14 Best Online Brokers for Free Stock Trading of January 2022
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Welcome to the new era for free stock trading.
While stock trading price steadily declined in recent years, only a handful of brokerages offered $0 trades until October 2019, when the race to zero commissions broke into a sprint led by Charles Schwab. Now commission-free trades for stocks, exchange-traded funds and options are the industry standard among top online brokerages.
Here are NerdWallet’s picks for the best brokers for commission-free trading. (Need to back up on this process? See our step-by-step instructions for how to buy stocks.)
Welcome to the new era for free stock trading.
While stock trading price steadily declined in recent years, only a handful of brokerages offered $0 trades until October 2019, when the race to zero commissions broke into a sprint led by Charles Schwab. Now commission-free trades for stocks, exchange-traded funds and options are the industry standard among top online brokerages.
Here are NerdWallet’s picks for the best brokers for commission-free trading. (Need to back up on this process? See our step-by-step instructions for how to buy stocks.)
Best Online Brokers for Free Stock Trading
| Broker | NerdWallet Rating | Fees | Account Minimum | Promotion | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Merrill Edge Learn more on Merrill Edge's website | $0 per trade | $0 | Up to $600 when you invest in a new Merrill Edge® Self-Directed account. | Learn more on Merrill Edge's website | |
 Fidelity Learn more on Fidelity's website | $0 per trade for online U.S. stocks and ETFs | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn more on Fidelity's website | |
 SoFi Active Investing Learn more on SoFi Invest's website | $0 per trade | $0 | $5 to $1,000 in free stock for users who sign up via mobile app | Learn more on SoFi Invest's website | |
 E*TRADE Learn more on E*TRADE's website | $0 per trade | $0 | None no promotion available at this time | Learn more on E*TRADE's website | |
 J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing Learn more on J.P. Morgan's website | $0 per trade | $0 | Get up to $625 when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money | Learn more on J.P. Morgan's website |
on Merrill Edge's website
Merrill Edge
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Up to $600when you invest in a new Merrill Edge® Self-Directed account.
on Merrill Edge's website
on Fidelity's website
Fidelity
Fees
$0per trade for online U.S. stocks and ETFs
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Noneno promotion available at this time
on Fidelity's website
on SoFi Invest's website
SoFi Active Investing
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
$5 to $1,000in free stock for users who sign up via mobile app
on SoFi Invest's website
on E*TRADE's website
E*TRADE
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Noneno promotion available at this time
on E*TRADE's website
on J.P. Morgan's website
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Get up to $625when you open and fund a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account with qualifying new money
on J.P. Morgan's website
on Interactive Brokers's website
Interactive Brokers IBKR Lite
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Noneno promotion available at this time
on Interactive Brokers's website
on Webull's website
Webull
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Get 3 free stocksvalued up to $6300 when you open and fund an account. Promotion ends 2/10/22.
on Webull's website
on TD Ameritrade's website
TD Ameritrade
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Noneno promotion available at this time
on TD Ameritrade's website
on Robinhood's website
Robinhood
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
1 Free Stockafter linking your bank account (stock value range $2.50-$225)
on Robinhood's website
on Axos Invest's website
Axos Self-Directed Trading
Fees
$0per trade
Account Minimum
$0Promotion
Get $150when you open and fund an Axos Self-Directed Trading account
on Axos Invest's website
Want to compare more options? Here are our other top picks:
Disclosure: The author held no positions in the aforementioned securities at the time of publication.
Last updated on January 13, 2022
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Methodology
How do we review brokers?
NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Ratings are rounded to the nearest half-star.
For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.
To recap our selections...
