Six MT5 accounts, one dashboard
Deriv account types
Deriv offers six CFD accounts on MetaTrader 5, and the choice between them is a choice about costs and markets rather than about service level. There are no tiers here: no minimum balance buys a better spread, and the leverage is identical whichever account you open.
Checked against Deriv's own pages
What the account type decides
The cost structure and the instrument list. A Zero Spread account fixes the trading cost so it can be worked out before execution; a Swap-free account removes overnight financing; Gold and Crypto narrow the account to one market with conditions built for it.
The trade-off in the swap-free case is visible in Deriv's own numbers, and it is the most useful figure on this page: gold spreads are advertised from 16 points on the Standard account and 36 points on the Swap-free one. On a 100-ounce lot that is $16 against $36 — the financing you are not paying overnight is charged at the door instead.
That is not a criticism of the account, and it is how swap-free works across the industry. It does mean a swap-free account is cheaper only if you hold long enough for the avoided swap to exceed the wider spread, which is a calculation rather than a preference.
The six Deriv MT5 accounts
| Account | What it is for | Markets |
|---|---|---|
| CFDs | The general-purpose account: access to both financial and derived markets, with standard spreads | Financials and Derived Indices |
| Zero Spread | Fixed trading costs, so the cost of a trade can be calculated before it is executed | Financials and Derived Indices |
| Swap-free | No overnight swap charges, for positions held over long periods | Financials and Derived Indices |
| Financial | Financial instruments only, aimed at high-volume trading | Financials |
| Gold | Gold and precious metals, with conditions structured for metals | Financials |
| Crypto | Cryptocurrency markets in a dedicated account | Financials |
Source: Deriv's own help centre, checked 24 August 2026. Older pages — Deriv's included — still call the CFDs account “Standard”, which is the same account under its previous name.
What it does not decide
Leverage. Deriv states that leverage cannot be manually adjusted on an MT5 account: it is fixed and determined by the asset traded, so each instrument carries a predefined default. Its published specifications show up to 1:1000 on major currency pairs, 1:800 on silver, 1:600 on a Boom 1000 index and 1:10 on shares — those figures follow the instrument, not the account.
Nor does it decide which entity you are a client of, which is the thing that actually determines your protections. That is set by your country and shown on the client agreement, and it is covered on our page about whether Deriv is legitimate.
And it does not lock you in: the accounts sit side by side in the same dashboard, funded from the same Wallet, so opening a second one is a transfer rather than a migration.
The accounts that are not MT5 accounts
Deriv cTrader is a separate platform with its own account, and unlike MT5 it uses your main Deriv email and password rather than a separate trading password. Copy trading lives there.
Deriv Trader, SmartTrader and Deriv Bot are options platforms rather than CFD ones. Deriv draws the distinction itself: on those you set the contract duration in advance and know the payout if you are right, while on MT5 you trade with leverage and the result is known only when you close.
Demo accounts exist for all of it, need no deposit, and stay active as long as they are used — Deriv deactivates one after 30 days of inactivity, and a new one can be created at any time.
Choosing one
Start from what you intend to trade and how long you intend to hold it. Intraday on currency pairs: the CFDs account, unless the predictability of a fixed cost matters more than its level. Positions held for weeks: work out the swap first, then decide whether the wider swap-free spread is worth it.
One market and nothing else: the Gold or Crypto account exists precisely for that, and there is no penalty for opening a second account later if the plan changes.
Whatever you pick, the demo is free and the account types behave identically there — which makes testing the cost difference on your own strategy cheaper than reading about it.
Questions people ask
How many account types does Deriv have?
Six on MetaTrader 5: CFDs, Zero Spread, Swap-free, Financial, Gold and Crypto. Deriv cTrader and the options platforms — Deriv Trader, SmartTrader and Deriv Bot — use separate accounts of their own.
What is the difference between the CFDs and Standard accounts?
Nothing — it is the same account renamed. Deriv's older pages still say Standard, and its current help centre calls it the CFDs account.
Is the swap-free account cheaper?
Only if you hold positions long enough. Deriv advertises gold spreads from 16 points on the Standard account against 36 points on the Swap-free one — $16 versus $36 on a 100-ounce lot — so the avoided overnight financing has to exceed that difference.
Can I change leverage on a Deriv account?
No. Deriv states leverage cannot be manually adjusted: it is fixed per asset, so a currency pair may carry up to 1:1000 while shares carry 1:10, regardless of which account type holds the position.
Can I open more than one account type?
Yes. They appear side by side in the same dashboard and are funded from the same Wallet, so moving between them is an internal transfer.
The broker itself is reviewed on our Deriv page, its instruments on synthetic indices, and the entity question across all nine brokers on regulated forex brokers.