tastytrade Review

tastytrade is a brokerage built for active options traders, formerly called tastyworks, with stocks, ETFs, futures, futures options, crypto, forex and prediction markets in one account. Its pricing page promises no subscriptions and a short commission table, which makes it easy to model. The question this review answers is narrow: what does an options trade actually cost there, and when does that cost beat the free apps?

Finpresso data: in our cost model of a two-leg vertical spread, tastytrade's commission per contract falls from $0.50 on a 10-lot to $0.25 on a 20-lot, because the per-leg cap stops the opening fee growing, while a flat per-contract broker stays at the same rate. The model uses only the commission tables on each broker's own page, read on 28 October 2026. For the whole field, start with our options trading platforms ranking.

tastytrade, Inc. is a US broker-dealer, a member of FINRA, SIPC and the NFA, offering self-directed trading in stocks, ETFs, options, futures, futures options, cryptocurrency, forex and prediction markets. Its product menu lists no mutual funds, so it is a trading account, not a place to hold a fund portfolio or a cash-management account.

Its audience is the trader who places many options orders a month, not the long-term index investor.

Crypto runs through Zero Hash, a separate company that holds the coins, and crypto assets are not covered by SIPC or the FDIC, per tastytrade's own disclosures. Futures and event contract accounts are not SIPC-protected either.

If you mostly buy and hold funds, our Charles Schwab review covers a broker built for that.

You open an account, fund it and trade from the desktop, web or mobile platform. tastytrade also lists options backtesting, an API and an MCP server among its platform tools, so you can test a strategy on past data or connect your own code.

The commission model rewards closing trades and bigger orders. Stock and ETF options cost a dollar per contract to open, up to a per-leg maximum, and nothing to close. Broad-based index options cost the same to open, with no cap printed, and nothing to close.

Futures charge on both sides of the trade, at the per-contract rates in the pricing table below.

Exchange, clearing and regulatory fees apply on top of commissions to every opening and closing trade except crypto, per the pricing page. Crypto has no commission line; it costs 1% of each purchase to open and 1% to close, or 0.75% for Bitcoin and Ether.

Compare that with our crypto exchange fees guide before you buy crypto here, and see the brokerage fees guide for account-level costs.

tastytrade publishes its commissions on one table, checked on 28 October 2026. Stocks, ETFs and fractional shares trade free to open and close. Exchange, clearing and regulatory fees are extra on every trade except crypto, and they are left out of the comparison below so each broker is compared on its own commission.

We modelled one common order: a vertical spread of 10 contracts per leg on a stock option, opened and then closed, so 40 contracts in all. The order size is our assumption; every rate comes from the brokers' own pages.

tastytrade: 10 contracts at a dollar each reaches the cap on each leg, so $20 to open and nothing to close, $20 in total. IBKR Pro, at up to 10,000 contracts a month and a premium of $0.10 or more: 40 x $0.65 = $26. Robinhood, Webull and Public charge no commission on stock and ETF options. Public pays a rebate on top, $0.06 per contract at its lowest tier, so the same spread would return $2.40 there. Robinhood adds a combined $0.04 fee per contract to cover regulatory and exchange costs, which comes to $1.60 on this order, by our arithmetic.

Size changes the ranking against per-contract brokers, not against the free apps. Double the spread to 20 contracts per leg and tastytrade still charges $20, because of the cap, while IBKR Pro doubles to $52. On a single 1-lot spread, tastytrade charges $2 and IBKR Pro $2.60, so the gap is small at that size. The free apps stay at zero commission at every size.

Methodology. Rates come from tastytrade pricing, Interactive Brokers options commissions, Robinhood trading fees, Webull pricing and Public options trading, all checked on 28 October 2026. Schwab and E*TRADE are not in this comparison; check their current options rates on their own sites.

tastytrade fits an options trader who runs spreads of 10 contracts or more, closes positions before expiry and wants futures in the same account. For that trader the per-leg cap and the free close beat any per-contract broker, and the tools justify the gap to the free apps. If you trade 1 to 5 contracts at a time, a zero-commission app is cheaper on every order, and our Webull vs Robinhood comparison shows which of the two suits you.

Skip tastytrade if you want mutual funds, a bank-style cash account or a retirement portfolio you rarely touch. The Public review covers the rebate model in depth, the Interactive Brokers review covers global markets, and Toolradar lists Webull and Public with their user reviews.