Plus500 Review Australia 2026

Plus500 at a glance: 17 key facts

Plus500 sets out 17 key facts in the table below, including ASIC AFSL 417727, a single retail CFD account, and 2,800 or more instruments.

Plus500 prices that whole instrument list through the spread alone, which the section below quantifies.

Plus500 spreads and commission, measured

Plus500 spreads and commission reduce to one number, because Plus500 charges no commission at all and the eight-pair basket measured 0.6 pips, captured May to June 2026, rolling 24-hour, IceFX SpreadMonitor, London VPS.

That Plus500 figure is a basket average across eight pairs rather than a EUR/USD reading, and no measured EUR/USD figure exists for this broker. Plus500 sits outside both the raw and the standard league tables, because a single spread-only account fits neither category.

Spreads on AUD/USD and majors

The pricing model is a markup on the underlying rather than a commission, and the quote is dynamic rather than fixed. The Plus500 typical ranges below are advertised rather than measured.

The markup model behaves predictably day to day, which is why Plus500 appears alongside the true fixed-price brokers in the fixed spread forex brokers comparison despite pricing on a variable basis.

For active forex scalpers the absence of a raw commission account is the main cost issue. Plus500 costs more than a Razor or Raw account elsewhere for a trader placing 50 or more standard lots a month.

Other fees AU traders should check

• Overnight financing applies to positions held past the daily cut, and the charge depends on trade direction.
• The guaranteed stop-loss premium is charged through a wider spread set when the position opens, and is not refunded if the stop never fires. The leverage section below sets out the mechanism in full.
• The inactivity fee runs US$10 a month after three consecutive months without a login.
• Currency conversion applies to any instrument priced outside the account base currency.
• Withdrawals carry no fee for the first five in a month, then a small charge applies.

Plus500 trading platforms

Plus500 trading platforms number one, the proprietary WebTrader, delivered as a web client, a Windows desktop app and a mobile app. MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView are absent.

That platform absence is a deliberate product decision rather than a gap. The platform is purpose-built for a beginner audience that does not want to learn an institutional charting tool, and the hero chip agrees with the body on a count of one.

Plus500 WebTrader (proprietary)

The platform carries:

• Clean instrument search by category across forex, indices, shares, commodities, crypto, ETFs and options
• One-click trade tickets with built-in risk warnings before submission
• Native guaranteed stop-loss orders, premium charged through a wider spread when the position opens
• Trailing stops, take profits and standard stop losses out of the box
• Real-time alerts on price, volume and percentage moves
• An economic calendar and per-instrument sentiment data built in

The platform omits:

• Expert advisors and algorithmic trading
• Depth-of-book pricing
• Advanced charting comparable to TradingView or cTrader
• API access for custom integrations
• Copy trading

Desktop and mobile

Plus500 offers a downloadable Windows desktop app with the same layout and trade ticket as the web platform. Plus500 publishes no native Mac app, so Mac users trade through WebTrader in the browser. The Plus500 mobile app runs on iOS and Android with biometric login, push price alerts and the same trade ticket.

Is Plus500 safe? ASIC AFSL 417727

Plus500AU Pty Ltd has held ASIC AFSL 417727 continuously since 2012, and the group holds further licences listed in the quick-facts table, including the FCA in the United Kingdom and MAS in Singapore.

ASIC regulation and global licences

Plus500AU Pty Ltd holds AFSL 417727 with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The register records the licence as current since 9 October 2012.

The parent group holds these further licences:

• Financial Conduct Authority, UK (Tier 1)
• CySEC, Cyprus (Tier 1)
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (Tier 1)
• Japan Financial Services Agency (Tier 1, via Plus500JP Securities, licence 156)
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa (Tier 2)
• DFSA, UAE (Tier 2)
• Israel Securities Authority (Tier 2)
• Financial Markets Authority, New Zealand (Tier 2; held by the same Plus500AU entity, FSP 486026)

Four of those are Tier 1, which is an unusually strong spread for a broker of this size. The New Zealand licence is notable because the same Australian entity holds it, rather than a separate offshore arm.

Plus500 client money protection and the FTSE 250 parent

Plus500 client money protection covers segregated accounts at an Approved Australian Bank and negative balance protection mandated by ASIC, with an FTSE 250-listed parent trading on the London Stock Exchange as PLUS since 2013.

The Plus500 listing is the part that distinguishes this broker on trust. A FTSE 250 constituent files audited accounts, discloses client-money balances and answers to a market regulator on top of ASIC, which is a disclosure regime most privately held Australian brokers never face.

Plus500 client money sits separate from company funds. AFCA hears claims up to A$1,263,000 and awards compensation up to A$631,500. The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort sits behind that with an A$150,000 cap, and it excludes CFD trading losses, so it covers unpaid awards for misconduct rather than losing trades. The retail standard is set out in negative balance cover on CFD accounts.

One Plus500 carve-out matters. Negative balance protection is a retail protection, and clients electing Professional status surrender it along with the ASIC leverage caps. That is the whole trade in electing Pro, and it is why the recommendation here steers beginners away from it.

History and ownership

Plus500 was founded in 2008 in Haifa, Israel by a group of computer science graduates, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013, and has been a FTSE 250 constituent for several years.

Public reviews

Plus500 holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.2 out of 5 from 19,631 reviews, which Trustpilot labels great, captured August 2026. The profile has been claimed by the broker since May 2021.

Recurring praise for Plus500 covers the clean platform, fast onboarding and the mobile app. Recurring complaints centre on the inactivity fee and the chat-only support.

What other review sites say

Plus500's iOS app rates 4.15 out of 5 from 6,612 ratings on the Australian App Store (August 2026), listed as Plus500: AU & Global Trading.

Android users rate Plus500's Android app 4.3 out of 5 from 125k reviews worldwide on Google Play (August 2026), listed as Plus500 Trading.

App Store AU

4.15

6,612 ratingsAugust 2026

Google Play

4.3

125k reviews worldwideAugust 2026View on Google Play

Plus500 account types and minimum deposit

Plus500 runs one retail CFD account with no tiers and no commission variants, from a A$100 minimum deposit on cards or A$500 by bank transfer. The table below lists both account types and minimum deposit levels.

That simplicity is deliberate and matches the platform design, and it earns Plus500 a place on the beginner-friendly forex brokers list. Plus500 runs no second price book to compare against, so no account-selection decision exists to get wrong.

Professional (Elective Pro)

The elective Professional account lifts the ASIC retail leverage caps to 300:1 on forex, 200:1 on indices, 150:1 to 200:1 on gold, 100:1 on other commodities, 20:1 to 50:1 on crypto and 20:1 on share CFDs. Qualification runs on the wholesale client tests in section 761G of the Corporations Act: an accountant’s certificate confirming net assets of at least A$2.5 million or gross income of at least A$250,000 in each of the last two financial years, a single product purchase of at least A$500,000, or the sophisticated investor route. A Plus500 client electing Pro status surrenders retail protections including negative balance protection.

Minimum deposit

The A$100 minimum applies on cards and e-wallets, rising to A$500 by bank transfer, and the same figures apply to the elective Professional account. For a beginner that is a low entry barrier, though several raw-spread brokers, Pepperstone among them, open at A$0. The Plus500 demo account needs only an email address to start and sits fourth in the demo account comparison.

Plus500 funding methods and withdrawal times

Plus500 funding methods number four, three of them instant, and withdrawals carry no fee for the first five in a month. Bank transfer deposits clear in one to three business days.

Deposit methods (AU clients)

Four Plus500 funding methods is a narrow menu against the nine at Fusion Markets or the seven at AvaTrade, and PayID and BPAY are both absent, which is a real gap for an Australian client used to paying that way.

Withdrawals

Withdrawals are free for the first five in a month, after which a small fee applies. That Plus500 per-month allowance is unusual: most Australian brokers charge nothing on any number of withdrawals. Funds must return to the original deposit source where possible, which is standard anti-money-laundering practice.

Account opening

Account opening runs fully online and AUSTRAC-compliant, and most Australian applications clear within 30 minutes during business hours, the lightest-touch process of any broker covered here.

Plus500 markets and instrument counts

Plus500 markets and instrument counts reach 2,800 or more instruments across seven asset classes, including around 2,000 share CFDs. Every Plus500 instrument is a CFD, so no ownership route exists here.

The shape of that range fits the audience: deep on shares, solid on indices and commodities, thinner on forex than the currency specialists. Around 70 forex pairs covers the majors and the AUD crosses, enough for most beginners and short of Pepperstone, IC Markets and OANDA. Plus500 also lists options on selected indices and forex pairs, which is unusual on a platform built for new traders.

Share CFDs

Around 2,000 of the 2,800 plus instruments are share CFDs across ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE and the major European exchanges. For a beginner audience that breadth is the strength, covering the names most retail traders search for. Plus500 offers no ASX ownership route, so a trader who wants to hold real shares needs CMC Markets or Interactive Brokers instead. The class is covered in the guide to share CFDs for beginners.

Crypto, indices and commodities

Plus500 crypto covers the major pairs only at the ASIC 2:1 retail cap, as price exposure rather than coins a client owns. The Plus500 index list runs 30 plus benchmarks including the ASX 200 and S&P/ASX SPI 200, and commodities cover gold, silver, copper, the crude contracts, natural gas and softs, all at the standard ASIC retail caps.

Plus500 leverage, margin and guaranteed stop-loss orders

Plus500 prices guaranteed stop-loss orders through a wider spread on the protected position, set when the position opens, and holds leverage on major forex pairs to a maximum retail leverage of 30:1 under ASIC rules.

The cost is visible on the ticket before the trade is confirmed, and it is not refunded if the stop never fires. That is the standard mechanism among brokers offering a guaranteed stop, and it means a trader who attaches one to every position pays for the protection on every position rather than only on the ones that gap. Three constraints go with it: a guaranteed stop can only be attached to a new position, it cannot be added to a position that is already running, and it cannot be revoked once placed, though the level can be moved. The mechanism is set out in the Plus500 Trading Academy FAQ, “What is a Guaranteed Stop Order?”, and on the Plus500 fees and charges page (accessed 29 July 2026).

ASIC caps retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major forex pairs, 20:1 on minor pairs, gold and major indices, 10:1 on commodities other than gold, 5:1 on share CFDs and 2:1 on crypto assets. The caps come from a product intervention order extended to 23 May 2027, so they apply at every ASIC broker rather than at Plus500 alone. The single retail account carries them in full, and no pricing tier or platform choice changes them.

Retail margin close-out sits at 50%. ASIC requires every CFD issuer to close a retail client’s positions once account equity falls below half the total initial margin on all open positions, positions cannot be netted against each other to reduce that figure, and a gapping market can close a position below the 50% level. The tier structure is set out in what leverage does to position sizing.

Plus500 customer support

Plus500 customer support runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on live chat and email, with no phone line for retail clients.

Live chat replied under 90 seconds in business hours and around three minutes overnight in 2026 testing. Those Plus500 reply times are competitive, and the 24/7 window beats the 24/5 desks at most Australian brokers.

The Plus500 support gap is the missing phone line, and it is named in the cons. CMC Markets, IG Markets and Pepperstone all publish a direct Australian number, and a client with a funding problem or a margin question sometimes needs a voice rather than a chat window.

For the beginner audience this broker targets, the Plus500 trade is more defensible than it looks: chat produces a written record of what an agent said, which a new trader can re-read and a phone call does not.

Plus500 research, tools and education

Plus500 research, tools and education number five components, built around the Trader’s Guide, in-platform sentiment data and an economic calendar. The Plus500 education layer is deliberately thin.

• Trader’s Guide covering beginner concepts
• Economic calendar built into WebTrader
• Sentiment data per instrument
• News feed inside the platform
• Insights blog with market commentary

Four of the five sit inside the platform rather than in a separate library, which suits an audience that learns by using the product rather than by reading around it. The Plus500 Trader’s Guide covers what a CFD is, what leverage does and how a stop loss works, and stops there.

Plus500 does not run an analyst desk, a webinar programme or a structured course series. A trader who wants those is better served by CMC Markets, IG Markets or Pepperstone, and the thin layer here is consistent with a broker whose product does the teaching.

How Plus500 compares to Pepperstone and eToro

Plus500 measured 0.6 pips across the eight-pair basket on A$0 commission, against a A$100 minimum deposit. Plus500 compares to Pepperstone and eToro on two different axes, losing to Pepperstone on pricing and platform power, and trading places with eToro on beginners.

The platform power case belongs to the broker in the Pepperstone review, which carries five platforms, a raw account and no inactivity fee at all. Plus500 concedes all three.

Copy trading belongs to the broker in the eToro review, because Plus500 runs none. On interface cleanliness for a first CFD account the two are close, and Plus500 holds the lower entry deposit.

Should you open a Plus500 account?

A Plus500 account suits new CFD traders who want one platform and a A$100 entry. Traders needing MT4, expert advisors, an API or copy trading are better served by Pepperstone.

The dormancy fee is the fact most likely to change a marginal decision, so it belongs here as well as in the cons. US$10 a month starts after three consecutive months without a login, the shortest window of the 32 brokers on this site, and it lands on exactly the beginner who funds an account and steps away for a quarter.

Two groups of trader gain clear value from a Plus500 account. First-time CFD traders reach the cleanest interface tested here on a A$100 deposit with a listed parent behind it. Risk-first traders get a guaranteed stop with the cost shown on the ticket before the trade is placed, so the worst case is known in advance.

Two groups should look past a Plus500 account. Active forex traders pay a markup with no raw alternative. Strategy traders find no expert advisors, no API and no copy trading at all.

Plus500 ranks mid-table among the best forex brokers in Australia on the 2026 scoring. The Plus500 demo account is the right first step, and it costs nothing to leave dormant.

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