The number, and what it costs
High leverage forex brokers
Alpari publishes up to 1:3000, RoboForex 1:2000, LiteFinance 1:1000, Deriv 1:800 on gold, Bybit and FxPro 1:500. Every one of those figures comes from a company registered offshore. The same brands' European entities cap retail clients at 1:30, and regulators set that limit deliberately: at 1:3000, a $100 account is three pips from a margin call.
Conditions checked against each broker's own pages
Leverage, and the company behind it
Highest published leverage first, with the entity that offers it in the same row — because the two travel together. A high figure is not a feature of the broker; it is a feature of the jurisdiction its licence is in.
| Broker | Published leverage | Entity offering it | If that entity fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpari | Up to 1:3000 on ECN and Pro ECN; 1:1000 Standard; 1:500 Micro | Parlance Trading Ltd, Mwali International Services Authority (Comoros) | No compensation scheme |
| RoboForex | Up to 1:2000 on Pro and ProCent; 1:500 ECN; 1:300 Prime; 1:500 fixed on major crypto | RoboForex Ltd, FSC Belize 9759600 | Voluntary cover of up to €20,000 per case through the Financial Commission |
| LiteFinance | 1:1000 on ECN and Classic | LiteFinance Global LLC, St Vincent and the Grenadines | No compensation scheme; its CySEC entity does not serve EEA residents |
| Tickmill | Up to 1:1000 on forex and commodities on its global instruments page — and 1:30 retail, 1:500 professional under the European entity | Tickmill Ltd (FSA Seychelles) against Tickmill Europe Ltd (CySEC 278/15) | €20,000 through the Cypriot fund on the European entity; nothing on the Seychelles one |
| Deriv | Up to 1:800 on gold; the European entity trades under MFSA limits | Offshore entities in Labuan, BVI, Vanuatu, Mauritius, Cayman and St Vincent | Malta's scheme applies only to the EEA entity |
| Bybit | Up to 500:1 on forex, metals and oil; 20:1 commodities; 5:1 US stock CFDs | Infra Capital Limited (Mauritius) and Infra Capital LLC (St Vincent) | No compensation scheme; licence number not published |
| FxPro | 1:500 on the accounts page; the UK entity is capped far lower | FxPro Global Markets Ltd (FSA Seychelles SD120) against FxPro UK Ltd (FCA 509956) | £85,000 through the FSCS on the UK entity; nothing on the Seychelles one |
| Libertex | Not published outside the platform; the CySEC entity works under the 30:1 retail cap | Indication Investments Ltd, CySEC 164/12 | The lower of 90% of claims and €20,000 |
| ForTrade | Not published to visitors outside the markets it serves | Fortrade Ltd (FCA), Fortrade Cyprus (CySEC) and four more | £85,000 or €20,000 depending on the entity |
Scroll the table sideways →
Leverage figures as each broker publishes them, read on 24 August 2026; the caps come from the FCA, ASIC and the CFTC directly. The entity column is the point of the table: every figure above 1:500 here belongs to a company registered in a jurisdiction that does not cap leverage and does not run a compensation scheme.
What 1:3000 actually does
Leverage decides position size, and position size decides how many pips of adverse movement your account survives. At 1:3000, a $100 deposit supports $300,000 of exposure — three standard lots of EUR/USD, where one pip is worth about $30. Three and a half pips against you and the deposit is gone.
At 1:500, the same $100 carries half a lot: one pip is $5, and it takes twenty pips to do the same damage. At the European retail cap of 1:30, it carries 0.03 lots, one pip is 30 cents, and the account survives a move of several hundred pips.
That is the entire mechanism. The high figure does not increase your profit per pip on a given position — it increases how large a position you are permitted to open with the money you have, and therefore how quickly an ordinary market movement ends the account.
Why regulators cap it, and where the caps are
The UK made ESMA's restrictions permanent: leverage between 30:1 and 2:1 for retail clients depending on the asset, close-out when funds fall to 50% of required margin, and a guarantee that a client cannot lose more than the account holds. The FCA estimated those rules keep nearly 400,000 people a year from risking more than their stake, worth between £267m and £451m of protection annually.
Australia's ASIC did the same in 2021, capping retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major pairs down to 2:1, and extended the order to May 2027 after reporting that retail losses fell from a quarterly average of $372 million to $22 million in the first quarter it applied. The US goes further in its own way: retail forex requires 2% margin on major pairs and 5% on others — 50:1 and 20:1.
Nobody caps leverage in Belize, the Comoros or St Vincent, which is why every figure above 1:500 in the table belongs to a company registered there. That is the trade you are making, stated plainly: the highest leverage comes with the least protection, because both follow from the same choice of jurisdiction.
How much leverage is actually useful
Enough to open the position size your strategy calls for, and no more — because unused leverage costs nothing. An account with 1:30 available and a position that requires 1:10 behaves identically to an account with 1:3000 available and the same position. The number only matters at the point where it permits something you would otherwise be stopped from doing.
Which reframes the question. Instead of «who offers the highest leverage», ask what margin your intended position needs: a 0.01-lot trade on EUR/USD is about $1,000 of exposure, requiring roughly $33 of margin at 1:30 and about 30 cents at 1:3000. Both are affordable; only one of them tempts you into thirty times the size.
The practical case for higher leverage is capital efficiency for someone who already sizes positions by risk rather than by margin — and that trader is the least likely to need 1:3000.
The rule that decides when it ends
Margin close-out is the other half of leverage and gets far less attention. Under UK and Australian rules the broker must close positions when account funds fall to 50% of the margin required to hold them, and negative balance protection means the loss stops at zero rather than becoming a debt.
Offshore entities set their own thresholds, and they are published in the account specifications rather than in the marketing. RoboForex, for example, publishes margin call and stop-out levels per account type, as does Alpari — 50% and 20% on its Micro and Standard accounts, 80% and 50% on its ECN ones. A higher stop-out level means the position is closed sooner, which on a highly leveraged account is protection rather than restriction.
Before opening an account on high leverage, find those two numbers. They decide what happens on the day the leverage matters, and they are the part that is never in the headline.
Questions people ask
Which broker offers the highest leverage?
Among the brokers we track, Alpari at up to 1:3000 on its ECN accounts, followed by RoboForex at 1:2000 and LiteFinance at 1:1000. All three figures belong to companies registered offshore — in the Comoros, Belize and St Vincent respectively — where no compensation scheme applies.
Why is leverage capped at 1:30 in Europe?
Because regulators concluded that retail clients were losing more than they could afford. The UK made ESMA's 30:1-to-2:1 caps permanent alongside mandatory close-out at 50% of margin and negative balance protection; ASIC did the same in Australia and reported retail losses falling from a quarterly average of $372 million to $22 million.
What does 1:3000 leverage mean in practice?
That $100 can control $300,000 — three standard lots of EUR/USD, where a pip is worth about $30. Three and a half pips against you removes the deposit. At 1:30 the same $100 controls $3,000 and survives a move of several hundred pips.
Is high leverage good or bad?
It is neutral until you use it, and unused leverage costs nothing. The danger is that it permits a position size your account cannot survive, which is why the same brands offer 1:3000 through offshore entities and 1:30 through European ones.
How much leverage do I need?
Work backwards from the position. A 0.01-lot trade on EUR/USD is roughly $1,000 of exposure, needing about $33 of margin at 1:30. If your intended size fits within a capped account, the higher figure buys you nothing but temptation.
What is a stop-out level?
The point at which the broker closes your positions automatically — 50% of required margin under UK and Australian rules, and broker-set offshore: Alpari publishes 20% on its Micro and Standard accounts and 50% on its ECN ones. On a highly leveraged account, a higher stop-out closes you sooner and is protective rather than restrictive.
Getting the terminal itself is a different question — which version to download and where from. The full cost arithmetic for every account here is on what a trade actually costs, and a demo account What each entity protects, in full, is on regulated forex brokers; what happens when the margin requirement is removed entirely is on unlimited leverage; the position sizes that make leverage survivable are on brokers for beginners.