On a zero spread account, the EURUSD spread is 0.0 pips most of the time, but the gold spread never reached zero in our checks.
Spreads and commissions of HFM, XS and Exness, checked on 15 October 2026
A zero spread account, which some brokers call a raw spread account, charges a commission on every lot instead of most of the spread, so the real cost of a trade is the two added together.
Contents
- Which Zero Spread Account Has the Lowest Total Cost on Gold?
- Is the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Really Zero?
- How Much Commission Do You Pay on a Zero Spread Account?
- When Does the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Get Wider?
- Is a Zero Spread Account Cheaper Than a Pro Account?
- Which Zero Spread Account Should You Choose?
- Questions People Ask About Zero Spread Accounts
- Which Page Do You Need Next?
Which Zero Spread Account Has the Lowest Total Cost on Gold?
XS Elite costs the least for 1 lot of gold, at $14.83 with the commission. Exness Raw Spread and Exness Zero both cost $15.02, and HFM Zero costs the most of the four.
1 lot of gold (100 ounces)
| Spread | Commission | |
|---|---|---|
| HFM Zero | $9.68 | $10.00 |
| XS Elite | $8.83 | $6.00 |
| Exness Raw Spread | $8.02 | $7.00 |
| Exness Zero | $4.02 | $11.00 |
XS Elite comes first because its gold commission is the lowest of the four, at $6.00 per lot. HFM Zero has the widest gold spread of the four, and its $10.00 commission comes on top of it.
Added together, the spread and the commission give the total cost of the trade. ForexFanClub also pays you a rebate on every lot that you trade on these accounts, so your real cost is lower than that total. The table below shows both.
| Total | After the rebate | |
|---|---|---|
| HFM Zero | $19.68 | $13.38 |
| XS Elite | $14.83 | $12.03 |
| Exness Raw Spread | $15.02 | $12.32 |
| Exness Zero | $15.02 | $12.32 |
After the ForexFanClub rebate, XS Elite still costs the least, and the four accounts are within $1.35 of each other.
These figures compare zero spread accounts only, and some accounts without a commission cost less on gold. To compare every account at each broker after the rebate, see our forex rebates page.
Is the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Really Zero?
On EURUSD, the spread on a zero spread account is 0.0 pips most of the time, but on gold it never reached zero in our checks. We record the spread of every account every 30 minutes. The table below shows what more than three weeks of those checks found.
| EURUSD at 0.0 pips | Lowest gold spread | |
|---|---|---|
| HFM Zero | 85% of hours | $4.00 per lot |
| XS Elite | 16% of hours | $8.00 per lot |
| Exness Raw Spread | 95% of hours | $8.00 per lot |
| Exness Zero | 95% of hours | $4.00 per lot |
So on EURUSD, Exness Raw Spread and Exness Zero quoted exactly 0.0 pips in 95% of the hours, and HFM Zero in 85%. XS Elite reached 0.0 pips less often, because its EURUSD spread usually stayed slightly higher than 0.0 pips.
Gold is different. The narrowest gold spread on any of the four accounts was 0.40 pips, which is $4.00 on 1 lot, and on most hours it was wider.
The brokers’ own words fit these results. HFM lists the Zero spread as “From 0”, which is the lowest the spread can be, not the usual spread.
Exness describes its Zero account as “Zero spread on the top 30 instruments”. In our checks, the gold spread on Exness Zero stayed higher than 0.0 pips in every hour.
How Much Commission Do You Pay on a Zero Spread Account?
The commission on a zero spread account is $5.00 to $11.00 per lot, for opening and closing the trade. Each broker sets the commission by instrument, so at HFM and Exness you pay more on gold than on currency pairs.
Commission on one trade of 1 lot
| Gold | EURUSD | |
|---|---|---|
| HFM Zero | $10.00 | $6.00 |
| XS Elite | $6.00 | $6.00 |
| Exness Raw Spread | $7.00 | $5.00 |
| Exness Zero | $11.00 | $5.00 |
Some brokers quote the commission for each side of the trade, and others for the whole trade. The table shows the whole trade, so you can add it straight to the spread.
You can also turn the commission into pips. On 1 lot of EURUSD, 1 pip is worth $10, so a $5.00 commission costs the same as a spread of 0.5 pips. So a zero spread account only saves you money when its spread is narrower than the other account’s spread by more than that.
When Does the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Get Wider?
For about an hour after 5 pm New York time, when the trading day rolls over, the EURUSD spread on a zero spread account becomes much wider. In that hour, our average was 1.7 pips on Exness Zero and 3.0 pips on HFM Zero.
Exness Zero, 1 lot of EURUSD at 5 pm
Spread, 1.7 pips$17
Commission$5
One trade in that hour$22
So a trade that costs $5.60 for most of the day costs about $22 when you open it in that hour. Gold is closed for its daily break in that same hour at these brokers.
5 pm in New York is 21:00 UTC until the US clocks go back on 1 November, and 22:00 UTC after that. If you trade from Asia or Europe, our gold trading hours guide shows the time in your own time zone.
Is a Zero Spread Account Cheaper Than a Pro Account?
On gold, a zero spread account is not much cheaper than the same broker’s Pro account, which charges no commission, and at HFM it costs more. The table below compares the two kinds of account at each broker after the rebate.
1 lot of gold, after the rebate
| Zero spread | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| HFM | $13.38 | $10.44 |
| XS | $12.03 | $12.05 |
| Exness | $12.32 | $13.02 |
At HFM, the Pro account saves you $2.94 on every lot of gold, and it costs less before the rebate too. At XS, Elite and Pro are within $0.02 of each other. At Exness, Raw Spread saves you $0.70 per lot compared with Pro.
On EURUSD, the zero spread account comes out a little cheaper at all three brokers, by $0.27 to $0.49 per lot after the rebate. So on currency pairs the commission is worth paying, but the saving is small.
The lowest cost for a gold trade in our ranking is on an account without a commission, HFM Unlimited, at $10.37 per lot. Our lowest spread comparison ranks every account by the full cost, zero spread accounts included.
Which Zero Spread Account Should You Choose?
The best zero spread account depends on what you trade and how much you deposit first.
- Gold
On gold, XS Elite has the lowest cost before and after the rebate, and Exness Raw Spread is close behind. You can open XS Elite (opens in a new tab) or open Exness Raw Spread (opens in a new tab). At HFM, the Pro account costs less than the HFM Zero account on gold. - Currency pairs
On EURUSD, GBPUSD and USDJPY, Exness Raw Spread and Zero cost the least before the rebate, and HFM Zero costs the least after it. You can open Exness Zero (opens in a new tab) or open HFM Zero (opens in a new tab). - A small first deposit
HFM asks for no minimum deposit on Zero. Exness asks for $200 on Raw Spread and Zero in many countries, and XS asks for $500 on Elite.
Questions People Ask About Zero Spread Accounts
- Does XM have a zero spread account?
-
XM’s lowest-spread account is Ultra Low, and it has no commission. In our ranking, the total cost of 1 lot of gold on Ultra Low was $30.06, or $21.06 after the rebate.
The XM Ultra Low account guide explains how Ultra Low differs from Standard.
- What is the difference between a Raw Spread account and a Zero account?
-
At Exness, which offers both, Zero has the narrower spread and Raw Spread has the same or a lower commission. On gold the two add up to the same total.
On Bitcoin, however, 1 lot costs $8.75 in total on Zero and $4.95 on Raw Spread, because the commission on Zero is higher.
Our Exness account types guide compares the two on more instruments.
- Can you change your trading account to a zero spread account?
-
No, you open a new trading account of that type instead. At Exness you add it in your Personal Area, and at HFM in your Client Area. At XS, you open it from your XS profile.
Your other trading accounts and their balances stay as they are.
Which Page Do You Need Next?
To compare every account, including the accounts without a commission, start with our lowest spread comparison.
How we compared the zero spread accounts
Our measurement
- Costs
- The 24-hour average spread and the commission of one lot on our forex rebates ranking, updated on 15 October 2026 at 17:05 UTC. The rebate is what ForexFanClub pays back on the same lot.
- How often the spread is zero
- Our spread samples, taken every 30 minutes from 21 September to 14 October 2026. An hour counts as 0.0 pips when every sample in that hour was 0.0 pips. Hours when the market was closed are left out.
- Accounts
- We read prices from our own MT5 accounts. At HFM and XS these are live accounts, and at Exness they are demo accounts.
The brokers’ own figures
- HFM Zero
- HFM Zero account page (opens in a new tab): spreads from 0 on forex and gold, a commission of $6 per lot on currency pairs and $10 per lot on gold for the whole trade, and no minimum deposit in the account table.
- XS Elite
- XS contract specifications (opens in a new tab): a commission of $6 per lot for the whole trade, taken when you open it, and a minimum deposit of $500.
- Exness
- The Exness trading calculator describes Raw Spread as “Lowest spreads with fixed commission per lot” and Zero as “Zero spread on the top 30 instruments”. The minimum deposit for both is $200 in many countries.
All details checked on 15 October 2026.
Once your rebate account is open, link it to Forex FanClub. The member area lists every rebate payment day by day, across every broker you use. Registration is free and takes an email address.
Produced and operated by Forex FanClub
Person responsible: Hiroki Sakaida, founder of Forex FanClub
Hiroki Sakaida decides what our content and services cover and which features they offer. He also checks content and functionality and decides on revisions and publication. Our Content and Service Policy explains how we produce and check our content and services, including our use of AI.
Risk warning: Forex and CFD trading involve leverage, and you could lose all the money you invest. This article provides information, not investment advice. The amounts shown are calculated from the collected data and do not guarantee the amounts that will apply to your own trades, or any future profit.
Affiliate disclosure: The broker pages linked from this page contain referral links. Forex FanClub receives referral commission based on registrations and trading through those links.
- Which Zero Spread Account Has the Lowest Total Cost on Gold?
- Is the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Really Zero?
- How Much Commission Do You Pay on a Zero Spread Account?
- When Does the Spread on a Zero Spread Account Get Wider?
- Is a Zero Spread Account Cheaper Than a Pro Account?
- Which Zero Spread Account Should You Choose?
- Questions People Ask About Zero Spread Accounts
- Which Page Do You Need Next?