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OANDA Review: Licences, Costs and Execution Tested

Broker Reviews editorial team
Broker Reviews editorial team Broker research desk
22 January 2026
Updated 28 July 2026
23 min read

OANDA has been pricing currencies since 1996, and that longevity shows up in the parts of the business that are hard to fake: an execution engine that filled 50 of our orders without a single requote, research that reads like a desk note rather than marketing, and voluntary publication of execution-quality data most competitors decline to offer. It also shows up somewhere less flattering — its US entity has been fined three times since 2020, most recently in May 2025 over margin under-collected from retail customers. This review sets our own testing against a compliance record the broker does not advertise.

Disclosure: we may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. It does not affect our scoring or rankings — the enforcement history below cost this broker most of a point. Read how we make money.

Overall rating7.7 / 10
Founded1996
HeadquartersNew York, United States
Main licencesFCA 542574 (UK), ASIC 412981 (Australia), CFTC/NFA 0325821 (US), CIRO (Canada), KNF (Poland/EU), MAS (Singapore), JFSA (Japan), FSC (BVI)
Minimum depositNone on the Standard account
Spreads from0.6 pips Standard / 0.1 pips Core Pricing
Maximum leverage1:30 retail (UK/EU/AU) / up to 1:200 under the offshore entity
Instruments2,200+ under the widest entity; as few as 120 under some
Swap-free accountAvailable, with a five-day grace period
Retail loss rate76.6% of retail accounts lose money

Pros and cons

We tested OANDA over 14 business days in early 2026 on a funded live account, placing more than 60 trades and running deposits, a withdrawal and support contacts end to end.

Pros

  • Four tier-one regulators at once — FCA, ASIC, CFTC/NFA and CIRO — every licence number matching the official register
  • No minimum deposit on the Standard account, verified with a $200 funding
  • Median execution around 12ms and zero requotes across 50 orders
  • Full TradingView integration, so charts and order entry live in one place
  • MarketPulse research publishes three to five times a day at institutional depth
  • Order Book and Position Book show how other clients are positioned — genuinely rare
  • Publishes execution-quality and slippage data voluntarily
  • Swap-free account with a five-day fee-free grace period

Cons

  • Three US regulatory actions since 2020, including a May 2025 NFA settlement requiring customer restitution
  • Standard-account spreads run above IC Markets and Saxo on most major pairs
  • $10 monthly inactivity fee after 12 months without a trade
  • MetaTrader 4 was dropped in early 2025; only MT5 and fxTrade remain
  • Instrument counts vary enormously by entity — as few as 120 under some licences
  • Narrow funding options: no Skrill, Neteller or PayPal across most entities
  • Support is not 24/7, and the offshore entity carries no compensation scheme

Company information

OANDA was founded in 1996 by Dr Michael Stumm and Dr Richard Olsen in Toronto to publish free currency exchange-rate data online, and was among the first firms to open electronic currency trading to individuals when it launched fxTrade in 2001. That pricing-data heritage still underpins the product. The head office is at 17 State Street in New York, with offices in London, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and Toronto and roughly 750 staff as of early 2025.

Ownership and leadership both changed recently, and we corrected both on re-checking. Prop-trading firm FTMO announced its acquisition of OANDA Global Corporation in February 2025, but the deal did not complete until 1 December 2025, once approvals cleared in five jurisdictions; FTMO took full ownership from CVC, which had held the group since 2018. Gavin Bambury stepped down as chief executive on 27 March 2026, with FTMO founders Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček taking over as co-CEOs. FTMO says it will run OANDA as a standalone business, and we saw no change to trading conditions or entity structure during testing.

DetailValue
Legal nameOANDA Corporation (US entity)
Founded1996
HeadquartersNew York, United States
Regional officesLondon, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto
EmployeesApproximately 750
LeadershipOtakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček, co-CEOs since March 2026
OwnershipFTMO — acquisition completed 1 December 2025
Trustpilot4.1 / 5 from 1,100+ reviews when we checked in early 2026

Who this broker suits (and who it does not)

OANDA suits traders who care most about execution quality and research depth. If you run short-horizon strategies where fill quality matters more than a fraction of a pip on the headline spread, the v20 engine and published slippage data are a real argument. It suits TradingView users particularly well, and the absence of a minimum deposit makes it a sensible place to test a broker with a small amount first — we opened with $200 and were never prompted for more.

It suits you less well if cost is your first filter. Standard spreads lose to the sharpest ECN-style rivals, and the Core Pricing account that fixes this asks for $10,000. If you trade rarely, the inactivity fee is avoidable elsewhere, and anyone wanting broad multi-asset access will find IG and Saxo offer many times the instrument count.

Anyone who weighs a regulatory record heavily should read the next section first: the licences are excellent, the US entity’s conduct history less so.

Licensing and regulation

OANDA’s licence set is one of the strongest in retail trading, and we re-verified every number below against the official registers on 27 July 2026. All were active.

RegulatorCountryEntityLicence numberTier
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)United KingdomOANDA Europe Limited542574One
ASICAustraliaOANDA Australia Pty Ltd412981One
CFTC / NFAUnited StatesOANDA Corporation0325821One
CIROCanadaOANDA CanadaRegisteredOne
KNFPoland (EU)OANDA TMS Brokers S.A.RegisteredOne
MASSingaporeOANDA Asia PacificRegisteredOne
JFSAJapanOANDA JapanRegisteredOne
FSCBritish Virgin IslandsOANDA Global MarketsRegisteredThree

Which entity you deal with determines your protection, and it is set by where you live: UK clients go to OANDA Europe Limited, EU clients to OANDA TMS Brokers S.A. in Warsaw under Poland’s KNF (the former Maltese entity closed in March 2023), Australians to OANDA Australia Pty Ltd, Americans to OANDA Corporation, and everyone else to OANDA Global Markets in the British Virgin Islands. That last one carries no compensation scheme at all, and it is what most readers outside those markets will be offered.

The enforcement record

This is the part of OANDA’s profile that its marketing does not mention. Its US entity, OANDA Corporation, has been sanctioned three times since 2020 by the CFTC and NFA.

DateRegulatorPenaltyFindings
August 2020CFTC$500,000Failure to maintain minimum net capital in 2019; improper dividend payments breaching equity-withdrawal restrictions; reporting and internal-control failures. The CFTC found no indication that customers suffered losses.
April 2021NFA$200,000Inaccurate daily forex reports, security-systems and complaint-handling deficiencies, failure to supervise.
May 2025NFA$600,000 plus restitution of up to $428,592Net capital shortfall tied to an affiliate hedging programme; under-collection of security deposits from retail customers on roughly 3.7 million trades after incorrect margin rates were applied to GBP and JPY pairs; a pricing-display fault; deficient promotional material; failure to supervise.

The May 2025 case is the serious one: the wrong margin rates on GBP and JPY pairs affected about 3,900 customers, with harm estimated near $430,000. OANDA settled without admitting or denying the allegations and says it has since remediated the findings with NFA staff.

Context cuts both ways. All three actions concern the US entity only — the FCA, KNF and ASIC entities serving UK, EU and Australian clients were not involved. None produced a suspension, revocation or restriction on taking new clients, all were settled rather than contested, and affected customers were compensated by order. Against that, “failure to supervise” appears in all three findings and capital rules were breached in both 2020 and 2025, which is a pattern rather than an isolated slip. We treated this as disclosable but not disqualifying: it lowered our regulation score rather than stopping publication, and it is the single reason this review scores below where the testing alone would have put it.

Separately, a persistent wave of fraudulent websites impersonates the OANDA brand, quoting its real licence numbers to appear legitimate. These are warnings about criminals using the name, not findings against the broker, but the risk is live. Confirm you are on oanda.com, and check licence numbers on the regulator’s own register rather than any figure shown on the site you landed on.

Opening an account and verification

We opened our account in January 2026. Personal details took about 10 minutes, and the flow was cleaner than most brokers we test. Verification requires valid photo identity — passport, driving licence or national ID — plus proof of address no more than three months old. We uploaded ours through the website and the account was approved within one business day, faster than the two to three days we typically see. Some clients report longer waits, particularly for documents in languages other than English.

The suitability and experience questions deserve care rather than clicking through: they set your client categorisation and therefore the leverage and protections you receive. Once approved you can fund and trade immediately, with no minimum deposit.

Account types

OANDA keeps its structure simpler than most: two pricing models that matter, plus a volume tier.

FeatureStandardCore PricingPremium
Minimum depositNone$10,000$10,000 or $10m monthly volume
Pricing modelSpread onlyRaw spread plus commissionReduced spread plus rebates
EUR/USD spreadFrom 0.6 pips (1.0–1.4 typical)From 0.1 pipsReduced, with volume rebates
CommissionNone$5 per side per 100,000Tiered by volume
Swap-free optionAvailableAvailableAvailable
Demo accountFree, unlimitedAvailableAvailable

Comparing the two on EUR/USD during our test, Core Pricing worked out roughly 30% cheaper in all-in cost — which only pays for the $10,000 entry above roughly 20 trades a day on majors. An active-trader rebate ladder runs five tiers, $5 to $17 per million traded, above $10m monthly volume. The demo account is free with no time limit; most brokers cut demo access at 30 days.

The swap-free account

OANDA offers a swap-free account on all three tiers. It removes overnight interest entirely — relevant both to anyone who avoids interest on religious grounds and to swing traders wanting predictable overnight costs rather than a rate differential that moves against them. Instead of swaps, positions held long enough attract a fixed administration fee varying by instrument and direction, with nothing charged for the first five days. Five days is reasonable but not generous; some competitors allow up to 14.

FeatureDetail
AvailabilityOffered, but not in every region
Grace periodFive days with no fees
Charge after grace periodFixed administration fee, not interest
Instruments coveredMajor and minor currency pairs
How to enableSelect the swap-free option when opening the account
Published scholarly certificationNot available on the website

Two caveats: it is not available in every region, and past the grace period the administration fee can exceed a conventional swap, particularly on short positions. Model it if you hold for weeks.

Fees and trading costs

We measured costs by trading a live account rather than reading the schedule: competitive on Core Pricing, above average on Standard. We re-checked the published schedule in July 2026 and the figures below still stood.

Spreads

Sampling at intervals across a full trading week in February 2026, Standard pricing came in above several competitors on most instruments.

InstrumentOANDA StandardIGSaxo BankIC Markets Standard
EUR/USD1.1 pips1.1 pips0.7 pips0.8 pips
GBP/USD1.4 pips1.7 pips0.9 pips1.0 pips
USD/JPY1.3 pips1.1 pips1.1 pips0.9 pips
AUD/USD1.5 pips1.0 pips0.6 pips0.8 pips
USD/CHF1.6 pips1.5 pips1.2 pips0.9 pips
Gold (XAU/USD)38 cents30 cents35 cents15 cents
Oil (WTI)3.0 cents2.8 cents5.0 cents2.2 cents

Spreads widened around scheduled news, as they do everywhere — EUR/USD reached 2.8 pips during a US employment release. The recovery impressed us more: pricing normalised within about 30 seconds, faster than several competitors measured under the same conditions.

Commissions, overnight and non-trading fees

Standard is spread-only. Core Pricing charges $5 per side per 100,000 units — $10 round turn on a standard lot — and the all-in cost still lands below Standard in most conditions. Overnight financing on non-swap-free accounts follows the interest-rate differential between the two currencies, applied at 5pm New York time.

Deposits are free, and the first withdrawal each calendar month is free by card or domestic transfer. The inactivity fee is the one to watch: 10 units of your account currency per month — $10 on a dollar account — after 12 full months with no open position. OANDA refunds up to three months of it if you resume trading, more than most competitors offer, but the cleanest way to avoid it is to close the account if you are stepping away.

Desktop platforms

fxTrade (browser). OANDA’s own platform and the cleanest of the three: uncluttered, with well-integrated charting and more than 65 technical indicators. Its distinguishing features are the Order Book and Position Book, showing how other OANDA clients are positioned — sentiment context very few brokers expose.

MetaTrader 5. OANDA dropped MT4 at the start of 2025 and offers MT5 only, which will frustrate anyone with an MT4 expert advisor library. MT5 performed well: stable connection, execution matching OANDA’s published figures, 38 built-in indicators, 44 drawing tools and full automated-trading support.

TradingView integration. The standout. Link your account and you can trade from the charts without leaving the platform. We placed 15 trades this way; execution was near-instant and stops and targets could be dragged on the chart. The integration brings 110+ drawing tools and 400+ indicators.

Mobile apps

We ran the app on iPhone and Android over five days. It has won best mobile trading app from ForexBrokers.com, and on our testing that is deserved: the interface is quick and the charting genuinely capable, built on TradingView technology. We placed 20 trades from the app with no lag or freezing, including during high-volatility periods. Price alerts, MarketPulse news, the economic calendar and both books are available on mobile. Some advanced desktop drawing tools are not replicated, so chart-heavy analysis is still better done at a desk.

CriterionDetail
App Store rating4.6 / 5 when checked in early 2026
Google Play rating3.8 / 5 when checked in early 2026
Chart tradingAvailable
Price alertsAvailable
Biometric loginAvailable (Face ID / fingerprint)

Trading tools

The instrument range varies more by entity than at almost any broker in our broker reviews, and it is the detail most likely to catch people out. Check which entity will hold your account before assuming a market is available.

Asset classOANDA Global MarketsOANDA Europe (FCA)OANDA US (CFTC)
Currency pairs68+68+68+
Indices16+15+Not available
Commodities10+10+Precious metals only
Share CFDsAvailableLimitedNot available
CryptocurrenciesAvailableAvailableNot available
BondsLimitedLimitedNot available
Approximate total2,200+120–2,20070+

US restrictions are regulatory rather than commercial: CFTC rules confine retail trading to forex and precious metals. Measured against IG’s 17,000-plus instruments or Saxo’s 70,000-plus, OANDA’s universe is narrow — entirely sufficient for a trader focused on major forex, metals and the main indices, and not for anyone wanting broad equity or bond exposure in one account.

Order execution

Execution is OANDA’s strongest suit and the clearest result in our testing. We placed and measured 50 orders on a live account. The v20 engine filled as fast as 1.3ms, averaging around 12ms, with no requotes at all across all 50 — consistent with OANDA’s stated no-requote policy. Slippage appeared on three orders (6%), confined to 0.1 to 0.3 pips. OANDA also publishes execution-quality and slippage statistics voluntarily, a meaningful transparency signal in a market where most firms disclose nothing.

Order types cover market, limit and stop, with guaranteed stop-loss orders in some regions but not all. A useful extra is the upper and lower bound setting on market orders, which caps the slippage you will accept.

One structural point: OANDA is a market maker, not an ECN broker, so it is the counterparty to your trades — a model that creates a theoretical conflict of interest. Against that sit a three-decade record, tier-one supervision and voluntary publication of execution data. But the May 2025 NFA findings included a pricing-display fault affecting customers, precisely the failure the market-maker model makes people uneasy about. It was remediated and compensated; it is still worth knowing.

Deposits

MethodTimingOANDA feeLimit
Debit card (Visa / Mastercard)Near-instantFree$20,000 per month
Domestic bank transferUp to 6 business daysFree$50,000 per transaction
International wire1–5 business daysFree from OANDANo limit

Card deposits landed within minutes, and our international wire took three business days, inside the stated range. The weakness is breadth: OANDA does not support Skrill, Neteller or PayPal across most entities, so bank transfer is effectively the only route for larger sums, with the delay and correspondent-bank charges that brings. The $20,000 monthly card cap also forces anyone funding more than that onto a wire.

Withdrawals

Withdrawal testing is non-negotiable for us, because it is where problems surface. OANDA applies a same-method policy — funds return by the route they arrived — and the first withdrawal each calendar month is free by card or domestic transfer. When we tested in early 2026, a debit card withdrawal took two business days and an international wire took four. The money arrived in full with nothing deducted by OANDA; a correspondent bank deducted $25 from the wire, a banking cost rather than a broker charge, though it lands on you either way.

Some Trustpilot reviewers report withdrawal delays. Reading through them, most trace to source-of-funds checks under anti-money-laundering rules — a mandatory step rather than obstruction. If you fund from one source and withdraw to another, expect questions and build in time.

Customer support

ChannelAvailabilityResponse time
Live chatSunday 4pm to Friday 6pm New York time2–5 minutes
WhatsAppAs live chat5–10 minutes
Email24/54–12 hours
PhoneBusiness hours by regionImmediate to 5 minutes
Facebook MessengerAs live chat5–15 minutes

Our live chat query was answered in three minutes, detailed and accurate rather than a scripted deflection. Support is offered in English, German, French, Spanish and Polish. The limitation is that it is not 24/7: cover runs Sunday afternoon to Friday evening New York time, so a weekend problem waits — a genuine consideration if you hold positions over the weekend gap.

One thing few brokers bother with: an agent called us within 48 hours of opening the account. The call ran about 15 minutes and covered platform features, with no pressure to deposit more.

Research and education

Research is where OANDA most clearly outperforms its size. MarketPulse published three to five pieces a day through our test window, covering forex, commodities and indices closer to an institutional desk note than typical broker content, with live Dow Jones Newswire headlines feeding into fxTrade alongside it.

The Order Book and Position Book function as research as much as tools. Seeing where other OANDA clients have clustered their orders is information most brokers hold privately, and useful context for judging sentiment — provided you treat it as one input rather than a signal.

The education library covers trading basics, technical and fundamental analysis and risk management, with regular webinars and a built-in economic calendar. Against IG’s broader multi-language academy, OANDA wins on daily research quality and loses on breadth of structured learning material.

Fund safety and protections

Client money is held in segregated trust accounts at tier-one banks including JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, which we confirmed against the legal disclosure documents, so client funds should not be available to creditors if the firm fails. Compensation cover, however, depends entirely on your entity.

EntitySchemeMaximum
OANDA Europe Limited (FCA)FSCS£85,000
OANDA TMS Brokers S.A. (KNF)EU investor compensationUp to €20,000 equivalent
OANDA Canada (CIRO)CIPFC$1,000,000
OANDA Corporation (CFTC/NFA)NoneNot applicable
OANDA Global Markets (FSC BVI)NoneNot applicable

Negative balance protection applies to retail clients under the UK, EU and Australian entities, so your balance cannot fall below zero even in a violent move. It may not extend to the British Virgin Islands entity. Accepting that entity means giving up compensation cover and potentially negative balance protection — the trade-off for higher leverage, and it should be a conscious decision. We found no reports of security breaches or data leaks involving OANDA.

The dominant risk here is not the broker failing but the trading itself: 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider. Most people who try this lose money, and you should not commit funds you cannot afford to lose.

Verdict

After 14 business days, more than 60 trades, funding and withdrawal tests and several support contacts, OANDA scores 7.7 out of 10 on our six-category framework. The weightings are set out in full in how we rate brokers.

CategoryWeightScore
Regulation and licensing25%7.0
Trading costs20%7.0
Withdrawals and fund access20%7.5
Platforms and execution15%9.0
Customer support10%8.0
Research and transparency10%8.5
Weighted total100%7.7

The category that moved is regulation and licensing. On licences alone OANDA would score near the top of our range: four tier-one authorisations, all verified active, plus segregated client money at major banks. The three US enforcement actions since 2020 — particularly the May 2025 settlement covering under-collected retail margin, a pricing-display fault and a third supervision finding — pull it to 7.0, and that single adjustment is the difference between a high-8s review and this one.

What OANDA does well, it does exceptionally. Execution was the best we measured this round: no requotes in 50 orders, slippage on three of them capped at 0.3 pips, backed by voluntary publication of the underlying data. Research is institutional in tone and frequency, the TradingView integration is best-in-class, and the Order Book and Position Book are tools almost nobody else offers. The weaknesses are equally clear: Standard spreads lose to IC Markets and Saxo, the account that fixes that wants $10,000, funding options are narrow, MT4 is gone, the instrument range collapses under some entities, and support does not run at weekends.

Consider it if you value fill quality and research over headline spread, use TradingView, or want to start small and scale. Look elsewhere if you are cost-sensitive and high-frequency, need broad multi-asset access, or want weekend support. This is an assessment of a broker, not a recommendation to trade — leveraged products carry a high risk of losing money rapidly, and most retail accounts do.

Is OANDA trustworthy?

Is OANDA a scam?

No. OANDA has operated since 1996, holds four tier-one licences verified active in July 2026, and segregates client money at JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. The question arises mainly because fraudulent websites impersonate the brand and quote its genuine licence numbers. Those are criminals misusing the name, not the broker.

Has OANDA been fined by regulators?

Yes, three times — the most important thing on this page that OANDA does not advertise. Its US entity was fined $500,000 by the CFTC in August 2020 over net capital and improper dividends, $200,000 by the NFA in April 2021 over reporting and supervision, and $600,000 by the NFA in May 2025 with restitution of up to $428,592 after it applied incorrect margin rates to GBP and JPY pairs between 2021 and early 2023, under-collecting security deposits on roughly 3.7 million trades and affecting about 3,900 customers.

Context cuts both ways. All three concern OANDA Corporation only — the entities serving UK, EU and Australian clients were not involved. None produced a suspension, revocation or restriction on new clients, all were settled, and affected customers were compensated by order. But supervision failures appear in all three, and capital rules were breached in both 2020 and 2025. We treated this as disclosable rather than disqualifying; it reduced our regulation score.

Can you actually withdraw money from OANDA?

Yes. We completed one in early 2026: it arrived in full with nothing deducted by OANDA on the first withdrawal of the month, taking two business days by card and four by wire, plus a $25 correspondent bank charge. Delay complaints online mostly trace to anti-money-laundering source-of-funds checks, which are mandatory rather than obstructive.

Is my money protected if OANDA fails?

That depends entirely on your entity. UK clients get FSCS cover to £85,000, EU clients up to around €20,000, Canadian clients CIPF cover to C$1,000,000. The US and British Virgin Islands entities carry no compensation scheme at all — and since most clients outside those five markets are placed with the BVI entity, a large share of OANDA’s international base has segregation but no compensation backstop.

Does it matter that FTMO now owns OANDA?

The acquisition completed on 1 December 2025, and FTMO founders Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček became co-CEOs on 27 March 2026, replacing Gavin Bambury. FTMO says it will run OANDA standalone, and we saw no change to trading conditions, licences or entity structure during testing. A change this recent is worth monitoring rather than reacting to.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum deposit at OANDA?

None on the Standard account, confirmed by opening ours with $200. Core Pricing requires $10,000.

Does OANDA offer a swap-free account?

Yes, on all three tiers. It replaces overnight interest with a fixed administration fee and charges nothing for the first five days a position is held. It is not offered in every region, so confirm availability when you register. OANDA publishes no scholarly certification for it.

How long do OANDA withdrawals take?

When we tested in early 2026, card withdrawals took two business days and international wires four; domestic transfers are typically one to two. The first each calendar month is free from OANDA, though correspondent banks may charge on wires.

What is the difference between the Standard and Core Pricing accounts?

Standard is spread-only, averaging around 1.1 pips on EUR/USD. Core offers raw spreads from 0.1 pips plus $5 per side per 100,000 units and requires $10,000. Core’s all-in cost came out roughly 30% lower in our testing, which only justifies the entry requirement if you trade actively.

Does OANDA still support MetaTrader 4?

No — support ended in early 2025. OANDA now offers MT5, fxTrade and TradingView integration. MT4 expert advisors will not transfer without being rewritten.

How fast is execution at OANDA?

Across 50 orders in early 2026 we measured a median near 12ms, fastest fill 1.3ms, no requotes, and slippage on three orders within 0.1 to 0.3 pips. OANDA publishes its own execution statistics, so you can check current performance rather than relying on our snapshot.

What leverage does OANDA offer?

Retail clients under the UK, EU and Australian entities are capped at 1:30 on major pairs by regulation; the British Virgin Islands entity offers up to 1:200. Higher leverage increases losses as fast as gains, and the offshore entity carries no compensation scheme.

Risk warning: 76.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. CFDs are complex instruments carrying a high risk of losing money rapidly through leverage. Consider whether you understand how they work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade, and past performance does not indicate future results.

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