Wealthsimple fees sit in unexpected places: stock and ETF trades cost $0 in commission, but currency conversion, managed portfolios, crypto and instant withdrawals all carry a charge. This guide lists every fee Wealthsimple publishes for trading, US dollars, options, managed investing, crypto, withdrawals, transfers and the Chequing card, then turns the percentages into dollars so you can see whether Wealthsimple is cheap for the way you actually invest. YieldMaple checked Wealthsimple’s pricing page and its legal fee schedules for trade, managed and crypto accounts on September 23, 2026.
Wealthsimple fees at a glance
| Item | Current figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Commission on listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs | $0 | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Currency conversion fee (US trades from a CAD account) | 1.5% | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Conversion fee into/out of a USD account (by conversion size) | 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000 | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| USD account cost | $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Equity and ETF options contract fee | US$0 per contract | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Fee to open a Wealthsimple account | $0 | help.wealthsimple.com Verified October 11, 2026 |
| Account minimum (self-directed) | none | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Instant withdrawal fee (from investment accounts) | 2.5% | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Transfer-out fee reimbursement | reimbursed on transfers of $25,000 or more, up to $150 per account | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Managed investing fee (Core, under $100,000) | 0.50% a year | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Managed investing fee (Premium, $100,000+) | 0.40% a year | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Managed investing fee (Generation, $500,000+) | from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Automated Investing service fee (self-directed auto-invest) | 0.25%, capped at $250 per account per year | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Crypto trading fee | a flat 0.5% trading fee plus a price spread on market orders (the rate without Active Trader status) | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Wealthsimple staking fee by client tier (share of staking rewards) | 30% of your staking rewards on Core and Premium, and 15% on Generation | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Sending/receiving crypto to external wallets | supported (network fees apply) | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Wealthsimple Predict (prediction markets) fee per contract | US$0.02 per contract, charged on every buy and every sell | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Margin account availability and rates | available by application; as of Sept 18, 2026 prime is 4.45% (CAD) — Core pays prime + 0.5%, Premium prime + 0%, Generation prime − 0.5% | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Chequing monthly / minimum-balance fees | $0 | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| ATM withdrawal fees | no Wealthsimple ATM fees in Canada or abroad; eligible ATM-operator fees reimbursed | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Foreign transaction fee on the chequing (prepaid) card | 0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies) | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Replacement fee for a lost or stolen Visa card | free — you can lock the card and request a free replacement in the app | help.wealthsimple.com Verified October 8, 2026 |
| Non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee | none — Wealthsimple doesn't charge NSF fees (a biller can still charge its own fee if a pre-authorized debit bounces) | help.wealthsimple.com Verified October 8, 2026 |
| Wealthsimple Visa Infinite+ annual fee | $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
| Wealthsimple Tax pricing | Basic: pay what you want; Plus: $40 + tax (free for Premium); Pro: $80 + tax (free for Generation) | wealthsimple.com Verified October 7, 2026 |
What costs nothing: opening an account ($0), commissions on listed stocks and ETFs ($0), and holding an account with no balance requirement (the self-directed account minimum is listed as none). Wealthsimple’s trade-account fee schedule also lists no charge for bank-transfer deposits and withdrawals, electronic statements, inactive accounts, closing an account, or transferring an account to another institution.
What costs money: converting between Canadian and US dollars, the USD account on the Core plan, managed portfolios, crypto trades and staking, instant withdrawals, margin interest, gold and futures trades, and a short list of by-request services. Each is covered below with the dollar cost worked out.
Does Wealthsimple have fees?
Yes: Wealthsimple has no commission on stocks and ETFs, but it charges for currency conversion, the USD account on Core, managed portfolios, crypto, instant withdrawals and some by-request services.
Wealthsimple’s own trade fee schedule describes its currency conversion as having “no commission fees, transfer charges, or other hidden fees” attached. That’s accurate as far as it goes: the costs aren’t hidden, they’re just not in the commission line where most people look. The charges you can run into:
- Currency conversion. The 1.5% fee is applied to Wealthsimple’s corporate exchange rate, which its fee schedule says is a live rate that already includes a spread.
- USD account subscriptions on the Core plan ($10 a month).
- Managed-portfolio fees, charged as a yearly percentage of your balance.
- Crypto trading fees, spreads and a share of staking rewards.
- Interest on margin loans and the portfolio line of credit.
- The credit card’s annual fee ($240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit) and paid Wealthsimple Tax plans (Basic: pay what you want; Plus: $40 + tax (free for Premium); Pro: $80 + tax (free for Generation)).
The fee schedule also lists flat charges for services you have to ask for: paper statements, manual wires into or out of an investment account, phone trades placed through the trade desk, physical share certificates, journaling shares between accounts, and voluntary corporate-action elections. Most investors never pay any of them, but they exist, so check the schedule before requesting one.
What does Wealthsimple charge to trade stocks and ETFs?
Nothing in commission: Wealthsimple charges $0 to buy or sell listed Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, on every plan and in every account type.
That covers TFSAs, RRSPs, FHSAs, RESPs, LIRAs and non-registered accounts alike. Fractional shares are available (yes — thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs), so a small contribution buys part of a share instead of sitting as cash, and Wealthsimple’s pricing page lists recurring investments and dividend reinvestment as included on every plan.
Worked example: holding XEQT. XEQT trades in Canadian dollars on the TSX, so buying it involves no currency conversion. Your only ongoing cost is the fund’s own 0.19% MER, which comes to about $19 a year on a $10,000 holding. That money goes to iShares inside the fund’s price; Wealthsimple bills you nothing. The step-by-step guide to buying XEQT on Wealthsimple walks through the order screen.
For contrast, TD Direct Investing’s standard stock commission is $9.99 per trade. Someone buying two ETFs every month (24 trades a year) would pay about $240 a year in commissions at that rate, unless both ETFs are on TD’s commission-free list.
Stop price vs limit price: does the order type change the fee?
No. Market, limit, stop-limit and stop-market orders all trade at the same $0 commission; the order type only changes how your price is decided.
- Limit price: the worst price you’ll accept. A buy limit fills at that price or lower; a sell limit at that price or higher.
- Stop price: a trigger. Nothing happens until the stock trades at the stop price.
- Stop-limit order: once the stop price is hit, the order becomes a limit order at your limit price. Wealthsimple’s order-handling disclosure says it then executes at the limit price or better, if it can be filled. In a fast drop, a stop-limit sell can be skipped over entirely.
- Stop-market order: once the stop price is hit, it trades at the best available market price, which makes a fill likely but leaves the price open.
Per the same disclosure, stop-limit orders are allowed on stocks, ETFs and options, and bracket orders on stocks and ETFs.
How much are Wealthsimple fees for US stocks?
From a CAD account, each US trade costs 1.5% in currency conversion, charged when you buy and again when you sell; commission itself stays at $0.
The fee is built into the exchange rate on your trade confirmation, applied on top of Wealthsimple’s corporate rate, and only charged if the order fills. In dollars:
- Buying $1,000 of a US stock from a CAD account costs about $15 in conversion.
- Selling it later converts the proceeds back to Canadian dollars at another 1.5%, so a buy and a sale of $1,000 costs about $30 in total, before any change in the share price.
The USD account changes the maths. You convert once, at 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000 (based on the size of each conversion), then buy and sell US-listed stocks in US dollars with no conversion fee on each trade. Moving US dollars you already have into it is free, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page. The account costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation, and Core clients get a 30-day free trial. The Wealthsimple USD account guide covers how to open one.
Two more ways to avoid the fee:
- Buy CAD-listed versions of US exposure. An ETF such as VFV holds US stocks but trades in Canadian dollars on the TSX, so no conversion happens in your account. See how to buy VFV on Wealthsimple.
- Norbert’s Gambit converts a large amount by buying a dual-listed security in one currency and selling it in the other. At Wealthsimple it needs a USD account alongside your CAD one, a few days and a journaling request, which the fee schedule lists with its own flat journaling fee; the Norbert’s Gambit on Wealthsimple walkthrough and the Norbert’s Gambit calculator show when it beats the tiered fee.
Which is cheaper for US stocks: a CAD account or the USD account?
On Core, the CAD account is usually cheaper for small, occasional US purchases, and the USD account wins once you convert larger sums at once or trade US stocks often.
Three Core-plan scenarios, one year each, with the conversion fees and the USD account’s monthly price included (the 30-day free trial is left out):
| Scenario (Core plan, one year) | CAD account | USD account |
|---|---|---|
| $500 a month into US stocks ($6,000 a year), never sold | about $90 | about $210 |
| One $30,000 lump sum converted and invested | about $450 | about $270 |
| Active trader: $3,000 traded in and out 10 times | about $900 | about $165 |
The break-even is simple. On Core, the USD account costs $120 a year. Conversions in its lowest tier pay the same rate as a CAD account, so for a monthly buyer who never sells, the subscription is pure extra cost. A single conversion large enough for the third tier saves at least $250 compared with the CAD account, more than a year of the subscription. If you’re on Premium or Generation, the USD account is included, and its conversion fee is never higher than a CAD account’s, so a CAD account offers no fee advantage for US-listed stocks.
To run your own numbers against Questrade and TD Direct Investing, use the calculator below. It assumes a year’s US purchases are converted in a single conversion, one way. If you convert monthly instead, each conversion falls in the lowest tier, as in the first row of the table.
What does Wealthsimple charge for options, margin, gold and futures?
Equity and ETF options cost US$0 per contract; margin interest depends on your plan; gold and futures carry their own trading fees in Wealthsimple’s fee schedule.
Options. The US$0 per contract pricing applies on Core, Premium and Generation. Options on US stocks traded from a CAD account still pay the 1.5% conversion, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page. The fee schedule adds flat fees for an early-exercise request and a do-not-exercise instruction, and separate per-contract fees on index options such as SPX, VIX and NDX. The Wealthsimple options trading guide explains how options trading works on the platform.
Margin. Margin is available by application; as of Sept 18, 2026 prime is 4.45% (CAD) — Core pays prime + 0.5%, Premium prime + 0%, Generation prime − 0.5%. In CAD, that’s 4.95% on Core, 4.45% on Premium and 3.95% on Generation; USD borrowing costs 7.5% on Core. Interest is calculated daily and charged monthly. Borrowing $10,000 in CAD for a full year on Core costs about $495 in interest. The portfolio line of credit charges the same rates by plan (4.95% on Core) with $0 in fees. Details are in the Wealthsimple margin account guide.
Gold. Gold breaks the zero-commission pattern: the trade-account fee schedule charges a trading fee worked out as a percentage of the value of every precious-metals order, bought or sold. Taking delivery of physical coins adds a redemption fee built into the redemption price, and Wealthsimple’s pricing page shows that fee is far higher, as a share of value, on small coins than on one-ounce coins. The page on Wealthsimple gold fees and coin redemption sets those charges out.
Futures and prediction markets. Futures pay a flat per-contract fee in US dollars, plus a per-contract NFA fee and exchange fees passed through from the futures exchange; the pricing page says no platform or real-time market data fees are added on top. Prediction-market event contracts cost US$0.02 per contract, charged on every buy and every sell.
How much do Wealthsimple managed portfolios cost?
Managed portfolios cost 0.50% a year on Core, 0.40% a year on Premium and from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year on Generation, calculated daily and charged monthly.
Premium starts at $100,000 in assets and Generation at $500,000; the Generation fee is 0.4% at $500,000, falling to 0.2% only at $10,000,000 or more. The fee is taken from the account itself. On top of it, the ETFs inside each portfolio have their own MERs, charged by the fund companies inside the fund price rather than deducted from your account.
- $10,000 on Core: about $50 a year in management fees, plus the ETFs’ MERs.
- $100,000 on Premium: about $400 a year, plus the ETFs’ MERs.
Compare that with doing it yourself: the same $10,000 in XEQT costs about $19 a year in MER and nothing in commission. The managed fee buys automatic rebalancing, dividend reinvestment and, from Premium, tax-loss harvesting. Currency conversion inside managed accounts uses a smaller fee than the self-directed 1.5%, per the managed-investing fee schedule.
Automated Investing, the self-directed auto-invest service, costs 0.25%, capped at $250 per account per year, so the cap kicks in at $100,000 per account. Wealthsimple’s advisor service, Wealth Management, costs 0.8% a year, dropping to 0.5% at $10 million or more and needs $1,000,000 in managed accounts.
Where Wealthsimple loses: Questrade’s Questwealth robo-portfolios charge 0.25% in management fees at Core-sized balances, half the Core rate. The managed vs self-directed comparison and the best robo-advisors in Canada cover the trade-offs.
How much are Wealthsimple crypto fees?
Most Wealthsimple crypto buys, sells and swaps pay a percentage trading fee plus a spread, and staking pays Wealthsimple a share of your rewards.
The trading fee is the one Wealthsimple figure to check on the day you trade. YieldMaple found Wealthsimple’s crypto marketing page and its legal fee schedule quoting different rates in September 2026, so the accurate summary is: a flat 0.5% trading fee plus a price spread on market orders (the rate without Active Trader status). The legal schedule sets the fee by plan, lowers it as your 30-day trading volume rises, and charges no trading fee on USDC bought or sold with US dollars or on crypto bought automatically from your paycheque.
- Staking: 30% of your staking rewards on Core and Premium, and 15% on Generation. The validators your coins are staked with also take a cut of the rewards; for Ethereum it’s about 5% of ETH staking rewards.
- Sending crypto out: supported (network fees apply), paid to the blockchain rather than to Wealthsimple.
Where Wealthsimple loses: frequent traders pay less at a dedicated exchange. NDAX, for example, charges a flat 0.20% on every buy and sell, with no volume tiers. The Wealthsimple Crypto review compares the options.
Does Wealthsimple charge withdrawal or transfer-out fees?
Regular bank-transfer withdrawals and transfers out to another institution carry no Wealthsimple fee; only an instant withdrawal from an investment account costs 2.5%.
Withdrawals. A normal withdrawal to your bank can take 1–3 business days, per Wealthsimple’s pricing page. The instant option sends the money to a Visa Debit card right away for 2.5%, which is $25 on a $1,000 withdrawal. Unless you need the money today, wait the extra days. Withdrawals from an RRSP or RRIF can have income tax withheld, but that’s tax sent to the CRA, not a Wealthsimple fee.
Transferring out. The trade-account fee schedule lists no charge for outgoing account transfers. The request is started by the institution receiving your account. Many Canadian brokerages charge for this: TD Direct Investing lists $150, Questrade $150 and RBC Direct Investing $150.
Transferring in. When you move an account to Wealthsimple, the old institution’s transfer-out fee is reimbursed on transfers of $25,000 or more, up to $150 per account. Below $25,000 you pay it yourself, and the account has to stay funded for 90 days. Timelines and the transfer match are in the Wealthsimple transfer guide.
Wires and other payment services. A manual wire into or out of an investment account is a by-request service with a flat fee in the fee schedule. The schedule’s separate payment-instrument section, which covers the wires and bank drafts that Wealthsimple Chequing offers, lists a flat domestic wire fee (waived for Generation clients on larger wires) and flat fees for bank drafts (waived for Generation clients), cheque books and stop payments.
What fees come with Wealthsimple Chequing and its cards?
Wealthsimple Chequing charges $0 a month, and its prepaid Visa card adds no foreign transaction fee and no Wealthsimple ATM fee.
- ATM withdrawals: no Wealthsimple ATM fees in Canada or abroad; eligible ATM-operator fees reimbursed. The operator’s own fee is usually about $3.00 per withdrawal, charged by the ATM operator (not Wealthsimple), and reimbursements have no cap — Wealthsimple reimburses an unlimited number of ATM fees with no maximum amount.
- Foreign purchases: 0% (Visa's conversion rate still applies). For comparison, Tangerine charges 2.50% on its debit card.
- Annual card fee: $0 — no annual fee.
- Replacement card: free — you can lock the card and request a free replacement in the app.
- NSF: none — Wealthsimple doesn't charge NSF fees (a biller can still charge its own fee if a pre-authorized debit bounces). The fee schedule’s payment-instrument section does list a flat fee when a payment instrument is rejected or returned for insufficient funds.
Cash from an ATM isn’t a cash advance on this card: it’s a prepaid card spending your own balance, so no cash-advance interest applies. Eligible Chequing deposits are held in trust at CDIC member institutions, with CDIC coverage of up to $1 million, because funds are spread across up to 10 CDIC member institutions (Wealthsimple itself is not a CDIC member); coverage at each one is up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per CDIC member institution. Balances also earn 1.25% interest on Core. The Wealthsimple debit card guide covers limits and setup.
The Wealthsimple credit card is a separate product with a real annual fee: $240 a year ($20/month), waived with $100,000+ in individual assets or $4,000+/month direct deposit. It pays 2% on every purchase in cash back. Its cash-advance terms sit in the cardholder agreement rather than on the pricing page. The Wealthsimple credit card review works out when the fee pays for itself.
Are there fees on a Wealthsimple TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP or LIRA?
No separate account fee: a self-directed TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP or LIRA follows the same fee schedule as any Wealthsimple trading account, with $0 commissions.
Self-directed accounts come as TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts, and every one costs $0 to open. The cost difference is in how you invest, not the account type:
- RESP: available as a self-directed or managed RESP. If you’re moving an existing plan, note that individual RESPs transfer into a managed Wealthsimple RESP, so the managed fee applies to it. The Wealthsimple RESP guide covers grants.
- LIRA: available (self-directed and managed), on the same terms.
- TFSA, RRSP and FHSA: see the Wealthsimple TFSA, RRSP and FHSA guides for contribution rules.
One cost isn’t a Wealthsimple fee but hits US-stock holders anyway: withholding tax on US dividends. Dividends paid to a TFSA could be subject to foreign withholding tax, per the CRA's TFSA guide, while dividends earned in a retirement plan such as an RRSP are exempt from US tax, as long as the plan is operated exclusively to provide pension, retirement or employee benefits, under the Canada–US tax treaty. Holding US-listed dividend payers in an RRSP rather than a TFSA avoids that leak.
How do Core, Premium and Generation change your Wealthsimple fees?
Your plan is set by your assets, not bought: Core from $1 in assets, Premium from $100,000 and Generation from $500,000, with lower fees at each step.
| Feature | Core | Premium | Generation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assets needed | $1 in assets | $100,000 | $500,000 |
| USD account | $10 a month | Included (better on this row) | Included (better on this row) |
| Managed portfolio fee | 0.50% a year | 0.40% a year | from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year (better on this row) |
| CAD margin rate | 4.95% | 4.45% | 3.95% (better on this row) |
| USD margin rate | 7.5% | 7% | 6.5% (better on this row) |
Sources: wealthsimple.com/en-ca/pricing and Wealthsimple's trade and managed-investing fee schedules, checked September 23, 2026.
Put plainly: the USD account costs $10 a month on Core and is included on Premium and Generation. Managed fees drop from 0.50% a year to 0.40% a year, then to from 0.4% down to 0.2% a year. CAD margin falls from 4.95% to 4.45% to 3.95%, and USD margin from 7.5% to 7% to 6.5%. Staking is 30% of your staking rewards on Core and Premium, and 15% on Generation, and Wealthsimple Tax plans are Basic: pay what you want; Plus: $40 + tax (free for Premium); Pro: $80 + tax (free for Generation). Premium and Generation aren’t subscriptions: per the pricing page, you move up automatically once your assets or net deposits with Wealthsimple, whichever is higher, reach the threshold. The Wealthsimple Premium guide covers whether consolidating assets to reach it makes sense.
Wealthsimple vs Questrade vs Interactive Brokers: whose fees are lower?
Wealthsimple and Questrade tie on stock, ETF and US options commissions, Questrade is cheaper for holding US dollars on Core, and Interactive Brokers is far cheaper for converting currency.
| Feature | Wealthsimple | Questrade | Interactive Brokers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian stocks and ETFs | $0 (better on this row) | $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs (better on this row) | 1 cent a share on Canadian stocks, with a $1.00 minimum |
| US stocks and ETFs | $0 (better on this row) | $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs (better on this row) | US$0.005 a share, with a US$1.00 minimum and a cap of 1% of the trade value per order |
| CAD to USD conversion | 1.5% (CAD account) | 1.5% | 0.002% of the amount (US$2.00 minimum) (better on this row) |
| Holding US dollars | $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation | free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars (better on this row) | cash in both CAD and USD |
| US equity options | US$0 per contract (better on this row) | $0 commissions on US equity options contracts (better on this row) | US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order |
Sources: Wealthsimple pricing page and trade fee schedule; Questrade commissions and fees pages; Interactive Brokers Canada commissions pages. Checked September 2026.
Row by row: Wealthsimple charges $0 and Questrade charges $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, while Interactive Brokers charges 1 cent a share on Canadian stocks, with a $1.00 minimum on Canadian stocks and US$0.005 a share, with a US$1.00 minimum and a cap of 1% of the trade value per order on US stocks. Currency conversion costs 1.5% at Wealthsimple (CAD account) and 1.5% at Questrade, against 0.002% of the amount (US$2.00 minimum) at Interactive Brokers. Holding US dollars at Questrade is free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars; at Interactive Brokers, registered accounts can hold cash in both CAD and USD; at Wealthsimple the USD account costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation. US equity options cost US$0 per contract at Wealthsimple, while Questrade lists $0 commissions on US equity options contracts and Interactive Brokers US$0.65 per contract, with a US$1.00 minimum per order.
Where each one wins, plainly:
- Wealthsimple wins for small, regular purchases, because its fractional shares cover thousands of stocks and ETFs where Questrade’s cover hundreds. It also has no transfer-out charge in its fee schedule, and its Chequing account ($0 in monthly fees) sits in the same app as your investments.
- Questrade wins if you want to hold US dollars in a TFSA or RRSP on a small balance without paying a monthly USD account fee. Compare them in detail in Wealthsimple vs Questrade, or see Questrade's current pricing .
- Interactive Brokers wins on currency: converting $30,000 costs about US$2 there, against about $450 from a Wealthsimple CAD account. It has no locked-in plans (such as a LIRA) and no annuities, though. See Wealthsimple vs Interactive Brokers.
Who should (and shouldn’t) choose Wealthsimple for low fees?
Choose Wealthsimple if your investing is mostly Canadian-listed ETFs; look elsewhere if you move large sums between Canadian and US dollars or trade crypto often on the Core plan.
Pick Wealthsimple if:
- You buy Canadian-listed ETFs such as XEQT or VFV every month and want $0 commissions with fractional shares.
- You trade equity or ETF options, which cost US$0 per contract.
- You’re on Premium or Generation, where the USD account is included.
- You want no-fee chequing with no Wealthsimple ATM fees at home or abroad alongside your investments.
Look elsewhere if:
- You convert large amounts between currencies often. Interactive Brokers, or Norbert’s Gambit, costs far less than 1.5% per conversion.
- You’re on Core and want to hold US dollars in a registered account without a monthly fee. Questrade’s dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars.
- You trade crypto often. A flat-fee exchange such as NDAX (0.20%) will usually cost less.
- You want the cheapest robo-advisor. Questwealth charges 0.25% against Wealthsimple’s 0.50% a year on Core.
This page is general education, not financial advice; the right account depends on what you hold, how often you trade and how much you convert.
Self-directed accounts are offered by Wealthsimple Investments Inc., a member of CIRO and CIPF, with securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account. That protects you if the firm fails, not against market losses. The fee figures on this page will change over time; each row in the table at the top links to its official source.
Read next
- Our complete Wealthsimple guide: every product, plan and account in one place
- Canadian brokerage fee calculator for comparing more brokerages
- How to buy US stocks in Canada without overpaying on currency
- Wealthsimple Trade review
- Is Wealthsimple safe? CIPF and CDIC protection explained