Interactive Brokers Forex Review

Written by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by John Bringans
Fact-checked by Blain Reinkensmeyer

November 29, 2024

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 66% of retail CFD accounts lose money. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

In my experience, Interactive Brokers is an excellent choice for seasoned traders. Its advanced tools and extensive global market access offer a professional-grade experience that can handle the demands of complex trading strategies. However, I’ve found that beginners may struggle with the platform’s sophistication, across both web and desktop versions, with the notable exception of its recently launched IBKR Desktop, its latest platform that has been simplified for ease of use.

While IBKR has been working to broaden its appeal to retail traders with new platforms, high-quality research, and education, I believe it is still best suited for more experienced traders, including high-volume and institutional investors. IBKR’s rich feature set and customization options make it a top-tier choice for traders looking for advanced tools and features.

Overall summary

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Overall Rating info
Trust Score info	99
Offering of Investments
Commissions & Fees
Platform & Tools
Research
Mobile Trading
Education

--> View Interactive Brokers Features List

Is Interactive Brokers safe?

Trust Score

99

Interactive Brokers is considered Highly Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 99 out of 99. Interactive Brokers is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by nine Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and zero Tier-4 regulators (High Risk). Interactive Brokers is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system. Learn more about Trust Score or see where the different Interactive Brokers entities are regulated.

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Year Founded info	1977
Publicly Traded (Listed) info	Yes
Bank info	No
Tier-1 Licenses info	9
Tier-2 Licenses info	2
Tier-3 Licenses info	0
Tier-4 Licenses info	0

Offering of investments

Interactive Brokers offers a significant range of tradeable global markets. However, the availability of those markets will depend on where you reside and which Interactive Brokers entity holds your account. For example, retail spot forex trading is not available to U.S. residents (unless you are designated as an ‘Eligible Contract Participant’ by Interactive Brokers), and CFDs are not available to clients in the U.S., Canada, or Hong Kong. For U.S. forex trading, see our U.S. forex brokers guide. In 2024, Interactive Brokers launched IBKR ForecastTrader, a web-based platform that allows you to speculate on economic and geopolitical events, such as the U.S. presidential election, as well as climate events, like predicting total global carbon dioxide emissions for the year.

Cryptocurrency: Interactive Brokers was featured among our top picks for the best crypto trading platforms. Cryptocurrency trading is not available at Interactive Brokers through CFDs, but is available through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin) through Interactive Brokers' partnership with Paxos and Zero Hash, and via OSL Digital Securities (for HK residents). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents.

The following table summarizes the different investment products available to Interactive Brokers clients.

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) info	Yes
Tradeable Symbols (Total) info	8500
Forex Pairs (Total) info	90
U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) info	Yes
Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) info	Yes
Social Trading / Copy Trading info	No
Cryptocurrency (Physical) info	Yes
Cryptocurrency (Derivative) info	No
Disclaimers	Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients).

Commissions and fees

Interactive Brokers does appear to offer competitive pricing; however, it is difficult to make a precise comparison as Interactive Brokers does not publish its average spreads for forex. That said, we were able to obtain average spreads during Q3 2024 for the EUR/USD at IBKR: 0.19 pips, or an effective all-in spread of 0.59 pips after commission.

Forex pricing summary: For forex trading, commissions per side start at 0.00002 (0.2 basis points) of the U.S. dollar trade value with a minimum of $2 per order ($4 per round turn), but can drop to 0.08 basis points if you are an exceptionally active trader.

Forex account example: Buying and then selling $100,000 worth of EUR/USD at Interactive Brokers would result in a commission-equivalent of roughly 0.40 pips in addition to any prevailing spreads. Overall, that is a low commission rate for forex trading (note: IBKR Lite and IBKR Pro accounts do support forex trading but are not commission-free).

Minimum charge per trade: Given the minimum commission of $2 per side, trading anything less than 100,000 units of currency becomes proportionally more expensive. The minimum charge by Interactive Brokers for forex is similar to Saxo’s $3 per-order fee charged when trading less than 50,000 units of currency.

Commissions and execution method: For forex traders, Interactive Brokers aggregates prices from 17 of the world's largest interbank forex dealers. Instead of marking up spreads, Interactive Brokers charges a commission per trade, which ranges from $16 to $40 per million round turn ($8 to $20 per side). This pricing is comparable to brokers that offer commission-based forex trading with agency execution.

Active traders: For active traders, there are discounts that become available when certain monthly trading volume minimums are met. For example, if you trade over $1 billion worth of forex, the minimum charge drops from $2 per order to $1.5, and can go as low as $1 per order when reaching $5 billion per month in volume. Also, Interactive Brokers can handle large order sizes on a Request For Quote (RFQ) basis to minimize market impact and deliver the best possible execution to clients.

Other thoughts: I would like to see Interactive Brokers publish its average forex spreads, especially since it competes so well in other asset classes – like U.S. equities trading (stock trading).

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Minimum Deposit info	$0
Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard info	0.59 info
All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active info	0.59 info
Active Trader or VIP Discounts info	Yes
ACH or SEPA Transfers info	Yes
PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No
Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) info	No
Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) info	No
Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) info	Yes

Mobile trading apps

IBKR offers three mobile apps, catering to a wide variety of customer needs whether you are a passive investor, beginner, or more active trader. Starting with its most advanced mobile app for forex trading, customizing IBKR Mobile for forex trading can be an involved process, but the app offers a robust trading experience that competes among the industry's best multi-asset brokers. Interactive Brokers’ recently launched IMPACT app, focused on ESG screening, won our award for Innovation in 2024. Finally, the IBKR GlobalTrader app is more for passive investing with an easier to use interface.

Apps overview: All three of the mobile app from Interactive Brokers are available for iOS on the Apple App Store and for Android devices on Google Play. The IBKR app is rich with features, many of which mirror what’s available on the web platform, whereas the IMPACT and IBKR GlobalTrader are more simplified for beginners and less demanding traders.

When it comes to innovation, one such feature is IBKR's Impact dashboard, where you can assess portfolio metrics in relation to Environmental Social Governance (ESG) factors. For this review I focused on the IBKR mobile app which is more geared towards forex and CFD trading. There is an extensive list of predefined watchlists (including two specifically for forex) and an economic calendar, that features the ability to add alerts and can be configured to only show forex-specific economic events — which I thought was a nice touch.

Charting: The IBKR mobile app features rich charting, and the ability to execute trades from within the charts themselves. There are 155 available indicators, and though there is a lack of drawing tools, I was pleased to find that indicators automatically sync with the TWS desktop platform.

Ease of use: When viewing a given chart, related news headlines display in an adjacent field – a truly helpful feature for comparing the impact of news on market prices. I was pleased to see videos and streaming TV available in the IBKR Mobile app, another feature that mirrors the desktop experience. However, the IBKR app can be generally tricky to use, especially when compared to the best mobile trading apps from category leaders.

Innovation: The IBot tool (also available in TWS) lets you chat with an AI-powered bot (either by typing or via voice command). This thoughtfully-developed tool can recognize and act upon commands such as, "Show me a chart of the EUR/USD." In this example, IBot would return a relevant chart that can be opened directly from the search results.

Check out our video walkthrough of Interactive Brokers' IBKR mobile app:

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Android App info	Yes
Apple iOS App info	Yes
Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields info	Yes
Watchlists - Total Fields info	659
Watchlist Syncing info	Yes
Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) info	155
Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) info	85
Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines info	Yes
Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames info	Yes
Mobile Economic Calendar info	Yes

Other trading platforms

Interactive Brokers stands out for its growing suite of trading platforms developed in-house, including its flagship TWS software and recently added web and IBKR Desktop trading platform – all of which provide access to advanced trading tools and global financial markets (including forex and CFDs). Interactive Brokers’ web-based platforms are geared towards everyday retail traders, whereas the TWS platform is highly-complex, and challenging to use and customize – even for professionals. By comparison, its recently launched IBKR Desktop aims to bridge the gap, balancing ease of use with advanced features — a never ending challenge for the best platforms.

Platforms overview: Trader Workstation (TWS), Interactive Brokers' flagship desktop trading platform, can be best described as knotty. It’s packed full of features that cover the whole spectrum of trading products, but its complexity may make it less accessible to beginner traders. Sophisticated day traders however will certainly enjoy the advanced, but complicated, range of trading tools. The IBKR Desktop platform, on the other hand, offers a simplified user experience while delivering a good balance of features for both beginner and intermediate traders. I found it very simple and easier to navigate than all of IBKRs platforms, including its client portal, and research is well-integrated alongside news headlines from multiple providers including Dow Jones Global News and Institutional News, Reuters, and Benzinga, among other providers.

Interactive Brokers’ Client Portal is a web-based trading platform that has a good balance of features, such as forex news headlines and related economic calendar events, trading, and even syncing watch lists. This platform is far more approachable for casual investors, and I found it enjoyable to use in my own testing.

FXTrader is the main terminal within TWS for trading forex, and provides access to 91 forex CFDs or 105 cash forex pairs offered by Interactive Brokers. When adding forex pairs to a watch list, users can choose from both spot forex cash rates and forex CFDs from either the IDEALPRO or SMART venue.

Charting: TWS charts offer 127 available studies, which is far above the industry average but less than, say, thinkorswim by Charles Schwab – which offers over 300. That being said, there’s no question; TWS offers a powerful charting experience. Interactive Brokers’ Client Portal also features charts powered by TradingView that allow traders to select from 98 indicators and add as many as 8 at a time. TradingView's popular platform delivers a range of powerful charting functions and robust analysis tools; learn more by checking out our TradingView Guide.

Ease of use: While the number of customizations available in the TWS desktop platform is impressive, the inherent complexity and the long lists of possible configurations can be intimidating for unseasoned investors. For example, the watchlist alone can be configured with over 650 different available columns. Saxo, CMC Markets, and IG all also offer robust trading platforms, but they are more streamlined and far easier to use.

Advanced orders: Interactive Brokers’ TWS platform supports complex orders such as its Basket order (much like thinkorswim's Blast order or the Custom Basket order offered by XTB) along with One Cancels All orders and many others. This deep level of complexity can be an advantage for traders who are looking to use advanced strategies.

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Virtual Trading (Demo) info	Yes
Proprietary Platform info	Yes
Desktop Platform (Windows) info	Yes
Web Platform info	Yes
Social Trading / Copy Trading info	No
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) info	No
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) info	No
DupliTrade info	No
ZuluTrade info	No
Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) info	155
Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) info	85
Charting - Trade From Chart info	Yes
Watchlists - Total Fields info	659

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Market research

Out of all brokers reviewed on ForexBrokers.com, Interactive Brokers still offers the widest array of third-party research in 2024.

IBKR offers 176 services from 70 news and research providers (some of which require a paid monthly subscription), with 22 directly covering forex and crypto news and research and 6 additional sources overall recently being added. Interactive Brokers has an overall excellent research offering. I was pleased to see more forex-related research added in IBKR Desktop, along with the addition of Acuity and Trading Central into the web platform.

Research overview: Interactive Brokers’ research content will satisfy the vast majority of traders – but you have to know how to find it. Much of the third-party research is available in Trader Workstation (TWS) and on the Client Portal. Content from in-house and guest authors featuring articles published throughout the trading week can be found on the Traders' Insight blog. Interactive Brokers also streams market headlines and news from sources like Reuters, Dow Jones, and Market News International (MNI), and its economic calendar is powered by providers like Econoday. Finally, institutional investors gain access to UBS Live Desk market analysis.

Market news and analysis: Interactive Brokers provides forex research that is produced in-house, as well as from dozens of third-party providers, including free and premium (paid) subscriptions. There is also a growing selection of forex-specific articles and related written content on the Traders Insights blog.

Video content includes Bloomberg Television (U.S. and Asia), daily market updates from IBKR Traders' Insight, and The Fly Squawkbox Live podcast. Though forex is not its main focus, the Traders' Insight daily video update is produced by IBKR's Chief Strategist, which I found to be a great quality. Likewise, IBKR provides a superb video integration of TipRanks, a great resource for non-forex asset classes.

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Daily Market Commentary info	Yes
Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) info	Yes
Autochartist info	No
Trading Central (Recognia) info	Yes
Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs info	Yes

Education

Interactive Brokers’ wide variety of quality educational content (including a growing selection of forex-specific content) ranks way above the industry average, putting it just shy of becoming an industry leader for education. However, the primary focus of Interactive Brokers’ educational offering is the stock market (share trading) – not forex or CFDs.

Learning center: Interactive Brokers offers several dedicated resources for education, including its Traders' Academy portal, IBKR Quant blog, and IBKR Campus. Created by in-house staff and third-party educators, I found the content to be plentiful, diverse, and of high quality.

The Traders' Academy portal effectively covers broader financial market sectors, with lessons and accompanying videos that are organized by experience level. There is also a small but growing selection of forex courses (two newly added in 2021) which include quizzes and progress tracking, as well as a Coursera course that Interactive Brokers has developed with a University-style syllabus.

Room for improvement: Given the complexity of its TWS platform, I was not surprised to find that most of the broker’s educational videos were platform tutorials. On Interactive Brokers’ YouTube channel, I found very few videos about forex and CFDs, despite a large variety of content related to other asset classes. It’s worth noting that Interactive Brokers has slowly and steadily expanded its forex content, and I noticed a year-over-year improvement in this category.

Feature	Interactive Brokers
Education (Forex or CFDs) info	Yes
Client Webinars info	Yes
Client Webinars (Archived) info	Yes
Videos - Beginner Trading Videos info	Yes
Videos - Advanced Trading Videos info	Yes
Investor Dictionary (Glossary) info	Yes

Final thoughts

Interactive Brokers continues to make major strides in its product offering with the ongoing expansion of new and existing platforms. Though its focus has traditionally been on sophisticated traders, Interactive Brokers has begun to expand into the retail trader market with a well-rounded offering and a variety of trading platforms that can be used by forex traders of all experience levels. That said, patience may be required if you are new to exploring IBKR's platform suite, my suggestion would be to use the IBKR desktop in term of usability if platform ease of use is a factor for you.

Low-volume or beginner forex and CFD traders should take note; miscellaneous fees – such as market data subscriptions – and the complexity of its proprietary platforms should be taken into consideration when deciding which Interactive Brokers platform may be a good fit for your trading style.

For institutional clients, IBKR is No. 1 again in 2024, and earned our 2024 Annual Award for #1 Offering of Investments. Interactive Brokers also earned Best in Class honors in multiple important categories, including Crypto Trading, Algo Trading, Mobile Trading Apps, Commissions & Fees, Trust Score, and Overall (see Interactive Brokers' full list of 2024 Annual Awards).

Does IBKR charge for currency exchange?

Can you trade forex on IBKR?

What kind of leverage does Interactive Brokers offer for trading forex?

About Interactive Brokers

Founded in 1977, Interactive Brokers is one of the oldest online brokerages in the U.S. and has been listed publicly (NASDAQ: IBKR) since 2007. As of its latest annual report for 2023, Interactive Brokers has over 2.5 million clients and is well-capitalized with $8.7 billion in excess regulatory capital, and has USD 426 billion in client equity as January 2024. In the last few years IBKR has significantly increased its speed and breadth of development when it comes to new technology and innovations, expanded its platform and product range and available services.

Interactive Brokers was one of the first brokers to offer a multi-asset solution that now includes equities, options, forex, futures, and bonds across more than 150 market centers in 34 countries, with account denomination and funding supported in 23 currencies from a single trading account.

While retail forex is not available to U.S. residents at Interactive Brokers, Eligible Contract Participants (ECPs) with at least $10 million in assets are still eligible. Read more on Wikipedia.

ForexBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards

For the ForexBrokers.com 2024 Annual Awards, brokers were evaluated against ForexBrokers.com’s 8 Primary Categories: Commissions & Fees, Offering of Investments, Platforms & Tools, Mobile Trading Apps, Research, Education, Trust Score, and Overall.

Best in Class honors were awarded to the Top 7 forex brokers in each of the following areas: Beginners, Social Copy Trading, Ease of Use, MetaTrader, Algo Trading, Crypto Trading, and Professional Trading.

ForexBrokers.com also recognized brokers that demonstrated excellence and innovation with our exclusive Industry Awards.

Category awards

Interactive Brokers	Overall [Dynamic]	Commissions & Fees	Offering of Investments	Platforms & Tools	Mobile Trading Apps	Research	Education	Algo Trading	Crypto Trading	Professional Trading	Trust Score
Rank #1			check							check
Streak #1			3							3
Best in Class	check	check	check	check	check	check	check	check	check	check	check
Best in Class Streak	4	3	8	3	2	5	2	1	3	3	4

Industry awards

Interactive Brokers	#1 ESG Offering	#1 Institutional Clients	#1 Platform Technology
Rank #1	check	check	check
Streak	2	7	1

2024 Review Methodology

At ForexBrokers.com, our reviews of online forex brokers and their products and services are based on our collected data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research on the top forex brokers and monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).

Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process). We test all available trading platforms for each broker – whether they are proprietary or come from third-party providers – and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.

We also take an in-depth look at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads – including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We research other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and a range of other important fee-based data points.

Some of the other important research categories that are factored into our testing include mobile trading accessibility and capability, availability of market research and educational content, and each broker’s overall Trust Score.

All content on ForexBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the forex industry.

Read our full explanation and accounting of our research and testing process to learn more about how we test.

Forex Risk Disclaimer

There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.

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Article Resources

Interactive Brokers Regulation, Traders' Academy, YouTube channel

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About the Editorial Team

Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).

John Bringans is the Managing Editor at ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.

Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.