What “Commission-Free” Actually Costs You in 2026

The headline number is the one that matters least

Every broker on our list that markets itself as commission-free is telling the truth. eToro, Trading 212 and XTB genuinely charge nothing to buy or sell a real share. If you deposit in the account currency, buy one stock, and hold it for a decade, you will pay close to nothing.

Almost nobody does that. You deposit in your local currency, you buy a handful of positions, and at some point you take money out. Each of those steps has a price, and none of them is the commission. That is the whole business model: the advertised cost went to zero and the costs around it did not.

The useful question is not “which broker is commission-free” but “what will this specific account cost me over a year”. Those give different answers often enough that it is worth ten minutes of arithmetic before you fund anything.

Currency conversion is usually the biggest line

If you live outside the United States and want to buy US stocks, your money has to become dollars at some point. Brokers charge a percentage to do that, and it applies to the full amount you deposit rather than to your profits.

This is why a European investor putting money into a US portfolio can pay a meaningful amount before owning a single share. It is a one-off per deposit rather than a recurring drag, but it scales with how much you move and how often you move it.

The practical defence is boring and effective: deposit larger amounts less often rather than small amounts monthly, and where the broker offers a multi-currency account, fund it in the currency you intend to trade in.

• Conversion applies on the way in, and often again on the way out.
• It is charged on the deposit, not on gains, so it costs the same whether the position wins or loses.
• Some brokers offer a small free allowance per month, then charge above it.
• Funding by bank transfer in the account currency usually avoids it entirely.

Withdrawal and inactivity fees punish small accounts

A flat withdrawal fee is regressive by design. On a four-figure withdrawal it rounds to nothing. On a small account that takes out a couple of hundred at a time, it is a real percentage, and it recurs every time.

Inactivity fees work the other way around: they hit the people who do nothing. If you are a genuine buy-and-hold investor who logs in twice a year, check this before anything else, because a dormant account can be quietly billed for the privilege of existing.

Neither fee is hidden. Both are in the published schedule. They are simply not in the advertising, which is where most people form their impression of what a broker costs.

The spread is a cost even when the commission is zero

On CFD products in particular, the difference between the buy and sell price is where the broker earns. You pay it the instant you open a position: a trade is very slightly underwater before the market has moved at all.

For real shares on a liquid US large-cap this is small enough to ignore for a long-term holding. On less liquid markets, or if you trade in and out frequently, it compounds into the largest cost you never see itemised on a statement.

This is the main reason our rankings separate real-stock brokers from CFD-first ones. The two are not competing on the same cost structure, even when both say zero commission.

What this means at different portfolio sizes

Cost structures interact with account size in ways that flip the answer. Below is the rough shape of it, and the reasoning matters more than any specific ranking.

How to work out your own number

Take the amount you plan to deposit in the first year and multiply by the conversion rate the broker charges. Add the withdrawal fee times the number of withdrawals you realistically expect. If you trade CFDs, add the spread times your expected number of round trips. If you are a hold-and-forget investor, add any inactivity charge.

That total, divided by your portfolio, is your real annual cost as a percentage. Do it for two brokers and the comparison stops being about marketing claims. It is usually a five-minute exercise and it frequently changes the decision.