Bid/Ask Spread Calculator
The spread between an instrument's bid and ask price is a real, constant trading cost — paid the instant a position opens, before the market has moved at all. This calculator shows a live spread for any symbol and what it costs at your own lot size.
How is the bid-ask spread calculated?
The bid is what the broker pays to buy from you (your sell price); the ask is what the broker charges to sell to you (your buy price). The spread is simply the gap between them, converted to pips and then to a dollar cost using the instrument's own pip value.
EUR/USD quoted at bid 1.09480 / ask 1.09493, on a standard lot:
That $13 is paid immediately on opening the position, regardless of which direction the market subsequently moves — it's the built-in cost of entering, not a risk.
Why does a tighter spread matter?
A tight spread is a direct sign of high liquidity — plenty of active buyers and sellers mean a trade executes close to the quoted price with minimal cost. A wide spread, by contrast, usually means thinner liquidity and a bigger built-in cost to overcome before a trade even reaches breakeven, especially relevant for short-term or high-frequency strategies.
Common misconception about trading at the "mid" price
A frequent misunderstanding is that traders execute at the mid-point between bid and ask — in reality, retail traders almost never get mid-price execution: you pay the ask when buying and receive the bid when selling, with the mid price acting only as a theoretical reference point, never an actual fill.
Two complete spread-cost examples
Start with EURUSD quoted at bid 1.15000 and ask 1.15012, traded at 0.50 lots. The pip size is 0.0001 and a standard lot pays $10.00 per pip.
A pair quoted in yen works the same way. USDJPY at bid 157.000 and ask 157.015, with 0.30 lots. A pip is 0.01, and a standard lot pays 1,000 yen per pip, which is $6.37 at 157.00.
The cost scales linearly with lot size and does not depend on leverage. Doubling EURUSD to 1.00 lots doubles the cost to $12.00.
What the spread means for short targets
The same 1.2 pips is a different share of different strategies. Against a 5-pip scalping target, the spread consumes 1.2 / 5 = 24% of the target before the trade has moved. Against a 100-pip swing target it is 1.2 / 100 = 1.2%.
Ten round trips a day at 0.50 lots costs 10 x $6.00 = $60.00 a day in spread, or about $1,200 over 20 trading days. That total counts even if every trade finishes break-even on price.
Which price your stop really triggers on
MT4 and MT5 charts normally draw the bid price. A buy closes at the bid, but a sell closes by buying back at the ask, which sits one spread above the bid. That matters when you place stops on a short.
Say you sell EURUSD at 1.15000 with a stop at 1.15500, and the spread is 1.2 pips. The stop triggers when the ask reaches 1.15500, which is the moment the bid reads 1.15500 - 0.00012 = 1.15488. A bid-only chart never printed 1.15500, yet you were stopped out.
Comparing spreads across instruments
A pip count cannot compare a currency pair with a coin or a metal, so express each spread as a percentage of price. Divide the spread by the mid price and multiply by 100.
- EURUSD, 0.00012 on 1.15006: 0.010%
- BTCUSD, $20 on $62,000: 0.032%
- Gold, a $0.25 spread on $2,350: 0.011%
On these invented quotes bitcoin costs about three times as much to cross as EURUSD for the same percentage move. Always compare on a common basis before deciding which instrument suits a short-term plan.
When the spread widens
Around rollover and major news, a 1.2-pip spread can widen to several times that. If EURUSD shows 6.0 pips during a data release, the cost at 0.50 lots is 6.0 x $10.00 x 0.50 = $30.00, five times the $6.00 of a normal moment.
A trade entered at that moment starts 6.0 pips behind, and a 10-pip stop is more than half used up before price has moved. If your plan uses tight stops, check the spread before you click.
The break-even distance
A buy opens at the ask and is marked at the bid, so price must rise by the spread before you are even. With a 1.2-pip spread and a 20-pip target, the first 1.2 pips only repay the cost of entry, leaving 18.8 pips of true profit if the target is hit exactly.
The spread is largest relative to the target when the target is small, which is why scalpers watch it so closely.
Spread versus commission accounts
Some account types quote a tighter spread and charge a separate commission. Using invented numbers for an illustration, compare two EURUSD accounts at 1.00 lot:
- Standard account: 1.2 pips x $10.00 = $12.00 in spread, no commission, total $12.00
- Raw-spread account: 0.2 pips x $10.00 = $2.00 in spread plus $7.00 round-turn commission, total $9.00
The raw-spread account is $3.00 cheaper per lot, or 25% less. Always add the commission to the spread to compare accounts on one basis.
Check this against your broker
Read the live bid and ask in your own platform right before you trade, because spreads widen at rollover, around major releases and in thin overnight hours. Use the Specification window to confirm the pip value, and check whether your account charges commission on top of the spread. Related reading: the Pip Value calculators and bid-ask spread on Wikipedia.
Conclusion
Spreads widen during low-liquidity periods (major news releases, session rollovers, thin overnight hours) even on instruments that are normally tight — check the live spread here right before entering a trade rather than relying on a typical/average figure. See the Pip Value calculator and a full explanation of how the bid-ask spread works.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the spread I saw change a few seconds later?
Spreads are live and can widen or narrow continuously, especially around news releases, session opens/closes, and periods of thin liquidity — what you see here is the spread at that exact moment, not a fixed number.
Is a wider spread always a bad sign?
Not necessarily on its own — some instruments (certain indices, exotics, synthetic instruments) simply carry structurally wider spreads than major forex pairs. It only becomes a problem relative to your own strategy's typical profit target.
Does the spread depend on my leverage or position size?
The spread in pips does not depend on either. It is set by the market and your broker. What changes with position size is the dollar cost: 1.2 pips costs $6.00 at 0.50 lots on EURUSD and $12.00 at 1.00 lots. Leverage only changes the margin required, not the cost of the spread.
Do I pay the spread once or twice?
Once per round trip. You buy at the ask and later sell at the bid, so the gap between the two is the cost of getting in and out. It is realised when you close, but it shows up immediately as a floating loss when the position opens.
Why is my floating profit negative the moment I open a trade?
Because a buy is marked at the bid while you paid the ask. The difference is the spread, so a 1.2-pip spread shows as a loss of about 1.2 pips at the instant the trade opens, before any price movement.