Use our trading cost calculator to compare how much it will cost you to trade with different brokers. Just tell us what you trade, how often and the average value of each position. It will then compare brokers ranked from cheapest to most expensive for your specific type of trading.
How To Use This Trading Costs Calculator?
This tool lets you estimate and compare the brokerage costs you’ll face given your trading habits. You input:
- What you trade (e.g. FX pair, index, stock)
- How often you trade (number of trades per month)
- Average trade size (value per position)
The calculator then estimates costs for different brokers and ranks them from cheapest to most expensive.
It is meant to help you compare brokers for your particular trading style, not to produce exact predictions.
Step-by-Step Instructions For Calculating Your Trading Costs
Below is a walkthrough users can follow:
| Step | What you do | Tips / things to watch out for |
| 1. Choose your asset / market | Select what you trade — e.g. EUR/USD, GBP/USD, a stock like AstraZeneca, an index like FTSE / Dow Jones, etc. Good Money Guide | If your instrument isn’t listed, choose the closest analogue (e.g. an index rather than a single stock) |
| 2. Enter number of trades per month | Input how many buy + sell trades you typically make | Be realistic: many people underestimate how many trades they do |
| 3. Enter average trade size | This is the average dollar / £ value of each position you open | Use a realistic estimate — e.g. if you trade small caps your average may be much lower than for large blue chips |
| 4. Run / calculate | Submit the inputs; the tool will estimate costs and generate a ranking of brokers | Wait for the calculation; results usually appear promptly |
| 5. Review results | Examine which brokers are cheapest for your profile | Note: brokers that are cheapest for one style (many small trades) may not be cheapest for another (few large trades) |
| 6. Consider additional costs | The tool focuses on trading commissions / spreads, but you should also factor in overnight financing, withdrawal fees, currency conversion, platform fees, etc. Good Money Guide | Especially important for leveraged / CFD / forex trading: overnight costs can change the picture significantly |
| 7. Cross-check with broker reviews | Good Money Guide has reviews & ratings of brokers (in the Trading Platforms section) you can consult for service, platform quality, etc. | Don’t pick a broker purely on cost; reliability, user interface, regulatory status also matter |
Best Practices & Tips for Accurate Comparison
- Use your real data — plug in your actual average trade size and frequency, rather than idealized numbers.
- Test alternative scenarios — see how your ranking changes if you trade more often, or trade in larger amounts.
- Mind overnight & hidden costs — the calculator gives a starting point, but read each broker’s fee schedule for financing, withdrawal, inactivity, etc.
- Check data currency — broker pricing and fees change over time, so don’t rely solely on one snapshot.
- Use reviews & reputation data — a “cheapest” broker might have poor execution, downtime, or bad customer service.
Limitations & Caveats
- The calculator does not include every possible cost (e.g. slippage, regulatory charges, stamp duty, etc.).
- It’s only as good as the inputs — bad assumptions lead to misleading outputs.
- Some assets or niche instruments may not be represented exactly in the list.
- Overnight financing (especially for leveraged / CFD / FX) can swamp the commission cost over time.
- The ranking reflects the modelled costs — real costs could differ (e.g. due to execution, spreads widening in volatile times).
Trading Costs Calculator FAQ
When we compare trading costs we look at three things:
- What you trade (we’ve added a selection of the most popular indices, shares, commodities and FX pairs)
- How often do you trade it (the mount of buy and sell trades you execute per month)
- The size our your position (the size of your position relates to the value, not the amount of shares)
We then calculate the cost of that trade and rank brokers based on which one is the cheapest.
When comparing trading costs and commission you also need to look at overnight financing rates. This is the cost of holding a position overnight.
- Further reading: Overnight Financing Explained: What is it and is it important?
Yes, in our trading platform section you can read our views on the brokers when we tested the platform. You can also see how we rate providers based on pricing, service, added value and market access.
We also rank brokers based on our assessment and over 17,000 votes in our annual awards.