FINRA’s trading activity fee is $0 from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026. Will your broker stop charging it?

When you sell a stock, an ETF or an option, most brokers pass along two small regulatory fees: the SEC's Section 31 fee and FINRA's Trading Activity Fee (TAF). FINRA has set the TAF to zero for three months. Your broker decides whether you see the difference.

As of September 23, 2026 (Eastern time):

• FINRA will charge brokers no TAF on trades from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2026. Its filing, published by the SEC, says the TAF rates “would temporarily be set at $0.00”. The fee comes back on Jan. 1, 2027 at today's rate, $0.000195 per share sold, up to $9.79 a trade.
• Whether you pay less is up to your broker. The filing says “whether their customers accrue any of those savings depends on individual firm practices and competitive conditions”. None of the brokers' fee pages we read mentions the change.
• Six brokers list the TAF as its own charge at FINRA's current rate: Ally Invest, E*TRADE, Interactive Brokers, moomoo, Robinhood and Webull. At these, the fee lines on a trade confirmation will show whether the zero reaches you. Public lists the TAF at FINRA's 2024-2025 rate, and eToro says it pays the fees itself on stock sales.
• Five fold the TAF into a wider fee with no TAF amount shown: Charles Schwab, Fidelity, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Edge and Vanguard. Schwab says it does not notify clients when that fee changes. SoFi names the TAF without a rate, and Firstrade's fee pages do not name it.
• The amounts are small: $0.195 on a sale of 1,000 shares. The SEC's own fee, $20.60 per $1 million sold, does not pause.

What the TAF costs on one sale

FINRA's rule charges its member firms “$0.000195 per share for each sale of a covered equity security, with a maximum charge of $9.79 per trade”, and $0.00329 per option contract sold. Buying is not charged. At that rate, before any broker's rounding:

Brokers round these amounts in their own ways. FINRA bills firms on their total volume each month, and its FAQ says “Rounding rules do not apply because the Trading Activity Fee is calculated and reported in aggregate.” On a sale of 40 shares, for example, the rate gives $0.0078: Robinhood charges nothing (it skips sales of 50 shares or less), while moomoo, Webull and Public charge their $0.01 minimum.

The SEC's Section 31 fee is separate and keeps going. The SEC set it at $20.60 per $1 million of sales from April 4, 2026, and said the rate stays until 60 days after Congress sets the SEC's budget for fiscal year 2027. On a $10,000 sale that is $0.206, or $0.21 at brokers that round up.

FINRA puts the TAF at “about 1% of the transaction costs to the end investor (assuming that the fees are passed through to the end investor)”. For most investors the three months are worth cents. A trader who sells 10,000 shares a day saves about $1.95 a day, if the broker passes the zero along.

Sources: FINRA By-Laws, Schedule A, Section 1; FINRA, Trading Activity Fee FAQ (Q100.10); SEC, Section 31 Transaction Fee Rate Advisory for Fiscal Year 2026 (Feb. 27, 2026); SEC Release No. 34-106409 (Sept. 18, 2026), FINRA filing SR-FINRA-2026-021 (PDF).

What to look for after Oct. 1

• If your broker lists the TAF on its own (Ally Invest, E*TRADE, Interactive Brokers, moomoo, Public, Robinhood, Webull), look at the confirmation for a sale made on or after Oct. 1. FINRA's filing says “Typically, TAF pass-through fees are reflected in the confirmation statement received by customers.” A TAF of $0, or no TAF line, means the zero reached you.
• If your broker folds it into a wider fee (Schwab's Industry Fee, Fidelity's Additional Assessment, Merrill's and Vanguard's transaction fees, J.P. Morgan's regulatory offset fees), there is no TAF line to check. Compare that fee on similar sales before and after Oct. 1, or ask the broker.
• The SEC fee will still be there. A fee line that does not drop to zero may be the SEC fee, not the TAF.

Why FINRA is doing this

FINRA is funded by fees on its member firms, and the TAF is one of its three core fees. The filing says the pause “is designed to address surplus TAF revenues for 2026 driven by higher trading volumes.” FINRA budgeted $438.6 million of TAF for 2026, and trading in the first half of the year ran above 2025. It “estimates that the TAF fees that would be waived under the proposed rule change amount to approximately $160 million.”

The filing also describes how the fee usually reaches investors. It says it is “common practice among clearing firms” to pass the TAF through to the firm that executed the trade, and that FINRA's earlier study of about 25 retail brokers found “the majority of the retail focused firms did pass through the TAF to their customers.”

The change took effect when FINRA filed it with the SEC on Sept. 15, 2026. The SEC issued its notice on Sept. 18, and the Federal Register printed it on Sept. 23. The SEC can still act: “At any time within 60 days of the filing of the proposed rule change, the Commission summarily may temporarily suspend such rule change”.

Sources: SEC Release No. 34-106409 (Sept. 18, 2026), FINRA filing SR-FINRA-2026-021 (PDF); Federal Register, 91 FR 60435 (Sept. 23, 2026).

The TAF rate, 2024 to 2029

In a separate filing the same day, FINRA postponed the TAF increases it had scheduled for 2027 and 2028. After the pause the rate returns to the 2026 level and stays there through 2028.

Broker by broker

Each section quotes what the broker itself publishes and links the page we read.

Ally Invest

Ally's commissions and fees page has a table of regulatory fees with a separate line for the Trading Activity Fee (TAF): $0.000195 per equity share and $0.00329 per option contract, on sells only, next to the SEC fee of $20.60 per $1,000,000 of principal. The page also reprints FINRA's rule, including the maximum charge of $9.79 per trade. It does not say how the fee is rounded.

Source: Ally Invest, commissions and fees.

Charles Schwab

Schwab does not list the TAF as a charge of its own. Its pricing page says Schwab collects an Industry Fee “to offset an array of charges assessed on us directly or indirectly by self-regulatory organizations”, and that the Industry Fee “is collected to offset, as applicable, some or all of the following SRO and foreign government fees”. The list that follows includes the SEC's Section 31 fee and the FINRA Trading Activity Fee. The Industry Fee shows under that name on trade confirmations and statements.

The page gives no rate for it. It says “Schwab will determine the amount of its Industry Fee in its sole and reasonable discretion” and that the fee may differ from, or exceed, the fees Schwab actually pays. It also says: “Please note that Schwab does not notify clients when it increases or decreases the Industry Fee or when the component fees change.”

Source: Charles Schwab, pricing (footnote 5).

E*TRADE (Morgan Stanley)

E*TRADE's pricing page says “FINRA levies a Trading Activity Fee (TAF) for sales of covered securities that we pass through to you.” It continues: “The FINRA TAF for sales of equity securities is currently $0.000195 per share with a per-transaction cap of $9.79.” The option rate is $0.00329 per contract. The page adds “In the case of multiple executions for a single order, each execution is considered one trade.” and, after the SEC fee, “All fees will be rounded to the next penny.”

Source: E*TRADE, pricing and rates.

eToro US

eToro's US fee page says two things. For stocks: “When you sell a stock, we pay the regulatory transaction fees on your behalf.” In its section on regulatory fees for eToro Options, it says sales of securities incur a TAF and an SEC fee “which are passed on to the client”, and lists the equity TAF at $0.000166 per share with a maximum charge of $8.30 per trade and the options TAF at $0.00279 per contract. Those were FINRA's rates in 2024 and 2025; since Jan. 1, 2026 they have been $0.000195, $9.79 and $0.00329 (see the rate history). The same section lists the SEC fee at $8.00 per $1,000,000, not the $20.60 the SEC has set since April 4, 2026.

Source: eToro US, fees.

Fidelity

Fidelity's commission and fee schedule does not name the TAF. It charges a fee on all sell orders that it calls the “Additional Assessment”, which “typically ranges from $0.01 to $0.03 per $1,000 of principal”. Fidelity says it uses the assessment “to pay certain charges imposed on Fidelity by national securities associations, clearing agencies, national securities exchanges, and other self-regulatory organizations”; FINRA is a national securities association. The schedule says “Fidelity determines the amount of the Additional Assessment in its sole and exclusive discretion”, and that on your trade confirmation it is shown “as a part of the Activity Assessment Fee.”

Sources: Fidelity, Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule (PDF); Fidelity, commissions and margin rates.

Firstrade

Firstrade's pricing page and its help article on regulatory transaction fees both say “The fees are passed through to customers as part of normal transaction processing.” Both go on to describe the SEC fee and the options regulatory fee. Neither names the FINRA TAF or gives a rate for it.

Sources: Firstrade, pricing; Firstrade Help Center, regulatory transaction fees.

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers' stock commissions page lists the TAF among U.S. third-party regulatory fees: “FINRA Trading Activity Fee: USD 0.000195 * Quantity Sold”, next to the SEC transaction fee of USD 0.0000206 times the value of sales. Its footnote gives a maximum of USD 9.79 per trade and counts each partial execution as one trade.

Source: Interactive Brokers, stock commissions.

J.P. Morgan (Chase)

J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing's pricing page and its commission and fee schedule both say “Other fees and charges may apply, including, but not limited to, fees intended to offset fees charged by certain regulatory bodies.” Neither names the TAF or gives an amount.

Sources: J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing, pricing; J.P. Morgan, Self-Directed Investing commission and fee schedule (PDF).

Merrill Edge

Merrill's pricing page says “Sales are subject to a transaction fee of between $0.01 and $0.03 per $1,000 of principal.” It does not say what the fee covers or name the TAF.

Source: Merrill Edge, pricing.

moomoo

moomoo's US pricing page lists the Trading Activity Fee (TAF) at “$0.000195/Share, minimum $0.01/trade, maximum $9.79/trade (sells only)”, charged by FINRA. With the minimum, a sale of 51 shares or fewer is charged $0.01, although the rate times the shares is less than a cent.

Source: moomoo, US pricing.

Public

Public's fee schedule, marked “Last updated as of September 23, 2026”, lists the TAF at “$0.000166 per share (equity sells)” and $0.00279 per contract on equity option sells, and says “Equity fees are capped at $8.30 per trade”, with a separate cap for bonds. Those were FINRA's rates in 2024 and 2025; since Jan. 1, 2026 they have been $0.000195, $9.79 and $0.00329 (see the rate history). The schedule also says “Each fee is rounded to the nearest penny, with a one penny minimum, unless stated otherwise.”

Source: Public, fee schedule (PDF).

Robinhood

Robinhood's support article on trading fees says of the TAF: “We pass this fee to our customers, except for sales of 50 shares or less.” It gives the rate as $0.000195 per share on equity sells and $0.00329 per contract on options sells, and says “This fee is rounded to the nearest penny, which will be no greater than $9.79 per trade.” It adds that an order filled in several trades can be charged more than $9.79 in total.

Source: Robinhood, Trading fees on Robinhood.

SoFi

SoFi's help article on regulatory trading fees lists the FINRA Trading Activity Fee (TAF) among fees that apply and says it is “charged on the sale of covered equity securities and options.” It gives no rate and points readers to SoFi's fee schedule, which we did not read.

Source: SoFi, What are the regulatory trading fees at SoFi?.

Vanguard

Vanguard's investment fees page and its commission and fee schedule (effective July 10, 2026) say “All stock and ETF sales are subject to a securities transaction fee.” Neither gives the amount, says what the fee covers or names the TAF.

Sources: Vanguard, investment fees; Vanguard Brokerage Services, commission and fee schedules (PDF).

Webull

Webull's pricing page says some regulatory fees are “passed from the broker dealer to clients as a pass through transaction” and “Webull does not profit from these fees.” Its fee table charges the FINRA fee at $0.000195 times the shares sold, with a $0.01 minimum and a $9.79 maximum, on sells only. It says the TAF “will be assessed at a rate consistent with Section 1 of Schedule A” of FINRA's By-Laws. That section is the one FINRA's filing sets to $0.00 for October to December 2026.

Source: Webull, pricing.

How we checked

• Each broker's fee page, fee schedule or help article was read on September 23, 2026 (Eastern time). We did not open accounts or place trades, and we did not use other websites' lists.
• Where a broker does not name the TAF, we name the pages we read.
• FINRA's rates come from Schedule A to its By-Laws and from FINRA's filings as published by the SEC and in the Federal Register.

What this page does not cover

• Other per-trade fees, such as the options regulatory fee, the consolidated audit trail fee and ADR fees, and commissions.
• Which broker to use. We report what each one publishes. For what brokers pay on uninvested cash, see our cash sweep rates.

Rechecks and changes

We will read every broker's page again in the first days of October, again in November, and after the TAF resumes on Jan. 1, 2027. Every change will be listed here with its date. If a rate is wrong, tell us.

• September 23, 2026. First published.

This page reports what brokers and regulators publish about the FINRA Trading Activity Fee. It is not a recommendation of any broker, and it is not financial advice. We have no business relationship with any firm on this page.