Raw Spread or Zero Commission: Which Costs Less?
Two account types dominate most broker menus: raw spread and zero commission. Both claim to save you money, but they charge for a trade in different ways.
The only way to know which one wins is to add up the full cost of a trade, not just look at the headline number.
How a Raw Spread Account Prices a Trade
A raw spread account passes on the tight price that comes straight from the liquidity pool, often close to zero pips on major pairs. The broker then charges a separate commission per lot, usually billed as a round turn fee that covers both opening and closing the trade.
Round turn commissions on a standard lot commonly run from $6 to $8. You pay that fee no matter how tight the spread gets that day.
How a Zero Commission Account Prices a Trade
A zero commission account skips the separate fee and folds the broker’s cost into a wider spread instead. You never see a line item for commission, but the spread itself sits higher than the raw price.
Nothing here is free. The broker still earns the same kind of revenue, just through the price you get filled at rather than through a fee added on top.
The Sum That Decides It
Work out the total cost of one trade this way: spread in pips, multiplied by the pip value, multiplied by your lot size, plus any commission charged. Do that for both account types on the same trade size, and compare the two totals.
A raw account wins when the spread saving is bigger than the commission you pay on top. A zero commission account wins when its wider spread still comes in under the raw spread plus fee combined.
A Simple Example
Say a pair trades with a 0.1 pip spread on the raw account and a $7 round turn commission, against a 0.9 pip spread and no commission on the zero commission account. On a standard lot, the extra 0.8 pips on the second account costs roughly $8, more than the $7 fee on the first. Here, raw comes out slightly cheaper.
Why Volume Changes the Answer
Commission is fixed per lot, so it scales directly with how much you trade. A wider spread also scales with volume, but the gap between the two account types often widens as trade size grows.
Traders who place many trades a month tend to feel the commission add up fast, which pushes heavy volume accounts toward raw pricing. Traders who place a handful of trades a month may barely notice the difference either way.
Who Each Account Type Suits
Raw spread accounts tend to draw scalpers, day traders and algorithmic strategies, since tight pricing and fast market execution matter most when you hold a position for seconds or minutes. Many raw accounts also set a higher minimum deposit than a standard account, so budget for that before you apply.
Zero commission accounts suit traders who place fewer, larger trades and prefer one number on the statement instead of a spread and a fee to track separately. Beginners often start here simply because there is less to work out on every order.
Costs Beyond the Headline Number
Spread and commission are not the whole picture. Check execution speed, minimum deposit, and whether the account carries the same terms across all the markets you trade. Comparing more than the headline price is part of picking a best CFD broker account type that fits how you actually trade.
Account structures like this are not limited to currency pairs either. The same raw or commission setup often carries over to what is cfd trading on shares, indices and commodities, so the same sum applies there too.
Spreads Vary by Pair
The numbers above tend to come from a major pair like EUR/USD, where liquidity is deep and spreads sit near their tightest. Minor and exotic pairs price wider on both account types, sometimes by several pips instead of a fraction of one.
Run the sum again for the actual pairs you trade most, not just the major one a broker shows on its pricing page. The account that wins on EUR/USD does not always win on a pair with thinner liquidity.
Which One to Pick
Add up spread plus commission on your typical trade size before you choose. Run the numbers for both account types using a size close to what you actually trade, not the smallest or largest example a broker shows you.
The account with the lower total wins. There is no fixed answer that holds for every trader or every pair, so check your own numbers rather than assume one label always costs less.
