Does eToro Have Fees And Are They Cheap?

eToro sits around or just below the industry average for trading fees. If you’re an active trader, you may prefer a low-cost broker to minimize frequent spreads and other costs.

eToro Fees Compared

The table below lists the main fees for eToro customers outside the US.

CopyTrader and Smart Portfolios don’t have extra fees. Copied trades pay the same spreads and overnight fees as manual trades. eToro Club members get tiered discounts, which I’ll explain later.

Which eToro Fees Will You Actually Pay?

Stocks And ETFs: $1 A Trade In Most Of Europe

If you buy real shares without leverage, you don’t pay overnight or custody fees, just the commission. Traders in France, Germany, Italy, or the Netherlands pay $1 to open and $1 to close a trade. UK residents pay nothing.

A $2 round trip is 0.2% of a $1,000 trade, but 2% of a $100 trade, so smaller regular buys are affected more. Recurring investment plans don’t charge the opening commission.

ETFs are even cheaper. There’s no commission anywhere, and if you buy an ETF priced in euros from a EUR account, you also avoid conversion fees. So eurozone investors pay nothing to buy it.

Anyone who buys UK-listed shares pays a 0.5% stamp duty, no matter where they live. For example, if you buy £1,000 of a FTSE 100 stock, you’ll pay £5 in tax.

Currency Conversion: Your Account Choice Sets The Price

Transferring money between a EUR or GBP account and a USD account costs 0.75%. If you deposit euros or pounds straight into a USD account, you pay 150 pips instead, which is about $1.50 for every $100 deposited.

If you buy US shares with euros or pounds, using your local account is cheaper. For example, a €1,000 round trip with no price change, at about $1.12 to the euro, will cost less. A similar round trip with £1,000 from a GBP account costs about $19.80 at $1.32 to the pound, compared to $35 through the USD account. EUR and GBP accounts don’t have a minimum withdrawal, but the USD account requires at least $30.

If you invest monthly, you might avoid conversion fees, since deposits from a recurring plan convert for free for Club members. I recommend checking with eToro before you count on this.

Crypto: 1% Each Way

eToro charges a 1% fee when you buy crypto and another 1% when you sell. This fee is shown separately and isn’t included in the price. For example, buying $1,000 of Bitcoin costs $10, and selling it for $1,100 costs $11. So the total round trip is $21.

Platinum members pay 0.95% on up to $10,000 a month, saving about $1 on that trade. Moving coins to the eToro Money wallet costs another 2%, up to $100, and you can’t move them back.

CFDs And Leverage: Where Costs Add Up Fastest

Short sales and leveraged trades are done as CFDs. These pay a spread when you open and close, plus an overnight fee or sometimes a credit for each night the position stays open. For leveraged stock purchases, the overnight fee is 6.4% a year plus a benchmark rate, charged on the full position.

If you put $1,000 into Apple at 1:2 leverage, you control $2,000 of shares. The 6.4% fee alone costs about $0.35 per night, or $128 over a year, before adding the benchmark rate. That’s at least 12.8% of your investment, plus a 0.15% spread each way.

Where available, margin charges the same annual rate but only on the $1,000 you borrow. This cuts the overnight cost in half, and you own the shares. The 0.15% each way is a commission, not a spread. Overnight fees triple once a week: on Fridays for most stocks, ETFs, and indices, and on Wednesdays for most currencies and commodities.

Withdrawals And The eToro Club

The Platinum tier starts at a $25,000 balance or $4.99 a month. It removes the $5 USD withdrawal fee and reduces European and UK conversion fees by 40%, from 0.75% to 0.45%. The Diamond tier, at $250,000, cuts 80% off.

The yearly plan costs $49.99. It only pays for itself through conversion savings if you convert more than about $16,700 a year. If you convert less, it costs more than it saves.

What A Year On eToro Costs

I’ve rounded up what eToro’s fees add up to over 12 months for three common investors, using the rates above and assuming prices don’t move:

• German investor: a recurring plan removes the $12 commission. But since it’s paid by card, it only saves money if the deposit conversion is free, as mentioned above. Picking euro-priced ETFs removes both the commission and the conversion fee.
• Crypto saver: selling costs another 1% of whatever your coins are worth at the time, as shown in the crypto example above. If your money starts in euros or pounds, add a 0.75% conversion fee.
• Leveraged trader: Margin would lower the cost to about $70, since interest is only charged on the $1,000 you borrow. Both amounts go up when eToro adds its benchmark rate.

How To Check What eToro Will Really Charge You

eToro shows all charges before you confirm a trade, but you need to look for them. Here’s how (I do many of these steps myself before placing live trades):

1. Tap ‘estimated cost’ on the trade screen. This shows the commission and other fees before you confirm. Overnight fees for CFDs are listed at the bottom of the same window.
2. Look for the ‘CFD’ label. Any trade done as a CFD is marked ‘CFD’ in the trade window. If you want to buy real shares, set leverage to ‘x1’ and choose ‘Buy’. However, eToro says some unleveraged buys may still be CFDs.
3. Check the History tab. On your Portfolio page, the ‘History’ tab shows the fees paid on each trade and totals for different time periods.
4. Fund the right account. Send euros or pounds to your local currency account, not the USD account. This way, you pay 0.75% when you convert instead of 150 pips on the deposit.
5. Look up your stock commission. The ‘Choose your country’ selector on the fees page shows whether your rate is $0, $1, or $2, depending on where you live.

To see where these screens are in the mobile app, check out our eToro app review.

Are eToro Fees Cheap Or Not?

eToro is affordable for European investors who buy real stocks and ETFs with their own money from a EUR or GBP account. You pay $1 per stock trade in most of the EU, nothing in the UK, and no commission on ETFs.

However, costs go up if you trade crypto, use leverage, go short, or fund your account in a currency that needs to be converted to dollars. Its typical spreads are also wider than many low-cost brokers we’ve tested. So it’s not the cheapest option for highly active short-term traders.

US traders wanting a better understanding of pricing in their region should read our eToro USA review.