Webull futures: $0.25 a micro contract is the lowest published commission, and the clearing fee on top of it is not published

Webull's futures commissions, Premium tiers and intraday margins, read on 24 September 2026. The commission matches IBKR's cheapest band, but Webull states that clearing fees are not pass-through and never gives the amount. The Premium discount on futures starts at 5,001 contracts a month; the margin rate is where $40 a year pays back.

Last verified 24 September 2026 · how we check

Webull publishes a lower futures commission than either broker we have costed so far. It also publishes less about what sits on top of it, and the two facts belong in the same sentence.

The commission table

Read from Webull’s fee schedule on 24 September 2026, CME Group contracts, per contract:

Two things are visible immediately. The Premium discount does nothing below 5,001 contracts a month, where the two columns are identical. And the standard column never moves: volume alone buys nothing without the subscription.

What is excluded, and what is not published

Under both tables, the same note: the rates exclude “exchange, clearing and regulatory fees”. Then this, which is the part worth reading twice:

Exchange and regulatory fees are pass-through charges collected by Webull and remitted to the applicable Exchange and regulator (NFA). Clearing fees are not pass-through fees and consist of charges associated with both the Clearing FCM and non-Clearing FCM (Webull) for clearing-related services.

So the clearing fee is not the exchange’s cost being passed on. Part of it is Webull’s own charge. The schedule does not say how much it is.

That matters because the clearing fee is the line that decides this comparison. Against the two brokers that do itemize it, per contract:

Webull’s commission ties IBKR’s cheapest band and undercuts everyone else. Whether the total does is not something the published pages can answer: at $0.19 of clearing it would be the cheapest here, and at $0.30 it would not be. We set the itemized figures out in futures commission per contract.

Premium costs $3.99, and futures are the wrong reason to buy it

Webull Premium is $3.99 a month or $40 a year. For a trader doing fewer than 5,001 contracts a month, its futures discount is worth zero. What it does change:

The margin rate is the reason to do the arithmetic. The gap at the bottom tier is 3.54 percentage points, so an annual subscription at $40 pays for itself on a margin loan of about $1,130. On the cash side the gap is 3.1 points, which pays for the subscription on roughly $1,290 of idle cash.

A futures trader who never borrows and keeps no cash there is paying $40 for nothing until 5,001 contracts a month. That is about 240 contracts a trading day.

Intraday margins are a percentage, not a flat fee

Webull publishes initial and intraday margin per contract. Set against NinjaTrader’s flat day margins, read the same day:

Divide the two Webull columns and a rule appears. The S&P, Nasdaq and Dow micros sit at 3.5% of initial margin, the Russell micro at 4%, gold and silver at 10%, crude at 15%, the FX micros at 30%. Webull’s day margin is a fraction of the exchange requirement rather than a round number, so it moves whenever the exchange moves.

NinjaTrader’s $50 is a flat figure its risk desk sets, at 1.8% of the same contract’s initial margin, which we went through in futures day trading margin. Webull’s intraday requirement on a micro S&P is about double NinjaTrader’s; on the Russell micro it is slightly lower.

Neither approach is generous or mean by itself. The percentage rule is the more predictable of the two, and the flat figure is the one that can be quadrupled around a news release.

The rest of the schedule

Index options are the exception to zero commission. $0.50 a contract, where US-listed stocks, ETFs and ordinary options are free of commission. We compared that with SPX pricing elsewhere in index options fees.

Leaving costs $75. An outgoing stock transfer is $75, charged through Apex as the clearing firm.

Futures accounts sit outside SIPC. Webull’s own disclosure: futures trading is offered by Webull Futures LLC, a CFTC-registered FCM, and futures accounts “are not protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation”. That is true of every futures account, and it is the point we make in futures broker.

What to ask before funding

What is the clearing fee per contract, in dollars? It is the one number that decides whether the $0.25 commission is the cheapest all-in rate here.

Is the commission charged per side? The schedule is headed “commission for futures execution” and quotes it per contract; a round turn is two executions.

Do you borrow or hold cash there? That, not the futures tier, is what makes Premium pay.

What is the intraday margin on the contract you trade, today? It is a percentage of the exchange requirement, so last month’s figure is not this month’s.

What we checked, and what we didn’t

Commissions, Premium pricing, margin rates, cash rate, index option pricing and the transfer fee were read from Webull’s fee schedule on 24 September 2026, and initial and intraday margins, multipliers and tick sizes from its futures products page the same day. NinjaTrader’s figures are from its itemized commission table dated 14 August 2026 and its margins table dated 16 September 2026. The break-even figures and the intraday-to-initial percentages are our arithmetic.

Webull does not publish the amount of its clearing fee on the pages cited, so no all-in figure for Webull appears above, and we have not compared exchange fees, which are the exchange’s and apply at every broker here. We hold no Webull account and report no fills of our own.

Sources

• Webull: fee schedule, futures and Premium tabs
• Webull: futures products, margins and contract specifications
• NinjaTrader: commissions by contract, itemized