UK Trading Cost Calculator: Compare Real Broker Costs
This free calculator estimates the real annual cost of the leading UK-available investing platforms for your exact trading pattern — commissions, currency-conversion fees, withdrawal charges and inactivity fees combined, then ranked cheapest first. "Commission-free" rarely means free: the differences hide in FX and withdrawal fees. Fee data verified 17 August 2026.
Reviewed by Yaniv Barshaf, CPA · Fees verified 17 August 2026 · Our methodology
Disclosure: FeesWizard may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. This never affects our fee data or rankings — how we make money.
What will each broker actually cost you?
Enter the portfolio you actually hold. We calculate every charge — dealing commission, platform and custody fees, subscriptions, FX, dividend and withdrawal fees — and rank the brokers by what you would really pay.
On a £10,000 portfolio with 12 trades a year, the cheapest option is InvestEngine at £0.00/year. The most expensive charges £188/year.
Choosing the cheapest saves £188 a year — and £940 over five years, once you account for the growth those fees never earned.
| Broker | Plan | Per year | Over 5 years | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| InvestEngineCheapest | DIY portfolio | £0.00 | £0.00 | |
| Robinhood | Robinhood UK | £1.00 | £5.52 | |
| Lightyear | UK GIA / ISA | £1.00 | £5.52 | |
| Trading 212 | Invest account | £1.50 | £8.29 | |
| Webull | Webull Go (UK) | £5.00 | £28 | |
| Revolut | Standard plan | £5.00 | £28 | |
| XTB | XTB account | £5.00 | £28 | |
| Freetrade | Basic (free) | £9.90 | £55 | |
| eToro | eToro account | £11 | £61 | |
| Interactive Brokers(we earn nothing from this platform) | IBKR Fixed pricing | £36 | £182 | |
| Vanguard UK(we earn nothing from this platform) | Vanguard account | £48 | £240 | |
| AJ Bell(we earn nothing from this platform) | AJ Bell account | £93 | £476 | |
| interactive investor(we earn nothing from this platform) | Core (£5.99/mo) | £127 | £639 | |
| Hargreaves Lansdown(we earn nothing from this platform) | HL account | £128 | £659 | |
| Fidelity(we earn nothing from this platform) | Fidelity account | £188 | £940 |
What five years of fees adds up to
Includes the growth those fees would have earned had they stayed invested.
- InvestEngine£0.00
- Robinhood£5.52
- Lightyear£5.52
- Trading 212£8.29
- Webull£28
Estimates only, based on each broker's published fee schedule as verified on 17 August 2026. Fund ongoing charges are shown separately because they are paid to the fund manager and are the same whichever broker you use. Fees quoted in another currency are converted at a fixed reference rate so that every figure on this site is reproducible. See our methodology. Capital at risk. This is not financial advice. Investing involves risk of loss.
How the calculator works
Enter your average trade size, trades per year and withdrawals per year, and tick the currency-conversion option if you buy assets priced in another currency (for most UK investors, US stocks). For each platform the calculator combines its published per-trade commission, FX fee, withdrawal fee and any inactivity charge into one estimated annual figure, then ranks the list cheapest first. The region filter is set to UK-available platforms by default; switch it to compare US or EU line-ups. CFD and spread-based brokers are excluded because leveraged, spread-based costs are not directly comparable to share-dealing fees. All figures come from each broker's official published fee schedule, verified 17 August 2026, and are estimates rather than quotes. Capital at risk.
Reading the results: where the money actually goes
Three patterns show up in almost every profile. First, FX fees dominate for UK investors who buy US stocks: at 0.15% (Trading 212) versus roughly 0.75% (eToro), the same £1,000 trade costs £1.50 or £7.50 in conversion — repeated every trade. Second, withdrawal fees punish frequent cash-outs: a flat $5 per withdrawal is negligible for annual withdrawers and significant for monthly ones. Third, inactivity fees only matter if you go dormant — most platforms here charge none, and those that do reset on a simple login or trade. The cheapest broker for a buy-and-hold ISA investor is often different from the cheapest for an active US-stock trader, which is exactly what the ranking reveals when you change the inputs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which UK broker is cheapest overall?
It depends on your pattern, which is why this is a calculator rather than a single answer. For typical UK buy-and-hold profiles, Trading 212's 0.15% FX fee and zero commission usually put it first; heavy US-stock traders and non-converters can see different rankings.
Why are CFD brokers not in the calculator?
CFD platforms price through spreads and overnight funding on leveraged positions, which cannot be compared line-for-line with share-dealing commissions and FX fees. Including them would produce misleading rankings, so the calculator covers share-dealing (stock and ETF) platforms only.
How accurate are the annual cost estimates?
They are built from each broker's official published fee schedule, verified 17 August 2026, applied to the exact inputs you enter. Actual costs vary with account currency, asset mix, plan tier and promotions — treat the output as a like-for-like comparison, not a quote.