Best IRAs: Top Picks for 2026

The best IRA accounts for 2026 provide a broad selection of low-cost exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, alongside robust customer support, educational re

When selecting an IRA, you should evaluate key features such as the available investment options, the quality of retirement planning tools, customer service standards, and educational materials.

Recently, several brokers have introduced match programs similar to those found in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. While a matching contribution shouldn’t be the sole factor in your decision, receiving extra funds to boost your retirement savings is a valuable benefit.

With that in mind, we examined the details to identify which brokers offer the top IRA accounts and where specific firms outperform their competitors.

Your preferred level of involvement in the investment process will dictate which IRA is right for you. We have divided our recommendations into two distinct categories.

You select your own investments.

With a self-directed IRA, you manage your own portfolio. This gives you complete control over your assets and allows you to avoid management fees.

Your investments are chosen for you.

If you prefer not to manage your own portfolio, a robo-advisor can handle it for you. These services build a portfolio tailored to your risk tolerance and timeline, typically for a set fee.

Continue reading to learn more about our DIY picks, or jump ahead to read about the best IRAs for automated investing.

Best IRA account overall: Charles Schwab

Best for holistic retirement planning: Fidelity

Best for access to financial advisors: SoFi®

Best investment selection: Interactive Brokers

Best for IRA match: Robinhood IRA

Best for holistic retirement planning: Fidelity IRA

Best educational content: E*TRADE IRA

Best for advisor access: SoFi Active Investing

Best Online Broker for IRA Investors: Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab is a prominent provider of retirement accounts, including workplace plans like 401(k)s, so it is no surprise that it excels in the IRA space. The firm offers a wide range of IRA options, including plans for the self-employed such as SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.

Schwab distinguishes itself through its helpful retirement-planning tools—including calculators and educational content—and its extensive mutual fund selection. It earns top marks in our analysis across three categories central to our methodology: the number of low-minimum funds, the number of low-expense-ratio funds, and the number of no-transaction-fee mutual funds. This makes it both simple and affordable for any investor to open an IRA.

Charles Schwab is one of the premier IRA providers, offering high-quality customer service, no account minimums, and low fees. The firm provides access to a vast array of no-transaction-fee funds, extensive research, and commission-free trading for stocks, ETFs, and options.

Fidelity is a natural inclusion on our list; the brand is nearly synonymous with retirement investing, and the company manages many workplace retirement plans. This provides a unique advantage: if your employer’s 401(k) is administered by Fidelity, opening an IRA with them allows you to monitor your entire retirement portfolio through a single app.

Fidelity also stands out for its innovative tools and expertise, which assist in retirement planning, as well as its broad mutual fund selection. This includes several proprietary index funds with 0% expense ratios. These free index funds are exclusive to Fidelity customers, making it one of only two brokers on this list to offer such a product-reviews-but-how-do-you-tell-if-the-reviews-are-fake/” title=”97 percent of people read product reviews, but how do you tell if the reviews are fake”>product, alongside E*TRADE.

Many investors recognize Fidelity as a major provider of 401(k) plans. Consolidating your accounts under one roof can be highly convenient, allowing you to view all your balances in one place. Even for those without a Fidelity-managed 401(k), the company offers access to affordable retirement investments—including no-fee, no-minimum index funds—and sophisticated tools to help you track your progress.

SoFi may lack some of the advanced features found at other brokerages, but it is an excellent starting point if you want a low-cost platform with access to financial advisors. SoFi is unique in providing access to certified financial planners, a service that often carries a high price elsewhere. All members receive one complimentary consultation, while SoFi Plus members—a premium tier costing $10 monthly—can schedule unlimited meetings. If you use this feature frequently, the monthly fee is well worth it, and the service includes additional benefits like loan discounts.

SoFi Active Investing’s $0 trading commissions, $0 account minimum, and fractional share offerings are appealing to new investors. More experienced traders will likely appreciate the platform’s wide mutual fund selection and access to IPOs.

Robinhood currently offers the most competitive IRA match among brokers, having been the first to introduce a 401(k)-style match for IRAs. While the standard version of Robinhood provides a 1% match, Robinhood Gold—priced at $5 per month or $50 annually—increases that match to 3%. Even after accounting for the $60 annual cost of a monthly Gold subscription, you still net a $165 bonus based on the $7,500 annual contribution limit just for maximizing your retirement savings.

Robinhood also provides a high interest rate on uninvested cash and features one of the best cryptocurrency platforms available on a traditional brokerage site.

Robinhood disrupted the IRA market by offering a 1% match on contributions, a perk typically reserved for employer-sponsored plans. While some competitors have since introduced similar incentives, this remains a relatively rare feature among IRA providers.

We were impressed by how well Interactive Brokers performed in our analysis, as the firm is traditionally known for serving active traders. However, many investors wish to trade within their IRAs, and doing so can offer tax advantages. Interactive Brokers also earns its spot on this list for its mutual fund library alone. The broker offers one of the largest selections of mutual funds, and our testers found the account-opening process to be remarkably smooth, even for beginners.

Beyond its massive mutual fund library, investors can execute sophisticated strategies within an IBKR IRA, such as advanced options spreads, currency trades, long or short futures contracts, and short covered calls. While this is not necessary for the average investor seeking a long-term, passive vehicle, those comfortable with these strategies will find that IBKR provides the necessary tools.

Don’t let the name mislead you: IBKR Lite offers commission-free stock trading, including international capabilities, more than 21,000 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, and a comprehensive trading platform.

E*TRADE offers a wide variety of IRAs, including traditional, Roth, SEP, SIMPLE, and beneficiary accounts. Combined with E*TRADE’s excellent educational rehing you need to prepare for retirement

For years, we have been impressed by E*TRADE’s educational content for two primary reasons. First, it is consistently broad. Their library includes multiple live webinars and on-demand recordings every week. Second, the quality of these events is high, and the presenters are knowledgeable. For instance, we attended a webinar titled “Mapping out your retirement income plan,” hosted by Morgan Stanley’s Vice President of Digital Direct and Senior Strategist for Investor Education at E*TRADE, and were genuinely surprised by the level of insight provided for free.

It is also worth noting that E*TRADE is owned by Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest financial institutions. With E*TRADE, you are getting more than just an app; you are gaining the experience and rend when choosing where to park your money

Retirement investors will find much to appreciate in the E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley IRA offering, which features no fees for ETF and stock trades, a large lineup of no-transaction-fee mutual funds, and an extensive library of retirement tools and advice.

Best IRAs for automated investing

Best robo-advisor for IRAs overall: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

Best robo-advisor for an IRA match: SoFi Robo Investing

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios stands out for IRA investors because it is free, meaning there is no management fee for having your investments handled for you. Intelligent Portfolios supports several IRA types—including traditional, Roth, Rollover, Inherited, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs—while offering customizable portfolios and 24/7 customer support. The drawback is that the platform does not offer an IRA match like some other robo-advisors.

Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is unique in that it charges no management fee, though the portfolios tend to hold a larger cash allocation than those of other robo-advisors, meaning a portion of your money remains uninvested. The $5,000 account minimum is relatively high, but Schwab provides some of the best customer service in the industry.

SoFi’s robo-advisor makes our list as the top choice for an IRA match. SoFi offers a 1% match on both contributions and rollovers. As with SoFi Active Investing, you gain access to a financial advisor, with unlimited access provided to SoFi Plus members. The management fee is 0.25%, which is standard for most robo-advisors.

A low management fee that includes a consultation with a financial advisor makes SoFi Robo Investing a strong option for younger or beginning investors.

What are the benefits of an IRA?

IRA accounts provide significant tax advantages compared to standard brokerage or savings accounts. As long as your funds remain in an IRA, you owe no taxes on investment earnings, allowing your nest egg to compound and grow more effectively each year. In contrast, taxes may reduce your savings annually in a traditional brokerage account, depending on your investment strategy.

Am I eligible to save on taxes with an IRA?

Anyone can open a traditional IRA, as there are no income limits. However, if you are also covered by a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k), the portion of your contribution that you can deduct from your taxes may be reduced or eliminated based on your income level.

Can I lose all my money in an IRA?

While it is unlikely, an IRA account can lose value and potentially drop to zero. This is much more probable if you invest in the stock of a single company. The best way to mitigate this risk is to ensure your investments are diversified. This means investing in a variety of companies across different industries, sizes, and locations, as well as holding both stocks and bonds. By doing so, if one part of your portfolio struggles, the others can help keep your overall investments on a steady path.

What do you mean by “invest the account”?

Unlike savings accounts, IRAs do not pay a fixed interest rate. Once you deposit money, you must select investments; otherwise, your funds will sit in cash, which is not ideal for long-term goals like retirement. Most IRA providers offer a wide range of options, including mutual funds, bonds, and individual stocks. If this seems overwhelming, you can open an IRA with a robo-advisor, which will manage your investments for you, usually for a small fee.

How easily can I access that money?

Because this is a retirement account, the funds are intended to remain untouched until at least age 59 ½. Traditional IRA withdrawal rules are stricter than those for Roth IRAs. With a traditional IRA, you may be subject to taxes and a 10% early withdrawal penalty if you take money out before age 59 ½, though there are some exceptions. With a Roth IRA, you can withdraw your contributions at any time since you have already paid taxes on them. However, you may still face taxes or penalties on early distributions of investment earnings.

How do we review brokers and robo-advisors?

All reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our full-time editorial team, independent of any business relationships. In this instance, our investing team’s comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. robo-advisors and brokers. Our goal is to provide an independent, balanced assessment of investment accounts to help you make informed decisions about which services best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines regarding editorial integrity.

We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires and conduct first-hand testing through provider demonstrations. These questionnaire responses, combined with demonstrations, interviews with provider personnel, and hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process, which scores each provider across more than 20 factors. The final output results in star ratings ranging from one star (poor) to five stars (excellent).

For more details about the categories considered when rating providers and our processes, read our full broker ratings methodology and our full robo-advisor ratings methodology.