Forex calculators for pip value, lot size, margin and market hours
These forex calculators do the sums you need before placing a trade, using live mid-market rates. Pip value tells you what a move is worth, lot size turns your risk into a position, and margin shows what it locks. All 5 tools are free and work in naira, rand, shillings and cedis.
Updated . Figures come from broker pages, regulator registers and published reviews.
Our forex tools
These tools cover the numbers traders check most. The pip calculator shows the value of a pip in your account currency, and the lot size calculator gives a position size from your balance, risk percent and stop. The margin calculator shows the money locked at any leverage from 1:30 to 1:2000.
The profit calculator turns two prices into a result in USD and projects compound growth.
The market hours tool shows which sessions are open in your own time zone, and the currency converter gives a mid-market benchmark for checking what a deposit really cost you. None needs a sign-up, and nothing you enter leaves your browser, because all the sums run on your own device.
Pip value for any pair and lot size, in your own account currency.
Position size from your balance, risk percent and stop loss distance.
Margin locked by a position at any leverage from 1:30 to 1:2000.
Live forex sessions and the London and New York overlap in your own time zone.
Live mid-market rates, so you can see the real cost of your broker's conversion.
Profit in USD and pips for any trade, plus compound growth projections.
The order to use them in
Start from risk. Pick the most you will lose on the trade, say 1% of a USD 500 balance, or USD 5. Set your stop at the point where your idea fails, say 25 pips. The lot size calculator returns 0.02 lots. That order keeps your position size honest.
Then check the margin calculator, to confirm that size locks a small part of your balance: about USD 22 at 1:100 here. Finally, use the pip calculator on a less common pair, because its value moves away from the USD 10 per lot you may be used to.
These forex calculators take under 1 minute together.
Measure your real trading costs
Spread is only one part of your bill. A 1.1-pip spread on 0.01 lots costs USD 0.11, while a 3% conversion gap on a USD 100 deposit costs USD 3, the same as 27 of those trades. The currency converter shows the mid-market rate, so you can measure that gap.
Compare accounts in dollars per lot. A commission of USD 7 per round turn on a raw account adds 0.7 pips, so a 0.1-pip spread becomes 0.8 pips in total. Our low spread brokers shortlist ranks accounts on that basis, from about 0.54 pips upward.
That is the largest cost on many small accounts.
When to trade
Spreads and liquidity change through the day. The London and New York overlap, 13:00 to 17:00 UTC in standard time, carries the tightest prices on major pairs in most weeks. Rollover around 21:00 to 23:00 UTC is the widest period. The market hours tool converts those times for you.
Pick a window you can watch without distraction, and avoid the minutes around major data releases until you have experience. Our guides for Nigeria and Kenya list session times in local hours, and the forex broker comparison shows the brokers you could trade those hours with.
The tool also marks the 2 busiest sessions as they open.
How accurate are these results?
All 5 results rely on mid-market rates from a public feed, refreshed on page load, and that feed publishes about once a day. Your broker uses its own live rates, so a small gap is normal. Contract sizes can also change by symbol and broker, especially on gold, indices and cent accounts.
Use these tools for planning, and trust your platform's figures for live orders. Your platform's contract specification lists the exact lot size and margin for each symbol. Look at that page once before you trade any new market, because a difference of a factor of 10 on gold is common.
Questions about our calculators
Are these forex calculators free?
Yes. All 5 tools are free, with no sign-up. They run in your browser with mid-market rates from a public feed, so the numbers you type stay on your device and never reach us.
Which calculator should I use first?
Start with the lot size calculator, because it sets your position from your risk. Then check margin and pip value. That order stops you choosing a position first and then accepting whatever risk it happens to carry.
Do the calculators work for gold and indices?
The pip and margin tools support gold, and contract sizes for gold and indices change by broker. Check your platform's contract specification, since some brokers treat 0.1 as a pip on gold and others use 0.01.
Why is my broker's margin higher or lower than this result?
Your broker uses its own live rate and sets its own leverage to each instrument and account size. Local regulators set caps as well. Use this figure for planning and your platform's figure for real orders.