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Best Brokers to Buy Penny Stocks: 2026 Picks

4 Best Brokers to Buy Penny Stocks: 2026 Picks

Kevin Voigt is a freelance writer covering personal loans and investing topics for NerdWallet. He previously was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal and business producer for CNN.com in Hong Kong, where he was based for nearly two decades.

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Chris Davis is a Managing Editor on the Investing team. As a writer, he covered the stock market, investing strategies and investment accounts, and as a spokesperson, he appeared on NBC Bay Area and was quoted in Forbes, Apartment Therapy, Martha Stewart and Lifewire, among others. His work has appeared in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, MSN, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Newsday and TheStreet.

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Chris Davis is a Managing Editor on the Investing team. As a writer, he covered the stock market, investing strategies and investment accounts, and as a spokesperson, he appeared on NBC Bay Area and was quoted in Forbes, Apartment Therapy, Martha Stewart and Lifewire, among others. His work has appeared in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, MSN, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Newsday and TheStreet.

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Arielle O’Shea leads the investing and taxes team at NerdWallet. She has covered personal finance and investing for nearly 20 years, and was a senior writer and spokesperson at NerdWallet before becoming an editor. Previously, she was a researcher and reporter for leading personal finance journalist and author Jean Chatzky, a role that included developing financial education programs, interviewing subject matter experts and helping to produce television and radio segments. Arielle has appeared on the "Today" show, NBC News and ABC's "World News Tonight," and has been quoted in national publications including The New York Times, MarketWatch and Bloomberg News. She is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Many or all of the products on this page are from partners who compensate us when you click to or take an action on their website, but this does not influence our evaluations or ratings. Our opinions are our own.

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Our deep, independent analysis of online brokers sorts through key account details to find and evaluate the information investors want when choosing an account. To see our full methodology and learn more about our process, read our criteria for evaluating brokers.

Over 60 investment account providers reviewed and rated by our expert Nerds.

More than 50 years of combined experience writing about finance and investing.

Hands-on testing of the account funding process, broker websites and stock-trading platforms.

Dozens of objective ratings rubrics, and strict guidelines to maintain editorial integrity.

Penny stocks are risky, low-cost investments, though they don’t actually cost a penny. They are shares of small companies that trade outside of major stock exchanges, and are also known as over-the-counter (OTC) stocks.

The precise definition of penny stocks will vary by broker. Some consider anything trading under $5 to be a penny stock, while others put the cutoff at $2 or $1. (For more on penny stock trading, see our article on investing in penny stocks.)

Penny stocks may seem like a steal when stacked against companies that trade for $500 or more. This is where the backstory is important: These stocks are cheap for a reason. Because they are issued by small, yet-to-be-established companies, penny stock values can be turbulent. They are often hard to research and accurately value, and they trade infrequently, which means they can be tough to sell. (Here are other ways to find cheap stocks beyond penny stocks.)

Long story short, many brokers are a bit antsy about penny stock trading. This can make figuring out where to buy penny stocks more challenging than other investments. Below are NerdWallet’s picks for the top brokerages for penny stock traders. These four brokers don't impose any additional fees or investment restrictions on domestic penny stocks.

Best Brokers to Buy Penny Stocks: 2026 Picks

SoFi Active Investing

Robinhood

Moomoo

Merrill Edge® Self-Directed

Fees

$0

per trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Get up to $1,000

in stock when you open & fund a new Active Invest account. Limited time offer. Terms & Conditions Apply.

No commission for ETF, options and stock trades (including all OTC stocks).

Beginner-friendly platform that offers access to financial advisors.

Limited selection of alternative assets such as crypto, forex and futures.

Few research & data offerings.

SoFi Active Investing is a great choice for OTC stock traders, as it offers no-commission trades and puts no investment restrictions on penny stocks. However, traders who want access to exotic assets such as forex and crypto — or who want third-party research to inform their trading decisions — may need to look elsewhere.

Fees

$0

on trades of stocks, ETFs and their options. Other fees may apply.

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

1 Free Stock

after linking your bank account (stock value range $5.00-$200)

Free ETF, options and stock trades (including all OTC stocks and fractional shares).

Streamlined interface.

Cryptocurrency trading.

Little third-party research.

Lower than average execution quality.

Robinhood offers free ETF, options, crypto and stock trades (including all OTC stocks). It's also a leader in mobile-first design for brokerage apps, and provides a streamlined trading interface. However, Robinhood doesn't offer much in the way of third-party research, and its execution quality is slightly below average.

Fees

$0

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Earn 8.1% APY

on your uninvested cash for 3 months + up to 60 Free Stocks with qualified deposits. Terms & Conditions apply.

Free ETF, options and stock trades (including most OTC stocks).

Popular, easy-to-use app.

Low margin rates.

Lower than average execution quality.

Small commissions on foreign stock trades.

Moomoo users can trade U.S.-listed ETFs, equity options and stocks (including OTC stocks) without any fees, in an easy-to-use app with low margin rates. However, Moomoo's execution quality could be better, and it does charge a commission of a few pennies per share on foreign-listed stock trades.

Fees

$0

per trade

Account minimum

$0

Promotion

Get up to $600

when you invest in a new Merrill account

Free ETF and stock trades (including all OTC stocks).

Integrated with Bank of America.

High order execution quality.

No fractional shares.

Limited selection of alternative assets.

Merrill Edge is a great choice for penny stock traders who have a Bank of America account, as it's integrated into Bank of America's app, and offers free trades of all OTC stocks with high order execution quality. However, fractional shares and alternative assets such as crypto and futures, which may also appeal to penny stock traders, are not available.

ON THIS PAGE

Choosing a penny stock broker

In case the above didn’t make this clear: There are significant risks that come with trading penny stocks, unless you are a sophisticated investor and you understand this market. You'll also want to be aware of the following when selecting an online broker to trade penny stocks:

Additional fees: Most of the brokers we review have eliminated trading commissions for stocks, so long as those stocks are well-established and trade on major U.S. exchanges such as the NYSE and Nasdaq. But many brokers still charge some kind of trading fee for OTC stocks and foreign stocks that aren't officially listed on U.S. exchanges. Only a few brokers are commission-free for penny stock traders, but we've made our list exclusive to brokers that don't charge commissions.

Limited penny stock selection: Some brokers only offer a small selection of relatively-established OTC stocks to investors, and others only offer one-off penny stock trades on request. If you're looking to trade especially-obscure penny stocks, you may find that many brokers don't allow access to them.

If you’re still on the fence about penny stocks, learn more about some of your other investment options:

Introduction to Options Trading

How to Buy Stocks

How to Invest $100

How to Invest $500

Last updated on April 1, 2026

Methodology

NerdWallet’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers by assets under management, along with emerging industry players. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).

This list is based on our OTC access score, which measures the size of a broker's OTC stock selection, whether OTC stocks are subject to additional fees, and whether OTC trades are available by default or have to be requested. Merrill Edge, Moomoo, SoFi Active Investing and Robinhood are the only brokers we review that earned the highest possible score in this category, meaning that they offer an unlimited selection of domestic OTC stocks to all users without any additional fees.

For more details about the categories considered when rating brokers and our process, read our full methodology.

NerdWallet's Best Brokers to Buy Penny Stocks: 2026 Picks

About the author

Kevin Voigt is a freelance writer covering personal loans and investing topics for NerdWallet. He previously was a reporter with The Wall Street Journal and business producer for CNN.com in Hong Kong, where he was based for nearly two decades.

About the reviewer

Chris Davis is a Managing Editor on the Investing team. As a writer, he covered the stock market, investing strategies and investment accounts, and as a spokesperson, he appeared on NBC Bay Area and was quoted in Forbes, Apartment Therapy, Martha Stewart and Lifewire, among others. His work has appeared in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, MSN, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Newsday and TheStreet.

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About the editor

Arielle O’Shea leads the investing and taxes team at NerdWallet. She has covered personal finance and investing for nearly 20 years, and was a senior writer and spokesperson at NerdWallet before becoming an editor. Previously, she was a researcher and reporter for leading personal finance journalist and author Jean Chatzky, a role that included developing financial education programs, interviewing subject matter experts and helping to produce television and radio segments. Arielle has appeared on the "Today" show, NBC News and ABC's "World News Tonight," and has been quoted in national publications including The New York Times, MarketWatch and Bloomberg News. She is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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