40,000 x 1.69% = $676. A $10,000 account earns nothing on either plan, as the cost block above shows. If you keep a lot of cash, compare a high-yield savings account or a money market fund.
Moving money out is cheap. IBKR does not charge for outgoing ACATS transfers, full or partial, and allows two free withdrawals a month; after that a USD wire costs $10. There is no inactivity fee (dropped July 1, 2021) and no account minimum. Real-time market data is billed separately as subscriptions. Phone support runs 24 hours from Sunday 1:00 PM ET to Friday 7:30 PM ET; there are no branches.
Pros
- $0 to transfer out, full or partial
- Margin from 5.38% on Pro and 6.38% on Lite, published for every balance
- 175 markets in 29 currencies, by IBKR's count
- Fractional shares in 24,047 US, Canadian and European stocks and ETFs
- Excess SIPC cover of up to $30 million per account
- Phone support around the clock on weekdays
Cons
- No interest on the first $10,000 of cash, and a reduced rate under $100,000
- Lite routes stock orders to market makers that pay for the flow
- Lite charges Fixed commissions on OTC, overnight and recurring trades
- Many platforms, order types and settings to learn
- Real-time market data is a separate paid subscription
Who Interactive Brokers fits, and who should skip it
A good fit if
- You want to buy stocks or ETFs on foreign exchanges from one US account.
- You borrow on margin and want a published rate of 5.38% (Pro) or 6.38% (Lite).
- You want to be able to leave without a transfer fee.
- You trade during the night: 10,000+ US stocks and ETFs from 8:00 PM to 3:50 AM ET.
Look elsewhere if
- You keep a few thousand dollars in cash and want it to earn something: IBKR pays 0% on the first $10,000; Fidelity lets you pick a money market fund as the core position that holds cash.
- You are new and want a simple app with few settings: Robinhood or J.P. Morgan Self-Directed.
- You trade multi-leg options in size and want a cap on commissions: tastytrade caps stock option commissions at $10 per leg.
- You want an HSA or a 529 at your broker: IBKR lists neither; Fidelity is a common pick.
Limitations to know
- Cash interest starts only above $10,000 and the full rate needs $100,000 of account value; IBKR says the rate is scaled down below that. [8]
- On Lite, OnOpen and OnClose orders, trades outside regular hours and orders under $1 are free only while they stay within 10% of your monthly US share volume; past that you pay the lesser of $0.005 a share or 1% of trade value. [1]
- Each options order has a $1.00 minimum commission, and Lite's flat $0.65 rate covers the first 1,000 US contracts a month. [2]
- After two free withdrawals in a calendar month, IBKR charges $10 for a USD wire, $4 for a check and $1 for ACH. [6]
- IBKR lists no IRA closing fee on its fee pages, but its IRA agreement reserves the right to charge fees; we could not confirm a figure. [10]
- We could not read IBKR's security and privacy pages in plain text, so this page does not list its two-factor login options or its data-sharing terms; read the privacy policy before you open an account. [13]
Interactive Brokers compared with alternatives
| Broker | Options per contract | Default cash rate | Transfer out | Fractional shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers | $0.65/contract ($1 minimum) | 0% on the first $10,000; 2.38% above (Lite) | $0 | Yes |
| Charles Schwab | $0.65/contract | 0.01% | $50 | Yes |
| Fidelity | $0.65/contract | 3.48% 7-day yield if you pick SPAXX (no default named) | $0 | Yes |
| Tastytrade | $1 to open, $0 to close ($10 max per leg) | Not published | $75 | Yes |
| Webull | $0 stock/ETF options; index options $0.50 | Not published | $75 | Yes |
- Pick Charles Schwab if you want a 529, phone help around the clock and fractional shares in most US stocks and ETFs from $1.
- Pick Fidelity if you want to pick a money market fund as the core position for cash and pay $0 to transfer out.
- Pick Tastytrade if you trade stock options in size and want commissions capped at $10 per leg.
- Pick Webull if you want a simpler app with $0 stock and ETF options commissions.
Security and privacy
- SIPC covers up to $500,000 per customer, including $250,000 of cash. IBKR adds a Lloyd's policy of up to $30 million more per account (cash up to $900,000), with a $150 million aggregate limit. Futures are not covered. [12]
- Cash in the optional Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program gets up to $5,000,000 of FDIC insurance for an individual account and $10,000,000 for a joint account. [8]
- In August 2020 the SEC ($11.5 million), FINRA ($15 million) and CFTC ($11.5 million) penalized IBKR, $38 million in total, for anti-money-laundering failures, including not filing more than 150 suspicious activity reports. [17]
- In September 2023 the SEC ordered Interactive Brokers Corp. and Interactive Brokers LLC to pay a $35 million penalty over business messages kept on unapproved channels. [18]
- FINRA fined IBKR $3.5 million in December 2023 over execution-quality reviews that fell short of its best-execution rule, $2.25 million in December 2024 for failing to detect free-riding in cash accounts, and $650,000 in August 2025 over its due diligence when approving self-directed customers for options. BrokerCheck also lists a $1.75 million CFTC penalty (September 2021) over supervision around the April 2020 negative crude oil prices, and about $7.7 million in options-exchange fines (September 2025) for marking about 15.3 million contracts as Customer instead of Professional Customer. [16]
- In July 2025 IBKR settled with the Treasury's OFAC for $11,832,136 over apparent sanctions violations from 2016 to 2024; IBKR had disclosed them voluntarily and OFAC found them non-egregious. [19]
Recent changes
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| Oct 13, 2026 | Crypto staking launched for eligible clients, provided by zerohash. [15] |
| Aug 13, 2026 | Access added to the Bucharest Stock Exchange. [15] |
| Aug 1, 2024 | ForecastEx, IBKR's CFTC-regulated subsidiary, began offering forecast contracts. [15] |
Interactive Brokers FAQ
Is Interactive Brokers safe?
Interactive Brokers LLC is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer (CRD 36418) owned by the Nasdaq-listed Interactive Brokers Group. Securities are covered by SIPC up to $500,000, plus a Lloyd's policy of up to $30 million more per account. It has paid regulators several times, including $38 million in 2020 over anti-money-laundering failures and $35 million to the SEC in 2023 over off-channel messages. SIPC does not cover market losses.
What is the difference between IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro?
Lite charges $0 on US exchange-listed stocks and ETFs and takes payment for order flow; it pays the benchmark rate minus 1.5% on cash (2.38%) and charges 6.38% on margin. Pro charges from $0.005 a share ($1.00 minimum) without payment for order flow on stocks, pays 3.38% on cash and charges 5.38% on margin up to $100,000. Both cost nothing to hold, and you can switch.
Does Interactive Brokers charge for options?
Yes. Lite charges $0.65 a contract on the first 1,000 US contracts a month, with a $1.00 minimum per order. Pro charges $0.25 to $0.65 a contract depending on the option's price, plus exchange and OCC fees. Exercise and assignment are free. See <a href="/best-options-trading-platform/">options trading platforms</a> for other brokers.
What does Interactive Brokers pay on cash?
Nothing on the first $10,000. Above that, Pro pays 3.38% and Lite 2.38%, and both rates are scaled down if the account is worth less than $100,000. A $50,000 Lite account held in cash earns about 1.19% on $40,000 under that rule.
Is Interactive Brokers good for beginners?
It has no account minimum, $0 stock trades on Lite and fractional shares, but it also has five platforms, many order types and a cash rate that pays nothing on the first $10,000. Beginners investing small amounts may find a simpler app easier; see <a href="/micro-investing-on-small-budget/">how to start investing with little money</a>.
How much does it cost to transfer out of Interactive Brokers?
$0. IBKR does not charge for incoming or outgoing ACATS transfers, full or partial. A DWAC transfer costs $100 and a DRS withdrawal $5.
How we researched this review
We did not get paid or receive a free account for this page. We read Interactive Brokers's own pricing page, help center, security and privacy pages and app-store listing on October 19, 2026, quoted each fact from those pages, and link every one below. We did not run a long-term hands-on test, so we do not score the app; where a point rests on what the company says rather than something we can check, we attribute it to Interactive Brokers. Cost figures are our own arithmetic. We re-check prices and plans about once a month and log changes in the table above.
Sources
- Interactive Brokers, Commissions: stocks, ETFs and warrants, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Commissions: options, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Commissions: futures, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Commissions: cryptocurrencies, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Commissions: mutual funds, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Other fees (transfers, withdrawals, ADR fees), checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Margin rates and IBKR Lite vs Pro, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Interest rates on cash and the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Fact sheet, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, IRA information, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, US overnight trading, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Security and investor protection, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Privacy policy, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, SEC Rule 606(a) report, Q2 2026, checked October 19, 2026.
- Interactive Brokers, Press releases, checked October 19, 2026.
- FINRA BrokerCheck, Interactive Brokers LLC (CRD 36418), checked October 19, 2026.
- SEC, Press release 2020-178 (August 10, 2020), checked October 19, 2026.
- SEC, Press release 2023-212 (September 29, 2023), checked October 19, 2026.
- U.S. Treasury OFAC, Recent actions, July 15, 2025, checked October 19, 2026.
Head-to-head comparisons
This review is for general information, not investment advice. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal; margin and options can lose more than you put in. Fees and rates change; check the broker's own pages before you open or move an account.