Robinhood vs Public for Investing With AI (2026)

Sources, all checked October 2026: Robinhood's trading fees support article, Gold page and IRA match FAQ; Public's fee schedule (revised October 13, 2026), IRA page and Reserve page. Regulatory pass-through fees apply at both.

On the trades most people place, the two cost the same. Robinhood's trading fees article says investing is "commission free for stocks, ETFs, and their options" (checked October 2026), with a combined $0.04 fee per options contract to cover regulatory and exchange costs. Public's fee schedule, revised October 13, 2026, lists $0 for US-listed stocks and ETFs in regular and extended hours and $0 for stock and ETF options.

Options are where they split. Public pays a rebate of $0.06 to $0.18 per stock or ETF options contract to people enrolled in its Options Rebate Program, and charges $0.35 per index options contract. Robinhood charges $0.50 per index options contract, or $0.35 with Gold. Both charge $100 to transfer an account out by ACATS.

The paid tiers aim at different things. Robinhood Gold is $5 a month (robinhood.com/gold, October 2026) and adds a 3% IRA match, Cortex, and interest on brokerage cash. Public Reserve is $20 a month or $200 a year (fee schedule, October 2026) and adds a 4% IRA match, 3.75% APY on cash, and matches on Generated Assets and Treasury accounts. Rates on both change, so treat the numbers as a snapshot.

Robinhood's fractional shares support article says an order must be at least $1, and that most stocks above $1 a share with a market cap over $25 million are eligible (checked October 2026). Public's help center sets a $5 minimum for fractional stock buys and sells (article dated June 5, 2025).

That gap matters more than it looks when you buy a group of stocks at once. A ten-stock basket where the smallest holding is 5% of the total needs at least $100 at Public to keep that leg at $5, and $20 at Robinhood. If you plan to put small, regular amounts into many names, the lower floor gives you more room. For the wider question of what you own when you own a slice, see are fractional shares safe.

Robinhood offers individual brokerage accounts, Traditional and Roth IRAs, and Robinhood Strategies, its managed portfolios (0.25% a year, capped at $250 for Gold members, per Robinhood's March 27, 2025 announcement). Its agentic trading article says you can hold up to ten self-directed individual accounts, the Agentic account included. The IRA match FAQ says the 1% match covers contributions, transfers and old 401(k) rollovers, and that accounts run by Strategies do not get the contribution match.

Public offers individual brokerage accounts, Traditional and Roth IRAs with a 1% match on contributions (public.com/ira, October 2026), plus Treasury accounts, bonds and crypto, per its October 2026 fee schedule. Both brokers require matched IRA money to stay put for five years to avoid a removal fee.

Robinhood now has three separate AI products, and they are easy to mix up.

• Cortex is research. Robinhood announced it on March 27, 2025 with stock Digests (a short summary of what is moving a ticker) and a Trade Builder for options ideas, and said it does not place trades. The Gold page lists it as a Gold benefit (October 2026).
• Robinhood Agents is an AI trading agent inside the Robinhood app. Per Robinhood's support article (checked October 2026), you pick the third-party model, it can research, analyze your portfolio and place trades, and trade approvals are on by default. It is mobile-only, still rolling out, and paid for with prepaid tokens that start with a free balance. Loops, which repeat a strategy on their own, were announced September 29, 2026 as coming soon.
• Agentic Trading is for an AI you bring yourself. Robinhood launched it on May 27, 2026 in beta for equities only, with options, crypto, event contracts and futures planned (Robinhood newsroom); its support article now also lists options and crypto tools (checked October 2026). More on it in the next section and in our guide to Robinhood agentic trading.

• Agents run plans you write in plain English. Public's Agents page says they can monitor markets, execute trades and manage cash, and that "every Agent requires your explicit sign-off before running." The help center (June 9, 2026) says access is rolling out from a waitlist and is web-only for now.
• Alpha is a research assistant that Public's help center describes as available to all Public investors at no charge (article dated May 20, 2024).
• Generated Assets turns a prompt into a custom index you can review against the S&P 500 and invest in. Public's help center (November 18, 2025) says the advisory service behind it is Public Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered adviser affiliated with Public, and that both charge fees.

The short version: Public's in-house AI leans toward automating a plan you have approved, while Robinhood's leans toward an agent you chat with. Both put the decision on you.

Both brokers now publish an official way for an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT to reach your account. The difference is where it can trade.

Robinhood: read everything, trade in one account

Robinhood's agentic trading support article (checked October 2026) says a connected agent gets read access to all your Robinhood accounts, including positions, balances and order history, but can place trades only in the dedicated Robinhood Agentic account. Named clients include Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Grok and Perplexity. You can require a review before each action; if you let the agent act without asking, it can trade without your confirmation. Robinhood's words: "You are ultimately responsible for the trades your AI agent places in your account." Setup steps are in how to connect Claude to Robinhood.

Public: trade in your Public account

Public's AI trading page says its connection works with Claude, Perplexity and ChatGPT, covers US-listed stocks, ETFs, options, crypto and bonds, and costs nothing extra beyond standard trading fees (checked October 2026). It also says trades "may be executed by your AI agent without your direct input on each transaction" and recommends a dedicated account for AI trading. Public's Claude guide (updated August 20, 2026) describes a preflight check showing cost and buying-power impact before you confirm, and notes there is no paper-trading mode. See how to connect Claude to Public.

If a hard wall between the AI and your main savings matters most, Robinhood's design gives you that by default. At Public you build the wall yourself by opening a separate account for it.

Walnut is an AI investing app, not a broker, and is not affiliated with Robinhood or Public. You connect the broker you already have, and Walnut's assistant answers questions about what you actually own: how each holding has done against the S&P 500, where you are concentrated, what a theme would add. You can group stocks into a basket with target weights and track it as one line.

Both brokers can take buys you approve from Walnut. You pick an amount, Walnut shows the order for each holding in the basket, and nothing is placed until you confirm. Both also support recurring buys on a schedule, with one rule that matters: Walnut never pulls money from your bank. A recurring buy spends cash that is already in the brokerage account, and if the cash is not there the run is skipped and you are told.

• With Robinhood, you sign in through Robinhood's own page. Walnut reads all your Robinhood accounts, and buys go only to the Robinhood Agentic account, which Robinhood offers to open during that sign-in (you can also open it in the Robinhood app). Your main account stays view-only. Each holding needs at least $1.
• With Public, buys go to your Public account, and each holding needs at least $5 because of Public's fractional minimum.

Walnut places buys only. Selling happens in each broker's own app. Connecting both is fine: the assistant then sees the whole picture, and you choose which account a basket buys in.

• Robinhood is best for small, frequent buys across many stocks ($1 floor), people who want an outside AI kept away from their main account, a cheaper paid tier with a 3% IRA match, and an agent you chat with on your phone.
• Public is best for options traders who want a per-contract rebate, people who want an outside AI to trade in their main account across stocks, options, crypto and bonds, automated plans that run after you sign off, and the larger 4% IRA match if the $20 Reserve fee pays for itself.
• Either works with Walnut for an AI that reads your holdings, builds baskets with target weights, and places the buys you approve.

Comparing Robinhood with a more traditional broker instead? See Robinhood vs Fidelity or, for another app broker, Robinhood vs Webull. For the AI side in more depth, read every way to invest with AI on Robinhood.