Pearler vs Interactive Brokers: Which Costs Less for What You Buy

The short version

Buy only ASX shares and ASX ETFs and these two are a rounding error apart. A$1,000 a month for ten years comes to A$780 of brokerage at Pearler against A$792 at Interactive Brokers. Twelve dollars across a decade settles nothing.

Add US shares and the picture changes quickly. Interactive Brokers converts currency at 0.002% where Pearler charges 0.50%, so the gap widens with every dollar converted. A US$2.00 floor sits under that rate, which means the advantage only turns up above roughly A$620 a conversion.

Then the ASX side flips at the top end. A A$20,000 ASX order costs A$17.60 at Interactive Brokers and A$6.50 at Pearler, because the percentage takes over from the minimum once an order gets big, and Interactive Brokers quotes its rate excluding GST.

One difference here is not money at all. Pearler registers your ASX shares under a HIN in your own name. Interactive Brokers uses a custodian. Every figure below is a published fee checked 19 September 2026, with US amounts converted at 0.7126.

What one purchase costs on each

Four order sizes, two markets, one purchase each. All figures include GST.

• Pearler charges A$6.50 flat per order, ASX or US, GST included. The US column adds its 0.50% currency conversion on top.
• Interactive Brokers charges 0.08% of trade value on ASX orders with a A$6.00 minimum, quoted excluding GST, which is why the minimum bills at A$6.60.
• The US figures combine brokerage and conversion: US$0.005 a share with a US$1.00 minimum capped at 1%, plus conversion at 0.002% with a US$2.00 minimum. The A$20,000 row is the one that moves, because at that size the per-share charge finally passes its own minimum.

On the ASX alone, they are effectively tied

A$1,000 a month into ASX ETFs, 120 purchases, ten years. Pearler charges A$6.50 a purchase, 120 times over, which is A$780. At Interactive Brokers, 0.08% of A$1,000 is 80 cents, comfortably under the A$6.00 minimum, so every order pays A$6.00 plus GST, or A$6.60. That is A$792 across the decade.

A$12 over ten years is about A$1.20 a year. If you only buy Australian shares, this page cannot separate them on cost, and anyone choosing between the two is really choosing on something else: the app, the reporting, how fast cash moves, or whether the shares sit under your own HIN. That decision belongs in how to choose a share trading platform.

Add US shares and the gap opens

Keep the same A$1,000 a month and move part of it to US shares. The whole difference sits on the US side, and the conversion rate does the work: 0.50% of every dollar converted against 0.002% with a floor.

The crossover is the striking part. Pearler is ahead only while your US allocation is under about 1.4%, which in practice means not buying US shares at all. Send half your purchases to US shares and ten years costs A$1,080 at Pearler against A$674 at Interactive Brokers. Send all of them and it is A$1,380 against A$556.

One wrinkle worth knowing, because it costs real money. Those totals assume one purchase a month. If you instead place two orders every month, say A$500 to the ASX and A$500 to US shares, you pay brokerage twice, and both totals rise: A$1,860 at Pearler and A$1,348 at Interactive Brokers. Splitting a monthly contribution across two orders roughly doubles the brokerage on a flat-fee platform. Run your own split through the full nine-platform comparison.

Where the US$2.00 floor bites

0.002% is an eye-catching number, and on small conversions it is not the number you pay. Interactive Brokers charges the greater of 0.002% or US$2.00 on a client-initiated conversion. At that rate a conversion has to reach about US$100,000 before the percentage climbs past the minimum. Below it, US$2.00 is the price, whatever you convert.

So the floor, not the headline rate, is the conversion cost. As a share of the amount converted, GST included, it works out at about 0.62% on A$500, 0.31% on A$1,000, 0.06% on A$5,000 and 0.02% on A$20,000. Pearler charges 0.50% at all four sizes. Below roughly A$620 a conversion the floor is high enough that the promised advantage is not there, and on A$500 it is dearer than Pearler. Above that, the gap widens with every dollar.

The practical version: small, frequent conversions pay the floor every time. Fewer, larger conversions pay it once for the same money, which lowers the cost per dollar. Your own habit decides that, not the rate on the pricing page.

On the ASX, the gap only opens on large orders

Pearler is cheaper on every ASX order size, but for most of the range the margin is ten cents and not worth a sentence. What changes at A$7,500 is the size of the gap, because that is where 0.08% finally passes the A$6.00 minimum and Interactive Brokers stops billing a flat figure.

A A$20,000 ASX order is 0.08% of trade value, which is A$16.00, quoted excluding GST, so the bill is A$17.60. Pearler charges A$6.50 flat, a difference of A$11.10 on a single trade. The general rule: a percentage with a minimum tracks a flat fee closely while the minimum is doing the work, then separates from it without limit once the percentage takes over. Where your usual order sits on that line decides how much the shape costs you.

Ten years, three ways

A$1,000 a month, 120 purchases, ten years. These totals count brokerage and currency conversion at published rates, with GST added to the Interactive Brokers figures and US amounts converted at 0.7126. They assume you buy, hold and never sell, so they leave out brokerage on the way out. They also exclude Pearler Plus, which is the next section, because for one common way of using Pearler it changes the answer.

Pearler Plus turns the tie into a loss

Pearler is built around automated recurring investing, and unlimited automation runs through Pearler Plus at A$3 a month. That is A$36 a year, or A$360 over ten years, and none of the totals above include it.

It matters most exactly where the contest is closest. On the ASX-only scenario, adding Pearler Plus takes Pearler from A$780 to A$1,140 against A$792 at Interactive Brokers. A twelve dollar tie becomes a A$348 gap the other way. If you came here because you want to set up automatic monthly buying, which is the thing Pearler is best known for, then A$1,140 against A$792 is your comparison, not the tie.

If you place your orders manually, Pearler Plus is optional and the A$780 figure stands. The subscription is not a hidden fee and Pearler publishes it plainly. It is simply missing from every comparison table that quotes A$6.50 and stops there.

The cost that is not money

Everything above is a fee. This one is a structure, and it can outlast every figure on the page. Pearler registers your ASX shares under a HIN, your own Holder Identification Number on the ASX CHESS register, so if you change platforms later your holdings, buy dates and cost base travel with you. CHESS sponsorship explained covers the register itself.

Interactive Brokers uses a custodian. Your ASX shares sit in its name and your entitlement is recorded on its own books. You get an account rather than a HIN.

Why that matters on the way out: with a HIN, moving is a transfer. With a custodian, leaving can mean selling and rebuying, which is a capital gains tax event and restarts the 12-month clock on the 50% CGT discount for Australian resident individuals. Lose a few months of that discount and you have lost more than any brokerage gap on this page. Capital gains tax on shares covers the mechanics.

US shares sit outside CHESS either way, so this is an ASX question. Neither structure is automatically better, and custodians often make lower brokerage or fractional shares possible. The point is that it belongs in the comparison and never turns up in a fee table.

What each one asks of you

Pearler asks you to be comfortable with a flat A$6.50 a trade, a bill that does not change with order size, and the A$3 a month subscription if you want the automation. Pearler is an authorised representative (1281540) of Sanlam Private Wealth, AFSL 337927.

Interactive Brokers asks you to be comfortable with a custodial account and with a bill that changes shape with order size: a minimum that protects small ASX orders, a percentage that bites on large ones, and a US$2.00 conversion floor that repeats every time you convert. It holds AFSL 453554.

Both ask for a W-8BEN form if you buy US shares, and both charge brokerage when you sell. If other pairs are still in play, the full comparison covers nine Australian platforms on the same figures.