Raw spread vs standard account: which one is actually cheaper?
A raw account charges a commission; a standard one builds its cost into the spread. The cheaper one depends on the pair: the same $7 is 0.70 pips on EUR/USD and 1.10 on USD/JPY.
A raw account quotes a spread close to zero and charges a commission on top; a standard account charges no commission and builds its cost into a wider spread. Which one is cheaper is not a property of the account. The commission is fixed in money and a pip's value is not, so the same account can win on one pair and lose on the next.
What is the difference between the two?
The difference is in how you pay:
| Standard account | Raw account | |
|---|---|---|
| Spread you see | Wider: the broker's cost is inside it | Close to the interbank spread |
| Commission | None | A fixed amount per lot traded |
| Cost to compare | The spread alone | The spread plus the commission |
Our spread explainer covers why a spread exists at all, and our comparison of electronic communication network (ECN), straight-through processing (STP) and market-maker brokers explains why the label on the account says little about who takes the other side of your trade. This piece is only about the bill.
How do you compare them?
Turn everything into pips. The raw account is cheaper when the difference between the two spreads is larger than the commission measured in pips:
raw is cheaper when standard spread − raw spread > commission in pips
With the reference figures from our breakdown of what a trade really costs on EUR/USD, a standard spread of 0.8 pips against a raw spread of 0.2 pips is a gap of 0.6 pips. A commission of $7 for the round trip on one standard lot is 0.70 pips. The gap is smaller than the commission, so the standard account wins by 0.1 pip: $8 against $9 per lot.
That is one pair. The commission does not stay at 0.70 pips on the others.
How many pips is the commission on each pair?
A pip on one standard lot is worth exactly $10 only when the US dollar is the second currency of the pair. On every other pair its dollar value depends on the price, so a fixed $7 turns into a different number of pips:
| Pair | Value of one pip on one standard lot | $7 commission in pips |
|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD | $10.00 | 0.70 |
| USD/JPY, EUR/JPY | $6.38 | 1.10 |
| USD/CAD | $7.14 | 0.98 |
| USD/CHF, EUR/CHF | $12.19 | 0.57 |
| EUR/GBP | $13.40 | 0.52 |
Prices are the last one-minute close before 21:00 UTC on 22 October 2026 on our own MetaTrader 5 (MT5) feed, for a US-dollar account. On the yen pairs the same commission is more than 50% more pips than on EUR/USD; on EUR/GBP it is about 25% fewer.
So with the 0.6-pip gap from the EUR/USD example, the raw account would lose clearly on the yen pairs, where the commission is 1.10 pips, and on USD/CAD, where it is 0.98, and narrowly win on USD/CHF, EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP. Whether the gap really is 0.6 pips on those pairs is the part you have to look up: each pair has its own spreads on each account.
What changes the answer?
- Per side or round trip. A commission quoted as $3.50 per side is $7 for the round trip. Read which one your broker means before you convert it, because the difference doubles the number.
- The hour. The commission is the only one of these costs that does not change with the hour of the day. Spreads on both accounts widen when liquidity thins, especially overnight, so the averages a broker publishes may not be the spreads you trade at.
- Lot size does not change the winner. Both the spread and the commission scale with the lot: on 0.10 lots a $7 commission becomes $0.70 and the pip is worth a tenth as much, so the comparison in pips is the same. A minimum commission per order, if your broker sets one, is the exception: on very small trades it can tip the result.
- How often you trade changes how much it matters. On pairs quoted in dollars, a 0.1-pip difference is $1 per standard lot; it is noise for someone trading a few lots a month and real money for someone trading hundreds.
- What the table leaves out. Slippage has no fixed size, and the swap is a separate bill for every night a position stays open.
How do you check it with your own broker?
1. Find the average spread for your pair on both accounts in the broker's contract specifications.
2. Find the raw account's commission and whether it is per side or for the round trip.
3. Convert the commission into pips with your pair's pip value at today's price.
4. Compare the spread gap with that number. If the gap is bigger, the raw account is cheaper on that pair.
What this article does not tell you
It does not name a broker or quote a live spread: our feed records prices, not spreads, so the 0.8 and 0.2 pips are reference points from our cost explainer, not measurements. The $7 is a reference commission, assumed to be charged per standard lot whatever the pair; a broker that charges by the amount traded instead will give different numbers on the pairs where the dollar is not the base currency, the first of the two. The method transfers; the figures are yours to look up.
