Best Penny Stock Trading Apps: 6 Brokers Compared on OTC Fees

The cheapest app depends on the size of your orders: the flat $6.95 per online OTC trade at E*TRADE and Charles Schwab wins on large orders, and per-share pricing wins on small ones, with Interactive Brokers capping its Fixed commission at 1% of the trade value and TradeStation charging $0.005 per share plus a clearing fee of up to $0.003. Under the SEC's rule a penny stock is generally a share priced under $5 that is not listed on a national exchange, so OTC access and per-share fees matter more here than in other broker comparisons. The table compares listed stock commissions, OTC terms, account minimums and the one thing to know, read on the official pages on November 1, 2026.

The pattern is easiest to see after the fact. While it runs, the warning signs are the ones the SEC describes: messages urging you to buy quickly, often online, and claims of "inside" information.

Which broker fits which trader

You want to trade OTC and pink sheet stocks

E*TRADE charges $6.95 per online OTC trade, or $4.95 if you make at least 30 stock, ETF and options trades a quarter, and its OTC pricing covers OTCBB, grey market and OTC-traded foreign securities. Charles Schwab also charges $6.95 per online OTC trade; TD Ameritrade's clients are now Schwab clients. A flat fee suits larger orders: on a $500 order, $6.95 is 1.4% of the trade.

You place small orders in sub-dollar shares

Interactive Brokers' Pro Fixed pricing is $0.005 per share with a $1.00 minimum, capped at 1% of the trade value; its own example puts 10 shares of a $0.20 stock at $0.02 in commission. IBKR Lite is commission free on US exchange-listed stocks, but OTC and pink sheet trades in Lite accounts are charged at Fixed pricing, and listed orders filled under $1.00 stay free only while they, with a few other order types, make up no more than 10% of the account's monthly share volume; above that, Lite charges the lesser of $0.005 a share or 1% of the trade value. TradeStation charges no commission on listed stocks and $0.005 per share on sub-dollar and OTC orders. It also charges its own clearing fee on every stock trade, from $0 to $0.003 per share by monthly volume: an account trading up to 100,000 shares a month pays $0.003, so a sub-dollar order costs up to $0.008 per share in total. Its inactivity fee is $10 a month unless the account meets a minimum activity level.

Per-share pricing is cheap on small orders and expensive on large ones, the reverse of a flat fee. On the same $0.40 OTC stock, the chart below prices a small order and a large one at each broker from its published schedule.

On 200 shares, Interactive Brokers costs $0.80 and TradeStation $1.60, against a flat fee of $6.95. On 10,000 shares, the flat fee stays at $6.95 while Interactive Brokers reaches its 1% cap, $40, and TradeStation's per-share fee and clearing fee add up to $80. Above about 870 shares at $0.005 plus $0.003, TradeStation costs more than the $6.95 flat fee (our computation).

You stick to listed small caps

Fidelity charges $0 on online U.S. equity trades for any number of shares and has no minimum to open an account. Its fee schedule adds a $50 fee on each trade in a foreign ordinary share that is not eligible at the Depository Trust Company (foreign ordinary shares typically trade under five-letter OTC symbols ending in F), and does not single out domestic OTC stocks. Robinhood is commission free for US-listed stocks and supports only certain OTC equities, so check the ticker in the app before you plan a trade. Both suit low priced stocks listed on an exchange better than obscure OTC names.

Finding and practicing penny stock trades

Our guide to penny stocks covers how they trade and the risks, and how to find penny stocks walks through the search. To filter candidates, compare our penny stock screeners. Practice first in one of our paper trading apps.

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