XTB Review 2026: Fees, Spreads, Platform Tested

What XTB is in 2026

XTB is a Warsaw-listed European broker. The company trades on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which makes it one of the few retail brokers in Europe whose parent entity files public financial reports rather than operating as a private fintech. The provider states it serves over 1 million clients across 11,700+ instruments. That combination — public listing plus a large retail base — is the frame for everything below.

The important thing to understand before reading any XTB review, including this one, is that XTB runs two businesses under one login. The first is a commission-free stock and ETF investing account. The second is a leveraged CFD book. The fee story inverts between them. On the investing side, the headline is 0% commission up to a monthly turnover threshold. On the CFD side, the cost is embedded in the spread and overnight financing, and the provider's own risk disclosure states that 74% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with XTB. Those two facts belong in the same paragraph, because a reader who skims the marketing will assume the zero-commission pitch applies to everything.

Regulation is multi-jurisdictional. XTB operates through licensed entities under the KNF in Poland, the FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, and other national regulators depending on where the client sits. Which entity holds your account determines your leverage caps, your compensation scheme, and your complaint route. That is not a footnote; it is the single most important structural detail for a European retail client.

Who it suits, stated plainly before any scoring: a Europe-based investor who wants to buy individual stocks and ETFs without per-trade commission, and who does not need US exchange access or options. It also suits an experienced CFD trader who understands spread and swap mechanics. It does not suit a US person, and it is a poor fit for anyone who wants a simple, single-purpose budgeting or savings product.

Pricing: the real all-in cost

The published UK fee schedule on xtb.com/en is the source for the figures in this section. Thresholds are quoted in EUR, minimums in GBP, which is itself worth noting — a UK client is being measured against a euro threshold, so currency movement can nudge you across the line.

Commission-free investing

Stocks and ETFs carry 0% commission up to EUR 100,000 in monthly turnover. Above that threshold, the schedule lists 0.2% commission with a minimum of GBP 10. For most retail investors, the threshold is not a binding constraint. A client turning over EUR 100,000 a month in stock purchases is not a typical long-term investor; that is closer to an active trader or someone rebalancing a large portfolio in a single session.

The line item that catches people is currency conversion. The fee schedule states that a 0.5% currency conversion cost may apply. If your account base currency is GBP and you buy a US-listed stock, or a euro-denominated ETF, the conversion is where the real cost lands. On a EUR 1,000 purchase, 0.5% is EUR 5. On a EUR 10,000 purchase, it is EUR 50. That is the number to compare against a competitor's flat commission, not the zero.

Deposits, withdrawals and custody

Deposits and withdrawals are free per the published schedule. There are no custody fees up to EUR 250,000 in assets; above that, the schedule lists 0.02% per annum with a minimum of GBP 10. For a client with EUR 300,000 held, that works out to roughly EUR 60 a year on the portion above the threshold, subject to the minimum. It is a small drag, but it is a drag that most commission-free brokers do not apply at all, so it belongs in a comparison table.

Inactivity fees are a common feature of European brokerage accounts. The published schedule is the place to confirm whether a dormant-account charge applies to your entity and what the threshold is, because these terms differ by jurisdiction and change over time. I would not assume the UK schedule matches the Polish or Cypriot one.

Worked examples

Take a EUR 1,000 purchase of a non-base-currency stock. Commission is 0% because you are far below the EUR 100,000 monthly threshold. Currency conversion at 0.5% costs about EUR 5. Total all-in cost: roughly EUR 5, or 0.5% of the trade.

Now take a EUR 10,000 purchase of the same non-base-currency stock. Commission is still 0%. Currency conversion at 0.5% costs about EUR 50. Total all-in cost: roughly EUR 50, or 0.5% of the trade.

Compare that to a EUR 10,000 purchase in your base currency. Commission 0%, no conversion. Total cost: EUR 0. The lesson is that on XTB, the currency of the instrument matters more than the size of the trade, up to the EUR 100,000 threshold. A UK client buying UK stocks pays nothing. The same client buying US stocks pays 0.5% each way.

CFD costs

CFDs are priced differently. There is no commission line in the same sense; the cost is the spread plus overnight financing, also called swap. Spreads vary by instrument and by market session, and the provider publishes them per instrument rather than as a single headline number. Overnight financing accrues on positions held past the daily rollover, and the rate depends on the instrument, the direction of the trade, and prevailing interest rates. Because these are leveraged products, the provider's disclosure that 74% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with XTB is the relevant context for anyone comparing the two sides of the account.

I would not treat the CFD side and the investing side as the same product with different labels. They have different cost structures, different risk profiles, and different regulatory treatment. The zero-commission pitch applies to one of them.

xStation 5 platform

xStation is XTB's proprietary platform, and it is the reason the broker has a following beyond its fee schedule. The provider ships it as desktop, web, and mobile, with the stated intent that the mobile app mirrors the desktop feature set rather than acting as a viewer.

Order types

The platform supports market, limit, stop, and stop-limit orders, along with take-profit and stop-loss attachments on open positions. For a long-term investor, market and limit orders cover essentially everything. For a swing trader, the availability of stop-limit and bracket-style exits on the same ticket is the difference between a usable platform and a frustrating one. The disclosures list these order types; the practical question is whether the mobile app exposes all of them with the same parameters as desktop, and the provider's stated design goal is parity.

Charting and watchlists

Charting is built in, with the usual indicator library and drawing tools. It is not a replacement for a dedicated charting package, and I would not pretend otherwise — a trader running multi-monitor technical setups will still want a separate tool. For someone checking a position or placing an order with a moving average and an RSI on screen, it is enough. Watchlist depth is generous; the platform is designed around the full instrument list rather than a curated subset.

Execution and mobile

Execution speed during the open is the thing every broker claims and few publish. XTB does not publish latency figures in its fee schedule, and I am not going to invent a number. What the disclosures do cover is order handling and the fact that CFD execution occurs against the provider. For the investing account, orders route to the underlying market. A swing trader should treat the open as the stress test and observe it on a demo account before committing size; a long-term investor placing a monthly limit order will never notice.

Mobile parity matters more than it used to. If the app cannot place a stop-limit order or modify a bracket, the desktop platform's feature list is marketing rather than function. The provider states the mobile app carries the same order types, and that is the claim to verify in the app before relying on it.

Instruments: stocks, ETFs, CFDs, crypto

The provider states 11,700+ instruments across the platform. That total spans several categories, and the categories are not interchangeable.

• Stocks. Individual shares across major European and US exchanges, available in the investing account. Fractional shares are offered on a subset; the provider's product list is the place to confirm which names support fractions, because coverage is not universal.
• ETFs. A broad list of exchange-traded funds, commission-free under the same EUR 100,000 monthly threshold. The quality question is whether the list includes the low-cost accumulating UCITS funds a European investor would actually want, or only a thin selection. The published product list answers this per fund.
• CFDs. The leveraged book, covering indices, forex, commodities, individual shares, and crypto. This is where the bulk of the 11,700+ count comes from. Anything available as a CFD is not the same as the underlying asset — no ownership, no dividend entitlement, financing charged overnight.
• Crypto. Crypto exposure is available, and the key distinction is whether it is offered as a CFD or as an actual token holding. The provider's disclosures specify which. A reader who wants to hold the asset should confirm this before assuming the crypto tab means custody.

Dividend handling on real stock positions is the detail that separates a real investing account from a synthetic one. On owned shares, dividends are credited; on CFDs, they are adjusted through the financing mechanism. The provider documents both. I would flag that a meaningful share of the instrument count is CFD-only, and the marketing total does not separate the two.

Regulation, safety and compensation

XTB's regulatory structure is entity-based, which means the protections you get depend on which legal entity holds your account, not on the brand name.

• Poland (KNF). The home regulator, covering the parent entity. Polish clients fall under the domestic investor compensation scheme.
• UK (FCA). A separately licensed UK entity. UK clients get FCA leverage caps and access to the UK compensation scheme, subject to its per-client limit.
• Cyprus (CySEC). The entity used for much of the EU. CySEC leverage caps apply, and the Cypriot compensation scheme covers eligible clients up to its stated ceiling.
• Other jurisdictions. Additional licences cover other markets, each with its own rules.

Client fund segregation is standard across these entities, and the provider states that client money is held separately from company funds. That matters in an insolvency, and it is the reason the entity question is not academic.

Leverage caps differ by regulator. European and UK retail clients are subject to the standard retail caps on major currency pairs and other instruments, which are far below what professional clients can access. A trader comparing XTB's leverage to an offshore broker is comparing two different regulatory regimes, and the higher number is not a feature.

On the question of whether XTB is regulated: yes, across multiple jurisdictions, and the licences are verifiable in the public registers of the FCA, KNF, and CySEC. That is a check any reader can run in a few minutes, and I would run it against the specific entity named in the account agreement rather than the brand.

XTB vs eToro vs Trade Republic vs Interactive Brokers

These four brokers overlap less than the comparison tables suggest.

• XTB. Zero-commission stocks and ETFs to EUR 100,000 monthly turnover, 0.2% above with a GBP 10 minimum, 0.5% currency conversion, free deposits and withdrawals, no custody fee to EUR 250,000 then 0.02% per annum. Proprietary xStation platform. Multi-regulator. Strong European stock and ETF coverage, plus a large CFD book.
• eToro. Social and copy-trading focus, with its own fee structure and instrument list. A different product for a different user; the comparison is worth reading in full rather than reducing to a single number.
• Trade Republic. German neobroker with a flat per-trade commission model and a savings-plan feature. Simpler pricing, narrower platform.
• Interactive Brokers. Broad global market access, options and futures, professional-grade tooling, and a commission schedule that reflects it. The right answer for a multi-asset trader who needs US exchange access; overkill for a buy-and-hold ETF investor.

The honest summary: XTB sits between the neobrokers and the professional platforms. It has more platform depth than Trade Republic and a simpler fee schedule than Interactive Brokers, but it does not match IBKR on market access and it does not match Trade Republic on pricing simplicity.

Who XTB fits in 2026

Europe-based long-term investor. Good fit. Zero commission on stocks and ETFs below the threshold, no deposit or withdrawal fees, and a platform that handles monthly purchases without friction. The currency conversion cost is the main thing to plan around.

Active CFD trader. Workable, with caveats. Spread and swap costs dominate, and the provider's own disclosure that 74% of retail accounts lose money on CFDs is the number to sit with. The platform is capable; the cost structure is not cheap in the way the investing account is.

US person. Not available. XTB does not accept US clients, and a US reader should look at a domestically regulated broker instead.

Someone who wants a savings or budgeting app. Wrong product. XTB is a brokerage, not a money-management tool.

Verdict and score

XTB's case rests on the investing account, not the CFD book. Zero commission on stocks and ETFs up to EUR 100,000 monthly turnover, free deposits and withdrawals, and a platform that is genuinely more capable than the neobroker norm is a strong combination for a European buy-and-hold investor. The 0.5% currency conversion cost and the 0.02% annual custody fee above EUR 250,000 are the real costs to weigh, and the CFD side carries a risk disclosure that should not be glossed over.

Score: 4.1 / 5. Fees 4.5, platform 4.3, instruments 4.0, regulation 4.5, support 3.5.

How this review was researched

This review is built from XTB's published fee schedule on xtb.com/en, the provider's own product and instrument disclosures, its regulatory and risk statements, and the public registers of the FCA, KNF, and CySEC. No account was opened, no funds were deposited, and no trades were placed. Fee figures are as published on the provider's site and were verified on 2026-10-11. Terms change; confirm current numbers on the provider's schedule before acting.