Fidelity vs Schwab: Fees, Funds, Cash and Extras Compared

Neither is better across the board; on the headline costs they are identical. Both charge $0 for online US stock and ETF trades, $0.65 per options contract, and have no account minimums. The differences are at the edges: Fidelity automatically sweeps idle cash into a money market fund and offers zero-fee index funds and a retail HSA, while Schwab offers thinkorswim, a platform many active traders prefer. For most long-term index investors, either works.

The most commonly cited one is cash treatment. Schwab default bank sweep paid 0.05% or less per 2026 reporting, so uninvested cash earns almost nothing unless you manually buy a money market fund such as SWVXX, which yielded about 3.5% in early July 2026. Fidelity does that step for you by defaulting to a money market sweep. Schwab also has no retail HSA and no zero-fee index funds.

Genuine downsides are scarce for index investors, which is why this matchup stays close. Active traders sometimes prefer Schwab thinkorswim to Fidelity Active Trader Pro, and Schwab includes paper trading on thinkorswim, which Fidelity does not match as fully. Fidelity ZERO index funds are also non-transferable: leave Fidelity and they must be sold, which can trigger capital gains tax in a taxable account.

Yes, in large numbers, though that says little about which broker suits you. Fidelity administered about $16.4 trillion in assets per mid-2025 reporting and is one of the largest 401(k) recordkeepers in the US, so many high-balance accounts simply live there through work. Schwab held about $11.8 trillion in client assets on 2026 reporting. Both custodians serve everyone from $1 fractional-share buyers to family offices.

The account terms are effectively identical: no minimums, no annual fee, $0 trades and access to the same universe of stocks, ETFs and low-cost index funds. Any difference comes from what you hold and how you handle cash, not the IRA itself. Contribution rules are the same everywhere; our guide to the Roth IRA vs traditional IRA choice covers the tax side. This is general information, not personal advice.

Both are SIPC members, so securities in a brokerage account are protected up to $500,000 per customer (including a $250,000 cash limit) if the broker itself fails. SIPC does not protect against market losses, and no stock or fund is safe in the cash sense. Both firms are decades old and among the largest custodians in the world, with about $16.4 trillion administered at Fidelity and $11.8 trillion in client assets at Schwab per the latest reporting.