SoFi Active Investing Review 2026: Pros, Cons and How It Compares
SoFi Active Investing is geared toward new investors getting their start in trading, with zero-commission trades of stocks, ETFs and fractional shares.The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.
Our take: SoFi Active Investing's platform is approachable and easy to navigate for newer investors, and the company offers a variety of financial services outside of investment accounts that may be convenient. The addition of a 1% match on IRA deposits is icing on the cake.
SoFi Active Investing's $0 trading commission, fractional shares and $0 account minimum are attractive to new investors. More advanced investors will appreciate the company's wide mutual fund selection and IPO access.
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All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team'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, balanced assessment of brokerages to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgments on which ones will best meet your needs. Our highest priority is maintaining editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from brokerages through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the brokerages and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each broker's performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.
Where SoFi Active Investing shines
1% match on IRAs: SoFi will match 1% on IRA contributions. If you max out your IRA in 2026 that would equate to $75 toward your retirement.
Access to financial advisors: SoFi members can schedule one free appointment with a financial planner; members of SoFi Plus can schedule as many as they'd like. (SoFi Plus is a premium membership that is available to SoFi members for $10/month — more about this option below.) Many other brokers don't offer access to advisors, or if they do, they often charge an additional fee.
Where SoFi Active Investing falls short
Low interest rate on uninvested cash: Many brokers have started paying higher cash sweep rates to reflect the high-interest rate environment, but SoFI's cash sweep rate still stands at just 0.01%. If earning more is a priority for you, you might consider these brokers, which offer a competitive interest rate:
 Vanguard |  Public | Best App for Investing  Fidelity |
Learn moreon Vanguard's website | Learn moreon Public's website | Learn moreon Fidelity's website |
Advanced investment choice: Most investors won't miss anything, but advanced investors may be disappointed with the lack of forex or futures. If that's you, consider these options instead:
Best Online Broker for Advanced Traders  Interactive Brokers IBKR Lite | Best App for Investing Fidelity |  Charles Schwab |
Learn moreon Interactive Brokers's website | Learn moreon Fidelity's website | Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website |
What type of investor should choose SoFi Active Investing?
Less-experienced investors: Beginners will appreciate the access to financial professionals you get with SoFi. This is a perk not many other brokerages offer. Fractional shares will also make beginners feel more comfortable.
Retirement investors: SoFi's 1% match is a nice bonus for those trying to save for retirement.
Options traders: Options trades come with zero costs, including no options contract fees.
What the Nerds think
"Getting started is extremely straightforward. It’s a fast app — they use Plaid to connect to your bank account and what you deposit into the brokerage can be used to buy stocks or ETFs immediately, unlike at some of the most established institutions. It’s definitely an app for beginners, based on the sleek design and lack of advanced trading screens. I found the the whole process, from funding to buying, very intuitive."
SoFi Active Investing at a glance
Account minimum | $0 |
Stock trading costs | $0 |
Options trades | $0 |
Account fees (annual, transfer, closing, inactivity) | Annual fee: $0 Inactivity fee: $25 (easily waived) IRA closing fee: $100 |
Interest rate on uninvested cash | 0.01% |
No-transaction-fee mutual funds | 6,800 |
Tradable securities | Stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, options, interval funds and crypto |
Trading platform | Two: Mobile app and web |
Mobile app | Available for iOS and Android |
Research and data | Four: Xignite, Morningstar, TipRanks and Benzinga |
Customer support options (includes how easy it is to find key details on the website) | Phone and chat support Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Access to financial advisors. |
IRA match | 1% |
How to sign up for a SoFi Active Investing account
To sign up for a SoFi account, download the app or create an account on SoFi's website. Once your account is created you'll have to choose what type of investing account you want to open. You can choose from a traditional brokerage account or an IRA.
You'll need to fill out some personal details, including your birthday, citizenship status, Social Security number and contact information. SoFi will also ask about your employment status. From there, you can link your bank and fund your new investment account.
You may be prompted to sign up for SoFi Plus, a premium offering that charges $10 a month. SoFi says the program offers up to $1,000 in annual value with qualifying activities, including unlimited access to financial planners, higher APYs, loan and mortgage discounts and other perks. Weigh the benefits of the program, being careful about considering which ones you will use, against the cost.
What to know about SoFi Active Investing's fees
SoFi Active Investing has no account minimum, no stock trading fees, and impressively, no options trading fees, including per-contract charges. This is rare among brokers that offer options trading — while commissions on options trades are no longer common, most charge a fee per contract.
SoFi has no annual fee, but there is a $25 annual inactivity fee, but you can avoid that without much work: As long as you log in to your account at least once every six months, you can waive this fee. There is also a $100 fee for closing an IRA.
SoFi Active Investing's trading platforms and apps
SoFi Active Investing offers a straight-forward trading platform with very limited features without the bells and whistles serious traders may enjoy.
It does have a straightforward interface for new investors, though, and some of its offerings help the company live up to the "social" aspect of Social Finance. For instance, you can look at the holdings of well-known traders to see how your ideas compare to theirs.
Signing up and funding your account are both straightforward, though unless you have a clear idea of what you want to invest in, you may wind up having to look elsewhere as you decide what to buy. SoFi doesn't have a lot of the screening, comparison and research tools that its top-tier competitors offer.
SoFi's trading hours are relatively expansive: from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, and SoFi does facilitate over-the-counter trades with no commission.
SoFi Active Investing's app is available for iOS and Android, highly rated by iOS and Android users and allows users to make trades, as well as track performance and get real-time quotes.
How we nerd out testing trading platforms
Our reviewers — who are writers and editors on NerdWallet’s content team — test every online broker platform in our analysis hands-on. That way, we can report on every aspect of the user experience, from funding a new account to placing trades.
We score each broker against criteria that factor in the capabilities offered and the actual user experience of trading with those capabilities. This includes how easy it was to sign up for and fund a new account. Note that a broker may score very highly for the platforms it offers but low for the experience of actually using that platform. Our analysis scores these criteria separately and weighs them evenly when factored into the broker’s overall score. As a result, a broker can offer an advanced trading platform. Still, if it is clunky to use or the process of opening an account is unnecessarily arduous, their score will reflect that.
SoFi Active Investing's investment selection
SoFi gives investors access to stocks, ETFs, 6,800 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, options, interval funds and crypto. SoFi's mutual fund catalog includes liquid alternative funds, including commodities, precious metal commodities and real estate.
SoFi Active Investing also gives investors access to fractional shares, options, IPO offerings and American depository receipts (ADRs), which allow customers to easily buy shares in foreign companies.
SoFi's crypto offering isn't the best, but it's a nice perk. SoFi gives investors access to 27 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. SoFi charges a 1% fee, or spread, on all crypto buys and sells. Unfortunately SoFi doesn't support any crypto trading pairs, meaning, for example, you can't trade Bitcoin for Solana. You'd have to sell your Bitcoin for USD and then purchase Solana. This is a little unusual, especially because SoFi does allow you to deposit crypto. Essentially, you can put crypto in, but you can't take crypto out. SoFi also doesn't offer any form of crypto staking. These drawbacks may turn away some more advanced crypto investors, but for beginners who just want to dabble in some Bitcoin, SoFi will likely work just fine.
SoFi also does not give investors access to more advanced securities such as futures or forex.
Other key SoFi Active Investing features
Customer support
Customer support is available via email and chat, as well as by phone Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
Execution quality
It's also important to note that SoFi does accept payment for order flow, which is a common practice among discount brokers. But it does mean that SoFi may earn more if it routes your order to the market maker that offers the best payment rather than the optimal consumer price.
The company says that for orders between 100 and 499 shares, its execution quality is around 98.13%.
The average execution quality of all brokers we review was 97.51% as of Oct. 15, 2025. That means 97.51% of orders sold for at a price that was at or better than the National Best Bid and Offer. Executing at or above the NBBO means you may receive a price improvement or a better share price than you were originally quoted.
IRA account
SoFi offers traditional, Roth, SEP and rollover IRAs. Currently, SoFi offers an IRA match of 1%.
SoFi Active Investing's $0 trading commission, fractional shares and $0 account minimum are attractive to new investors. More advanced investors will appreciate the company's wide mutual fund selection and IPO access.
Good to know about SoFi Active Investing
Low interest rate on uninvested cash
SoFi offers a low 0.01% interest rate on uninvested cash, and even to receive that, you have to opt into it. This is a departure from some other brokers, where the default interest rate on uninvested cash can be as high as around 4%.
Lack of research and data
SoFi has a sampling of online resources, such as historical data and stock performance, as well as webinars and live events. But it lacks the research capabilities you might find elsewhere.
Is SoFi Active Investing safe?
All investing comes with the risk of loss, but SoFi is covered by insurance and is registered with all the appropriate governing bodies.
Is an investment at SoFi Active Investing FDIC insured?
SoFi has FDIC insurance to protect cash deposits in checking and savings accounts for up to $250,000. SoFi is also covered by SIPC insurance, which protects brokerage accounts up to $500,000. SIPC insurance don't apply to investment losses or price fluctuations. SoFi is also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure compliance with securities regulations, and by FINRA, which regulates broker-dealers.
Is SoFi Active Investing right for you?
SoFi Active Investing has attractive features for new investors: zero-commission stock, ETF and options trades, access to crypto, a $0 account minimum, financial planning help, fractional shares and IPOs. The broker has consistently improved its offerings over the years, especially with the addition of mutual funds. If you're a beginner looking for a broker with access to advisors and low costs, SoFi may be a good choice.
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Methodology
How do we review brokers?
All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team'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, balanced assessment of brokerages to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgments on which ones will best meet your needs. Our highest priority is maintaining editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from brokerages through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the brokerages and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each broker's performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.