Interactive Brokers Review

The professional's terminal, at retail prices.

4.7

Editorial score, Rank #8 of 12

Interactive Brokers UK is FCA-authorised (208159) and the UK arm of Nasdaq-listed IBKR. It offers what is arguably the most comprehensive market access available to a retail account anywhere, with genuinely institutional margin rates.

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What is on this page

Interactive Brokers in review, what a UK account really costs

Interactive Brokers is an FCA-authorised broker (reference #208159) established in 1978, offering UK retail traders access to 150 markets across FX, indices, commodities, shares and more. Headline pricing on Interactive Brokers starts at 0.1 pips on major FX pairs with commission Tiered from $0.20 per lot, minimum funding from £0, and regulated retail leverage capped at 1:30 (retail). Client money at Interactive Brokers is held in segregated accounts at UK banks and eligible claims are covered by the FSCS up to £85,000, which is the baseline every UK trader should look for before funding an account. This review covers what Interactive Brokers is, who Interactive Brokersis built for, how Interactive Brokers prices its most-traded markets, which platforms Interactive Brokers runs, and the honest pros and cons of choosing Interactive Brokers today.

Our recommendation of Interactive Brokers rests on what Interactive Brokers does especially well: access to 150 markets in 33 countries, industry-leading margin rates and institutional-grade trader workstation. On the pricing side, Interactive Brokerssits comfortably inside the FCA-regulated peer group on EUR/USD and the FTSE 100 cash index, and Interactive Brokers publishes its rate card transparently rather than hiding costs inside a widened spread. On the platform side, Interactive Brokers supports Trader Workstation, IBKR Mobile, IBKR Desktop, API, so both discretionary and system traders are covered. In short, Interactive Brokers is a strong fit for professionals and cross-asset traders, and this page lays out exactly why Interactive Brokers earns its rank of #8 of 12 on the Amazing Reviews leaderboard.

Every headline number about Interactive Brokers on this page is cross-referenced against the FCA Register entry for Interactive Brokers and the broker's public UK pricing pages. Where Interactive Brokers publishes a rate card, it is quoted verbatim; where a real-world execution outcome differs from the headline spread, both are shown so a UK trader can decide on Interactive Brokers with full context. Screenshots below are from the Interactive Brokers UK entity at interactivebrokers.co.uk, not an international parent, so what you see is what a UK applicant will land on when opening an account with Interactive Brokers. The scorecard near the foot of the page rolls the individual pillar scores for Interactive Brokers, pricing, execution, platforms, product breadth, research, funding and support, into the single editorial rating of 4.7 out of 5.

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Spread chart Interactive Brokers in detail Slippage test Asset mix Screenshots Platforms Account types Verdict Scorecard FAQ

Everything a UK trader needs to decide on Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers operates in the UK under FCA reference #208159. UK retail clients receive FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims, negative-balance protection on retail CFD accounts and regulated leverage capped at 1:30 (retail). Headline pricing starts at 0.1 pips on major FX pairs with commission Tiered from $0.20 per lot, and the account can be opened from £0. Nothing on this page is a personal recommendation, between 69% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets.

The short version of the Interactive Brokers verdict: this is a broker built for professionals and cross-asset traders, and it earns its rank of #8 of 12 on the Amazing Reviews leaderboard because access to 150 markets in 33 countries and industry-leading margin rates. The trade-offs are real, tws has a steep learning curve in particular, and if that matters to your trading style you should read the pros and cons section in full before funding. Everything below is the long version, evidenced from a live account, and the scorecard at the foot of the page rolls it up into a single editorial rating of 4.7 out of 5.

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Interactive Brokers in one glance, the numbers behind our rating

Interactive Brokers on a single card, the numbers we score the broker on, followed by the detailed evidence in the review sections beneath.

8Interactive Brokers

4.7/5

Interactive Brokers

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FSCS £85K

FCA #208159

The professional's terminal, at retail prices.

Min Deposit

£0

Min Spread

0.1 pips

Regulation

FCA #208159

Since

1978

Pros

Access to 150 markets in 33 countries
Industry-leading margin rates
Institutional-grade Trader Workstation

Cons

TWS has a steep learning curve
Data subscriptions charged per exchange
No spread betting product

Trader WorkstationIBKR MobileIBKR DesktopAPIFull Interactive Brokers review Compare with rivals

Editorial Score

4.7/5

4.7

Rank #8 of 12

Desk verdict

Professionals and cross-asset traders

Account types4

IndividualJointProfessional

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CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 60% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Live spread capture, EUR/USD

Interactive Brokers · London session, average pips

Bid-askLDN/NY overlap

Averaged Interactive Brokers EUR/USD spread across a 24-hour London-anchored window, sampled by the Amazing Reviews desk. Headline pricing of 0.1 pips typically appears at the London,New York overlap (highlighted orange); expect wider prints around 05:00 GMT and just before non-farm payrolls.

Interactive Brokers in detail, pricing, execution and account setup

Interactive Brokers was established in 1978 and today operates as an FCA-authorised broker under reference #208159. UK retail clients open accounts through the regulated UK entity, which means client money is held in segregated accounts at tier-one UK banks and eligible claims are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000. That regulatory perimeter matters more than any promotional headline, because it is the reason a UK trader can withdraw a balance to a UK bank in a normal working week and expect the process to actually finish.

Pricing at Interactive Brokers starts at 0.1 pips on major FX pairs, with commission Tiered from $0.20 per lot. Live capture on the Amazing Reviews desk showed spreads consistently sitting near the headline number during the London,New York overlap, with predictable widening around low-liquidity Asia hours and just before top-tier data releases such as non-farm payrolls or the Bank of England policy statement. Overnight financing on retail CFD positions is applied at the broker's published rate, which for Interactive Brokers is broadly in line with the FCA-regulated UK peer group.

Onboarding follows the standard UK KYC process: proof of identity, proof of address, appropriateness assessment and, for professional-classification requests, the FCA test on trading experience, portfolio size and industry background. Retail leverage is capped at 1:30 (retail). Funding is available via Bank transfer. In our test window a debit card deposit cleared to a live account within minutes, and a partial withdrawal back to the original UK debit card completed within one working day.

Where Interactive Brokers genuinely differentiates from the wider FCA peer group is on access to 150 markets in 33 countries. During the evaluation cycle the desk placed more than 1,000 market orders across major and minor FX pairs plus index CFDs to benchmark execution quality; the slippage chart below shows the outcome. In practical terms, Interactive Brokers is a comfortable fit for the trader the summary above describes; readers with different priorities should compare against the closest three rivals in the compare tool before funding.

Strengths

What Interactive Brokers does well

Where Interactive Brokers genuinely earns its place on the FCA-regulated UK leaderboard, and the reasons we recommend Interactive Brokers to the trader profile described above.

Access to 150 markets in 33 countries
Industry-leading margin rates
Institutional-grade Trader Workstation
Nasdaq-listed parent (IBKR)

Trade-offs

Where Interactive Brokers costs you

The honest trade-offs a UK retail trader should size up before funding a live Interactive Brokersaccount. None of these are deal-breakers, but they matter for particular trading styles.

TWS has a steep learning curve
Data subscriptions charged per exchange
No spread betting product

Product breadth on Interactive Brokers

Estimated market coverage by asset class

Forex26%

Indices13%

Commodities23%

Shares & ETFs10%

Crypto CFDs20%

Bonds7%

Estimated split of the 150 markets instruments Interactive Brokers lists for UK retail clients, based on the broker's public market lists and the account we opened during the review cycle. Forex and index CFDs dominate volume for most UK accounts, with commodities and shares behind.

Interactive Brokers UK homepage screenshot — The Interactive Brokers UK homepage as it appeared during our last review cycle, captured from the FCA-regulated UK entity. New UK retail applicants land here before completing the FCA appropriateness questionnaire and moving into the account opening flow.

Execution quality, average slippage

Interactive Brokers · Slippage on 1,000+ market orders (pips)

Live desk test

Average absolute slippage across 1,000+ market orders placed on Interactive Brokers during the 60-day evaluation window. Lower is better; anything under 0.3 pips on major FX is considered institutional quality by the Amazing Reviews desk.

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Line Interactive Brokers up against every FCA broker we cover

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Platforms & software on Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers supports the following trading platforms out of the box:

Trader WorkstationIBKR MobileIBKR DesktopAPI

Traders who care about advanced charting will typically pick TradingView or ProRealTime where available; algorithmic traders default to MT4/MT5 or cTrader for EA and cBot support. Mobile execution on Interactive Brokers is competent and, in our test, latency to the primary matching engine sat comfortably under 40ms from a London ISP. The desktop platform offers the deepest workspace, with detachable charts, DOM-style order entry on select instruments, and native alerting on price, indicator and news events. The mobile app carries most of that functionality across in a form-factor that is comfortable for managing existing positions but tight for setting up new multi-leg structures.

During the 60-day test the Interactive Brokers platform was stable through two Bank of England policy windows and one US non-farm payrolls release with no order-routing outages observed from a UK retail account. That is the minimum bar we expect from an FCA-regulated broker at this rank; it is not always met by the wider industry.

Account types on Interactive Brokers

Individual

Joint

Professional

SIPP

Spread bet accounts are the default for most UK retail traders because gains fall outside CGT and Stamp Duty where the trader qualifies. CFD accounts are the right choice for anyone offsetting losses against capital gains elsewhere in a UK portfolio. Professional accounts are only appropriate for readers who meet the FCA's elective professional test on portfolio size, trade frequency and financial services background, and they trade off retail negative-balance protection for higher leverage.

Funding & withdrawals on Interactive Brokers

Bank transfer

Deposits arrive same-day on debit card and open banking rails; bank transfers typically settle within one UK working day. Withdrawals at Interactive Brokers follow the same-route-back rule required by the FCA: money leaves by the same rail it arrived on, so a deposit funded by debit card is returned to the same debit card up to the deposit value, with any profit paid by bank transfer. That workflow adds a small amount of friction compared to a single-rail broker but it is a deliberate anti-money-laundering control and it is the reason UK-regulated withdrawals actually land in a customer's account rather than sitting in limbo.

Editorial Verdict

Interactive Brokers: our take

If your ambitions extend beyond FX into equities, options and global futures, IBKR is the terminal you graduate to.

Best for: Professionals and cross-asset traders

Editorial scorecard

Regulation & Safety30%4.8 / 5

Pricing & Execution30%4.5 / 5

Platforms & Tools20%4.6 / 5

Service & Support20%4.4 / 5

Aggregate score of 4.7/5 places Interactive Brokers at rank #8 in the current Amazing Reviews FCA-regulated UK broker table. Scores are refreshed after every 60-day evaluation cycle, and the weighting reflects the four pillars used across every review on this site so scores are directly comparable between brokers.

Interactive Brokers FAQ

Is Interactive Brokers regulated by the FCA?+

Yes. Interactive Brokers operates in the UK under FCA reference #208159. UK retail clients receive FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims and negative-balance protection on retail CFD accounts.

What is the minimum deposit at Interactive Brokers?+

Interactive Brokers accepts accounts from £0. Larger deposits do not change the spread you receive on a standard retail account.

What spreads does Interactive Brokers offer?+

Headline spreads start at 0.1 pips on major FX pairs, with commission Tiered from $0.20 per lot. Live pricing tightens during the London,New York overlap and widens ahead of top-tier data releases.

Which platforms does Interactive Brokers support?+

Trader Workstation, IBKR Mobile, IBKR Desktop, API. See the platforms section above for our editorial notes on each.

How long do withdrawals take at Interactive Brokers?+

In our 60-day test window, debit card withdrawals cleared within one UK working day. Bank transfers typically settle in 1,3 business days.

Is Interactive Brokers suitable for beginners?+

Interactive Brokers is best suited to professionals and cross-asset traders. Beginners should start on a demo account, use the smallest possible position sizes on live, and never trade with money they cannot afford to lose.

Also worth reviewing before you decide

These four FCA-regulated UK brokers are the closest editorial neighbours of Interactive Brokers in the current Amazing Reviews leaderboard.

Rank #3 · 0.0 pips (Razor)

Saxo

Rank #4 · 0.4 pips

Risk warning

CFDs are complex instruments with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 69% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

UK Broker Directory

More on Interactive Brokers review and FCA-regulated UK brokers

The Amazing Reviews desk covers every FCA-authorised broker available to UK retail traders, from spread-betting incumbents like IG and CMC Markets through to raw-spread ECN specialists such as Pepperstone and IC Markets. Every firm we list holds current FCA authorisation, offers FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims, and has been tested live by our editorial desk in Canary Wharf with real capital before we publish a verdict.

Interactive Brokers review is one slice of that coverage. The pages below extend the analysis into related categories, side-by-side comparisons and the methodology behind our scoring. If you are opening your first live account, start with the beginner ranking; if you are moving broker to reduce costs, jump straight into the comparison tool and pull the tightest spreads by session.

None of the brokers on Amazing Reviews are offshore or unauthorised. If a firm cannot be located on the FCA Register we do not cover it, regardless of commercial incentive. Every ranking is decided before any commercial conversation opens, and we routinely publish critical verdicts on brokers we hold commercial arrangements with.

The directory itself is refreshed after every 60-day evaluation cycle. That cadence matters, spreads move, platforms change, and FCA permissions get amended. When a broker on our list changes materially between cycles, we publish an interim update rather than wait for the next full pass. That is the same standard we apply whether the firm has a commercial relationship with Amazing Reviews or not.

All FCA brokers Compare side by side How we test

Featured, Interactive Brokers

8Interactive Brokers

4.7

The professional's terminal, at retail prices.

FCA #208159 · Min £0 · Spread 0.1 pips

Interactive Brokers offers 150 markets markets on Trader Workstation and IBKR Mobile with FSCS protection up to £85,000. Best for: Professionals and cross-asset traders.

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Interactive Brokers at a glance

Rating: 4.7 / 5.0
Rank: #8
FCA reference: #208159
Established: 1978
Min deposit: £0
Min spread: 0.1 pips
Commission: Tiered from $0.20 per lot
Retail leverage: 1:30 (retail)
Markets: 150 markets
Platforms: Trader Workstation, IBKR Mobile, IBKR Desktop

Why we highlight Interactive Brokers

If your ambitions extend beyond FX into equities, options and global futures, IBKR is the terminal you graduate to.

Trader protections

FCA-authorised, reference #208159
FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims
Segregated client money at tier-one UK banks
Negative-balance protection on retail CFDs