Robinhood vs Interactive Brokers

Robinhood and Interactive Brokers overlap on several products — equities, options, futures, direct crypto and event contracts — but they are built for different scopes. Robinhood concentrates on a U.S. product set delivered through a small number of interfaces. Interactive Brokers concentrates on global market access, currency handling, routing choice and programmatic access.

All facts below come from the two canonical ROIStreet review records. Facts that a record does not establish are described as not established.

Two different commission philosophies

Robinhood charges $0 on online U.S. stocks and ETFs and states that it receives rebates from market makers for stock, ETF and options order flow.

Interactive Brokers splits this into two account types. IBKR Lite offers $0 commissions on qualifying U.S. exchange-listed stocks and ETFs and does use payment for order flow. IBKR Pro uses fixed pricing of $0.005 per share or tiered pricing from $0.0035 per share down to $0.0005 per share at the highest published volume tier, with SmartRouting and a standard model that is not built on payment for order flow. Pro applies a $1.00 minimum order commission and a maximum of 1% of trade value where applicable.

The important point is structural: at IBKR the routing model and the commission schedule are chosen together.

Options and futures pricing

Robinhood charges $0 base and $0 per contract on stock and ETF options, with index options at $0.50 per contract standard and $0.35 with Gold. Futures run through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC at $0.75 per contract non-Gold and $0.50 with Gold, plus a $0.02 NFA fee and product-dependent exchange fees of $0.20 to $7.50. Options on futures are not supported.

Interactive Brokers charges $0.65 per contract under fixed pricing and $0.15 to $0.65 per contract under tiered pricing, with a $1.00 minimum order and a $0.025 per contract OCC clearing fee under the current schedule. Futures are $0.85 per contract fixed, or $0.25 to $0.85 tiered, for applicable standard U.S. contracts plus regulatory and exchange fees. Options on futures are supported.

Global reach, currencies and forex

Interactive Brokers states access to approximately 170 markets across 40 countries with 29 supported currencies, a multi-currency account, international stocks, options, futures and bonds, structured products and spot metals. Spot forex is priced at a separate commission of 0.08 to 0.20 basis points times trade value with a $2.00 first-tier minimum, plus the quoted spread.

Robinhood's canonical record does not establish international market access of that kind, and states that spot forex is not offered; currency exposure is available only through currency futures.

Crypto and event contracts exist on both sides, with different plumbing

Robinhood offers direct spot crypto through Robinhood Crypto, LLC with a $0 explicitly stated transaction fee, market-maker compensation of 0.95% of notional volume embedded in the spread, exchange routing tiers of 0.00% to 0.95%, staking where eligible at 25% of staking APY earned, and external transfers.

Interactive Brokers routes spot crypto through Paxos Trust Company, N.A. and Zero Hash LLC, with 0.18% of trade value at the normal lowest-volume tier, 0.15% at the second tier and 0.12% only at the highest published volume tier, a $1.75 minimum order fee capped at 1% of trade value, $0 stated added spread and $0 standard IBKR custody fee. Interactive Brokers is not the counterparty and does not custody the assets. Neither platform's crypto is SIPC protected or FDIC insured.

Both support event or forecast contracts. Robinhood prices them by formula with a maximum $0.01 per contract commission and up to $0.01 per contract in exchange fees; Interactive Brokers offers forecast contracts alongside its regular product set and APIs.

Platforms and access

Interactive Brokers runs Trader Workstation, IBKR Desktop, GlobalTrader, mobile and Client Portal, and exposes TWS, Web, Client Portal, FIX and Excel APIs plus product APIs.

Robinhood runs the mobile app, web classic and Robinhood Legend, an active-trading platform for equities, options, futures and crypto at a $0 additional platform fee, and offers a crypto API. A general trading API of the IBKR kind is not established in the Robinhood record.

Managed investing and cash

Robinhood offers Robinhood Strategies through Robinhood Asset Management, LLC at 0.25% annually with a $50 minimum, with no management fee on assets above $100,000 in a single managed account for Gold subscribers. Gold costs $5 per month or $50 per year and includes a 3.35% APY cash program rate as of 2026-02-11 and the first $1,000 of margin borrowing interest-free.

Interactive Brokers does not offer a conventional consumer robo-advisor; it supports managed advisor accounts through third-party advisors instead. Its U.S. margin facts checked 2026-09-02 are 5.13% on the first $100,000 for Pro and 6.13% for Lite, with blended tiering, so the lowest published institutional rate does not apply to a small debit balance. Robinhood's margin rates checked the same date range from 5.00% down to 3.95%.

How to read the difference

This is a scope decision. Robinhood delivers a focused U.S. product set with no ordinary equity-options contract fee and a low futures commission. Interactive Brokers delivers global markets, currency handling, routing control, mutual funds and fixed income, and programmatic access, with pricing that rewards choosing the correct account type.