Questrade Review (2026):
$0 commissions, and the costs that actually decide it
Fees verified August 2026 against official pricing pages — see our methodology
Questrade charges $0 to buy and sell Canadian and US listed stocks and ETFs online, and $0 on US equity options including the contract fee. That part is settled, and it is no longer a differentiator — Wealthsimple and Qtrade are at $0 too. What decides Questrade in 2026 sits underneath the headline: a 1.5% FX spread embedded in the exchange rate, 0% paid on uninvested cash in every account type, and $150 to transfer out whether the transfer is full or partial. This review prices all of it, states both sides of the two rule changes landing at the end of September, and explains exactly what a non-Canadian resident can and cannot open.
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TL;DR
- Canadian residents who want every registered account type on one platform — TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, Family RESP, RRIF, LIRA
- Investors who stay in Canadian-listed ETFs and never touch the FX spread
- Anyone who needs a USD balance held without forced conversion — dual currency is enabled free
- US equity options traders, where the commission and the contract fee are both $0
- People who want bonds, GICs, options or free Custom Indexing alongside an ETF core
- Investors who keep no idle cash at the broker
- Anyone holding meaningful uninvested cash — Questrade pays 0% at current prime rates, in every account and at every balance
- Investors who expect to move brokers again: $150 to transfer out, full or partial
- Frequent CAD-to-USD converters without a Norbert’s Gambit habit — 1.5% each way
- Buyers of non-North-American listed equities — 1% of trade value, minimum $195, on each side
- Investors who need responsive support: Trustpilot sits at 1.3 out of 5 on 422 reviews
What Questrade is, and which entity you are actually dealing with
Questrade was founded in 1999 and is headquartered at 5700 Yonge Street in Toronto. Two entities matter, and the distinction is the one most reviews collapse. Questrade, Inc. is the registered investment dealer: a CIRO member, a CIPF member, self-clearing since 1 January 2013, and a registered derivatives dealer whose client derivatives are authorised by the Autorité des marchés financiers. It handles execution, custody, administration and reporting. Questrade Wealth Management Inc. is a registered portfolio manager, investment fund manager and exempt market dealer — it runs Questwealth Portfolios, and it is not a CIRO or CIPF member. If you hold Questwealth, your CIPF protection comes from Questrade, Inc. as custodian, not from the manager.
Assets under administration stand at $80 billion on Questrade’s own reporting, read 6 September 2026 — up from the $65 billion quoted in November 2025 and $50 billion in April 2025. Questrade has been named MoneySense’s Best Online Broker in Canada in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
One disclosure in Questrade’s own conflicts table deserves airtime because nobody else covers it. Orders in foreign exchange-traded and international securities are routed through QuestGlobal Inc., a related technology company registered with the Financial Services Commission of Barbados, and Questrade may receive remuneration from QuestGlobal in cash, rebates or fee credits for routing client orders through it. Questrade discloses this and states that its best-execution obligations still apply. Two other related parties are worth knowing: Community Trust Company, a Questrade Group company, issues some of the GICs sold to Questrade clients and acts as trustee for certain registered accounts; and Questrade is an investor in Argo Digital Gold and shares in its revenue from Quest Metals. These are disclosed conflicts, not allegations — but they are the kind of thing a cost-focused investor should know is there.
1999, Toronto, Canada
CIRO; derivatives authorised by the AMF
CIPF, per category — see the breakdown below
$0 self-directed; $250 Questwealth
$0 online, buys and sells, since February 2025
$0 commission, $0 contract fee, $0 assignment
1.5%, embedded in the rate
0% at current prime rates, all accounts
$150, full or partial
None, at any balance, since 1 October 2020
Registered accounts need Canadian residency; non-residents, margin only
$80bn, read 6 September 2026
Who can actually open a Questrade account
Most Questrade write-ups say “Canadian residents only”. Questrade’s own account-opening documentation, page-stamped 8 April 2026, says something more precise, and the difference matters if you are reading this from outside Canada. The rule has two parts.
TFSA, RRSP, FHSA and RESP are Canadian tax vehicles and require Canadian residency. If you have left Canada, this is the part of Questrade that closes behind you — with one carve-out: Questrade names special exemptions for Canadian expats, and for active military personnel, who hold an existing active RRSP.
International residents are, in most cases, able to open a margin account only. That is a real answer, not a closed door — but it comes with documentation friction, set out below. US residents are a separate case: in most cases they cannot open a Questrade account at all, with the same expat and RRSP exemptions possible.
- Valid photo ID. Foreign driving licences are not accepted; a foreign passport carrying the bearer’s signature is.
- A document from a Canadian financial institution, dated within three months, matching the account name exactly, showing a visible account number, and not an investment account. Acceptable: a chequing or savings statement, a credit card statement, or a loan or mortgage statement with activity in the last three months.
- If you cannot produce a Canadian financial document, your passport must be attested by one of Questrade’s agency lawyers. The agent may charge a fee. It is independent of Questrade, non-refundable, and paid directly to the agent — Questrade does not publish the amount.
Two further gates sit inside the product range rather than at the front door. Pre-IPO and Private Credit are restricted to Canadian residents outside Quebec who are not US persons and who pass accredited or eligible investor verification. And Quebec residents have a slightly different ID path: the selfie step is skipped, and Quebec health cards are accepted where other provincial health cards are not.
Questrade fees in 2026
Figures are in Canadian dollars unless marked US$. Sales tax (GST/HST, QST, PST) is added to every administrative fee, and administrative fees are charged in the currency of the transaction.
| What you are charged for | Cost |
|---|---|
| Canadian and US listed stocks and ETFs, online | $0 buy, $0 sell |
| US equity options | $0 commission, $0 per contract, $0 assignment |
| Canadian equity and index options | $0 base + CA$0.99 per contract |
| US index options, to 27 September 2026 | Volume-tiered: US$0.99 per contract at 250 or fewer a month, stepping down to $0.00 at 50,001+ |
| US index options, from 28 September 2026 | Flat US$0.99 per contract, from market open |
| Options exercise | $24.95 |
| Trade placed through the trade desk | +$45.00 on top of the normal commission |
| International equities (non-North-American listings) | 1% of trade value in USD, minimum $195 — each side |
| Mutual funds | $9.95 per trade, each side. No DSC or trailer-fee funds |
| Bonds | No commission above the listed price; $5,000 minimum; remuneration built into the price. Orders before 3:30pm ET |
| GICs | Commission-free; remuneration included in the rate quoted; most have a $5,000 minimum |
| Quest Metals | 0.25% per transaction, no storage fee, purchases from $5 |
| CAD to USD conversion, self-directed | 1.5%, embedded in the exchange rate |
| Journalling shares (Norbert’s Gambit) | $9.95 per request; free and unlimited with Questrade Plus |
| Interest on uninvested cash | 0% at current prime rates — see below |
| Account opening, DRIP, eStatements, inactivity | $0 |
| Transfer out to another institution | $150 — full or partial |
| Full / partial plan deregistration (RRSP, Spousal RRSP, LIRA, LRSP, LIF unlocking) | $100 / $50. RESP deregistration is free |
| Wires | CAD $20, USD $30, international $40 |
| EFT withdrawal | Free to $50,000 CAD, $25,000 USD; larger amounts paid over consecutive business days |
| Cheques | Uncertified $50; certified $75, plus courier $35 Canada / $70 US if not collected in person |
| Estate settlement | $200 per account |
| Unclaimed property | $29.95 per quarter |
1.5% on every conversion between Canadian and US dollars in a self-directed account, embedded in the total exchange rate applied rather than itemised. On US$10,000 that is $150 going in, and again coming out. Questrade names it plainly in its conflicts disclosure as a form of its own compensation, alongside interest spreads on client cash.
Two ways round it: buy Canadian-listed ETFs and never convert, or run Norbert’s Gambit. Both are below.
Coming in, Questrade rebates the transfer-out fees your old institution charges, up to $150 per account, with the statement submitted within 60 days of the transfer request. That applies to self-directed and Questwealth alike.
Going out, Questrade charges $150 — and both the full-transfer line and the partial-transfer line read $150. There is no cheap way to move part of a portfolio elsewhere. Additional fees may apply on transfers to international institutions.
Questrade Plus — free until 30 September 2026, then $19.99 a month
Questrade Plus is free for all customers until 30 September 2026. Billing starts 1 October 2026 at $19.99 a month plus tax — $239.88 a year before tax. It is not required for $0 commissions on stocks, ETFs or US equity options, which is the misunderstanding worth heading off first.
- 1% RRSP contribution match, from 1 August 2026, up to the CRA 2026 maximum of $33,810
- CA$0.05 per contract cashback on US equity options only, no cap — index and Canadian options excluded
- Unlimited free online journalling
- Expanded real-time market data including OPRA, otherwise CA$9.95 a month
- Pre-IPO first-access window, ordered by timestamp ahead of the waitlist
- Advanced charts, P&L calculator, Market View heat map, custom alerts
- Partner perks: MasterClass, WSJ, Othership, Headway, Gigs
Our arithmetic on Questrade’s published prices, against $239.88 a year:
- Journalling alone: 25 journals a year
- Options cashback alone: about 4,800 US equity option contracts a year, or 400 a month
- Market data alone: never — $119.40 of value covers under half the subscription
- RRSP match alone: $23,988 of contributions. At the full $33,810 maximum the match is $338.10, clearing the fee by $98.22
Account range, and how CIPF coverage actually works
This is Questrade’s most durable advantage, and it survived the industry-wide move to $0 commissions intact. No competing Canadian self-directed platform carries a wider list, and there is no limit on the number of accounts you can hold.
- TFSA
- RRSP, Spousal RRSP, Locked-in RRSP
- FHSA — First Home Savings Account
- RESP and Family RESP
- LIRA, LIF, RRIF
- Individual and Joint Cash; Individual and Joint Margin
- Corporate Cash and Corporate Margin
- Partnership, Sole Proprietorship
- Informal Trust, Formal Trust, Estate
- Individual and Corporate Forex & CFD
- Dual-currency CAD + USD, enabled free
CIPF coverage combines accounts within a category and then applies separately across categories, which means the headline “$1 million” understates the position for someone holding several account types:
- $1,000,000 for general accounts combined — cash, margin, TFSA, FHSA
- plus $1,000,000 for registered retirement accounts combined — RRSP, RRIF, LIRA, LIF
- plus $1,000,000 for RESPs
Two carve-outs. Questwealth is managed by Questrade Wealth Management Inc., which is not a CIPF member — protection attaches to Questrade, Inc. as custodian. And shares out on loan under the Securities Lending Program are outside CIPF coverage entirely; Questrade’s stated mitigation there is 100% cash collateral, not CIPF. GICs are separately described as government-insured to $100,000, which is CDIC deposit insurance on the issuing institution, not CIPF and not Questrade.
The First Home Savings Account combines the deductibility of an RRSP with the tax-free withdrawal of a TFSA, for a first home purchase. Contributions are tax-deductible; qualifying withdrawals are tax-free. If you do not buy within 15 years, the balance transfers into an RRSP or RRIF, so the tax benefit survives either outcome.
The Questrade-specific argument is not that it offers one — several banks do — but that you can invest the contributions in low-cost ETFs at $0 commission, rather than leaving them as cash in a savings-only FHSA. Over a five to ten year home-buying horizon that difference compounds, and it is the same argument this site makes about every tax wrapper. Contribution limits are set by the CRA, not by Questrade; check the current annual and lifetime figures before you fund it.
Norbert’s Gambit, and when it actually saves you money
Questrade is a good platform for Norbert’s Gambit, but for a different reason than most write-ups give. It is not the journalling fee — that is $9.95 at Questrade and $9.95 at Wealthsimple. It is the account structure: Questrade enables dual-currency accounts at no charge, so you can hold a USD balance indefinitely without forced conversion, where Wealthsimple charges $10 a month plus tax for a USD account.
- Buy DLR.TO — a Canadian-listed, USD-denominated ETF — in Canadian dollars, at $0 commission.
- Request a journal to DLR.U.TO, the USD line of the same fund, on the US dollar side of the same account. This has been self-serve online since 31 January 2025 — no phone call, no chat. $9.95, or free and unlimited on Questrade Plus.
- Sell DLR.U.TO at $0 commission. You now hold USD, and can buy US-listed securities without touching the 1.5% spread.
$9.95 divided by the 1.5% spread gives roughly $663. Below that, the journal fee costs more than the spread you avoided. Above it, the gambit wins, and the saving grows with the size of the conversion — on $10,000 the spread is $150 against $9.95.
That figure is our arithmetic on Questrade’s published prices, and it excludes the bid-ask spread on DLR itself, which Questrade does not publish. Treat $663 as the floor of the break-even, not a precise number.
Fractional shares cannot be journalled. If your DLR.TO position includes a fraction, that part will not move. This limits the gambit for small, regular contributions specifically.
Questrade does not publish a settlement time for the journal. Plan around uncertainty rather than an assumed two or three days — we found no first-party figure to quote.
What you can hold beyond stocks and ETFs
Launched 3 April 2025. Scope: all S&P 500 constituents, all NASDAQ 100 constituents, the top 100 ETFs by assets, the top 50 ADRs by volume, plus select Canadian-listed stocks and ETFs. Questrade does not publish a total count, so we do not quote one.
Four constraints belong on any honest write-up: market orders only, day duration, no limit orders; held to four decimals, minimum buy $1 and minimum sell $0.01; no voting rights; and fractions cannot be transferred in kind to another broker or journalled — they must be liquidated first. Dividends must reach $0.01 to be paid. Canadian orders route to National Bank Financial; US orders to Raptor Trading Systems.
Free, with no management fee. Build a personal index across 15,000+ Canadian and US securities, with one-click rebalancing and automated DRIP.
Available in TFSA, RRSP, FHSA or Cash only — not RESP and not margin. Announced November 2025 and live now.
US securities only — Canadian securities are not yet eligible. Open to self-directed TFSA, Cash and Margin accounts, with no minimum portfolio value and no minimum share count; one full share is enough. Revenue is split 50/50 with Questrade, paid monthly, and Questrade holds 100% of the loaned shares’ market value as cash collateral. Opt out at any time.
The two things to weigh before opting in: loaned shares do not qualify for CIPF coverage, and dividends on loaned shares are replaced by manufactured payments which may be taxed differently — Questrade’s own disclosure directs clients to a tax adviser on that point. You also have no voting rights while shares are on loan, though they can be recalled ahead of a vote.
US equity options at $0 commission and $0 contract fee is the standout — it is genuinely free, including assignment. Canadian equity and index options run $0 base plus CA$0.99 a contract. Questrade states it is the first in Canada to offer cash-secured puts in eligible registered accounts (excluding RESPs); that is Questrade’s own claim, not independently verified.
Bonds and GICs carry no explicit commission, but Questrade’s remuneration is built into the price or rate you are quoted — “commission-free” and “no cost” are not the same statement. Both typically require $5,000 minimums. Some GICs sold to Questrade clients are issued by Community Trust Company, a Questrade Group company. Quest Metals is physical gold at the Royal Canadian Mint in your name, 0.25% per transaction, no storage fee, from $5.
Both are restricted to Canadian residents outside Quebec who are not US persons and who pass investor verification — accredited for Pre-IPO, accredited or eligible for Private Credit depending on the fund. Verification takes up to five business days and lasts twelve months. Accreditation thresholds are pre-tax income over CA$200,000 (CA$300,000 with a spouse) in each of the last two years with the same expected this year, or financial assets over CA$1,000,000 net of related liabilities. Both are web only, not in the app.
Pre-IPO takes a US$5,000 minimum per order into units of a fund tied to a single private company, with a lock-up typically 90 to 180 days after listing and no redemption before a liquidity event. It carries two one-time percentage fees — one at purchase, one deducted from proceeds — and Questrade does not publish the rates centrally; they appear on each offering page. Private Credit starts from $5,000, charges fund fees only with no Questrade advisory fee on top, and is not CDIC insured, with some funds having fixed terms and no early exit. If you cannot see the fee before you commit, that is the fee’s most important characteristic.
Six platforms, one of which Questrade has stopped advertising
Questrade currently runs Questrade Trading (main web), QuestMobile (main app), Questrade Pro, Questrade Edge (desktop), Edge Mobile, and Questrade Global for FX and CFDs, which runs on Saxo Bank liquidity. That is a lot of surface area, and it shows.
Questrade Pro is the significant change since our last pass. It was announced in November 2025 with a waitlist beta; it is now generally available and free to all customers — Level 2 depth, one-second candles, automated pattern detection, Options Radar, a strategy builder, hot keys, a performance dashboard, and natural-language automation. Edge is a stranger case: it remains live, and it is still required for direct order routing, but it has disappeared from Questrade’s current product navigation, which now leads with Pro, Agentic Finance, Custom Indexing, Questrade Plus and Equity Engine. Edge is not discontinued. It is simply no longer marketed.
Two separate capabilities that Questrade presents on one page and which are easy to conflate. Flows is conditional rule-based automation — “if this, trade that” — and is Questrade Pro only. Live templates cover buying the dip, cash sweep and concentration trimming, with earnings alerts, P&L brackets and annual-low buying announced as coming. Flows can be paused at any time and can be set to require your sign-off before executing.
Questrade MCP is something else entirely: an MCP server at https://mcp.questrade.com/v1/brokerage/mcp that connects a Questrade account to an AI client. Questrade names Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex CLI and VS Code as supported clients. You add the server, authorise via OAuth against your Questrade login, and the assistant can then analyse the portfolio and place, modify or cancel trades — with a Questrade push notification required to confirm before anything executes.
A Canadian broker publishing a public MCP endpoint is genuinely unusual, and worth knowing about whichever platform you end up on. One caveat we will not paper over: Questrade names no price for either Flows or MCP, and does not describe them as free. Questrade Pro itself is free. We are recording the absence as an absence rather than assuming a zero.
- Questrade Pro free to all clients, out of beta, with Level 2 and pattern detection
- Apple App Store 4.7 on 19K ratings; Google Play 4.5 on the main app, 4.4 on Edge Mobile
- TipRanks, Seeking Alpha, OptionsPlay, Morning Brief, screeners and Level 1 data free to all customers
- Dual-currency accounts and multi-account dashboard as standard
- TradingView account connection, and Passiv for automated rebalancing
- Free Custom Indexing across 15,000+ securities
- Six platforms with overlapping jobs, and Edge unmarketed yet still required for direct routing
- Questrade runs two live website templates that publish contradictory prices — we found the pricing hub disagreeing with the master fee schedule on bonds
- Advanced charts, alerts and the P&L calculator sit behind Questrade Plus
- TradingView trading works from the web platform only, not the desktop terminal or mobile app
- Fractional orders are market-only, so no limit control on that part of the book
- Advanced Level 2 data is priced in US dollars at $44.95 a month while the Expanded tier is priced in Canadian dollars
Questwealth Portfolios — the all-in cost, not the headline fee
Questwealth is the managed alternative, run by Questrade Wealth Management Inc. The headline is a 0.25% management fee. The number that matters is the all-in cost, because the underlying ETFs charge their own MERs on top.
| Layer | Standard portfolios | SRI portfolios |
|---|---|---|
| Management fee, $250–$99,999 | 0.25% | 0.25% |
| Management fee, $100,000+ | 0.20% | 0.20% |
| Underlying ETF MERs | 0.09%–0.12% | 0.20%–0.24% |
| All-in at the 0.25% tier | 0.34%–0.37% | 0.45%–0.49% |
On top of that sits a currency exchange fee of 100 pips (0.01) added to the exchange rate whenever the manager buys or sells USD to trade ETFs inside your portfolio. That is a different fee from the 1.5% self-directed rate, and it applies inside the managed product. The management fee is calculated daily and charged quarterly, appearing on the January, April, July and October statements. Minimum investment is $250. Five portfolios: Aggressive, Growth, Balanced, Income and Conservative.
Who Questrade is actually built for
With commissions at zero across the Canadian discount market, the question is no longer “which broker is cheapest to trade”. It is “which broker’s non-commission costs match how I behave”. Questrade wins on account breadth and product depth, and loses on idle cash, exit charges and support.
- Monthly TFSA, RRSP or FHSA contributions into Canadian-listed all-in-one ETFs — $0 commission, no FX, nothing to optimise
- Households running several registered accounts at once, where the CIPF stacking and the account breadth both apply
- RESP savers who want the CESG money invested rather than sitting in cash
- US equity options traders, where $0 commission and $0 contract fee is the best pricing on this list
- Investors who want a free USD balance and will run Norbert’s Gambit on conversions above roughly $663
- Anyone who wants free Custom Indexing or a free Level 2 platform
- Anyone parking meaningful cash at the broker — 0% at current prime rates, every account, every balance
- Investors who think they might move again within a few years, given $150 out, full or partial
- Regular small CAD-to-USD converters below the gambit break-even
- Buyers of European, Asian or other non-North-American listings, at 1% and a $195 minimum each side
- Investors who need support to answer quickly when a transfer stalls
- Non-residents with no existing Canadian banking relationship
Open a TFSA, and an FHSA if you are a first-time buyer. Set a pre-authorised monthly contribution that lands and gets invested the same week, so no cash sits idle earning 0%. Buy one Canadian-listed all-in-one ETF. Do not convert currency. Do not subscribe to Plus unless you are maximising your RRSP.
That setup pays $0 in commission, $0 in FX, $0 in custody, $0 in inactivity, and forgoes nothing on interest because there is no idle cash to forgo it on. Every cost on this page is avoidable by an investor who behaves that way — which is the honest reason Questrade still scores well despite the fee schedule underneath.
Where Questrade loses, and to whom
Questrade is not the cheapest platform in Canada on every axis, and pretending otherwise would make the rest of this page harder to trust. Two names decide most of the choice.
Wealthsimple is also at $0 on stocks and ETFs, charges nothing to transfer out, and prices equity and ETF options at US$0 per contract at every tier — better than Questrade’s CA$0.99 on Canadian contracts. Questrade answers with a dual-currency account enabled free where Wealthsimple charges $10 a month plus tax for a USD account, and with a wider registered account range.
Qtrade Direct Investing went to $0 commission on Canadian and US stocks, all ETFs and mutual funds on 28 October 2025, and eliminated its quarterly administration fee at the same time. Options run $0 base plus $0.75 per contract with a $30 assignment fee — cheaper than Questrade on Canadian contracts, more expensive on US ones where Questrade charges nothing at all.
Ready to open a Questrade account?
Open a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA, set a pre-authorised contribution that gets invested the week it lands, and buy one Canadian-listed all-in-one ETF. No commission, no FX, and no idle cash sitting at 0%. Check the current fee schedule before you fund it — Questrade’s own pages are the only source we treat as authoritative.
Go deeper
Frequently asked questions
Are stocks and ETFs really free to trade on Questrade?
Yes, with a footnote Questrade itself attaches. $0 commission applies to trades placed online through Questrade’s website or mobile apps, on stocks and ETFs listed on a US or Canadian exchange, both buys and sells, in every account type. Other fees may still apply. Trades placed through the trade desk add $45 on top of the normal commission. US direct-routed orders and US OTC securities can attract ECN fees, and US sales carry the SEC fee of 0.0000206 times trade value. If you buy a US-listed asset from a Canadian dollar balance, the 1.5% FX spread applies on the way in and again on the way out.
Can I open a Questrade account if I do not live in Canada?
Partly. Registered accounts, meaning TFSA, RRSP, FHSA and RESP, require Canadian residency. International residents can in most cases open a margin account only, with special exemptions possible for Canadian expats and for active military personnel holding an active RRSP. US residents in most cases cannot open a Questrade account at all, again with possible exemptions for Canadian expats with an active RRSP. Non-residents with a foreign permanent address must supply valid ID plus a document from a Canadian financial institution dated within three months, matching the account name exactly, showing a visible account number, and not an investment account. Where no Canadian document exists, the passport must be attested by one of Questrade’s agency lawyers, who may charge their own fee. Questrade does not publish the amount and it is paid directly to the agent, not to Questrade.
What does Questrade pay on uninvested cash?
Nothing, at current rates. Credit interest is set as a formula against Questrade’s own prime rates: prime minus 8.50% on Canadian dollar registered accounts and on non-registered balances under $250,000, prime minus 8.00% at $250,000 and above, and prime minus 10.00% on US dollar non-registered balances. Against Questrade’s CAD prime of 4.45% and USD prime of 6.75%, every one of those formulas produces a negative number, and Questrade’s schedule states that the client then receives 0%. Minimum accrual thresholds of $10 a month for cash and margin accounts and $0.01 a month for registered accounts apply below that. If prime rises far enough the formulas turn positive again, so the structure rather than the 0% is the durable fact.
Is Questrade Plus worth $19.99 a month?
It is free for all customers until 30 September 2026, and billing at $19.99 a month plus tax begins on 1 October 2026, which is $239.88 a year before tax. On our arithmetic against Questrade’s published prices, it needs about 25 journalling requests a year to pay for itself on journalling alone, roughly 400 US equity option contracts a month to pay for itself on the CA$0.05 per contract cashback, and it never pays back on the Expanded market data package alone, which covers under half the subscription. The line that clears it is the 1% RRSP contribution match: $23,988 of RRSP contributions breaks even, and at the 2026 CRA maximum of $33,810 the match is $338.10 against a $239.88 subscription. Questrade Plus is not required for $0 commissions on stocks, ETFs or US equity options.
What does it cost to leave Questrade?
$150 to transfer out to another institution, and that is the same figure whether the transfer is full or partial, with additional fees possible on transfers to international institutions. A full deregistration of an RRSP, Spousal RRSP, LIRA, LRSP or LIF unlocking costs $100 and a partial deregistration $50; RESP deregistration is free. Sales tax is added to all administrative fees. Coming the other way, Questrade rebates transfer-out fees charged by your old institution up to $150 per account, with the statement submitted within 60 days of the transfer request. Wealthsimple charges $0 to transfer out, which is the sharpest single cost difference between the two platforms.
How does Questrade’s FX conversion work, and is Norbert’s Gambit still worth it?
Converting between Canadian and US dollars in a self-directed account costs 1.5%, embedded in the total exchange rate applied rather than shown as a separate line. Questrade discloses FX spreads as a form of its own compensation. Norbert’s Gambit reduces it: buy DLR.TO in Canadian dollars, journal the position to DLR.U.TO on the US dollar side of the same account, then sell. Journalling has been self-serve online since 31 January 2025 and costs $9.95, free and unlimited with Questrade Plus. On our arithmetic the $9.95 fee equals the 1.5% spread at roughly $663 converted, so the gambit only saves money above that, and that calculation excludes the bid-ask spread on DLR itself, which Questrade does not publish. Two constraints matter: fractional shares cannot be journalled, and Questrade does not publish a settlement time for the journal.
Is Questrade safe and regulated?
Questrade, Inc. is a registered investment dealer, a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. It has been self-clearing since 1 January 2013 and is a registered derivatives dealer, with derivatives offered to clients authorised by the Autorité des marchés financiers. CIPF coverage is per category and combines accounts within each category: $1,000,000 for general accounts including cash, margin, TFSA and FHSA, plus $1,000,000 for registered retirement accounts including RRSP, RRIF, LIRA and LIF, plus $1,000,000 for RESPs. Two carve-outs are worth knowing. Questwealth portfolios are managed by Questrade Wealth Management Inc., which is not a CIRO or CIPF member, so the CIPF protection attaches to Questrade, Inc. as custodian rather than to the manager. And shares out on loan under the Securities Lending Program sit outside CIPF coverage, with Questrade’s stated mitigation being 100% cash collateral.
QuantRoutine provides educational content only. Nothing on this page is an offer, solicitation, or recommendation to buy or sell any security or to open an account with any specific broker. Investments can lose value, and past performance does not guarantee future results. You are responsible for your own investment, tax, and legal decisions. Always review each broker’s current terms, fees, and eligibility on their official website before opening or funding an account.