UK Share Dealing Fee Calculator

What a Share Trade Actually Costs

Every UK share purchase carries up to four separate costs, and only one of them is the headline dealing fee. To calculate your 0.5% government tax on purchases, check out our Shares Stamp Duty Calculator.

• Dealing commission: The broker's per-trade charge, from £0 on commission-free apps to around £7 on full-service platforms.
• Stamp duty: 0.5% of the purchase value on UK company shares, whoever your broker is. Exempt for AIM shares, ETFs, and US stocks.
• FX fee: Buying overseas shares means converting pounds, and platforms take 0.25% to 1.5% on the conversion, often the largest hidden cost on US trades.
• The spread: The gap between buy and sell prices, invisible on your statement but real, especially on smaller companies.

On top sits the platform fee, an annual charge for holding your investments, either a percentage of your portfolio or a flat monthly amount.

Regular monthly investing is often cheaper than one-off deals: AJ Bell charges nothing for scheduled monthly purchases, and Hargreaves Lansdown makes regular share and fund investing free. Fees change frequently, so treat any table as a snapshot and check the platform's own tariff before switching.

Percentage or Flat Fee: Which Suits Your Pot?

The structure matters more than the headline number. Percentage platforms suit smaller portfolios: 0.25% on £10,000 is £25 a year, far below a £72 annual flat subscription. Flat-fee platforms win as your pot grows, since £5.99 a month is the same on £30,000 or £300,000. The crossover for most investors sits somewhere between £30,000 and £60,000. Share-only portfolios are a special case because percentage platforms cap the charge, and a £42 annual cap on a six-figure ISA is hard to beat.

The Worked Example: What a £5,000 UK Trade Costs

On a mid-priced platform, £5 commission + £25 stamp duty = £30 to buy, then £5 to sell later, roughly 0.7% of your money on a round trip before the spread. The same trade in a US stock on a commission-free app with a 0.45% FX fee each way costs about £45. Cheap headline commission does not always mean a cheap trade. Keep track of capital gains using our Capital Gains Tax Calculator and dividend taxes using our Dividend Tax Calculator.

Why Fees Compound Against You

A fee is a guaranteed negative return. A portfolio of £100,000 growing at 6% for 20 years reaches £320,700, but the same portfolio losing 1% a year to charges grows at 5% and reaches £265,300—a £55,000 difference from a fee that looked tiny annually. Trimming even 0.25% from your all-in cost compounds into thousands over an investing lifetime, which is why platform fees usually deserve more attention than dealing fees for buy-and-hold investors. See how this compounds with our Compound Interest Calculator.