Is a Raw Spread Account Cheaper Than a Standard Account?

A raw spread account is cheaper than a standard account only when the standard spread is wider than the raw spread by more than the raw account’s round-turn commission, converted to pips. On EUR/USD one pip is worth $10 per standard lot, so a $7 round-turn commission needs a gap above 0.70 pips. Below that, standard costs less.

That is the whole answer, and it is evergreen: it holds for any broker, on any date, because it is subtraction. What changes is the inputs. This desk read IC Markets’ account overview page and Pepperstone’s trading-accounts page on 23 September 2026 and ran both schedules through it.

How do you work out the break-even between raw and standard?

Three steps, the same three this bulletin uses on every schedule.

First, turn the commission into a round turn. Brokers usually quote per side; a trade has two sides. The per-side versus round-turn question is where most comparisons go wrong before any arithmetic starts.

Second, turn the round-turn dollars into pips: divide by the pip value. On EUR/USD at one standard lot, that is $10. The full method, with the pairs where $10 does not hold, is in how to convert a commission per lot into pips.

Third, compare. Raw all-in = raw spread + commission in pips. Standard all-in = standard spread, since it carries no FX commission. The break-even gap is the commission in pips. If the standard spread exceeds the raw spread by more than that, raw wins.

The $10 figure is specific to USD-quoted pairs such as EUR/USD. On a pair quoted in yen or Swiss francs the pip value moves with the exchange rate, and so does every number below.

Is a raw spread account cheaper than a standard account at IC Markets?

IC Markets is useful here because it prints both halves on one page, and prints the raw commission both per side and per round turn. It also lists the raw commission in deposit tiers, which moves the break-even.

The minimum deposits are as the overview table lists them; the page does not set out the eligibility rules behind the tiers, and neither does this post.

At the $0 tier the sum is short. IC’s Raw Spread paragraph states an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips alongside the $3.50 commission. Add the 0.70 of commission and the raw all-in is 0.80 pips. The Standard account’s published figure is “spreads from 0.8”. So the Standard account can only tie the raw account, and only at the moment it sits on its own floor. Every tenth of a pip above 0.8 is a dollar per lot in raw’s favour.

That is not quite like for like, and the page says so by its own labels. The 0.1 is an average; the 0.8 is a minimum. The page read gives no average for the Standard account, so IC’s all-in Standard cost cannot be stated from it. A comparison table that prints 0.8 as the Standard cost per lot is comparing a floor with an average and calling it a result.

What do the deposit tiers do to the break-even?

They shrink it. At $5,000 the commission is 0.30 pips round turn, so the Standard spread only has to beat the raw spread by more than 0.30 for raw to cost less. At $100,000 the gap is 0.20. If the stated 0.1 average applied to those tiers, the all-in would be 0.40 and 0.30 pips. The page states that average next to the $3.50 commission only, so those two totals apply an assumption, not a published figure.

The cTrader and TradingView line is quoted per USD 100k of volume rather than per lot. A EUR/USD lot is 100,000 euros, whose dollar value moves with the rate, so that commission does not convert to pips without the trade’s notional. This desk has not converted it.

What about Pepperstone Standard versus Razor?

Pepperstone’s trading-accounts page describes the Razor account as raw spreads plus commission on FX and spot gold, with FX spreads from 0.0 and commission from $3.50 per lot, per side. The Standard account, per the same page, carries its fees, apart from overnight funding, in the spread with no commission except on share CFDs.

Converted, Razor’s commission is 0.70 pips round turn, the same break-even gap as IC’s $0 tier. The Standard side cannot be priced from what this desk read: the trading-accounts page gives no EUR/USD spread for Standard, only an index example. Without that figure the Pepperstone comparison stops at the rule. Standard must be more than 0.70 pips wider than Razor’s raw spread for Razor to cost less.

Which published numbers are floors, and which are averages?

This is where most of the cheaper-or-not argument is actually decided. On the two pages read, “from” appears on every spread: IC’s 0.0 raw, IC’s 0.8 Standard, Pepperstone’s 0.0 Razor. Exactly one average appears, IC’s 0.1 on the $3.50 raw line. The case for publishing averages by instrument is one this desk has made before. Until Standard averages are printed, the break-even rule is the most a reader can take from the page.

Frequently asked questions

Is raw spread cheaper than standard?

Only when the spread gap is larger than the commission. Convert the raw account’s round-turn commission to pips by dividing by the pip value, $10 per standard lot on EUR/USD. If the standard spread exceeds the raw spread by more than that figure, raw costs less; if by less, standard costs less; if by exactly that, they tie. At $7 round turn the gap has to beat 0.70 pips.

What is the difference between a raw spread and a standard account?

Where the broker takes its fee. A standard account builds the charge into a wider spread and bills no FX commission; Pepperstone’s trading-accounts page says Standard fees, apart from overnight funding, are already included in the spread. A raw account quotes a tighter spread and adds a commission per lot, per side. IC Markets prints its raw spreads from 0.0 pips with commission from $1.0 to $3.5 per side.

Is a raw account worth it?

It is worth exactly the spread gap minus the commission in pips, and nothing else. On IC Markets’ $0-minimum raw tier the commission is 0.70 pips round turn and the stated average raw spread is 0.1, so the all-in is 0.80. Standard’s published floor is also 0.8. Every tenth of a pip the Standard spread sits above that floor is $1 per lot in raw’s favour.

Which account type is best for beginners in forex?

This desk does not choose accounts for readers, and cost is only one column. Pepperstone’s own page describes its Standard account as a straightforward fee structure for newer traders, which is a claim about simplicity, not price. The price question is answered by the break-even rule on this page, and neither account removes the risk that comes with leveraged trading.

Bottom line

Raw against standard is not a matter of taste. It is one subtraction. On IC Markets’ own figures, read on 23 September 2026 from its account overview, the $0-tier raw account costs 0.80 pips all in on EUR/USD, and the Standard account’s floor is 0.8. Pepperstone’s trading-accounts page supplies the Razor commission and no Standard spread. All figures are published by the brokers and converted here; none was measured on this desk. The fuller schedule audit is in IC Markets, reviewed.

The last line on the bill: a cheaper account is not a safer one, leverage magnifies a loss as efficiently as a position, and this comparison chooses nothing for anyone. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Nothing on this site is financial advice.