About the Spread Calculator
Find out how much the spread costs you on a trade. Enter the bid and ask prices, or the spread in pips, with your lot size, and the page shows the cost in your account currency, the spread in pips and as a percentage of the price.
The spread is the gap between the price you can buy at (ask) and the price you can sell at (bid). Every new position starts that far behind, so on short trades and small targets the spread can be a large part of the result.
How it works
The spread in price is the ask minus the bid. Dividing by the pip size (0.0001 for most pairs, 0.01 for JPY pairs, $0.10 or $0.01 for gold) gives the spread in pips: 1.08512 − 1.08500 = 0.00012, which is 1.2 pips.
The cost is the spread times the units you trade: 0.00012 × 100,000 = $12 on one standard lot of EUR/USD. For pairs not quoted in your account currency, the cost is converted at the rate you enter, or at the mid price when your account currency is the pair's base currency.
The tests check that the cost of a spread always equals the number of pips times the pip value from the Pip Value Calculator, whether you type the spread or the bid and ask.
Assumptions and limits
- The spread is paid once per trade, on opening: you buy at the ask and later sell at the bid, or the reverse.
- Spreads change during the day and widen around news, at the daily rollover and when markets open on Monday.
- Commission on ECN or raw-spread accounts is charged on top; add it to the cost.
Worked examples
EUR/USD
Bid 1.08500, ask 1.08512: 1.2 pips, $12 on 1 lot, $0.12 on 0.01 lot.
USD/JPY
Bid 149.950, ask 149.965: 1.5 pips, ¥1,500 on 1 lot, about $10 in a dollar account.
Gold
Bid 2,650.10, ask 2,650.40: a 30-cent spread, 3 pips of $0.10, $30 on 1 lot.
How to use the Spread Calculator
- Choose the instrument. A forex pair or gold.
- Enter the spread. Bid and ask, or the spread in pips.
- Enter your lots. And read the cost of the spread.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the spread cost of a trade?
Multiply the spread in price by the number of units. A 1.2-pip spread on EUR/USD is 0.00012, and one standard lot is 100,000 units, so the spread costs $12; on a mini lot it costs $1.20.
Is the spread charged on opening and closing?
You pay it once. Buying at the ask and later selling at the bid crosses the spread one time in total, which is why a new trade shows a small loss equal to the spread straight away.
What is a good spread for EUR/USD?
On major pairs at busy times many brokers quote well under 1 pip on raw accounts and 1 to 2 pips on standard accounts. It depends on the broker, the account type and the time of day, so compare at the hours you trade.
How many pips is the spread on gold?
It depends on the broker's pip definition. A 30-cent spread is 3 pips if a pip is $0.10, or 30 pips if a pip is $0.01. The money cost is the same either way: $30 on a 100-ounce lot.
Why does the spread widen at night?
Around the 5 pm New York rollover and in the quiet hours after it, fewer banks are quoting prices, so liquidity is thin and spreads widen. They also widen sharply around major news releases.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you enter or upload stays on your device and is never sent to our servers.