Does Interactive Brokers Pay Interest on Cash?

How It Works

• No interest on the first $10,000 of cash. That tier earns nothing.
• Above that, IBKR Pro pays roughly the benchmark rate minus 0.5%.
• IBKR Lite pays less — benchmark minus 1.5%. Lite is no longer available in all regions.
• To get the full rate, you need an account NAV of $100,000 or more. Below that, the rate scales down proportionally. A $60,000 account, for example, earns about 40% less than the headline.
• Cash has to sit in the securities segment of your account; money in the commodities segment doesn’t earn.
• Interest accrues daily on your eligible settled cash balance and is then paid monthly, typically the third business day of the following month.

Rates float with central bank policy, rising and falling over time. IBKR pays on several currencies, not just dollars, though every time we’ve checked USD tends to have the best rate. For anyone parking idle cash between trades, it beats letting it sit dead, but don’t expect anything on that first $10k.

Non-USD currencies have their own exempt thresholds.

How IBKR Compares to Alternative Cash Sweep Programs

While IBKR advertises strong headline rates, the $10,000 zero-interest threshold and $100,000 Net Asset Value (NAV) scaling hurdles mean it isn’t always the best place to park your cash.

To see where IBKR actually makes sense for earning interest, we looked at how its program compares to other major brokerages:

The comparisons above focus on standard USD cash programs for US-based accounts. Tiers and thresholds may vary for international clients.

Which Broker Wins at Each Balance?

Because IBKR’s effective yield formula relies on both your cash balance and overall portfolio size, the most cost-effective broker changes depending on how much capital you hold:

For cash balances:

• Under $10,000: Moomoo or Firstrade are better. At $10,000 or lower in idle cash, IBKR pays 0.00% APY.
• $10,000 – $50,000 (with total NAV under $100,000): Moomoo is better. At Interactive Brokers, if you hold $25,000 in cash inside a $50,000 total account, IBKR only pays interest on $15,000 of it, and then slashes that payout by 50% due to the $100k NAV scaling rule.
• $100,000+ (NAV & $50,000+ cash): This is where Interactive Brokers becomes the compelling option. Once your total account portfolio clears $100,000, IBKR’s NAV scaling penalty goes away. On a $100,000 cash balance, the $10,000 zero-interest threshold represents only a 10% pull on your total yield – allowing IBKR’s institutional pass-through rate to beat standard retail sweep programs.

If you want interest paid on other currencies or to hold multi-currency balances, Interactive Brokers also beats out the competition.  Platforms like Moomoo and Firstrade operate primarily in USD or force non-USD balances into dollar conversions whereas IBKR pays interest by tier directly on more than 20 native currencies held inside your securities account, though rates will vary on other currencies.

Bottom Line

IBKR’s interest paying program isn’t designed as a high-yield cash account for smaller retail balances – it rewards active traders and high-net-worth investors holding significant operational cash buffers between trading positions and setups. In that way, it’s much like Interactive Brokers’ offering itself – best suited to experienced, serious traders.