Login to save calculations, keep a history and unlock dashboard features.
Create AccountSpread Cost Calculator
See what the spread costs you per trade, per day and over a month of trading.
Your Result
The calculation runs in your browser. Rates used for currency conversion are indicative — check your broker for the exact figure.
A 1.2 pip spread on one lot costs twelve dollars. That is easy to dismiss. Three trades a day for twenty days makes it seven hundred and twenty dollars a month, plus commission — and on a ten thousand dollar account that is a return you have to earn before you make anything at all.
The point of this calculator is the monthly total rather than the per-trade figure. Trading costs are the one expense that scales directly with how often you trade, and the number is usually large enough to change how someone thinks about a scalping strategy.
When to use it
- When choosing between a raw spread account with commission and a zero-commission one.
- Before committing to a high-frequency strategy.
- When a strategy is profitable in a backtest but not in the account.
- When a broker widens spreads and you want to know what it costs.
The spread is paid on entry, and commission on the round turn.
Spread Cost = Spread × Pip Value per Lot × Lots
Cost Per Trade = Spread Cost + (Commission × Lots)
Monthly = Cost Per Trade × Trades Per Day × Days- Spread is paid once per trade, on entry. It is why a position opens showing a small loss.
- Commission is usually quoted round turn, covering open and close. If your broker charges per side, double the figure entered.
- Spreads widen at the session open, around news and overnight. An average of the quiet hours will understate the real cost.
One lot per trade at a 1.2 pip spread with $7 round-turn commission, three trades a day, twenty days a month.
Working: $19 per trade, sixty trades a month, is $1,140. On a $20,000 account that is 5.7% a month in costs alone — the strategy has to clear that before the first dollar of profit.
Is a zero-spread account actually free?
No. Zero or raw spread accounts charge commission instead, typically $6 to $8 round turn per lot. Which works out cheaper depends on your size and the pair you trade.
Why does my spread change during the day?
Liquidity. Spreads are tightest during the London and New York overlap and widest at the Asian open, over rollover and around scheduled news.
Does the spread matter for swing trading?
Far less. One or two pips is noise on a two hundred pip target. It dominates on a ten pip scalp, which is why the same spread can be irrelevant to one trader and fatal to another.
How do I reduce it?
Trade during liquid hours, avoid exotic pairs, and use limit orders rather than market orders where the strategy allows. Switching account type only helps if your size justifies it.
Related Calculators
Find the price a trade has to reach before costs are covered and it starts to make money
Work out what a trade made or lost, from entry to exit, in your account currency
Work out what one pip is worth on your position, in your own account currency
Work out what holding a position overnight costs — or pays — before you decide to keep it