What Is a Forex Rebate (Cashback) and How Does It Work?

Every time you open and close a trade, your broker earns money from the spread, the commission, or both. A forex rebate — also called forex cashback — gives part of that money back to you. You keep trading with the same broker, on the same account type, at the same prices. The difference is that a share of your trading costs comes back to you on a schedule.

Where the money comes from

Brokers pay introducing brokers (IBs) for bringing in clients. The payment is usually tied to trading volume: a fixed amount per standard lot, or a percentage of the commission or spread the client generates.

A rebate service is an IB that passes most of that payment back to you. The flow looks like this:

1. You open an account with a broker through the rebate service's link, or with its IB code.
2. You trade as you normally would.
3. The broker pays the IB for your volume.
4. The IB pays you your share — the rebate.

Because the payment comes out of the broker's marketing budget, your spreads and commissions do not go up. The price you see on the platform is the same price a client without a rebate sees.

How rebates are calculated

There are three common formats:

• Per lot — a fixed dollar amount for every standard lot (100,000 units) you trade, for example $4.00 per lot.
• Per pip — a fraction of a pip per lot, for example 0.4 pips, converted to dollars at the instrument's pip value.
• Share of commission — a percentage of the commission your account pays, for example 30% of commissions.

You can estimate your own number with our rebate calculator. If you trade 50 standard lots a month and your rebate is $5 per lot, that is $250 a month back — regardless of whether those trades won or lost.

Do you get cashback on losing trades?

Yes. Rebates are based on volume, not profit. A losing trade generates the same commission for the broker as a winning one, so it earns the same rebate. That is why rebates are popular with active traders: they lower the effective cost of every trade.

That said, a rebate does not turn a losing strategy into a winning one. It reduces costs; it does not remove risk. Trading leveraged products such as forex and CFDs can lose you more than you expect.

What a rebate does not change

• Execution and prices. Orders go to the same broker, on the same servers, at the same prices.
• Your money. Deposits and withdrawals stay between you and your broker. A legitimate rebate provider never asks for your trading password and never holds your trading funds.
• Regulation. Your account is regulated by whoever regulates the broker entity you sign up with — not by the rebate service.

Who benefits most

Rebates matter most when you trade often or in size:

• Day traders and scalpers, who pay costs many times a day.
• Gold and index traders, where per-lot costs are often higher than on major FX pairs.
• Copy-trading or multi-account traders, whose volume adds up quickly.

If you trade a couple of lots a month, a rebate is still free money — just a smaller amount.

How to get started

1. Browse cashback brokers and compare the rebate on each account type.
2. Use side-by-side comparison to check regulators, minimum deposit and leverage.
3. Open the account through our partner link, or enter our IB ID during signup.
4. Send us your trading account number so we can confirm it is tagged to us.

Already have an account? Read how to get rebates on an existing account.