A raw spread account gives you the spread the broker sees from its liquidity providers, near enough untouched, and charges a separate commission on top. A standard account does the opposite: no visible commission, but the spread is widened to cover the broker's cut. Same trade, same broker, two ways of charging you. The useful question is which one leaves more in your account at the end of the month.
What "raw" means
The raw spread is the gap between the buy and sell price before the broker adds anything. On EUR/USD in a busy session that might be 0.0 to 0.3 pips. You will rarely see a number that low on a standard account, because the broker has folded its fee into the price. Raw accounts — often labelled "raw", "ECN" or "zero" — show you the tight number and bill the fee openly as commission, usually a fixed amount per lot charged when you open and again when you close.
How the two models compare
- Raw / ECN account — tight spread plus a stated commission per lot. Costs split into two lines you can both see.
- Standard account — wider spread, no commission. The cost is one number, baked into every quote.
Neither is charity. The broker earns either way. What changes is how easy the cost is to measure and — depending on the pair and the size you trade — how large it is.
A worked example
Say you trade one standard lot of EUR/USD, where a pip is worth roughly £8.
- Raw account: spread 0.2 pips (£1.60) plus £3 commission per side, so £6 round turn. Total cost: £7.60.
- Standard account: spread 1.1 pips, no commission. That is 1.1 × £8 = £8.80.
Here the raw account is £1.20 cheaper per lot. Trade 50 lots in a month and you keep £60 you would otherwise have handed over. On tight-spread majors, raw usually wins. On a thin, wide-spread pair where the raw spread itself balloons, the gap narrows and sometimes flips — so check the pairs you actually trade, not the headline.
Commission is a real trading cost, not an afterthought. An EA that looks profitable on spread alone can slide into the red once the per-lot fee is counted. Judge a system on its net figures.
Which works out cheaper
For scalpers and high-frequency EAs, raw almost always wins, because the tight spread compounds over hundreds of trades and the commission is predictable. For someone placing a handful of longer trades a week, the difference is small and either account is fine. The trap is comparing a raw spread against a standard spread and forgetting the commission — that makes raw look far cheaper than it is.
What to watch for
- Round-turn vs per-side. A "£3 commission" might mean £3 each way (£6 total) or £3 for the pair. Read which.
- Currency of the fee. Commission quoted in USD moves with the exchange rate before it reaches your GBP balance.
- Spread at the times you trade. Raw spreads widen at rollover and around news. A 0.2-pip average can be 2 pips at 10pm.
The Karnek note
Karnek reads your live account and shows costs net of commission and swap, so a raw and a standard account can be compared on what actually reached the balance. It watches only — read-only, and it can never place or close a trade.
Written and reviewed by the Karnek Research team. Last updated August 2026.
Educational content only - not financial advice. Past performance does not predict future results. Trading carries significant risk.