tastytrade fees: $1 an option to open, nothing to close, and above 50 contracts the clearing fee costs more than the commission
tastytrade's commission table and its full fee schedule, last updated 30 July 2026. The $10 cap per leg makes large option orders cheap in commission, but the $0.10 clearing fee is not capped. On futures it is dearer than NinjaTrader's free plan on micros and cheaper on the E-mini.
tastytrade’s pricing page fits on one screen: stocks free, options $1 to open and nothing to close, futures $1 a side. The fee schedule behind it runs to several pages, and it is where the cost of a large order is decided.
The headline table
Read from tastytrade’s pricing page and fee schedule on 16 September 2026:
| Product | To open | To close | Clearing fee, each trade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stocks and ETFs | $0 | $0 | $0.0008 per share |
| Stock and ETF options | $1 per contract, $10 max per leg | $0 | $0.10 per contract |
| Broad-based index options | $1 per contract, no cap | $0 | $0.10 per contract + index fee |
| Futures | $1.00 | $1.00 | $0.30 per contract |
| Micro futures | $0.75 | $0.75 | $0.30 per contract |
| Options on futures | $1.25 | $1.25 | $0.30 per contract |
| Options on micro futures | $0.75 | $0.75 | $0.30 per contract |
The schedule states that exchange, clearing and regulatory fees apply “to all opening and closing trades”. The commission is free to close. The clearing fee is not.
Options: the cap and the clearing fee
On an options leg of ten contracts or more, the commission stops at $10. The clearing fee of $0.10 a contract keeps counting, on the way in and on the way out.
Here is a round trip on one stock option leg, opened and closed, with the fees the schedule lists per contract: clearing on both trades, the $0.02 Options Regulatory Fee on both, and FINRA’s $0.00329 on the sale.
| Contracts | Commission | Clearing | Regulatory | Round trip | Per contract | Commission share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1.00 | $0.20 | $0.04 | $1.24 | $1.24 | 80% |
| 10 | $10.00 | $2.00 | $0.43 | $12.43 | $1.24 | 80% |
| 50 | $10.00 | $10.00 | $2.16 | $22.16 | $0.44 | 45% |
| 100 | $10.00 | $20.00 | $4.33 | $34.33 | $0.34 | 29% |
At 50 contracts a leg, clearing equals the commission. Above it, clearing is the larger number. The cap makes a hundred-lot cost about a quarter per contract of what a one-lot costs, and most of what remains is no longer commission.
Against a flat $0.65 a contract
Schwab charges $0.65 a contract each way with no cap, which we set out in how much it costs to trade options. Commission only, round trip:
| Contracts | tastytrade | Schwab |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1.00 | $1.30 |
| 10 | $10.00 | $13.00 |
| 50 | $10.00 | $65.00 |
| 100 | $10.00 | $130.00 |
tastytrade is cheaper on commission at every size, and the gap widens past ten contracts. That comparison stops at commission. We have not found an itemized clearing fee on Schwab’s pricing page to set against tastytrade’s, so the all-in figures are not like for like.
Where the cap does not apply
Index options. The schedule says broad-based index options “are excluded from the capped commission offer”, and adds a proprietary index fee per contract:
| Index option | Fee per contract |
|---|---|
| SPX | $0.60 |
| OEX, XEO | $0.40 |
| VIX | $0.35 |
| NDX | $0.25 |
| RUT, DJX | $0.18 |
| XSP | $0.00 under 10 contracts per leg, $0.07 from 10 |
A hundred SPX contracts opened pay $100 in commission rather than $10, plus $60 in index fees on the opening trade alone.
Options on futures are excluded from the cap as well.
Assignment. Closing an option costs no commission. Being exercised or assigned costs $5. On a short one-lot near expiry, buying it back costs the option’s price and $0.12 in clearing and regulatory fees; letting it be assigned costs $5 before anything else.
Futures: cheaper on the E-mini, dearer on the micro
tastytrade charges $1.00 a side on futures and $0.75 on micros, plus $0.30 clearing and a $0.01 NFA fee. NinjaTrader itemizes the same lines per contract. Commission plus clearing, per side, before exchange and NFA fees:
| Per side | tastytrade | NinjaTrader Free | NinjaTrader Monthly | NinjaTrader Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MES micro S&P | $1.05 | $0.58 | $0.48 | $0.28 |
| ES E-mini S&P | $1.30 | $1.48 | $1.18 | $0.78 |
On a micro, tastytrade costs $0.47 more a side than NinjaTrader’s free plan, $0.94 a round turn. On the E-mini it costs $0.18 less a side than the free plan, and more than either paid plan. The $0.30 clearing fee is the reason: on a micro it is almost as large as the commission.
We compared futures commissions across brokers in more detail in futures commission per contract.
The fees that are not per trade
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Margin, debit under $25,000 | 11.00% |
| Margin, debit $1,000,000 and above | 8.00% |
| Outgoing ACAT transfer | $75 |
| Outgoing domestic wire | $25 |
| ACH deposits and withdrawals | free |
| IRA closing fee | $60 |
The margin rates are set against a base rate of 10%, which the schedule dates “as of January 1st, 2025”. Leaving costs $75 by ACAT transfer.
What to take from this
On options, size decides. Under ten contracts a leg, tastytrade’s round trip is about $1.24 a contract. At a hundred, it is $0.34, and clearing is most of it.
Check whether your underlying is an index. The cap does not apply to SPX, and the index fee adds $0.60 a contract.
Close short options rather than taking assignment when the price to buy back is below $5.
On micro futures, it is not the cheap option. The clearing fee alone is $0.30 a side.
What we checked, and what we didn’t
Commissions were read from tastytrade’s pricing page and fees from its commissions and fees schedule, last updated 30 July 2026, both on 16 September 2026. NinjaTrader figures are from its itemized commission table dated 14 August 2026. Round trips and shares are our arithmetic; we applied clearing and the Options Regulatory Fee to both the opening and closing trade and the FINRA fee to the sale only, as the schedule lists them.
Exchange fees on futures are not in tastytrade’s schedule, which refers to a separate list, and we have not reproduced them. We hold no account at tastytrade and report no fills of our own.
Sources
- tastytrade: pricing
- tastytrade: commissions and fees schedule, last updated 30 July 2026
- NinjaTrader: commissions by contract, itemized