No Minimum Deposit Required at Schwab, Robinhood, or Firstrade
Key points:
• A brokerage account can be opened with zero deposit at Robinhood, Schwab, and Firstrade.
• All three broker-dealers also provide zero-commission trading.
• None of the three brokerage firms impose any ongoing fees, including low-balance fees.
If you're looking for the absolute lowest minimums and fees in the brokerage industry, look no further than Schwab, Firstrade, and Robinhood.
Robinhood
A brokerage account at Robinhood can be opened with a $0.00 deposit if desired. It can be maintained at that level, too. If you ever do decide to fund your account, you can make a very small deposit (there is no minimum amount) and still be able to trade. Thanks to fractional-share trading, stocks and ETFs have a $1 minimum purchase amount; cryptocurrencies can be purchased with less than this amount.
Whatever is purchased in a Robinhood account, there are no commissions (with the exception of futures contracts and index options). Thus, really small accounts at Robinhood can actively trade stocks, funds, and equity options without worrying about transaction fees. Keep in mind that bid-ask spreads and regulatory charges do apply.
Once positions have been established, the amounts will show up in the account details as less than a full share or coin. It's really easy to liquidate these positions; simply specify the fractional-share amount on the sell side.
During all of this trading and holding, Robinhood charges no account fees. The brokerage firm imposes no minimum-balance requirement, so a small account can be maintained with little or no balance if desired with zero fees.
Robinhood's no-fee policy applies to both taxable accounts and IRAs. If you ever decide to close your account, there is no termination fee for any account registration.
Besides brokerage accounts, Robinhood also offers spending accounts. Like their brokerage cousins, spending accounts can be opened with zero deposit and maintained at that level, too. A spending account has no setup fee, no monthly fee, no low-balance fee, no inactivity fee, no annual fee...you get the idea.
A cash card can be attached to the spending account, and this prepaid card has no ongoing fees, either. An ATM withdrawal will come with a $2.50 fee, however.
Free Robinhood Account
Visit Robinhood Website
Charles Schwab
Like Robinhood, Charles Schwab offers many account types that can be opened with a zero-dollar deposit. Among these accounts are brokerage and bank accounts. On the banking side, the company's savings and checking accounts can be opened with any deposit amount or no deposit at all. A checking account does need to be funded with some amount in order to get a checkbook and Visa debit card.
On the brokerage side, an account can be opened with zero deposit. Once opened, the account will have access to Schwab's website, mobile app, and thinkorswim platforms.
There is a long list of securities at Schwab that can be purchased with very small amounts. For example, most mutual funds on the Schwab platform can be purchased for $1 (specifically, 4,947 funds out of a total 5,740 funds have this minimum purchase amount). The mutual-fund search engine can be found under the Research tab on the website.
Then there is fractional-share trading in stocks. With Stock Slices, Schwab customers can buy the S&P 500 equities with a $5 minimum. ETFs, unfortunately, must be traded in whole shares, although some of them have market prices below $50.
Do-it-yourself investors at Schwab get lots of resources on the broker's software platforms for education. There are no account minimums or costs to use these materials, so they can be very valuable for small accounts. During our test drive of Schwab's multiple platforms, we found free stock reports, learning resources on the basics of securities trading, live streaming of multiple TV channels, and commentary on the day's market news.
While an account at Schwab is maintained, there are no ongoing fees of any kind. And most trades will have no commissions, further increasing the value here.
Free Charles Schwab Account
Visit Schwab Website
Firstrade
Last, but definitely not least, on our list of zero-dollar opening brokers is Firstrade. It's easy to open a domestic or international brokerage account with no deposit on the company's user-friendly website. Once opened, the self-directed account will have no worries about recurring fees of any kind; there are no maintenance, annual, or low-balance fees. An IRA can be closed with no fee, too.
A taxable or tax-advantaged account at Firstrade can trade many securities with small amounts. Firstrade now offers fractional share trading in both stocks and ETFs starting at just $5. The broker's website and mobile app can both be used to submit a fractional-share trade. Market and limit orders can be used for whole-dollar purchases, although other order types are unavailable for fractional-share trading. It's really easy to toggle back and forth between dollars and shares on either the web or mobile order ticket; if a security can't be traded in whole dollars for any reason, the ticket will simply default to share amount.
Many mutual funds at Firstrade have a minimum trade amount of $1 or less. During our probing on the broker's screener, we found 3,436 of them.
During all of the trading frenzy, there will be no commissions on most trades; mutual funds, options, stocks, closed-end funds, and ETFs can all be traded with zero trading fees imposed by Firstrade.
Updated on 12/8/2025.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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