Broker Currency Conversion Fees Compared (2026): The Hidden Cost of Buying US Shares

Why buying a US share costs more than the commission

A share listed in New York is priced in US dollars. If your account is in euros or pounds, your broker has to change your money into dollars to buy it, and change the proceeds back when you sell. Currencies have a mid-market rate, the midpoint between the prices at which banks buy and sell them, and brokers rarely convert at exactly that rate. Most add a margin, either as a stated percentage or built into the exchange rate itself, so it never appears as a separate line on the contract note. That is why a broker can honestly advertise zero commission while a US share purchase still costs you money. Contracts for difference work differently: on CFDs, the conversion charge usually applies only to the profit or loss and funding, not to the full value of the position, so CFD and share-dealing fees cannot be compared one for one.

What the main brokers charge (October 2026)

The figures below come from each broker’s own pricing pages as published in October 2026, for retail clients buying shares or ETFs in another currency:

• Interactive Brokers (IBKR Pro): about 0.03% added to the rate on automatic conversions; converting manually costs 0.002% of the amount with a minimum of US$2, which only beats automatic conversion above roughly $6,700 at a time.
• Trade Republic: no separate fee is listed; the conversion is built into the price, with a published margin of US$0.0014 per unit, roughly 0.12% at recent exchange rates. Dividends are converted to euros the same way.
• Trading 212: 0.15% on the Invest account, including at weekends. The Invest account can hold dollars, but ISA accounts use one currency. On CFDs, 0.5% of the result.
• DEGIRO: 0.25% on automatic conversion; a manual conversion costs €10 plus 0.25%.
• Saxo: up to 0.25% either side of the mid price, the same for all account tiers.
• XTB: 0.5%, also applied to dividends; moving money between its currency sub-accounts costs 0.5%, or 0.8% at weekends.
• eToro: 0.75% on conversions between local currencies and US dollars for UK and European clients, with discounts for higher eToro Club tiers. It now offers dollar, euro and pound accounts, and euro-priced assets bought from a euro account carry no conversion fee.
• Revolut (EU): free up to €1,000 a month on the Standard plan, then 1%; up to €3,000 on Plus, then 0.5%; no extra fee on the higher plans. The cheaper plans also add a mark-up to currency exchange at weekends.
• Capital.com: 0.4% on buys, sells and dividends for real shares and ETFs bought through its EU company; 0.7% for retail CFD clients, applied to profits, losses and funding.
• IG (UK share dealing and ISAs): 0.7% when you buy and again when you sell.
• Hargreaves Lansdown (UK): 0.99% on the first £10,000, 0.50% from £10,000 to £25,000 and 0.20% above that, since 1 March 2026; dividends are converted at the interbank rate plus 1%.
• Freetrade (UK): 0.99% on the Basic plan, 0.59% on Standard and 0.39% on Plus.

A worked example

Take €10,000 of US shares, bought and later sold, and assume neither the share price nor the exchange rate moves. At 0.03%, conversion costs about €6 in total. At 0.12% to 0.15%, it costs €24 to €30. At 0.25%, €50; at 0.5%, €100; at 0.7%, €140; and at 1%, €200. Set that against a €1 order fee or a zero commission and the conversion is often the largest cost of the whole trade. Regular investors feel it too. A €200 monthly plan into a US-listed share at 0.7% pays €16.80 a year in conversion on the purchases alone, before anything is sold, and dividends converted at 0.5% or more lose a slice of every payment. Over a decade of monthly investing, the difference between a 0.15% and a 0.75% conversion fee can easily add up to more than a year’s worth of commissions at most brokers.

A zero-commission broker is only cheap for US shares if its exchange rate is cheap as well.

How to keep the cost down

• Buy the euro- or pound-listed version where one exists. Many global index ETFs trade on European exchanges in euros or pounds, so your broker does not need to convert anything when you buy; our guide to UCITS ETFs explains why European investors usually hold those funds anyway.
• Convert less often and in larger amounts if your broker charges a fixed minimum per conversion.
• Hold a dollar balance where your broker allows it, so that dividends and sale proceeds can be reinvested in dollars without converting back and forth.
• Avoid converting at weekends on apps that add an extra mark-up while currency markets are closed.
• Check how dividends are handled, because some brokers convert every dividend automatically and charge the full fee each time.
• Compare the all-in cost, commission plus conversion, for the trades you actually make, rather than the headline price.

Conversion fee versus currency risk

Two different things are easy to confuse. The conversion fee is a cost you pay each time money changes currency. Currency risk is the chance that the exchange rate moves while you own the investment. A euro investor who owns US shares is exposed to the dollar whether they bought them in dollars or through a euro-listed fund that holds the same shares, because the underlying companies are still valued in dollars. Buying a euro-listed fund avoids the broker’s conversion fee, but it does not remove the currency risk; only a currency-hedged share class does that, at a cost of its own. Over long periods, many investors accept currency swings as part of owning global markets, but the conversion fee is a pure cost that can usually be reduced.

Fees in this guide were taken from the brokers’ own published price lists in October 2026 and change regularly, sometimes by country and by account type, so check the current schedule for your account before trading. This article is general education, not a recommendation of any broker.

This article is educational and general in nature. It isn’t personalized investment, tax, or legal advice — always weigh your own circumstances, or talk to a licensed professional, before making financial decisions.

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