6 Best Lowest Spread Forex Brokers for 2024

Founded in 2007, IC Markets is based in Sydney, Australia, and is authorized and regulated by CySEC, ASIC, SCB and the FSA of Seychelles, providing access to more than 1,700 financial instruments. The broker is considered the ‘go-to’ for serious forex traders seeking ultra-low spreads and commissions with zero requotes and no restrictions on trading strategies.

• The cTrader Raw Spread account – offers the lowest forex spreads starting from 0.0 pips and the lowest commission from $3.00 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The MetaTrader Raw Spread account also offers forex spreads from 0.0 pips but with commissions of $3.50 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The Standard Account offers forex spreads from 0.6 pips but charges no commission to buy or sell.
• In the course of our fee test, when opening a live commission-free Standard Account, the spread for EUR/USD during the London and New York session was 0.6 pips and averaged 1.35 pips for GBP/JPY.

There is also a swap fee when holding a trade overnight due to the ‘borrowing’ of capital when using leverage or margin-based CFD accounts. This is based on interest rates and a broker markup but was in line with the industry average.

From my personal experience, I have found that the spreads with IC Markets are very competitive and much better than the industry average, where many brokers will quote around 1.0 pip for EUR/USD and more than 3.0 pips for GBP/JPY on a commission-free trading account.

While IC Market’s commission per trade is lower using the cTrader platform than the MetaTrader platform, they are both in line with the industry average. However, I also found that all trading styles are allowed and, uniquely, there is no order distance restriction. This means you can place orders very close to the market price and have them filled with no requotes.

Another reason why IC Markets is considered the best overall broker is that I found you can upgrade your MetaTrader platform with additional trading tools such as an alarm manager, correlation matrix, and sentiment indicator, and access an impressive range of educational materials such as webinars, podcasts, and news articles.

Founded in 2005, FP Markets is based in Sydney, Australia, is authorized and regulated by ASIC and CySEC, and has an unregulated entity based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The broker has become a leader in the industry, providing access to more than 840 tradable instruments covering forex, shares, commodities, indices, cryptos, bonds, and ETFs with competitive fees.

• The Raw Account offers the lowest forex spreads starting from 0.0 pips and the lowest commission from $3.00 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side for MT4, MT5, and cTrader platforms.
• The Standard Account offers forex spreads from 1.0 pips but with zero commission to buy or sell for MT4, MT5, and cTrader platforms.
• When opening a live, commission-free Standard Account, the spread for EUR/USD during the London and New York session averaged 1.1 pips and averaged 1.70 pips for GBP/JPY, with overnight swap fees slightly higher than the industry average.

From my personal trading experience, I find that the spread on EUR/USD for a commission-free trading account is in line with the industry average. However, the spread is much better than the industry average for GBP/JPY, which can sometimes reach over 3.0 pips.

I also found that the commission of $3.00 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side, is better than the industry average for using MetaTrader, which is typically around $3.50. The mere fact you can access the MT4, MT5, and cTrader platforms is also great.

There is a decent range of tradable instruments too. This includes 72 currency pairs, 17 commodities, 18 indices, 12 cryptos, 46 ETFs, and more than 680 European, US, UK, and Asia shares. You can also open an IRESS platform trading account and trade more than 15,000 shares using direct market access.

AvaTrade was founded in 2006 in Dublin, Ireland, and offers more than 840 tradable instruments that can be traded as CFDs and vanilla options. This diversity affords traders greater flexibility.

AvaTrade offers several proprietary platforms (Ava Web Trader, AvaOptions, and AvaSocial), and it also incorporates MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, and DupliTrade. The platforms are versatile and cater to the needs of different traders.

Ava Web is suitable for carrying out advanced technical analysis because of its fluid charting capabilities. Meanwhile, MT4 and MT5 allow basic technical analysis and easy order execution. AvaSocial and DupliTrade connect signal providers and signal followers and facilitate social trading.

I also determined that AvaTrade’s prices fall marginally below the industry average. The combination of zero commissions and floating spreads from 0.9 pips is suitable for day trading. I also measured the broker’s swaps and determined that they were suitable for longer-term trading. Indeed, AvaTrade’s overnight charges are quite favorable for swing trading and position trading.

Founded in 2009, Vantage is based in Sydney, Australia, and is authorized and regulated by ASIC, the VFSC, FSCA, and CIMA, providing access to trade on more than 900 financial instruments from the MetaTrader 4 trading platform with an upgraded Smart Trader Tools package.

• The Pro ECN account offers the lowest forex spreads starting from 0.0 pips and the lowest commission from $1.50 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The Raw ECN account also offers forex spreads from 0.0 pips but with commissions of $3.00 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The Standard STP Account offers forex spreads from 1.0 pips but charges zero commission to buy or sell.
• When opening a live, commission-free Standard Account, in the course of our fee test during the London and New York session, the spread for EUR/USD averaged 1.3 pips and 2.65 pips for GBP/JPY, with swap fees in line with the industry average.

On the face of it, the Pro ECN looks the best for fees. However, there is a minimum deposit of $10,000. The Raw ECN account is the most popular choice, according to the broker, which has a minimum deposit of only $50, which, in my opinion, is a great place to start.

I was surprised to find that the commission from the Raw ECN account was only $3.00 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side, as this is better than the industry average, especially with such a low minimum deposit.

Vantage provides the ability to trade from its own mobile trading app, as well as the MetaTrader 4 trading platform for PC, Mac, and mobile. The MT4 platform is one of the most popular platforms in the world and provides access to 9 timeframes, more than 80 technical indicators, and the capability for algorithmic trading.

The broker also offers you the ability to upgrade your MT4 platform with its Smart Trader Tools package. These are extra indicators for the platform, which include a correlation matrix, sentiment trader, and mini-terminal. Having used the correlation matrix myself, it is great to help with risk management and ensure you’re not trading markets that are highly correlated with one another.

Founded in 2014, the Tickmil Group has entities authorized and regulated by the UK FCA, CySEC, DFSA UAE, FSCA, and the Labuan FSA, providing access to more than 250 instruments covering forex, commodities, indices, stocks, bonds, cryptos, futures, and options. The broker has a solid reputation and offers a competitive range of products and fees.

• The VIP Account offers the lowest spreads starting from 0.0 pips with the lowest commission of just $1 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The Pro Account offers low spreads from 0.0 pips with a low commission of $2 per 100,000 units of currency traded, per side.
• The Classic Account offers spreads from 1.6 pips but with zero commissions to buy and sell.
• While the VIP Account looks the best it does have a minimum deposit of $50,000. I found that the Pro Account offers a better solution as the minimum deposit is only $100 but still offers decent spreads and commissions.
• When opening a live, commission-free Classic Account, in the course of our fee test, the spread for EUR/USD during the London and New York session was 1.6 pips and averaged 3.7 pips for GBP/JPY, with swap fees in line with the industry average.

From my personal experience, I found that the spreads with Tickmill’s commission-free account are competitive but just in line with the industry average. Where Tickmill really shines is the fact you can access a Pro or VIP account with spreads from 0.0 pips and a very low commission of $2 and $1 respectively for every 100,000 units of currency traded, which is much lower than the industry average of around $3.50.

I was also surprised that this level of pricing was available on an account that can be opened with a minimum of 100 USD, EUR or GBP. I have seen other brokers offer this type of competitive pricing but with a minimum deposit to open an account starting in the thousands.

If you are more of an advanced trader you may be pleased to know that on top of the MetaTrader trading platform, Tickmill provides access to professional platforms CQG and also TradingView.

While my trading experience has helped me become a whizz using MetaTrader, it is not the most user-friendly platform for beginners. Having access to TradingView is a great option for beginners, as are the regular live trading webinars. You can also access a subscription to Signal Centre which is an FCA-regulated signal provider driven by AI.

IG has been a heavyweight in the industry since being established in 1974. IG US was launched in 2019 to bring margin-based foreign exchange trading to US citizens. IG US is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA) and provides access to competitive forex fees and trading platforms.

• US traders may like to know that the margin required to trade EUR/USD is only 2%. This means you only need to put up 2% of the total trade value to open a trade, which, in my experience, is even better than what is offered to non-US traders with a tier-1 regulated broker.
• High-volume traders can also access spread rebates. For example, if you trade more than $100 million in notional value a month, you can gain a 5% spread rebate.
• IG US offers one type of live trading account to trade more than 80 currency pairs, which include majors, minors, Australasian, Scandinavian, exotics, and emerging pairs.
• While IG US promotes a minimum spread of 0.8 pips on EUR/USD and USD/JPY, our fee test showed that its own average spread figures are 1.3 pips and 1.8 pips respectively. This is likely because spreads are lowest during the London and New York session and higher outside of these sessions, raising the average 24-hour, 5-days-a-week figure.
• There are zero commissions to buy and sell, as it is all built into the spread. This is also why the spread may seem higher than some other US forex brokers who will have lower spreads but also charge a commission to buy and sell.

When comparing IG US’s spreads to other US forex brokers, they do come out slightly higher than average. However, this is compensated by low overnight swap fees, zero commissions to buy and sell, and access to advanced trading platforms which have a lot of useful features.

For example, I found that the IG web trading platform is top-notch. It provides a simple, clean, and user-friendly design that can be customized easily. I particularly enjoyed the in-built news and analysis from IG’s own in-house analysts, as well as its own automated chart pattern recognition tool directly on the web platform.

With IG US, you can also access the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and ProRealTime. Having used ProRealTime myself, it can be a great addition to your trading, as you can create automated algorithmic trading strategies using very simple scripts.