What a trade actually costs
Deriv fees and spreads
Deriv charges no commission on MT5 and publishes a minimum spread for every instrument it lists. Those spreads are quoted in the instrument's own units, which makes them incomparable until they are converted — so the table below converts them into what one position costs to open.
Checked against Deriv's own pages
The spread is the main charge
Deriv advertises zero commission on all assets on Deriv MT5, which makes the spread the cost of trading there. It publishes a minimum spread for each of the 82 instruments in its specifications, alongside the contract size, the margin requirement and the maximum leverage.
The numbers only become comparable once the contract size is applied: 0.00011 on AUD/USD and 0.03 on silver look like the same order of magnitude and are not — one is $11 a lot and the other $150, because a lot of silver is 5,000 ounces.
Deriv explains the practical consequence in its own help centre, unusually plainly: a position opens slightly negative because it is executed at one side of the quote and marked at the other. The spread is paid at the moment of entry, before the market has done anything.
Published minimum spreads, converted
| Instrument | Published spread | Cost to open | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUD/USD | 0.00011 — 1.1 pips | $11 on a standard 100,000 lot | 1:1000 (margin 0.10%) |
| AUD/JPY | 0.016 — 1.6 pips | 1,600 JPY on a standard lot — about $11 | 1:1000 (margin 0.10%) |
| Gold (XAU/USD) | From 16 points | $16 on a 100-ounce lot — $36 on a Swap-free account | 1:800, per Deriv's gold page |
| Silver (XAG/USD) | 0.03 per ounce | $150 on a 5,000-ounce lot | 1:800 (margin 0.13%) |
| Apple shares | 0.36 per share | $0.36 a share — 0.14% of price | 1:10 (margin 10%) |
| Boom 1000 Index | 1.2745 index points | $1.27 per contract | 1:600 (margin 0.17%) |
| Cardano (ADA/USD) | 0.00103 per ADA | About $0.21 on the 200-ADA minimum position | 1:400 (margin 0.25%) |
Source: Deriv's trading specifications page, captured 23 August 2026, and its gold page. Minimum spreads widen in fast markets; the figures are floors, not averages.
Overnight financing
Every instrument in the specifications carries two swap figures — one for each direction — and they are not symmetrical: on AUD/USD Deriv publishes 0.09 and −2.42, while a Boom 1000 index charges −18.00 on both sides. Holding overnight is therefore cheap on some instruments and material on others, and the direction matters.
The Swap-free account removes the charge and widens the spread instead: 36 points on gold rather than 16. That converts a recurring nightly cost into a one-off entry cost, which is better for long holds and worse for short ones.
For the Islamic-finance reasons people usually open swap-free accounts, our page on Islamic forex accounts covers what these accounts do and do not resolve.
The costs that are not the spread
Copy trading. On Deriv cTrader the strategy provider sets the fees — performance, management or volume-based — and Deriv states it adds no charges of its own on top. That means the cost of copying is set by whoever you copy, and it is worth reading before subscribing rather than after.
Payments. Deriv publishes a limit table per method rather than a fee schedule: minimums from 1 USD on some crypto transfers to 50 USD on Ethereum, maximums per transaction, and timings that are instant on deposit and up to a working day on card withdrawals. Third-party costs — your bank's, the network's — sit outside that table.
Inactivity and the rest. Any charge not published in the specifications or the payment table should be checked in the terms for your entity before it matters rather than after; entities differ, and so do their fee schedules.
How this compares
A 1.1-pip floor on AUD/USD is a normal retail spread rather than an unusually tight one — the raw-spread accounts we compare across nine brokers start lower and charge a commission instead, which is the trade Deriv does not offer on MT5.
Where Deriv is genuinely hard to compare is on derived indices, because nobody else lists them: there is no second quote for a Boom 1000 index anywhere, so its spread cannot be benchmarked. That is set out on our synthetic indices page.
Questions people ask
Does Deriv charge commission?
Not on Deriv MT5 — it advertises zero commission on all assets there, so the spread is the trading cost. Copy trading on Deriv cTrader carries fees set by the strategy provider instead.
What is Deriv's spread on major pairs?
Its specifications publish a minimum of 0.00011 on AUD/USD — 1.1 pips, or $11 on a standard lot. Minimum spreads are floors that widen in fast markets, not averages.
What does gold cost to trade at Deriv?
From 16 points on the Standard account — $16 on a 100-ounce lot — and from 36 points, or $36, on the Swap-free account, where the wider spread replaces overnight financing.
Are there swap charges?
Yes, published per instrument and per direction — 0.09 and −2.42 on AUD/USD, −18.00 both ways on a Boom 1000 index. The Swap-free account removes them in exchange for a wider spread.
Are there deposit or withdrawal fees?
Deriv publishes limits and timings per payment method rather than a fee schedule: minimums from 1 USD on some crypto transfers up to 50 USD on Ethereum, with card withdrawals taking up to a working day. Bank and network charges are outside its table.
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.