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Should you use IB Fixed or Tiered pricing in 2025?

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |
Interactive-Brokers-Fixed-or-Tiered

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

Until recently, I thought Interactive Brokers Tiered pricing was always better for most investors. But after doing some more simulations, this may not be the case!

So, I made more tests to see exactly when we should use Fixed or Tiered pricing. This article shows the differences between these two pricing structures and whether you should use Fixed or Tiered pricing.

Interactive Brokers Pricing

The best broker
Interactive Brokers
5.0
No custody fees

The broker you need to buy stocks and ETFs reliably and at extremely affordable prices. Trade U.S. stocks for as little as 0.5 USD!

Pros:
  • Extremely affordable
  • Wide range of investing instruments
Invest your money Read My Review

Interactive Brokers is the broker I am using and recommending. It is a great broker with very affordable prices and excellent execution.

Contrary to many brokers, Interactive Brokers (IB) has two different pricing models:

  • Fixed pricing
  • Tiered pricing

And many people are asking me whether they should use fixed or tiered pricing. So, we will compare these two in detail and find out!

Fixed pricing is the simplest model, you pay a fixed percentage fee, with a minimum and maximum, and that is generally it. This model is standard with most brokers.

On the other hand, tiered pricing is made of several sub fees:

  • Regulatory fees
  • Exchange Fees
  • Trading fees
  • Clearing fees

Some of these fees are per share, while others are flat, and still, others are based on the total value. And tiered pricing is very different from one exchange to the other.

So the main difference between those two is that fixed pricing is straightforward and predictable, while tiered pricing is complex and changes heavily from one exchange to the other.

Note that when you change the pricing method, it generally takes one day to apply.

The price they will pay for each transaction matters most to each investor. So, we will compare Fixed and Tiered pricing schemes for several stock exchanges. It is important to note that the location of the investors is not relevant, the pricing is done for each stock exchange. For example, a Swiss investor will pay the same price for a US stock than a French investor.

I selected various stock exchanges: the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX), the European Stock Exchange (Euronext Paris), and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). These are the most used stock exchanges for a Swiss or European investor.

In some cases, there are some slight differences between buying stocks and ETFs. When this happens, the following results will use the ETF pricing.

Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX)

We start with operations on the Swiss Stock Exchange and see if fixed or tiered pricing differs.

With fixed pricing, you will pay 0.05% of the trade value on SIX, with a minimum of 5 CHF and no maximum.

With tiered pricing, you will pay 0.05% of the trade value on SIX, with a minimum of 1.50 CHF and a maximum of 49 CHF. On top of that, you will pay a trade reporting fee of 1 CHF and a clearing fee of 0.38 CHF. Finally, you will pay an exchange fee of 0.015% of the trade value plus  1.50 CHF.

With tiered pricing, you will pay even lower fees if you have a substantial monthly volume. Indeed, starting from 50 million EUR monthly volume, the fees are going down, and several thresholds exist. But we will ignore that because this does not concern most people.

So, here are the total fees for a few order sizes:

Buy on SIX - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on SIX - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on SIX - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on SIX - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered

These results are pretty interesting. We can see that for small operations, the tiered pricing is slightly cheaper than fixed pricing. But once we reach 5000 CHF orders, fixed pricing becomes cheaper. And as order sizes increase, the gap between both pricing schemes grows. When we go over 500’000, the tiered pricing becomes cheaper again. And for large operations, tiered can be very significantly cheaper.

So, the cheapest way to buy on SIX is:

  • Tiered pricing for small operations
  • Fixed pricing for medium to large operations
  • Tiered pricing for massive operations

But is worth mentioning that both models are quite affordable.

European Stock Exchange (Euronext)

Next, we look at the Euronext Paris stock exchange, one of the most used stock exchanges for European investors.

With fixed pricing, you will pay 0.05% of the trade value on Euronext Paris, with a minimum of 3 EUR and no maximum.

With tiered pricing, you will pay 0.05% of the trade value on SIX, with a minimum of 1.25 EUR and a maximum of 29 EUR. After that, you must pay exchange fees of 0.006% of the trade value, with a minimum of 0.75 EUR and no maximum. You also have to pay a clearing fee of 0.10 EUR.

Once again, here are the total fees for a few order sizes:

Buy on Euronext - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on Euronext - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on Euronext - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on Euronext - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered

These results are very interesting. Below 5000 EUR, the tiered pricing is cheaper than the fixed pricing. Indeed, the tiered pricing minimum is smaller. Then, between 5000 and 50’000 EUR, fixed pricing is slightly more affordable. Finally, for 100’000 EUR, tiered pricing is cheaper again. Indeed, there is a maximum for the commissions, while fixed pricing has no maximum for the commissions.

So, to buy on Euronext Paris, you should start using tiered pricing for small operations, Fixed pricing for medium operations, and, once again, tiered pricing for large operations.

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

Finally, we should look at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the stock exchange of the best ETFs available.

Interestingly, the commissions on NYSE are expressed per share. For this, I will assume that we buy an ETF with shares worth 100 USD. So, if we buy 1000 USD, we buy ten shares.

Also interesting is that this time, the fees differ between buying and selling. So, we first cover the buying fees.

With fixed pricing, you will pay 0.005 USD per share, with a minimum fee of 1 USD and a maximum fee of 1% of the trade value.

With tiered pricing, you will pay 0.0035 USD per share on NYSE, with a minimum fee of 0.35 USD and a maximum fee of 1% of the trade value. Additionally, you have to pay a clearing fee of 0.0002 per share. You will also pay an NYSE exchange fee of 0.003 per share. Finally, you will pay some pass-through fees. For NYSE, these pass-through fees are 0.000175 times the total of the other fees.

Putting it together, this gives us these fees for buying on NYSE:

Buy on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Buy on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered

Interestingly, Interactive Brokers’ tiered pricing is cheaper for all operations below 50’000 USD but start to be slightly more expensive for larger operations. For small operations, tiered pricing is almost three times cheaper. However, it is worth mentioning that both pricing models are extremely cheap for US ETFs.

For sale operations, there are two additional regulatory fees:

  1. The SEC regulatory fee of 0.0000229 per share
  2. The FINRA regulatory fee of 0.00013 per share, with a maximum of 6.49 USD

These two regulatory fees apply to both fixed and tiered pricing. So, this will not change which model is cheaper, but it is still interesting to realize the prices.

So, here is how this translates to selling on NYSE:

Sell on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Sell on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Sell on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered
Sell on NYSE - Interactive Brokers Fixed or Tiered

The tiered pricing model is generally the cheapest, up to very large operations. The gap is slightly smaller than for buy operations. However, the selling fees weigh heavily on large operations that are now several times more expensive.

For most passive investors, having more expensive sales should not be an issue. Indeed, we should buy more often than we sell.

For a small conclusion on US stock exchanges: Tiered pricing is cheaper than fixed pricing to buy US ETFs on NYSE.

Conclusion

The best broker
Interactive Brokers
5.0
No custody fees

The broker you need to buy stocks and ETFs reliably and at extremely affordable prices. Trade U.S. stocks for as little as 0.5 USD!

Pros:
  • Extremely affordable
  • Wide range of investing instruments
Invest your money Read My Review

We can see that neither fixed nor tiered pricing is always the cheapest option. It depends on which stock exchange you use and on the size of your transactions.

If you mainly buy US ETFs, you should use tiered pricing to save money. If you do small operations, tiered pricing is also great. Fixed pricing is excellent for medium to large operations on Swiss and European stock exchanges.

We must mention one more thing: fixed and tiered pricing models are affordable. Interactive Brokers has excellent pricing! Given these results, I plan to keep tiered pricing because I mostly use US ETFs.

What about you? Are you using Fixed or Tiered pricing?

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Photo of Baptiste Wicht
Baptiste Wicht started The Poor Swiss in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. Since 2019, he has been saving more than 50% of his income every year. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence and help Swiss people with their finances.
Discover Swiss Financial Secrets That Maximize Your Money!

Learn easy ways to optimize your finances and save thousands in Switzerland with our exclusive e-book. Learn about the most cost-effective financial services tailored for savvy residents and expats!

Get Your FREE Swiss Money-Saving Guide

88 thoughts on “Should you use IB Fixed or Tiered pricing in 2025?”

  1. Hey, interesting read! Thank you! Please excuse the newbie question. I’m from Germany and my IBKR cash value is in euros. However, I mainly buy US stocks on American exchanges in dollars. Do you know if IBKR charges an exchange fee for converting euros to dollars when buying, and back from dollars to euros when selling? Is this fee also already priced into the fixed tier pricing system?

    Then i would assume fixed tier pricing is definitely the cheapest option with orders above 20 k.

    Greetings from Germany

    1. Hi Peter

      Yes, IB will charge a fee. If you use an automatic conversion, you will pay 0.03%. If you do the conversion yourself, you will pay 0.002% with a minimum of 2 USD.
      Tiered or pricing does not make a difference for currency conversion.

      Cheers

  2. Hi Baptiste, really interesting article – very helpful for a new expat trying to understand IBKR after years of easy Vanguard ISAs in the UK.

    One question: if I’m mainly buying an Irish-domiciled US ETF (e.g VWSA), which of the 3 scenarios above should I consider? Is it the NYSE or Euronext? Based on your analysis my understanding is that Tiered would be the way to go, even if buying c. EUR10k every month? Thanjs

    1. Hi Adam

      Thanks, I am glad this is useful.

      If you buy Irish ETFs, you will buy through Euronext or another of the European exchanges. NYSE is the New York Stock Exchange, so you don’t buy EU ETFs there.
      And indeed, on Euronext, you should be good with Tiered all the way to 10’000 per month. After that, Fixed may be more interesting up to 100k.

  3. Hello Baptiste,
    
Thanks a lot for supporting all of us!!

    I would like to calculate the costs related to sell and buy my positions with both the Fixed and Tiered methods on 2 ETFs, one with EBS (Switzerland) and one with LSEETF (UK).

    If next month you would sell e.g. 100k from these 2 ETFs while buying 1 ETF in NYSE and 1 in EBS, which model would you choose and why?

    Many thanks!

    1. Hi Jeff,

      Thanks for pointing this out. The other article is wrong, the fees have changed since I have updated it. I will update the other article to reflect the proper fees!

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