There are some brokers offering swap-free or Islamic forex accounts. It means the accounts must not be charged with an interest rate or swap but do all of them have real Islamic accounts, are all the accounts really swap-free, and what brokers offer the best Islamic forex accounts?
Although swaps aren’t charged in the swap free accounts, you still have to pay a maintenance or administration fee ,either from the day 1 or after a number of days, to keep your trader open overnight. The questions is which forex brokers offers the swap free accounts with the best conditions.
I examined more than 100 brokers in order to find the best Islamic Forex accounts with the best swap free accounts.
I also went through the websites of the selected brokers and asked them one by one about some differences or any other limitation or extra fees that their Islamic accounts may have, compare to their other types of accounts.
I’ll explain about them on this post and you can see a concise form of them in the table at the bottom of this post but before that let’s introduced the best islamic or swap free brokers.
Forex Brokers with the Best Islamic /Swap-free Accounts
Here’s a list of Forex brokers with the best conditions for Islamic accounts:
What Is An Islamic Forex Account?
An Islamic forex account is a type of account that is free from swap or overnight interest rates.
According to sharia law, Muslims are banned from paying or receiving any interests or as it’s called in sharia, riba which is considered haram in Islamic law.
It’s a controversial issue because some Muslims consider excessive interest rates as riba while others see any interests, even nominal ones, as riba.
Leaving aside different interpretations, Islamic accounts offered by forex brokers are normally without any interest rates, however, some of them have some kinds of overnight fees. We’ll talk about that in detail in the next section.
What Are the Differences Between Swap and Swap Free Accounts?
In a nutshell, Swap is an interest rate that you either pay or receive if you keep a position more than one day.
As you can see, sometimes you pay a swap (negative swap), and other times you actually receive one (positive swap).
For instance, if you buy one lot of EUR/USD and keep your position open overnight, you might receive $4, $5, or another amount depending on your broker’s swap structure. In this case, the swap works in your favor, giving you a small benefit.
Conversely, if you sell one lot of EUR/USD and hold it for more than a day, you’ll need to pay a fee as a negative swap.
Swap rates can change daily, so the amount isn’t always the same. For more information about the types of swap and how it’s calculated, you can check out a post that I wrote about that here.
On the contrary, in swap-free accounts there is no fee, neither paid nor received, as swap; however, some brokers play with that and charge a fee with a different name such as commission or administration fee, and etc.
Types of Swap Free or Islamic Forex Accounts
In my study, I came across three main types of swap free accounts:
Accounts with an Overnight Fee
Although this type of account isn’t charged with a fee as swap it has a fixed overnight fee. Sometimes it’s called commission and in some cases a fixed or administration fee.
In some cases, the fee is not even fixed and is the same as swap. They just change the name from swap or interest rare to overnight or administration fee.
I asked one of the brokers that has such a fee and they told me there’s no difference. Since interest rate is forbidden in Islamic law or more specifically in sharia law, they just change the name to commission!
Aside from the name, method, or structure, a fee is involved in the positions kept open for more than one day.
Anyway, I didn’t put forex brokers with such Islamic accounts in my list and cross them all out.
Accounts with Grace Period
There is another version of Islamic forex accounts that is really swap free but this free swap is bound by a time period AKA grace period.
In this type, the swap is free for a few days and after that, an administration fee is charged.
For example, if you open a position and hold it for 5 days, you don’t pay any fees but you have to pay that if your position is still open on the sixth day.
The limitation is different from broker to broker; it can be 2 days, 5 days, 10 days, and so on.
In some brokers it’s different from pair to pair, for example, the swap is free on EURUSD for 2 days and it’s free on GBPJPY for 7 days.
It’s a good option for the swing traders (Muslim ones of course) that their positions last for a few days.
Position traders who keep trades open for a long time—say, 20 days—can benefit as well. In a standard swap account, you might pay $9 every day, whereas in an Islamic account with a 10-day grace period, you’d only start paying around $9 per day from day 10 onward.
Although most forex brokers provide Islamic accounts to their Muslim clients, some of them offer swap free accounts to all clients so non-Muslim traders can take advantage of this opportunity if they are position or swing traders.
Probable Limitation on Swap Free Accounts
As we’ve seen so far, swap free or Islamic accounts have grace period and a fee is allocated to them after a few days.
Another limitation that you may see in some brokers’ Islamic accounts is a limit on the type of accounts.
In general, forex brokers have different types of accounts including fixed spreads, floating spreads, and ecn or zero spreads.
Normally you choose one type of a broker’s account and then change the status to swap free or Islamic version.
Some brokers allow you to convert any of their account types into an Islamic Forex account, while others offer swap-free accounts only for specific types—for example, standard floating spread accounts—excluding others such as ECN accounts, as noted in the table below.
Some brokers’ Islamic accounts have also different conditions. They try to make up for free swap with charging a bit wider spreads.
As I said early on, all the brokers that I picked claim that they don’t charge any extra fees and the conditions are the same as their other types of accounts however in reality you have to pay higher spreads and commission.
The next difference that forex Islamic accounts may have compared to non-Islamic ones is the number of instruments or trading products.
Since swap fees are high for instruments like cryptocurrencies or exotic Forex pairs, some brokers exclude them from their Islamic accounts. You can still trade these instruments if you use a regular, non-Islamic account.
Can Non – Muslims Use Swap-Free Forex Accounts?
Yes, non-Muslims can use swap-free accounts in some forex brokers. Although swap-free accounts are for Muslim traders, there are some forex brokers offering this type of account to non-muslim traders as well.
Some brokers don’t have any extra conditions for providing swap-free accounts to non-Muslim traders but some of them do.
For example, you don’t need to be a Muslim to use their swap-free accounts but you need to live in a Muslim country in order to be eligible for this kind of account.
Other brokers have a minimum deposit condition for non-Muslims so if you deposit less than that, you can’t use swap-free accounts.
You can see all the relevant information about that on the non-Muslim section of the table at the bottom of this article.
Swap-Free Accounts and Swap Arbitrage
One strategy that some traders use is swap arbitrage. Swap rates differ between brokers—some may charge more for negative swaps while paying more for positive swaps compared to others. If you can find a positive difference between the swap rates of two brokers, you can potentially profit from it.
Some traders take this a step further by using a swap-free account at one broker and a regular swap account at another. The idea is to take advantage of the highest positive swap on a particular pair while hedging the position. For example, if Broker A offers a positive swap on a long EUR/USD position, you could buy EUR/USD there, and then sell the same pair on a swap-free account at Broker B to hedge your trade.
This approach allows you to collect swap fees from one broker while paying nothing on the swap-free account. Because your positions are hedged, market price fluctuations don’t affect your trading budget.
However, brokers generally disapprove of this strategy, and many explicitly forbid it. If a broker detects such activity, they may close your swap-free account. Always make sure the brokers you use allow such strategies before attempting them.
For more information on swap arbitrage, you may want to check out [this post].
How to Choose the Best Islamic Forex Account
As we’ve seen so far, there are some specific factors that can distinguish a good Islamic forex account from a bad one.
Let’s summarize them one more time.
Free swap is the fundamental distinction between an Islamic account and a non-Islamic one so you should make sure there is no fee is paid or received whether it’s called commission, overnight, or administration fee from day one.
If you are a day trader or scalper and your trades don’t roll to the next day, you don’t need a swap free or Islamic account — it’s already Islamic 🙂
Islamic accounts offered by brokers come with a day limit, or grace period, so it’s important to ensure that this period is longer than the typical duration of your open positions.
There are no restrictions on major and minor Forex pairs, metals, or indices in Islamic accounts. However, if you trade cryptocurrencies or exotic pairs, choose a broker that offers a swap-free option with no limitations on those instruments.
In the following table, you can find all the explained features.
Grace Period: number of days that the swap is free. After that, a fixed fee is charged
Exception in the instruments section demonstrates the trading products that are not available for Islamic forex accounts
Non-Muslim: Some of the Brokers offer swap free accounts for both Muslim and Non-Muslims
| Broker | Grace Period | Non-Muslims | Instrument | General Info | Regulation | Account Type | Platform | Payment Option | Banned Country |
 Visit Website | 14 days | Yes | Forex, Indices, Commodities, Metals, Stocks, Crypto | Min Deposit: $100 Max Leverage:1:2000 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | ASIC, FSCA, FSA | Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile, cTrader, Tradingview | Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Volet, Top Change, Crypto | the US, Canada, Sudan, Syria, North Korea,Cuba, Eritrea, Iraq, |
 Visit Website | 14 days | If you Deposit $2500 and more, Yes | FX pairs, Stocks, Metals, Indices, Commodities, Futures, Cryptocurrencies | Min Deposit: $1 Max Leverage:1:400 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | CySEC, BVI FSC | Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile NetTradeX | Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Bitcoin, bitwallet, CASHU, Neteller, Pasargad Novin, Skrill, TopChange, Unistream, WebMoney, Western Union | the US, Japan, Russia |
 Visit Website | 14 days | No | Forex, Metals, oil, commodities, indices Exception: Stocks | Min Deposit: $100 Max Leverage:1:200 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | FCA, CySEC, DFSA, CIMA | Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile | Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Neteller, Skrill, Webmoney | Afghanistan, Belgium, Botswana, Cambodia, Saskatchewan), France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Iraq, Japan, North Korea, Panama, Sudan, Syria, The Bahamas, Trinidad &Tobago, Turkey, USA, |
 Visit Website | 8 Days No Limit on: Indices, Futures, Shares | No | FX Pairs, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Crypto, Futures Exception: Forex exotic | Min Deposit: No Max Leverage:1:3000 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | FCA, CySEC, FSCA, SCB, FSA | Fixed Spread: Yes Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4 for Desktop, Web, Mobile cTrader FXPro platform | Bank Wire Transfer, Credit/Debit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, Maestro), PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Crypto | the US |
 Visit Website | 7 Days | No | FX Pairs, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Crypto Exception: only major and minor fx pairs are eligible | Min Deposit: No Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | MISA | Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4 for Desktop, Web, Mobile | Bank Wire, Debit and Credit Cards, BPAY, Neteller, Advanced Cash, Web Money, Perfect Money, Crypto | the US |
 Visit Website | 7 days | No | FX Pairs, Metals, Crypto, Indices, Oil Exception: Commission is higher on cryptocurrencies | Min Deposit: $10 Max Leverage:1:1000 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | VFSC, CySEC | Fixed Spread: YES Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4 for Desktop, Mobile | Bank Wire, VISA, MasterCard, Neteller, Ngan Luong, PayToday, PerfectMoney, Qiwi, Skrill, Yandex Money, Dragonpay | the US, South Africa |
 Visit Website | charge fee from day1 | No | FX pairs, Shares, Futures, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies Exception: Forex exotic | Min Deposit: $200 Max Leverage:1:500 Min Lot Size: 0.01 | ASIC | Fixed Spread: NO Floating Spread: YES ECN: YES | MT4, MT5 for Desktop, Web, Mobile cTrader | Credit and debit cards, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Union Pay, Wire transfer, Bpay, Fastpay, Broker to Broker, Poli, Thai Internet Banking, Rapidpay, Klarna, Bitcoin wallet, Vietnamese Internet Banking | the US, Canada, Israel, North Korea, Iran |
Frequently Asked Questions
Forex trading is generally considered halal when conducted through a swap-free Islamic account that eliminates riba (interest). The majority of Islamic scholars agree that spot forex — buying and selling currency at the current market rate — is permissible, provided no overnight interest is charged or received. The key condition is that the exchange must be immediate and free from interest-based components.
A swap fee (also called a rollover fee) is an interest charge applied to positions held overnight in a standard forex account — this is considered riba and is prohibited under Sharia law. A swap-free or Islamic account removes this overnight interest charge entirely. Some brokers replace it with a flat administrative fee after a grace period; others charge nothing at all.
Many brokers allow traders of any religion to open a swap-free account, but not all — some restrict Islamic accounts to residents of Muslim-majority countries or require a declaration of faith. It is worth checking each broker’s specific policy before applying. Non-Muslim traders who do qualify sometimes use Islamic accounts for the practical benefit of eliminating overnight charges, which is particularly useful for position traders who hold trades open for multiple days or weeks.
Not always. Some brokers eliminate the swap fee but quietly compensate through wider spreads, flat overnight holding fees applied after a short grace period, or higher commissions. Always check the broker’s fee schedule specifically for Islamic accounts and test with a demo account before committing. The safest brokers are transparent about exactly what replaces the swap — if they aren’t, treat that as a red flag.
A grace period is the number of days a position can remain open on an Islamic account before any administrative fee is applied. Grace periods typically range from 3 to 14 days depending on the broker and the instrument. Swing traders who hold positions for several days should prioritize brokers with longer grace periods — or brokers with no grace period limit at all.
Most brokers now include major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) on their Islamic accounts without restrictions. The volatility concern that once made crypto controversial under gharar principles has faded as the asset class matured. If your broker does restrict certain instruments on Islamic accounts, it is more likely to be exotic currency pairs — where thin liquidity and wide spreads raise stronger uncertainty concerns — rather than crypto.
This is an emerging question with no single scholarly consensus. The challenge fee you pay upfront is the main concern — some scholars view it as gambling if you lose the fee without getting the account; others permit it as a service fee for access to capital. Prop firms like FTMO, FundedNext, and FundingPips offer swap-free options on their funded accounts, which addresses the riba concern once you are trading. Consulting a scholar familiar with modern financial instruments is recommended before participating.
Yes — using Expert Advisors or other automated trading systems on an Islamic account is permitted, provided the account itself is genuinely swap-free. The permissibility depends on the account conditions, not the method of execution. Be aware that some brokers restrict or monitor Islamic accounts used with high-frequency EAs to prevent swap arbitrage abuse.
The standard requirements are the same as any forex account: a government-issued photo ID (passport or national ID) and proof of address (utility bill or bank statement dated within 3 months). Most brokers do not require proof of religion. Some brokers automatically assign swap-free status to accounts registered from Muslim-majority countries; others require a written request through customer support or your account portal after verification is complete.
Hi David;
Thank you for the information.
I couldn´t get this info even by asking the brokers in live chat or on the phone.
I was looking for the day limit that offers the brokers for the free swap, and since i got it from you i was able to join a Broker with such caracteristiques.
I will be following you for future updates
Thank very much
Aziz from Morocco
Happy to hear that you’ve found the answer here
Hi David, my name is Farhan, you did great job and I am sure lot of people will benefit your work including myself. thank you very much again.
glad to hear that it’s helped you
Thank you!
Hi David,
The information show in your website is very useful!
Do you know which brokers offer swap free account for non Muslims?
Hi Doreen,
I think some of the brokers listed here offer swap free accounts to non-Muslims as well. I think I noticed that when I was writing this article but I can’t remember why I didn’t mention that.
Anyway, I’ll ask that and add extra info to the table in a few days. In the meantime, you can ask them one by one via live chat if you need that sooner.