XTB review

Spread from

0.5 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.8 pips

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 1.0 pips

Commission

$0, Standard

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.8 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight financing may be charged or credited

Inactivity fee

€10/month after 12 months without trading and 90 days without a deposit

Deposit fee

None internally; payment-provider fees may apply

Withdrawal fee

Entity-dependent; generally free, but international account charges can apply to smaller withdrawals/e-wallets

Currency conversion

0.5%

Cost is where brokers in the same regulatory bracket actually differ.

Spreads from 0.5 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

XTB lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Stocks, ETFs, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies

Currency pairs

50+

Total instruments

11,900+

Crypto CFDs

Yes, jurisdiction-dependent

Maximum leverage

1:500

Execution model

Market maker / principal for CFDs

Execution speed

Approx. 85ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop

Servers

European and global financial data-centre infrastructure

Leverage up to 1:500 is available on this entity. High leverage does not increase your expected return - it increases position size for the same deposit, and shortens the move needed to close you out.

XTB covers forex, stocks, etfs, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: bank transfer, credit/debit card, neteller, skrill/paysafe and regional payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

xStation 5, XTB mobile app

Own platform

Yes, xStation

Mobile app

Proprietary

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

No native EA support on current xStation platform

Copy trading

No

Indicators

30+ technical indicators

Third-party tools

TradingView-powered charting/tools and external market-data integrations

API access

Limited/no standard retail trading API

XTB offers xStation 5, XTB mobile app. A proprietary platform can be excellent, but it means your setup does not transfer if you later change broker.

Regulated by

KNF Poland; FCA (522157); CySEC (169/12); DFSA (F006316); FSC Belize (000000587 / 6442514); additional regional authorisations

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 522157

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Regulated banking institutions

Negative balance protection

Yes

Compensation scheme

Applicable statutory schemes by entity, including FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients

Audited by

PricewaterhouseCoopers Polska sp. z o.o. Audyt sp.k.

Not available to

United States, Canada, Japan and other jurisdictions where XTB does not provide its services

Across a hundred brokers, the licence is what separates the field fastest.

XTB holds tier-one authorisations from FCA and CySEC. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (FSC). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.

The DFSA regulates from the Dubai International Financial Centre, a separate legal jurisdiction from the wider UAE.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Regulated banking institutions. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

Negative balance protection applies, so a losing position cannot take the account below zero and leave you owing the broker money.

Covered by Applicable statutory schemes by entity, including FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, the CySEC register of investment firms, the DFSA public register.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

Standard, Swap-Free/Islamic, Professional, Demo

Account currencies

USD, EUR, GBP, additional currencies depending on entity

Islamic account

Yes, international entity

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

0.01 lots

Time to open

Typically a few minutes

XTB runs 4 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, additional currencies depending on entity. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 0.01 lots. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Deposit methods

Bank transfer, credit/debit card, Neteller, Skrill/Paysafe and regional payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, card, Skrill, Neteller and supported regional methods

Deposit time

Cards/e-wallets generally instant; bank transfer typically 1-3 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-3 working days

Minimum withdrawal

$0 generally; international entity charges $30 below $50

Local payment methods

Country-specific bank transfers, cards and electronic payment systems

Withdrawals are stated at Typically 1-3 working days, against Cards/e-wallets generally instant; bank transfer typically 1-3 business days for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: bank transfer, card, skrill, neteller and supported regional methods. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is $0 generally; international entity charges $30 below $50 - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone

Languages

18 languages

Telephone

+44 20 3695 3085

Email

ukservice@xtb.co.uk

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: investing courses, educational articles, videos, platform tutorials and trading education

Research

Extensive: market analysis, news, stock/ETF research, technical analysis, market sentiment and analytical tools

Support runs 24/5. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, email, phone. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: 18 languages. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: investing courses, educational articles, videos, platform tutorials and trading education. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Legal entity

XTB S.A.

Company number

KRS 0000217580

Headquarters

Warsaw, Poland

Founded

2002

Publicly listed

Yes, Warsaw Stock Exchange: XTB

Parent company

Independent, XTB S.A.

Employees

1,000+

Also trades as

XTB; X-Trade Brokers

XTB has been trading for around 24 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

It is publicly listed, which brings audited accounts and disclosure duties a private broker does not carry. That is real transparency about the company - though it says nothing about the trading conditions.

The contracting entity is XTB S.A.. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of Independent, XTB S.A.. A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.