Charles Schwab vs Fidelity: 2026 Compared

Most comparisons of these two firms spend their word count on commissions. Commissions are the one thing that is already identical.

Both charge $0 to trade a listed stock or ETF online and $0.65 per options contract. Both charge nothing to open an account and nothing to keep it. So the real Charles Schwab vs Fidelity question is not what a trade costs. It is what your money earns while it sits there doing nothing, and that gap is not small. DollarVisor pulled both published rate sheets and priced the difference. Companies cannot pay for placement in our rankings.

Here is a short overview before the numbers.

1. Which Broker Should You Pick?

Quick Answer: Our pick is Fidelity for most households, because its default cash setting pays you and Schwab’s does not. Schwab is the better home for futures traders, branch users and anyone who wants a debit card that rebates ATM fees worldwide. Both sit at the low-cost end of where Americans park long-term money.

The choice splits by how you actually use the account, not by which brand you trust more.

• You keep a cash buffer in the account. Fidelity. Its core position sweeps into a money market fund by default. Schwab’s sweeps into a bank account paying 0.01%.
• You want an index fund with no fee at all. Fidelity. It runs four zero expense ratio index funds with no minimum.
• You trade futures or live inside thinkorswim. Schwab. Fidelity does not offer futures.
• You travel and want fee-free ATM cash abroad. Schwab. Its checking account rebates ATM fees worldwide with no foreign transaction fee.
• You want to sit down with someone. Either. Both run staffed branches in most large metros.

2. Charles Schwab vs Fidelity Side by Side

Quick Answer: Stocks, ETFs and options cost the same at both firms. The published schedules split on four lines: the default cash rate, transaction-fee mutual funds, over-the-counter stocks and the robo-advisor minimum. Schwab charges $6.95 for OTC trades and up to $74.95 for a transaction-fee fund; Fidelity charges neither, the same way it undercuts Vanguard on account paperwork.

Two lines in that table do most of the damage. The transaction-fee fund charge only bites if you buy funds outside Schwab’s no-fee marketplace. The cash line bites every single day.

3. What Does Idle Cash Earn at Each Broker?

Quick Answer: Fidelity sweeps uninvested cash into a government money market fund that yielded 3.32% on July 30, 2026. Schwab sweeps it into a bank deposit paying 0.01% APY as of August 13, 2026. On $10,000 that is $332 a year versus $1. The same gap shows up when you compare CDs against savings accounts.

The difference is structural, not accidental. Schwab is a bank as well as a broker. It keeps the spread between what your swept cash pays you and what the bank earns lending that money out. Fidelity is not a bank, so its default is a fund.

Schwab held $453.7 billion of client transactional sweep cash at the end of December 2025, and paid an average of 0.29% across all its bank deposits that year.

That figure comes from Schwab’s own fourth-quarter 2025 results. There is nothing hidden about it. It is a business model, and it works because most customers never check the rate.

4. What Does the Cash Gap Cost After State Tax?

Quick Answer: On $50,000 of idle cash the gap is $1,655 before tax. A single filer in Texas or Florida keeps all of it. One in California keeps $1,501 after state tax. Even at California’s rate, the after-tax gap is larger than any trading cost difference between these two brokers.

Money market income is interest. It is taxed as ordinary income at both the federal and state level, so where you live changes what the gap is worth. None of this applies inside an IRA or a 401(k).

The spread across states is $153.91. The spread between the two brokers is $1,655. Your zip code matters here, but nowhere near as much as your cash setting does.

5. What Does Idle Cash Cost Over Ten Years?

Quick Answer: Hold $10,000 in cash and leave both defaults alone, and after ten years the Fidelity account holds $13,863 against Schwab’s $10,010. The gap compounds from $331 in year one to $3,853 by year ten. That is real money, though still small next to what the same cash would have done in an index fund.

This projection assumes both rates hold, which they will not. It is a way of showing the shape of the problem, not a forecast.

Note what the Schwab column does over a decade: it moves $10 on $10,000. That is the practical meaning of 0.01%.

6. Where Does Schwab Beat Fidelity?

Quick Answer: Schwab wins on futures, thinkorswim, banking and travel. Its checking account has no foreign transaction fee and rebates ATM fees worldwide, which pairs with a no-foreign-fee travel card better than anything Fidelity offers. Fidelity does not sell futures contracts at all.

Schwab is genuinely better at several things, and none of them show up in a fee table.

• Futures and thinkorswim. Schwab charges $2.25 a contract on futures and futures options, and it kept thinkorswim after acquiring TD Ameritrade. Fidelity offers no futures.
• Travel banking. Schwab Bank Investor Checking charges no foreign transaction fee and gives unlimited ATM fee rebates for cash withdrawals worldwide.
• A free robo-advisor at higher balances. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios charges no advisory fee at any balance. Fidelity Go charges 0.35% a year above $25,000.
• Bigger cash menu. Schwab’s own CD marketplace listed 3.91% to 4.40% APY on August 13, 2026, useful if you want a rate you can lock.

The robo-advisor point deserves a caveat. Schwab discloses that it charges no advisory fee partly because its bank earns income on the cash held inside those portfolios. The lower the rate paid on that cash, the lower your yield. The fee did not vanish. It moved.

7. Which Platform Is Easier to Live With?

Quick Answer: Both are full-service platforms with staffed branches, 24/7 phone support and mature mobile apps. Neither is a stripped-down trading app, so neither behaves like the newer commission-free apps. Schwab is heavier and more configurable; Fidelity is tidier out of the box.

Scale is similar enough that neither firm has a service advantage worth switching for.

• Schwab. $11.90 trillion in client assets and 38.5 million active brokerage accounts as of December 31, 2025, per its fourth-quarter results.
• Fidelity. $19.9 trillion under administration as of June 30, 2026, with 1.9 million branch appointments and walk-ins that quarter, per its Q2 2026 business update.
• Order routing. Fidelity states it does not receive payment for order flow on retail equity orders, returning market maker economics as price improvement instead. Both firms publish quarterly routing reports.

You can check execution yourself: Schwab publishes its figures on its order execution page, Fidelity on its execution quality page. For a household trading a few times a month, the difference is pennies.

8. How Do You Fix the Schwab Cash Default?

Quick Answer: You cannot change Schwab’s brokerage sweep to a money market fund, but you can buy one manually. Schwab’s own money funds published yields of 1.52% to 3.65% on August 13, 2026. Buying one takes about two minutes and recovers most of the gap shown above.

How to stop losing money on Schwab’s cash sweep

This is the workaround Schwab customers use, and it closes most of the gap without moving the account anywhere.

1. Check what your cash is actually earning. Log in and look at the rate on your sweep balance rather than assuming it matches the bank’s advertised savings rate.
2. Decide how much you truly need liquid. Leave enough in the sweep to settle trades and cover any linked checking, then treat the rest as investable.
3. Buy a money market fund with the surplus. Place a buy order for one of Schwab’s money funds the same way you would buy any fund. Check the current seven-day yield before you buy.
4. Set a calendar reminder to re-check quarterly. Money fund yields move with short-term rates, and so does the sweep rate. What was right this quarter may not be next.
5. Sell the fund a day before you need the cash. Money fund proceeds are not instant. Plan one business day of lead time before a large withdrawal.

Fidelity customers get this behavior by default, which is the honest reason we picked it. Schwab customers get it if they ask for it.

9. Should You Move, or Just Split?

Quick Answer: If your Schwab holdings sit in a taxable account with a large gain, do not sell to move. Transfer the positions in kind instead, or simply open a Fidelity account for new money and cash. Fidelity charges nothing to accept a transfer in and nothing to transfer out later.

Three situations cover almost everyone.

• Retirement accounts. An IRA moves without any tax consequence. If the cash default is your reason for leaving, this is the easiest move to make.
• Taxable accounts with gains. Ask for an in-kind transfer so the shares move without being sold. Selling first can trigger a tax bill that erases years of the gap.
• You like Schwab’s banking. Keep it. Run the checking account and travel card at Schwab, and hold investments and cash at Fidelity. Plenty of households do exactly this.

One wrinkle to plan for: whole shares transfer between brokers normally, but fractional shares usually cannot. They get sold and the proceeds credited to your account, so expect a small cash residue and a small taxable event on those slices.

10. The Verdict

Quick Answer: Fidelity for most households, on the strength of one setting. Schwab if you trade futures, need thinkorswim, or want the travel banking. Anyone staying at Schwab should move surplus cash into a money fund manually, the way Section 8 describes.

On the numbers, Charles Schwab vs Fidelity comes down to a single line item that neither firm advertises.

Trades cost the same and account fees are zero at both. Fractional investing starts at $1 either way. Then the cash line arrives: 0.01% against 3.32%. On $50,000 that is $1,655 a year before tax, and $1,501 to $1,655 after it depending on your state.

Schwab keeps its case for a specific kind of customer. Futures traders have nowhere else to go between these two. Frequent travelers get real value from unlimited ATM rebates and no foreign transaction fee. And nothing stops a disciplined Schwab customer from buying a money fund and closing most of the gap themselves.

But defaults are what most people actually live with. Fidelity’s default pays you. Schwab’s does not. That is the comparison.

This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Brokerage fees, fund yields, deposit rates and tax rules change; confirm current figures with each firm and your tax advisor before you act. See our disclaimer.

11. Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Fidelity better than Charles Schwab?

For most households, yes, and the reason is cash. Uninvested cash at Schwab earned 0.01% APY as of August 13, 2026, while Fidelity’s default core fund yielded 3.32% on July 30, 2026. Commissions, account fees and fractional share minimums are identical. Schwab is still the better pick for futures traders and frequent travelers.

2. Why does Schwab pay so little on uninvested cash?

Because Schwab is a bank as well as a broker. Cash swept from your brokerage account becomes a deposit at Schwab Bank. The bank keeps the difference between what it pays you and what it earns lending that money out. Schwab held $453.7 billion of client sweep cash at the end of December 2025.

3. Can I change my Schwab cash sweep to a money market fund?

Not as your automatic sweep, but you can buy a money market fund manually with any cash you do not need for settlement. Schwab’s own money funds published yields ranging from 1.52% to 3.65% on August 13, 2026. Check the current seven-day yield before you buy, and allow a business day to sell before a large withdrawal.

4. Do Schwab and Fidelity charge the same for trades?

For stocks, ETFs and options, yes. Both charge $0 for online listed stock and ETF trades and $0.65 per options contract. They differ on over-the-counter stocks, where Schwab charges $6.95 and Fidelity charges nothing, and on transaction-fee mutual funds, where Schwab charges up to $74.95 per purchase.

5. Can I keep accounts at both Schwab and Fidelity?

Yes, and it is a sensible setup. A common split is Schwab for checking and its worldwide ATM fee rebates, Fidelity for investments and cash that would otherwise sit idle. The cost is two sets of statements and two tax packages each year, since neither firm charges an account fee.