IG Group Review 2026

How safe is IG Group?

IG Group has a trust score of 10/10, based on the broker’s regulation, reputation, and reviews.

Regulation

An international client of IG is opened with IG International Limited, registered in Bermuda under No. 54814 and holding a BMA licence for investment business and digital asset business, with its registered address at Crawford House, 50 Cedar Avenue, Hamilton HM11. The contract is the Customer Agreement of October 2026, governed by English law, with the courts of England and Wales holding non-exclusive jurisdiction. Traders in places with no local IG firm land here, including new applications from South Africa, and the table below lists the group’s other firms and their regulators.

Some of the abbreviations on this page are expanded to the regulator's full name: a broker regulated by ASIC is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; by FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority; by DFSA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority. AFSL is an Australian Financial Services Licence.

The agreement treats every client as a Retail Client unless IG says otherwise, and a Sophisticated Person, a Bermuda category, may sign a title-transfer agreement, after which money you send is not client money and you rank as a general creditor. All trading is execution-only and no advice is given. IG acts as principal and market maker, the counterparty to every trade, though best execution applies except on L2 Dealer. Client money sits under the Bermuda Client Money Rules in pooled accounts at selected third-party banks, may rest in deposits of up to 95 days not fully reachable if IG fails, and may sit with a bank beyond Bermuda, where a different legal regime applies. No interest is paid, IG may charge under its Client Money Interest Policy, and money may go into a qualifying money market fund with consent. A Retail Client cannot lose more than the account holds, and IG may close positions once the balance, counting running profit and loss, drops to half or less of the required margin. Retail maxima on IG’s pages: 200:1 on forex and major indices, crypto 10:1. The agreement names no compensation scheme, and complaints start with client services by web chat, WhatsApp or [email protected], escalate to [email protected], with a written response inside eight weeks, then possibly the BMA.

IG Group runs other licensed firms: IG Markets Ltd and IG Index Ltd under the FCA, IG Australia Pty Ltd under ASIC, IG Europe GmbH under BaFin, IG Asia Pte Ltd under MAS, IG Limited under the DFSA, and IG US LLC under the CFTC and NFA. The retail leverage caps in the UK, EU and Australia, UK spread betting and the share dealing accounts remain at those firms. Those licences belong to the entities that hold them, and none of them travels with you to Bermuda: the contract is with IG International Limited. I would judge that entity on its own terms rather than on the group’s UK or Australian reputation.

IG Asia Pte Ltd is a Capital Markets Services Licensee and Exempt Financial Adviser on the MAS Financial Institutions Directory. If you are in Singapore, see our IG for Singapore traders for its MAS record and Singapore site details.

Reputation

IG Group is a pioneer in the trading industry since 1974, with headquarters in London, UK. They are quite popular among traders with a monthly search volume of 2,000,000.

As one of the oldest and most respected forex brokers in the industry, IG was founded in 1974 under the name IG Index. Given its long-standing presence, it’s no surprise that IG remains one of the most popular brokers in the world. Over the years, the company has operated under several names including IG Group, IG Markets, and more recently, simply IG.

Originally, IG Index was launched to give retail clients the ability to speculate on gold prices through spread betting, a product the company is widely credited with inventing. IG also became one of the first brokers (if not the very first) to offer Contracts for Difference (CFDs) in the early 1990s, further opening access to global markets for individual traders. While the name IG originally stood for “Investors Gold,” the company has come a long way since then and now offers access to over 17,000 markets across forex, indices, shares, commodities, and more.

The company is headquartered in London, is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and joined the FTSE 100 Index on 23 March 2026. IG carried a market capitalisation of roughly £5 billion when we checked on 31 July 2026, a figure that moves with the share price.

IG Group reported 742,100 active customers across the 12 months to 31 December 2025, rising to 753,000 for the three months to 28 February 2026. Group revenue for 2025 was a record £1,123.4 million, with client assets of £18.2 billion at the year end. This broad client base reflects IG’s global footprint, with operations spanning five continents, including key markets such as the UK, Australia, the US (where it operates under the name Tastytrade), Singapore, New Zealand, and throughout Europe.

In terms of online visibility, IG draws 71,840 worldwide branded Google searches for September 2026, which ranks it twentieth among the 61 brokers this site tracks. Similarweb figures from February 2026 show a similar trend, placing IG as the 4th most visited broker globally, with 13,063,000 website visits in that month alone.

Show all 65 countries

Country, 55 rows.

Country	2026 Monthly Searches
United Arab Emirates	590
South Africa	390
Malaysia	390
Hong Kong	320
Netherlands	260
Switzerland	260
Ireland	260
Pakistan	170
Morocco	170
Taiwan	170
New Zealand	170
Philippines	140
Canada	140
Brazil	140
Thailand	110
Indonesia	110
Mexico	110
Japan	110
Portugal	110
Austria	110
Poland	90
Saudi Arabia	90
Vietnam	70
Kenya	70
Colombia	70
Nigeria	70
Turkey	70
Argentina	70
Ecuador	50
Greece	50
Egypt	40
Bangladesh	30
Dominican Republic	30
Cyprus	30
Costa Rica	30
Cambodia	30
Sri Lanka	20
Algeria	20
Peru	20
Uganda	20
Ghana	20
Ethiopia	20
Uzbekistan	10
Chile	10
Venezuela	10
Mongolia	10
Jordan	10
Mauritius	10
Tanzania	10
Panama	10
Uruguay	10
Bolivia	10
Guatemala	10
Botswana	10
Honduras	10

Reviews

Our score for IG Group is set against every other broker on broker reviews.

What traders say about IG Group

What other review sites say about IG Group

These are ratings of IG Group from other platforms, read on the date shown and expressed on each platform's scale, so you can weigh them against our own score.

Platform	Rating	Volume	Read on
Trustpilot	3.7 / 5	10,088	Oct 1, 2026
TradingView	4.0 / 5	1,081	Oct 2, 2026

IG Group holds a Trustpilot rating of 3.7 out of 5 from 10,088 reviews, checked Oct 1, 2026.

On TradingView, IG Group is rated 4.0 out of 5 from 1,081 ratings, checked Oct 2, 2026. The TradingView profile for IG Group shows 15.8K traders, the count of those who have connected an account through TradingView.

App Store and Google Play ratings for IG Group

Our score is based on published criteria and is not influenced by these third-party ratings.

How popular is IG Group?

IG Group drew 71,840 branded Google searches in September 2026, placing it 20th of the 61 brokers ranked in this market, outside the top 10. Search interest measures attention, not quality; the score above is the review verdict.

20of 61Search interest rank

71,840

Brand searches, September 2026

-6.4%

vs August 2026

3,600

Login searches

1.1%

Share of all searches

Source: Google search volume, Worldwide, September 2026.

How this is measured

Google Ads reports how many times a month people searched each broker's brand terms, and the brokers are ranked on that figure alone.

A term counts for a broker only when that broker's own website holds the first organic Google result for it; bare brand words that any company could own are left out.

A month-on-month change prints only where the previous month reached 1,000 searches, because Google rounds smaller volumes.

The figures refresh on the 15th of each month with the newest month Google has published, and the first-result check repeats every quarter.

IG Group by market, September 2026

Market	Rank	Brand searches	vs August
Worldwide	20 / 61	71,840	-6.4%
Singapore	3 / 9	4,170	-31.5%
Malaysia	7 / 16	610	n/a

Source: branded Google search volume, September 2026, covering Worldwide, Singapore, Malaysia.

IG Group at a glance

IG Group spreads and fees

What trading IG Group costs

One standard lot of EUR/USD on IG Group's raw account costs US$13.60 for the round turn: 0.16 pips of spread (US$1.60) plus US$12.00 commission. One standard lot of EUR/USD on IG Group's standard account costs US$11.30 for the round turn: 1.13 pips of spread (US$11.30), with no commission.

Cost of trading EUR/USD with IG Group, at 1 standard lot and 20 trades a month

Account	A month of trading	One round turn, 1 lot
Raw spread plus commission0.16 pips, published average, US$12.00 commission	US$272.00	US$13.60
One spread, no commission1.13 pips, published average	US$226.00	US$11.30

A pip on EUR/USD is US$10.00 per standard lot, so the cost of a round turn is the spread in pips times that, plus any commission.

Retail forex trading at IG International is spread only, from 0.6 points on EUR/USD, while Forex Direct adds commission in exchange for direct market access, a route aimed at professional traders. I expect most international clients will stay on the standard spread pricing, which is fine if you are starting out.

1. Forex Direct (DMA) Spreads

Forex Direct runs on L2 Dealer and gives professional traders a line into bank and liquidity-provider order books, with fills carried out in IG’s name, though not every L2 client can use it. I would consider it only if you trade the volumes that justify the commission.

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker’s website and updated monthly. Last update on 1 Sep 2026, corrected 12 Oct 2026

The table above sets IG’s Forex Direct figures beside other brokers, so you can judge the commission for yourself. Forex Direct bills commission rather than folding costs into the spread and is for professional traders only. My reading is that you need decent volume before the DMA pricing pays off.

2. Forex Direct Commission Rate

Forex Direct charges commission instead of a mark-up, and the table below shows $6.00 against the industry average. I think that rate is high for low-volume traders but good value if you trade serious size.

3. Standard Account Fees

Standard forex CFDs are spread only, from 0.6 points on EUR/USD, and the standard spread table below shows IG’s published averages. A guaranteed stop costs money only on the day it triggers, and IG refunds it otherwise, so you pay for protection only if you use it. I would start here before considering DMA.

4. Overnight Funding and Swap-Free Accounts

Positions held overnight borrow at the tom-next rate on forex and spot metals, with an admin fee added, while shares and indices are funded at the interbank rate, adjusted up or down by an admin fee, and futures carry no funding at all. If you need a swap-free account, that sits with IG Limited in Dubai, not with IG International. I would factor the funding costs into any position held overnight.

5. Other Fees

Debit card deposits are free and instant, credit cards cost 1% on Visa and 0.5% on Mastercard, and bank transfers to HSBC in Hong Kong or Standard Chartered in Singapore are free. Beyond funding, watch the running costs: currency conversion is 1.0% on trades outside your account currency, a guaranteed stop incurs a charge only when it triggers, live share price data bills monthly, and ProRealTime costs $40 a month unless you trade four or more times. There is also a fee for incomplete US tax documentation. No inactivity fee appears on the charges page.

Verdict on IG Fees

Forex Direct has the lowest spreads of IG’s routes, but I think small-volume traders pay too much commission there and heavy traders get fair value. If you trade smaller sizes, our lowest spread brokers comparison may suit you better. Everyone else gets forex CFDs from 0.6 points with no commission.

Deposits and withdrawals with IG Group

What is the minimum deposit at IG Group?

Opening an IG International account requires no minimum balance. Card deposits require US$50, bank transfers have no minimum, and nothing obliges you to place a trade after funding. The methods available to you appear in the table below.

Account Base Currencies

IG offers these account base currency options: USD, SGD, EUR, AUD, HKD, and GBP.

Deposit Options and Fees

Debit card deposits are free and instant, credit cards cost 1% on Visa and 0.5% on Mastercard, and HKD FPS transfers arrive free of charge, usually by the next business day. Bank transfers to HSBC in Hong Kong or Standard Chartered in Singapore are free and take up to three business days. I like that the main routes cost you nothing beyond the credit card fee.

Withdrawal Options and Fees

IG also charges no withdrawal fees. The minimum amount to withdraw will depend on your account’s currency denomination. You can withdraw a maximum of $25,000 daily, which will be processed from 2 to 5 days.

Bank wire transfers are usually processed from 1 to 3 days, with no withdrawal limits.

Ease To Open An Account

The process of opening an IG account was smooth and hassle-free. There was no minimum deposit for bank transfers. However, it took around 3 business days for our account to be verified.

IG Group trading platforms and app

I rate the platform range as wide: the web platform, the IG Trading app, MetaTrader 4, MT5, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer and TradingView. The choice matters more than it sounds if you use expert advisors or automated strategies, since the web platform needs no download and L2 Dealer opens exchange order books.

Core Platform

The core platform is IG’s own browser-based trading platform, so you need no download to trade CFDs with IG International Limited on any device, including tablets. It is complemented by a full Android app and, on iOS, a progressive web app, with the native IG Trading app available where your country’s App Store carries it; spread betting is offered by IG’s UK entity, not by IG International.

There are several monitoring tools including the ability to set limits and stops to close out positions, the ability to ‘tear-off’ prices when you want to close the core platform and the option to have price alerts in the form of e-mails or an SMS when prices are reached. The platform is also complemented by an excellent suite of research tools and interactive charts equipped with a full range of technical indicators.

Numerous free tools and features are available with the core platform once you become an IG client, including streaming of Reuters news which is fully integrated with no delays. Autochartist is another feature that can monitor CFDs and currency markets, alerting clients as to opportunities based on chart patterns. Trading central is also available as a technical analysis tool, providing charting and daily e-mail updates about the financial markets.

IG Charts can be included for free to provide technical indicators and the ability to trade directly from charts. Another option is ProRealTime, which is an advanced charting tool, with a dedicated suite of features. This charting balance has monthly costs, but these are not charged when traders actively trade on the platform. Additionally, the IG platforms allow FX traders to create a watchlist with their preferred financial instruments to find them at their fingertips.

At IG International, shares are CFDs: 10,500+ share CFDs, or 13,000+ counting ETFs, with no share dealing account. You trade them from the same browser platform that carries forex positions, which keeps things simple. I like that a forex trader can add share exposure without a second broker.

Three Specialist Platforms

For those that prefer to use more popular platforms compared to IG’s platform, three of the most popular options are available for forex trading. App support varies by platform: MT4 has iOS and Android apps at IG, ProRealTime has no mobile app, and L2 Dealer runs on Windows desktop only.

L2 Dealer

L2 Dealer gives direct market access to share and forex CFDs through exchange order books, with Level 1 and Level 2 data, and Forex Direct runs here. Orders on L2 Dealer go through exchange books and miss IG’s best execution, and IG does not recommend it for beginners. I would say you need experience before you trade here.

Note* There are no mobile trading apps supported by the L2 Dealer platform.

ProRealTime

This platform is ideal for forex traders who specialise in automated trading. The platform allows traders to build strategies using their development tools, or you can code from scratch. Other options include functionality to import strategies from other traders or 3rd parties and back-test it across 30 years of data. There is no need to be active on the platform for the tool to trade on your behalf.

MetaTrader 4

MT4 runs on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, with expert advisors for automated strategies, and IG reports 99.74% uptime over six months from December 1, 2023. I think it remains a sensible pick if you value customisation, and the uptime record should ease your mind about leaving strategies running.

The three advanced platforms and the core platform offer one of the Best Forex Demo Accounts. This allows forex traders to try the platforms risk-free and test out IG’s customer service to make sure it suits their needs before trading with real money.

Trading Platform Execution Speed

IG’s technology focuses on stability, speed, and achieving improved pricing within the forex trading market. IG’s pricing model is also able to fill 98.3% of their market orders within 0.014 seconds across all trading platforms, including the spread bets. At IG, retail investors can profit from consistent liquidity and advanced dealing options that ensure forex traders fill 89% of currency stop orders with zero slippage, on the figures IG publishes for its most recent quarter.

The table below gives an in-depth view of IG’s slippage performance. The most recent dated execution statistics IG publishes cover April to June 2024, when it filled 98.97% of orders and passed £3.5 million of price improvement back to clients across more than 263,000 orders.

To minimise slippage caused by delays, their systems have been built at scale achieving:

1. 25+ million orders
2. 40,000 daily users from desktop devices
3. 43,000 daily users from mobile devices

IG broker also source their forex market quotes directly from the world’s largest global exchanges and banks. In turbulent markets, their price improvement technology may give you a superior price to that quoted when available. This has resulted in 1.8 million points of positive slippage to clients, which is equivalent to nearly £3.3 million that were passed on to IG traders.

IG took Best Platform for the Active Trader and Best Multi Platform Provider at the ADVFN International Financial Awards 2026. I read awards as a signal of consistency, not a substitute for checking the fees and terms you will actually face.

IG Group app

Markets you can trade with IG Group

CFDs

IG International covers 17,000+ markets: 68 forex markets, 100+ indices, 10,500+ share CFDs, 47 commodities, crypto, options and bonds. I think the range is a real strength if you want to move between asset classes from one account. Crypto runs to 11 coins, 2 crosses and a crypto index.

IG International offers no share dealing account and no spread betting; shares trade as CFDs, and both sit with IG’s UK firm. Share CFD leverage runs from 10:1 up to 20:1 on named US shares, as retail maxima on IG’s pages. Costs add up: commission on share CFDs, a guaranteed stop fee from 0.3% of transaction value when triggered, a monthly fee for live share price data, and a fee for incomplete US tax documentation. I think the share CFD fees are high, so weigh them against your trading size before you commit.

IG Group customer service, research and education

Support runs around the clock, pausing only from 6am to 4pm on Saturday (UTC+8), by web chat, WhatsApp, secure messaging and [email protected]. I think the service is slow, so expect a wait when you need help with anything complex. You should test the channels early if quick answers matter.

Research and education

IG Academy offers courses and an app, alongside seminars, webinars, a glossary and a trading psychology podcast series. I rate the education as strong, and the app lets you learn away from the desk. The seminars and webinars round out the courses.

Additionally, the IG Community is an online forum where traders can interact and share ideas. Note that IG does not offer an integrated social or copy trading platform; trade signals (Autochartist) are provided as ideas only.

Our final verdict on IG Group

In my opinion, IG International is a good fit for beginners: the web platform is simple to pick up, the platform range is wide, and the education is strong. Forex CFDs run from 0.6 points with no commission, and the account sits with IG International Limited, regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. The Customer Agreement names no compensation scheme, so read it before you deposit your first funds. I think that caution matters more than the spread does.

The drawbacks are real: share CFD fees are high and customer service is slow. I would weigh both before committing, though a range of more than 17,000 markets, from 68 forex pairs to 47 commodities, gives you room to spread a strategy.

IG Group Markets Review Conclusion

I recommend IG International for traders who work large volumes and prefer to keep risk contained, because they gain most from its pricing and platform range. If you trade smaller sizes, the fee picture is less convincing.

Additional IG Group Information

IG Minimum Deposit

*70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.

The card minimum is US$50, with no minimum by bank transfer, so you can start small. Client money sits in pooled client bank accounts under the Bermuda Client Money Rules, and no inactivity fee appears on the charges page. I would still confirm current costs before you fund, since fee pages change.

About IG Group

IG Group is a worldwide global leader in online multi-asset trading headquartered in the City of London, UK. IG clients and possible customers can reach the UK-based broker at its head office address: Cannon Bridge House 25 Dowgate Hill London EC4R 2YA. The company is also listed on the London Stock Exchange LSE and joined the FTSE 100 Index on 23 March 2026.

IG is truly an international forex broker with over 50 years of experience in the financial markets. For our IG Markets Review, we assessed if the brand can serve clients from around the world. Our team of industry experts found that IG has a remarkable global presence through its 16 offices (including UK, USA, Australia, Singapore and Europe) spread all around the globe and across five continents.

Spread Bets vs Trading CFDs

IG International offers no spread betting, which sits with IG’s UK firm; what you get is CFDs across 17,000+ markets, long or short. That covers currency pairs, indices, shares, commodities and crypto. I think the CFD range is broad enough that most traders will not miss spread betting.

US residents should note that the US entity operates under different conditions detailed in our tastyfx Review for US Traders, including CFTC registration and a USD 1 minimum.

IG is issued in New Zealand by IG Australia Pty Ltd, a separate licensed entity from the one this review covers. Read IG in New Zealand.