Charles Schwab vs. Interactive Brokers: four times the revenue against a 78% pretax margin

Charles Schwab and Interactive Brokers are the two largest U.S.-listed brokers, and they are built very differently. At the Oct 15, 2026 close, Charles Schwab was worth $162.8 billion and Interactive Brokers $146.4 billion. Schwab had about 33,000 full-time-equivalent employees at the end of 2025; Interactive Brokers had 3,182. Both reported third-quarter results after the close that day: Schwab’s revenue rose 17% to a record $7.17 billion, and Interactive Brokers’ rose 16% to $1.91 billion.

Revenue is the figure both companies report net of interest expense (“net revenues”). Client money is “client assets” at Schwab and “customer equity” at Interactive Brokers; the two measures are close but not identical.

Who owns Interactive Brokers

The listed company, Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., owns only about 26.5% of IBG LLC, which runs the brokerage. The other 73.5% belongs to IBG Holdings LLC, owned by founder and chairman Thomas Peterffy and his affiliates (about 91.8% of it), executives and employees. Those units can be exchanged one for one for listed shares, and the market value above counts all 1.70 billion of them, as most data providers do.

That structure is why this comparison uses the pretax margin, which both companies publish, and earnings per share for the price-to-earnings ratio. IBG LLC is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, so the share of its profit that belongs to IBG Holdings is not taxed at the company level, and Interactive Brokers’ net margin is not comparable with Schwab’s. Measured as market value over total net income, Interactive Brokers trades at 28.9 times; per share, the figure that applies to a public shareholder is 33.1.

How each one makes money

Both earn most of their revenue from interest — on margin loans to clients and on the cash clients leave with them, minus what they pay on that cash. Schwab adds a large fee business from its own funds and managed accounts. Interactive Brokers relies more on commissions: $2.15 billion in 2025, against $3.92 billion of trading revenue at Schwab.

Revenue and pretax margin since 2017

• 2015: Interactive Brokers lost $119 million when the Swiss National Bank removed its cap on the franc and some customers lost more than they had on deposit.
• 2020–2021: Schwab completed its acquisition of TD Ameritrade on Oct 6, 2020; revenue rose 58% in 2021, the first full year with it.
• 2023: Schwab’s revenue fell 9% “as client cash realignment activity impacted our net interest revenue,” in the words of its 10-K, and profit fell 29%. The same year, Interactive Brokers’ net interest income rose 68% and its revenue 42%.
• 2025: both had record revenue. Schwab’s net income reached $8.9 billion, up 49%. Interactive Brokers split its stock four for one in June 2025; all its per-share figures here are adjusted.

Clients and trading

Schwab had 38.5 million active brokerage accounts at the end of 2025 and brought in $519.4 billion of core net new assets that year. In the third quarter of 2026 it brought in a record $190.4 billion. Interactive Brokers had 4.4 million accounts at the end of 2025 and 5.58 million by Sep 30, 2026, up 35% in a year. In the third quarter, Schwab’s clients made 10.7 million trades a day, down from a record 11.9 million in the second quarter, and Interactive Brokers counted 4.27 million daily average revenue trades, down from 4.82 million — a narrower measure that only counts orders generating revenue, so the two are not directly comparable. Margin loans stood at $187.9 billion at Schwab and $105.2 billion at Interactive Brokers on Sep 30.

Dividends and buybacks

Schwab raised its quarterly dividend 19% to $0.32 in 2026 and repurchased 24.3 million shares for $2.4 billion in the first quarter alone. Interactive Brokers raised its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to $0.0875 in April 2026 and, with its third-quarter results, to $0.15 from the December payment, an increase of 71%. It reported no share buybacks from 2014 to 2025; its listed share count rises over time as IBG Holdings exchanges units for shares and shares go to employees.

What $1,000 became

Over the full period since Interactive Brokers listed, Schwab was ahead in 203 of the 233 months; Interactive Brokers moved ahead for good in May 2024. In all three windows the S&P 500 landed between the two. The “since IPO” line starts at the close of IBKR’s first trading day, not at the IPO price.

Fund managers and insiders

Among the 38 fund managers this site follows, 10 held Schwab and 11 held Interactive Brokers at the end of June 2026, according to their 13F filings. The largest Schwab holder was Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global, with $982 million after cutting the position 27.5% in the quarter. The largest Interactive Brokers holder was Two Sigma, with $726 million; Halvorsen more than tripled his Interactive Brokers stake in the same quarter.

Form 4 filings over the past twelve months show trusts and a limited partnership tied to Schwab co-chairman and founder Charles Schwab selling $185.8 million of stock, and co-chairman Walt Bettinger’s family trust selling $91.8 million; none of those sales were marked as made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan. Chief executive Rick Wurster bought $1.85 million of shares in his own account on May 28, 2026, the day of the stock’s lowest close of the past year. At Interactive Brokers, vice chairman Earl Nemser sold $30.7 million through an LLC, also not under a plan; Thomas Peterffy, whose stake is held through IBG Holdings, did not sell. The filings do not give reasons for any of these trades.

Figures are from the companies’ SEC filings and, for prices and dividends, Yahoo Finance and CNBC. Third-quarter 2026 figures come from the Oct 15 earnings releases; the quarterly 10-Q reports were not yet filed. Stock prices are from the Oct 15 close, before the results. This is not investment advice.