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Is Forex Commission Charged Per Side or Per Round Turn?
Both, and the schedule line says which. Pepperstone and IC Markets read line by line: per side, roundtrip, and one line that says neither.
Both. A forex commission is charged per side on some schedule lines and per round turn on others, and the convention belongs to the line, not the broker. Pepperstone’s own costs page prints “from USD$3.50 per lot, per side” for its Razor account but “6 USD roundtrip” on cTrader. Double any per-side figure before comparing.
This is an evergreen question and we treat it as one. There is no news peg; what this desk adds is two brokers’ published schedules, read on 19 September 2026 and quoted line by line.
What does commission per side mean in forex?
A per-side commission is charged twice per completed trade: once when the position is opened and once when it is closed. A schedule that says “USD 3.50 per lot, per side” is telling you a full trade costs USD 7.00 per standard lot. The same thing is sometimes called a half-turn.
What is a round turn commission?
A round turn commission is the whole trade priced once, open and close together. “6 USD roundtrip” means USD 6.00 per standard lot for the complete trade. “Roundtrip” is Pepperstone’s word and “round turn” is IC Markets’; they mean the same thing, and we quote each as its owner prints it.
Is forex commission charged per side or per round turn? One broker, both answers
The cleanest proof that the convention is a property of the line is a broker that uses both. Pepperstone’s Australian costs-and-fees page, which we read on 19 September 2026, states its Razor account commission three different ways depending on platform. We have converted each to a common unit: round-turn USD per standard lot, then pips per standard lot on a USD-quote pair at USD 10 per pip.
| Platform | Line as printed | Convention | Round turn, USD per std lot | Pips per std lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader 4/5 (Razor) | “from USD$3.50 per lot, per side” | per side | 7.00 | 0.70 |
| Pepperstone platform | “3.5 USD per 1 standard FX lot per side” | per side | 7.00 | 0.70 |
| cTrader | “6 USD roundtrip fixed per unit” | round turn | 6.00 | 0.60 |
| TradingView | “7 USD roundtrip fixed per unit” | round turn | 7.00 | 0.70 |
The same broker, account and pair costs 0.70 pips on three platforms and 0.60 pips on cTrader, and the only way to see that is to convert.
One caveat on the MT4/5 row. The page says MT4/5 commission “is based on your chosen account currency and the lot size of your trade” and defers to a per-currency table that plain-text fetching did not return. That row rests on the Razor account line, “from USD$3.50 per lot, per side”, not on a currency table we read; non-USD account holders should check their own currency’s line on Pepperstone’s costs-and-fees page.
IC Markets: both words on one line, and a line with neither
IC Markets prints both conventions on the same line. Its accounts overview, fetched at the icmarkets.com address and served at www.ic.com on 19 September 2026, lists the MetaTrader Raw Spread commission as “$3.5 ($7.0 per lot round turn)” and, in a second table, as “Commission (per lot per side) $3.5”. The Raw Spread account page repeats it in prose: “a small commission of $3.50 per lot payable per side”. Read either way, the round turn is USD 7.00 and 0.70 pips per standard lot.
| Platform | Line as printed | Convention | Round turn, USD per std lot | Pips per std lot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MetaTrader (Raw Spread) | “$3.5 ($7.0 per lot round turn)” | both printed | 7.00 | 0.70 |
| cTrader, TradingView | “$3.0 (per USD 100k)” | neither printed | not converted | not converted |
The overview prints “$3.0 (per USD 100k)”, and none of the lines returned to us from the overview or the Raw Spread page says whether that USD 3.00 is per side or per round turn. USD 100k is one standard lot, so the answer is either 0.30 or 0.60 pips per lot. We have not converted it and will not guess.
How do I read a commission line?
Three steps. Find the unit word on the line: “per side”, “half-turn”, “round turn”, “roundtrip”, or a lot size with nothing after it. If the word is per side, double the figure; if the line prints no convention, do not convert, ask the broker or read a statement. Then divide by USD 10 per standard lot on a USD-quote pair to get pips, the working set out in how to convert a forex commission per lot into pips. For two more per-side schedules read the same way, see the Eightcap vs Blueberry Markets cost per lot comparison; for the two brokers above as services rather than schedules, Pepperstone, Reviewed and IC Markets, Reviewed.
We read two brokers: enough to show the convention changes by line and by platform, not enough to say what brokers “usually” do.
Frequently asked questions
Is $3.50 per side the same as $7 round turn?
Yes, for one standard lot. A per-side commission is charged on the opening trade and again on the closing trade, so USD 3.50 per side is USD 7.00 for the completed round turn. On a USD-quote pair at USD 10 per pip per standard lot, that is 0.70 pips. Pepperstone’s Razor line and IC Markets’ MetaTrader line both come to this figure once converted.
Do you pay commission when you open and when you close a trade?
On a per-side schedule, yes: once at entry and once at exit. On a round-turn schedule the full amount is charged as one figure for the whole trade, but the total is the same either way once both halves are counted. What differs is how the deduction appears on your statement, not the cost of the trade.
How do I convert a forex commission into pips?
Get the round-turn figure first: double any per-side number, leave a round-turn number alone. Divide by the pip value of one standard lot, which is USD 10 on a USD-quote pair such as EUR/USD. USD 7.00 round turn becomes 0.70 pips; USD 6.00 becomes 0.60 pips. Add the raw spread and you have the all-in cost.
What is a round turn commission?
A round turn commission prices the complete trade, open and close together, as a single figure per lot. Pepperstone prints it as “6 USD roundtrip fixed per unit” for cTrader; IC Markets prints it in brackets after the per-side figure, “$3.5 ($7.0 per lot round turn)”. It is the figure you want on every line before comparing brokers, because it needs no doubling.
Every figure above is a published schedule line as of this writing, converted by us and not measured by us; brokers change schedules without notice, so re-read the line before relying on it. Trading involves substantial risk of loss, and nothing on this site is financial advice: a cheaper commission is a smaller cost, not a reason to trade.