Live Forex Broker Spreads
Real-time spreads for major forex pairs across top brokers — sourced every second from standard-account live terminals via MT4/MT5. No demo data. No vendor-supplied figures. Green cells mark the tightest spread for each pair.
What is a spread? The spread is the difference between the bid and ask price — it is the primary cost of a forex trade. A lower spread means cheaper execution.
🕐 Weekend — forex markets are closed, spreads may be wider or unavailable
| Broker | EUR/USD↕ | GBP/USD↕ | USD/JPY↕ | USD/CHF↕ | USD/CAD↕ | AUD/USD↕ | NZD/USD↕ | GBP/JPY↕ | WTI Oil↕ | XAU/USD↕ | Account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No spread data available yet. Check back shortly. | |||||||||||
Spreads are indicative and sourced from live MT4/MT5 terminals. Standard accounts are spread-only. Commission accounts show raw (near-zero) spreads — a per-trade commission also applies, making them not directly comparable. Green cells highlight the lowest spread among standard accounts only. Not investment advice. Investucate may receive compensation from brokers linked above — this does not influence spread data, which is collected independently.
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A broker rated 4.5/5 overall might carry a 1.8-pip EUR/USD spread. A broker rated 4.0/5 might offer 0.7 pips. On 10 standard lots per week, that 1.1-pip difference costs over $5,700 per year. Spreads are one of the most important filters in our Find My Broker tool — use it to get a shortlist ranked for your trading volume and style.
How to Read This Table
Each row represents one forex broker. The columns show the live spread for a specific currency pair in pips — except XAU/USD (gold), which is shown in USD.
- Green cells — the broker with the lowest spread for that pair right now. Highlighting only appears when at least two brokers have live data, so a single broker never falsely appears cheapest.
- ▲ / ▼ arrows — a spread that just increased (▲, red) or decreased (▼, green) in the last update.
- Data source — all figures come from MT4/MT5 Expert Advisors running on standard-account live terminals.
- Account type — standard (commission-free) accounts throughout. Raw/ECN accounts are not compared here.
- Column sorting — click any pair header to sort brokers by that spread ascending. Click again for descending; click a third time to reset to the default order (highest overall rating first).
Understanding Spread Costs
For EUR/USD, the pip value on a standard account is $10 per pip per lot. Here is what different spread levels actually cost you per trade:
| Spread | 0.1 lot ($1/pip) | 0.5 lot ($5/pip) | 1 lot ($10/pip) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 pips | $0.50 | $2.50 | $5.00 |
| 1.0 pip | $1.00 | $5.00 | $10.00 |
| 1.5 pips | $1.50 | $7.50 | $15.00 |
| 2.0 pips | $2.00 | $10.00 | $20.00 |
Formula: cost = spread (pips) × pip value × lot size. For EUR/USD standard, 1 pip = $10 per standard lot. For other pairs, pip values vary.
Standard vs ECN/RAW Spreads
There are two main pricing models in retail forex:
- Standard accounts embed the broker's markup inside the spread. You pay no separate commission. EUR/USD spreads typically range from 0.6 to 1.4 pips during the London session.
- ECN / RAW spread accounts pass through near-interbank spreads — often 0.0 to 0.3 pips on EUR/USD — but charge a commission per lot (typically $3–$7 round-turn per standard lot).
This table compares standard accounts only for an apples-to-apples comparison. If you trade more than 10 lots per day, an ECN account with low commissions can work out cheaper even after fees — use the pip cost table above to run the numbers for your volume.
When Are Spreads Tightest?
Forex spreads vary significantly with trading volume, which itself follows global market session hours (all times UTC):
- London/New York overlap (13:00–17:00 UTC) — the highest liquidity window of the day. EUR/USD and GBP/USD spreads are typically at their tightest.
- London session (08:00–17:00 UTC) — major European pairs are active; good liquidity for EUR, GBP, and CHF pairs.
- New York session (13:00–22:00 UTC) — USD pairs remain active; commodity pairs (AUD, CAD) can also be tight.
- Asian session (22:00–08:00 UTC) — spreads on EUR/USD and GBP/USD often widen by 50–200%. JPY pairs and AUD/USD tend to have tighter spreads during this window.
Spreads also widen sharply around high-impact economic releases — NFP, CPI, central bank rate decisions — sometimes 5–10× their normal level for 30–60 seconds before and after the announcement. If you are trading news events, always check an economic calendar before entering a position.
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