Robinhood Review (2026)
Robinhood suits app-first investors and options traders who want $0 commissions, $0 per-contract fees on stock and ETF options, and margin rates that start at 5.25%. The one thing to know: cash in a regular account earns interest only if you pay for Robinhood Gold ($5 a month or $50 a year), and moving your account out costs $100. There are no mutual funds and no individual bonds.
By Wealthy Pot Editorial · Facts checked October 19, 2026
Facts checked October 19, 2026 against Robinhood's own fee schedules, rate pages, disclosures and regulator records (26 sources, listed below). We re-check prices about once a month. We do not earn a commission from Robinhood.
Robinhood at a glance
| Stocks and ETFs | $0 commission on US-listed stocks, ETFs and OTC securities in self-directed accounts [1] |
|---|---|
| Stock and ETF options | $0 commission and $0 per-contract fee; regulatory and clearing fees passed through [3] |
| Index options | $0.50 per contract, or $0.35 with Gold, plus the exchange's own index fee [4] |
| Mutual funds and bonds | Not offered; fixed income only through ETFs [2] |
| Account minimum | $0 [2] |
| Fractional shares | Stocks and ETFs listed on a national exchange (not OTC), from $1 an order [12] |
| Account types | Individual and joint taxable, Traditional and Roth IRA, revocable trust, custodial (UTMA); no SEP or SIMPLE IRA, solo 401(k), HSA or 529 [2] |
| Cash interest | None without Gold; 3.6% APY on eligible cash in self-directed taxable accounts with Gold (IRAs not eligible) [6] |
| Margin | 5.25% up to $50,000, 5.05% to $100,000, 4.75% to $1 million, down to 4.2% above $50 million (September 17, 2026) [5] |
| Transfer out | $100 for each full or partial ACATS transfer, IRAs included [11] |
| Account and inactivity fees | $0 account maintenance, $0 inactivity [1] |
| Trading hours | Extended hours 7 to 9:30 AM and 4 to 8 PM ET; overnight 8 PM to 7 AM ET for select stocks and ETFs (24 hours, 5 days a week) [14] |
| Robinhood Gold | $5 a month or $50 a year; changes the cash rate, IRA match, index option and futures fees [8] |
| SIPC and excess coverage | SIPC up to $500,000 incl. $250,000 cash; extra Lloyd's of London policy up to $50 million per customer incl. $1.9 million cash ($1 billion in total) [18] |
| Payment for order flow | Yes, on stock and stock-option orders; none on index options [22] |
| Company | Robinhood Financial LLC (CRD 165998), cleared by Robinhood Securities, LLC; parent Robinhood Markets, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOD), Menlo Park, Calif. [23] |
What a year at Robinhood costs
| Situation | Cost or interest | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Open and close a 10-contract options trade, twice a month for a year | $0 | $0 a round trip x 24. |
| $10,000 left uninvested for a year | $0 earned | Uninvested cash without Robinhood Gold at 0% APY, if the rate held all year. The High-Yield Cash Program is for Gold subscribers. Choosing High-Yield Cash with Gold (3.6% APY) would earn $360. |
| Borrow $10,000 on margin for a year | About $525 | 5.25% a year on a $10,000 balance; 4.75% at $100,000. Interest accrues daily, so the exact figure varies a little. |
| Move the whole account to another broker | $100 | Full outgoing transfer (ACATS). |
Robinhood Gold: $5 a month or $50 a year. Adds 3.6% APY on eligible cash, a 3% IRA contribution match instead of 1%, the first $1,000 of margin interest-free and $0.35 index options.
Hypothetical examples, our arithmetic from Robinhood's 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.
What Robinhood costs
| Plan | Paying monthly, 1 year | Annual plan, 1 year | 3 years (cheapest way) | Annual plan saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $0 | - | $0 | - |
| Robinhood Gold | $60 | $50 | $150 | $10 (17%) |
Our arithmetic from the listed prices, before sales tax, assuming today's prices hold; subscriptions can renew at a different rate. Gold prices are from the Robinhood Gold Agreement. Gold changes the cash rate, the IRA match, index option and futures fees and the first $1,000 of margin interest; stock and ETF trades cost $0 either way.
How Robinhood works
Robinhood Financial is an introducing broker; its affiliate Robinhood Securities clears the trades. You trade in the iPhone and Android apps, on the web, or in Robinhood Legend, a free browser-based desktop platform with charting and trading from charts. Stocks, ETFs and OTC securities trade at $0 commission, and fractional orders start at $1. Robinhood does not sell mutual funds or individual bonds, so a fund investor here buys ETFs. Options, futures and event contracts sit with separate affiliates: futures are $0.75 per contract per side ($0.50 with Gold) through Robinhood Derivatives, which is not covered by SIPC. Crypto trades through Robinhood Crypto, which charges no commission on its default routing but receives volume rebates from the market makers that fill the orders.
Robinhood makes money in ways that do not show up as a commission. It takes payment for order flow: in the second quarter of 2026, market makers paid its clearing firm $0.30 to $1.20 per contract on single-leg option orders of 1 to 100 contracts, depending on the stock's spread, and a share of the spread on stock orders. It also earns on margin loans, on the Gold subscription and on cash. Without Gold, uninvested cash in a regular account earns no interest. With Gold and the High-Yield Cash Program turned on, eligible cash in a self-directed taxable account earns 3.6% APY; the first $10,000 across your accounts is held at the broker under SIPC rules and the rest is swept to program banks for FDIC coverage. IRAs are not eligible, so cash inside a Robinhood IRA earns nothing. The cost block on this page puts the $100 transfer fee, the margin rate and the cash rate side by side.
Margin is priced as the upper bound of the Fed funds target range plus a spread that shrinks with the balance, and the tier rate applies to the whole balance, not just the part above the threshold. The same table applies with or without Gold; Gold makes the first $1,000 of margin interest-free.
A hypothetical first year of the Gold IRA match: you are under 50 and contribute $7,500 to a Robinhood IRA. Without Gold the 1% match is $7,500 x 1% = $75. With Gold the 3% match is $7,500 x 3% = $225, so Gold adds $150 against a $50 annual fee, $100 ahead. The conditions decide whether you keep it: you must stay on Gold for a year after the first Gold match, or Robinhood removes the extra 2% ($150 here), and the matched assets must stay in the IRA for 5 years, or an early removal fee claws the match back. Moving the IRA to another broker in year three would cost the $100 transfer fee and the match. Use our Roth IRA calculator to see what the contribution itself could grow to.
Pros
- No commission and no per-contract fee on stock and ETF options
- Margin from 5.25%, with the tier rate applied to the whole balance
- Overnight trading in select stocks and ETFs, 24 hours on weekdays
- IRA match of 1%, or 3% with Gold, on contributions
- Excess-SIPC policy up to $50 million per customer
- No account minimum, no maintenance fee and no inactivity fee
Cons
- Cash earns nothing without Gold, and IRA cash earns nothing at all
- $100 for every outgoing ACATS transfer, full or partial
- No mutual funds, individual bonds or Treasuries
- IRA matches are clawed back if the assets leave within 5 years
- Index options cost $0.50 per contract unless you pay for Gold
Who Robinhood fits, and who should skip it
A good fit if
- You trade stock or ETF options and want no per-contract fee on them.
- You borrow on margin and want a rate that starts at 5.25% for every customer, with or without Gold.
- You invest from a phone, in small dollar amounts, with fractional shares from $1.
- You will pay $50 a year for Gold and want the 3.6% cash rate and the 3% IRA contribution match that come with it.
Look elsewhere if
- You want mutual funds, individual bonds or Treasuries: Fidelity or Public sells them.
- You expect to move brokers and do not want a $100 exit fee: Fidelity charges $0 to transfer out.
- You want an HSA, SEP IRA or solo 401(k): Robinhood offers none of them; see our broker comparison.
- You want a downloadable desktop app with Level 2 data on a low subscription: Webull.
Limitations to know
- Fractional shares cover exchange-listed stocks and ETFs only, not OTC securities. [12]
- Outside regular hours you can place limit orders only, and the overnight session covers select stocks and ETFs, not the whole market. [14]
- Phone support is a callback rather than a number you dial, 7 AM to 9 PM ET on weekdays for investing questions, and not every question qualifies; chat is available in the app. [21]
- From October 15, 2026, customers Robinhood classes as professional options traders (more than 390 listed-options orders a day on average in the prior month) pay $0.50 per contract. [1]
- Crypto cannot be moved out by ACATS, and fractional shares are sold when you transfer out. [11]
- IRA matches are for self-directed IRAs only. Matched assets must stay 5 years or an early removal fee claws the match back, and Gold must be kept for a year after the first Gold match or the extra 2% is removed. The 1% match on IRA transfers and 401(k) rollovers has no cap. [9]
Robinhood compared with alternatives
| Broker | Options per contract | Default cash rate | Transfer out | Fractional shares |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robinhood | $0 stock/ETF options; index options $0.50 ($0.35 with Gold) | 0% | $100 | Yes |
| Webull | $0 stock/ETF options; index options $0.50 | Not published | $75 | Yes |
| Public | $0 stock/ETF options (rebate program); index options $0.35 | Not published | $100 | Yes |
| Fidelity | $0.65/contract | 3.48% 7-day yield if you pick SPAXX (no default named) | $0 | Yes |
| Interactive Brokers | $0.65/contract ($1 minimum) | 0% on the first $10,000; 2.38% above (Lite) | $0 | Yes |
- Pick Webull if you want a downloadable desktop app and a $75 transfer-out fee instead of $100.
- Pick Public if you want a rebate on stock and ETF options plus Treasuries and corporate bonds.
- Pick Fidelity if you want mutual funds, a money market core position and $0 to transfer out.
- Pick Interactive Brokers if you want international stocks and $0 to transfer out.
Security and privacy
- Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities are SIPC members: up to $500,000 per account type, including $250,000 for cash. An extra policy from Lloyd's of London adds up to $50 million in securities per customer, including $1.9 million cash, capped at $1 billion for all customers. Robinhood's High-Yield Cash page prints the SIPC cash limit as "$2.5M"; SIPC's cash limit is $250,000, as Robinhood's own protection page says. [18]
- Swept cash is FDIC-insured through program banks up to $2.5 million for individual accounts and $5 million for joint accounts ($250,000 per bank). Futures and event contracts at Robinhood Derivatives are not covered by SIPC. [7]
- Login checks include device approval, SMS codes, bank verification and a selfie or ID check; passkeys work on iOS only. The help page lists no hardware security key option. [19]
- Robinhood's security guarantee reimburses direct losses from unauthorized activity if you kept your login and devices secure. It does not cover losses your own actions made possible, or scams in which you authorized the transfer. [20]
- Regulator actions: in December 2020 the SEC ordered Robinhood Financial to pay a $65 million penalty over best execution and statements about its order-flow revenue; in June 2021 FINRA fined it $57 million and ordered about $12.6 million in restitution; in January 2024 Massachusetts settled for $7.5 million over app engagement practices, options approvals, outages and cybersecurity. [24]
- In January 2025 the SEC ordered Robinhood Financial and Robinhood Securities to pay $45 million combined over suspicious-activity report delays, customer data rules, recordkeeping and short-sale rules; in March 2025 FINRA fined Robinhood Securities, jointly with Robinhood Financial, $26 million plus restitution. [25]
Recent changes
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| Oct 15, 2026 | A $0.50 per contract fee for options customers classed as professional took effect. [1] |
| Oct 9, 2026 | The September 2026 IRA transfer bonus promotion ended; the standing 1% match on IRA transfers and rollovers still applies. [10] |
| Oct 1, 2026 | Robinhood's fee page says FINRA's trading activity fee on sales is paused from October 1 to December 31, 2026. [4] |
| Jun 1, 2026 | New commission formula on event contracts, with Gold members paying half the rate. [16] |
| Apr 4, 2026 | Robinhood began passing through the SEC fee on sales, $20.60 per $1 million sold. [1] |
| Jan 10, 2025 | A combined $0.04 per contract regulatory and clearing pass-through fee on options was added. [4] |
Robinhood FAQ
Is Robinhood safe?
Your securities are held by Robinhood Securities, a SIPC member: SIPC covers up to $500,000 per account type, including $250,000 cash, if the broker fails, and a Lloyd's of London policy adds up to $50 million per customer. That does not protect against market losses. Robinhood has paid large regulatory penalties, including $65 million to the SEC in 2020, $57 million to FINRA in 2021 and $45 million to the SEC in 2025.
Does Robinhood charge for options?
Not on stock and ETF options: $0 commission and $0 per contract. Index options cost $0.50 per contract ($0.35 with Gold) plus the exchange's index fee, and since October 15, 2026, customers classed as professional pay $0.50 per contract. Small regulatory and clearing fees are passed through on every contract.
What does Robinhood pay on cash?
Nothing on a regular account without Gold. With Gold ($5 a month or $50 a year) and the High-Yield Cash Program turned on, eligible cash in self-directed taxable accounts earned 3.6% APY as of September 17, 2026. Cash in a Robinhood IRA is not eligible. For idle savings, compare <a href="/high-yield-savings/">high-yield savings accounts</a>.
Is Robinhood good for beginners?
It has no account minimum, fractional shares from $1, recurring investments and a 1% IRA contribution match. It has no mutual funds, its phone support is a callback, and it charges $100 to transfer out. Robinhood reported in its Q2 2026 results that it had 28.4 million funded customers. Our guide on <a href="/micro-investing-on-small-budget/">investing with little money</a> covers the first steps.
Robinhood vs Webull?
Both charge $0 on stocks and on stock and ETF options and $0.50 per index option contract (Robinhood $0.35 with Gold). Robinhood's margin starts at 5.25% for everyone; Webull charges 8.74% unless you pay $3.99 a month for Premium. Webull charges $75 to transfer out against Robinhood's $100, and has a downloadable desktop app. See the <a href="/brokers/webull/">Webull review</a>.
How do I transfer out of Robinhood, and what does it cost?
Start the transfer at the receiving broker; Robinhood charges $100 for each full or partial ACATS transfer. Fractional shares are sold first and crypto cannot move by ACATS. In an IRA, matched assets that leave within 5 years can trigger an early removal fee on the match. Many receiving brokers reimburse the transfer fee.
How we researched this review
We did not get paid or receive a free account for this page. We read Robinhood'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 Robinhood. Cost figures are our own arithmetic. We re-check prices and plans about once a month and log changes in the table above.
Sources
- Robinhood Financial, Standard pricing fee schedule (PDF, September 29, 2026), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Financial, Customer Relationship Summary (Form CRS, PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood, Options trading, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Trading fees on Robinhood, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Margin rates, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, High-Yield Cash Program, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Deposit sweep program, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Gold Agreement (PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, IRA match FAQ, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, September 2026 retirement match promotion, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Transfer your assets out, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Fractional shares, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Recurring investments, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Extended-hours trading, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood, Robinhood Legend, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Derivatives, Fee schedule (PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Crypto, Fee schedule (PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, How you're protected, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Verifying it's you, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, Security guarantee, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Support, How to contact phone support, checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Securities, SEC Rule 606 and 607 disclosure (PDF, Q2 2026), checked October 19, 2026.
- FINRA BrokerCheck, Robinhood Financial LLC (CRD 165998), checked October 19, 2026.
- FINRA BrokerCheck, Robinhood Financial LLC detailed report (PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- FINRA BrokerCheck, Robinhood Securities LLC detailed report (PDF), checked October 19, 2026.
- Robinhood Markets, Q2 2026 results press release (SEC filing, July 29, 2026), checked October 19, 2026.
Head-to-head comparisons
- Robinhood vs Fidelity
- Robinhood vs Webull
- Robinhood vs SoFi Active Invest
- Robinhood vs Charles Schwab
- Robinhood vs Vanguard
- Robinhood vs E*TRADE
- Robinhood vs Public
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.