Forex Break-Even Calculator
Find the price at which a forex trade covers spread, commission and swap.
Please note: Forex trading carries a high risk of loss, amplified by leverage. Exchange rates must be entered manually — no live market data is used.
What the Forex Break-Even Calculator does
Break-even in forex accounts for the spread already paid on entry plus commission and any accumulated swap. It is the exact price at which closing the trade returns your capital and nothing more.
Formula
Total cost = Spread × Pip value + Commission + SwapBreak-even pips = Total cost ÷ Pip valueBreak-even price = Entry ± Break-even pips × Pip size
Inputs explained
| Input | Unit | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direction | one of 2 options | Yes | — |
| Entry price | number | Yes | Accepts more than 0. |
| Trade size (lots) | number | Yes | Accepts more than 0. |
| Lot type | one of 4 options | Yes | — |
| Pip size | one of 3 options | Yes | — |
| Spread | pips | Optional | Accepts 0 or more. |
| Total commission | selected currency | Optional | Accepts 0 or more. |
| Total swap paid | selected currency | Optional | Accepts 0 or more. |
| Quote → account currency rate | number | Yes | Accepts more than 0. |
| Currency | one of 10 options | Optional | — |
How to use it
- Choose Direction and Lot type.
- Enter Entry price, Trade size (lots) and Quote → account currency rate.
- Optionally add Spread, Total commission and Total swap paid.
- Select Calculate.
Worked example
Long EUR/USD at 1.0900, 1 lot, 1.2-pip spread, $7 commission.
- Direction
- Buy
- Entry
- 1.0900
- Lots
- 1
- Spread
- 1.2
- Commission
- 7
Cost $19 ÷ $10 = 1.9 pips, so break-even is 1.09019.
Reading the result
- This is the same cost logic as the trading cost calculator, expressed as a price level rather than a dollar figure — a price target is what you actually watch on a chart, so it saves converting a dollar break-even in your head.
Assumptions and limitations
- Swap here is a single manually-entered total, not computed from a nightly rate and holding period — for a multi-day hold, that figure needs to come from the swap calculator (or trading cost calculator) rather than being derived automatically.
- Spread is a single static pip figure for the whole trade, the same simplification used across these forex calculators.
Common mistakes
- Leaving the "total swap paid" figure unchanged as a position is held for additional nights — since it is a static entered number, the break-even price silently goes stale as more swap accrues unless re-entered.
- Assuming the break-even adjustment works the same way for a long and a short — the direction reverses (added for a long, subtracted for a short), so reusing one side's mental math for the other puts the break-even on the wrong side of entry.
Frequently asked questions
Why is break-even not the entry price?
Because you have already paid the spread when the position opened. The market must move in your favour by at least that much before you are level.