Oil Spread Comparison UK: 10 Brokers Tested (2026)

How I compared oil spreads

Ok, this spread comparison was messy… why? Well, oil is a pretty broad term.

You’ve got WTI (West Texas Intermediate) and Brent. These are the two main types of oil traded and have different prices.

Not only that, but a lot of brokers offer rolling cash contracts and futures (via a CFD or a spread bet).

But wait, that’s not all… to add to the confusion, they all seem to call oil different things:

• WTI
• US Crude
• US Oil
• US Light Crude
• Spot Crude

The naming convention does not make it easy…

But luckily, I’ve been around the markets for many decades, so I can work out what’s what to give you a decent oil spread comparison.

So my method tries to replicate a typical trader’s decision flow.

See a trade opportunity, open a dealing ticket, and execute.

With that in mind, I check the spreads of ten brokers at a point in time. The figures above are from the October check.

The brokers included this time were:

• CMC Markets
• Pepperstone
• IG
• StoneX
• Plus500
• XTB
• FXCM
• Forex.com
• Capital.com
• OANDA

In the earlier check pictured below, oil was weak on the day and holding near lows in a volatility contraction.

Oil Spreads: Brokers ranked from best to worst

Oil spreads ranked from tightest to widest in the October 2026 check:

1. CMC Markets, StoneX and Forex.com — 2.5pts
2. Pepperstone and OANDA — 3.0pts
3. FXCM — 3.4pts
4. Capital.com — 4.0pts
5. IG — 5.2pts
6. XTB — 7.0pts
7. Plus500 — 8.0pts

So CMC Markets, StoneX and Forex.com took the top spot, with 2.5pts during the test.

CMC Markets has now recorded the joint-lowest or outright lowest oil spread in every monthly test I’ve run since May… six tests in a row.

Pepperstone had held a 2pt spread in both the July and August checks, but came in at 3pts in September and October. OANDA also recorded 3pts this time.

There was a pretty big difference between the cheapest and most expensive this month: 2.5pts vs 8pts. More than three times the spread to trade the same market. If you trade oil regularly, that can add up fast.

Use my spread saver tool to see what that difference could mean in actual trading costs.

As always, this is a snapshot. Spreads move, and the quote you see when you open your ticket is the one that matters.

If you want to see my other spread tests:

Indices: Dow, DAX, FTSE, Nasdaq, S&P 500

Forex: USD/JPY, EUR/USD, GBP/USD

Commodities: Gold

Or see my spread checker comparison table to get a view of everything in one place.

Oh, and if you’re from the UK, wondering if spread betting really is tax-free, I wrote a super in-depth article covering everything you need to know, including extracts from HMRC themselves…