Best Free Robo-Advisors, and What Each One Earns From Instead
Last updated August 2026
Short answer
Several robo-advisors genuinely charge no advisory fee, and each one earns somewhere else. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios requires a cash allocation it collects interest on. Fidelity Go is free below a balance threshold and charges above it. SoFi earns from its banking and lending products. Empower's dashboard is free and is not a managed portfolio at all. The cheapest arrangement is to pay no percentage of assets at all by keeping your own broker, which costs you the automation instead. Walnut is not a robo-advisor and is not an investment adviser.
“Free” in this category is usually true and rarely complete. The advisory fee really is zero on several good platforms, and a business still has to earn, so the useful version of this page is not a ranking of zeros but an answer to the question underneath: if not from a fee, from what? Once you know that, you can tell which free is free for you.
What each one earns from instead
| Platform | Earns from | Genuinely free? |
|---|---|---|
| Keep your own broker (not a robo-advisor) | Nothing taken from your balance. Products in this category typically earn from paid tiers rather than from your assets | Yes, on the advisory layer. You still pay the expense ratios of whatever funds you choose to hold |
| Fidelity Go | The percentage fee that begins above the threshold, and the wider brokerage relationship | Yes while you are under the threshold, and some of its funds carry no expense ratio at all |
| Schwab Intelligent Portfolios | A required cash allocation the firm holds and earns interest on, plus the wider brokerage relationship | The fee genuinely is zero. The cash requirement is the cost, and it is not billed as one |
| SoFi Robo Investing | Banking, lending and the rest of the product suite the investing account sits inside | Yes on the advisory layer, with ordinary fund expense ratios underneath |
| Empower's free dashboard | The paid advisory service it introduces you to, which charges a percentage well above the robo standard | The dashboard is genuinely free. It is also not a robo-advisor, so it belongs here with an asterisk |
How this was ranked
By how completely the claim holds: whether the advisory fee is zero at any balance, whether a cash requirement or an in-house fund quietly replaces it, and whether the free tier is the product or an introduction to a paid one. Feature depth is noted and does not move the order.
To be upfront, since this is our site: the first entry is Walnut's category and is not a robo-advisor. It leads because paying no percentage at all with no cash requirement is the strongest form of the claim this page is about, and it is labelled so nobody mistakes it for a managed portfolio. On the general robo-advisor roundup, where the question is which robo-advisor to use, the same option sits third.
1. Keep your own broker (not a robo-advisor)
How it is free. No advisory fee, because nothing is under management
What it earns from. Nothing taken from your balance. Products in this category typically earn from paid tiers rather than from your assets
Genuinely free? Yes, on the advisory layer. You still pay the expense ratios of whatever funds you choose to hold
Where it falls short. No portfolio is managed for you. Nothing rebalances, nothing harvests losses, and no allocation is chosen. The saving is real and so is the work.
2. Fidelity Go
How it is free. No advisory fee below a stated balance threshold
What it earns from. The percentage fee that begins above the threshold, and the wider brokerage relationship
Genuinely free? Yes while you are under the threshold, and some of its funds carry no expense ratio at all
Where it falls short. The fee starts exactly when the balance becomes meaningful, so this is free while it matters least. Worth choosing on the merits above the threshold, not on the free tier.
3. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios
How it is free. No advisory fee on the base tier, at any balance
What it earns from. A required cash allocation the firm holds and earns interest on, plus the wider brokerage relationship
Genuinely free? The fee genuinely is zero. The cash requirement is the cost, and it is not billed as one
Where it falls short. Uninvested cash in a long-horizon portfolio is a real drag. Over a decade it can exceed what a transparent 0.25% would have cost, and unlike a fee it does not show up anywhere you would look.
4. SoFi Robo Investing
How it is free. Historically no management fee on the automated investing product
What it earns from. Banking, lending and the rest of the product suite the investing account sits inside
Genuinely free? Yes on the advisory layer, with ordinary fund expense ratios underneath
Where it falls short. Thinner planning and tax tooling than the paid platforms, and terms on free tiers have changed before, so it is worth re-checking rather than assuming.
5. Empower's free dashboard
How it is free. The tracking and analysis dashboard is free; it is not a managed portfolio
What it earns from. The paid advisory service it introduces you to, which charges a percentage well above the robo standard
Genuinely free? The dashboard is genuinely free. It is also not a robo-advisor, so it belongs here with an asterisk
Where it falls short. Nothing is managed and nothing is invested. Expect contact about the paid advisory service, which is the business model.
Get a recommendation for your situation
Walnut is the AI that knows your portfolio: ask anything in plain English, research any fund, and get an honest second opinion. On the broker you already use, read-only, and you approve every trade. Walnut is not a registered investment adviser.
Four questions that reveal the real price
| Ask | Where to look | What the answer means |
|---|---|---|
| Is a cash allocation required? | Look in the portfolio description, not the pricing page | If yes, that is the price |
| Are the funds the firm's own? | Check the expense ratios of the holdings | Cheap in-house funds are a genuine saving; dear ones move the fee |
| Does the fee start above a balance? | Check the threshold, then your expected balance in five years | Free today can mean charged exactly when it matters |
| What else does the firm sell you? | Look at what the account is bundled with | Not a problem in itself, but it explains the economics |
The first is the one that matters most and is checked least. A required cash allocation is disclosed in the portfolio description rather than on the pricing page, and it is the usual reason a platform can afford to charge nothing. Its cost is worked through in robo-advisor fees explained.
Free at a robo-advisor versus free elsewhere
Worth separating two different things that both get called free. A no-advisory-fee robo-advisor is free of the management layer and still charges you through the funds and, on some platforms, through a cash requirement. A brokerage account is free of the management layer because there is no management: you pay fund expense ratios and nothing else, and you do the work.
The first is free in the sense that a service is included; the second is free in the sense that the service does not exist. Both are legitimate and they suit different people, and comparing them on the word free rather than on what is being provided is how the choice gets made badly.
What free tiers have historically done next
One pattern is worth knowing before you build a decade-long plan on a zero fee: free tiers in this category have changed. Platforms have introduced fees where there were none, moved features behind higher tiers, and adjusted the balance thresholds at which charges begin. None of that is bad faith, it is a business responding to its economics, and it means a free tier is a current fact rather than a permanent one.
The practical implication is not to avoid them. It is to choose a platform you would still be comfortable with at its paid rate, since that is the account you may end up holding. A free tier at a provider whose paid pricing you would reject is a decision deferred rather than made.
Free is the right filter only after two others
Price should decide between platforms that both support your account type and both suit what you want done. Those come first, in the seven checks. And if the reason you are on a page about free platforms is that the fee is your whole objection to the category, the honest answer may be that you do not want a robo-advisor: see are robo-advisors worth it and alternatives to a robo-advisor.
FAQ
Have free robo-advisor tiers changed before?
Yes. Platforms in this category have introduced fees where there were none, moved features behind higher tiers, and adjusted the balance thresholds at which charges begin. It is a business responding to its economics rather than bad faith, and it means a free tier is a current fact rather than a permanent one.
How should I choose between free platforms?
Pick one you would still accept at its paid rate, because that may be the account you end up holding. Then compare on the things that persist: which account types are supported, how much cash is required, and what the underlying fund expense ratios are.
Are there any genuinely free robo-advisors?
Yes, on the advisory layer. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios charges no advisory fee at any balance, SoFi has historically charged none on its automated investing, and Fidelity Go is free below a balance threshold. What differs is how each funds that: Schwab requires a cash allocation it earns interest on, SoFi earns from its banking and lending products, and Fidelity Go begins charging above the threshold.
How do free robo-advisors make money?
Four common routes. A required cash allocation the firm collects interest on. Placing you in the firm's own funds, which moves revenue from the advisory fee into the expense ratio. Cross-selling banking, lending or a paid advisory service. Or charging a percentage above a balance threshold, so the free tier is an introduction rather than the product.
Is a free robo-advisor worse than a paid one?
Not on investment quality. The portfolios are built from the same universe of broad index funds. What you typically give up is planning tools, tax features, account-type coverage and human access. If you are investing in a retirement account where tax-loss harvesting does nothing anyway, the free tiers give up less than the comparison suggests.
What is the catch with Schwab Intelligent Portfolios?
There is no advisory fee and there is a required cash allocation the firm earns interest on. That is disclosed rather than hidden, and it is the cost. Money sitting in cash inside a long-horizon portfolio is not invested, and over a decade that can add up to more than a transparent quarter of a percent would have.
Is Fidelity Go free forever?
No. It charges no advisory fee below a stated balance threshold and a percentage of assets above it. That makes it genuinely free while your balance is small and priced normally once it is not, so it is worth evaluating on what it costs above the threshold rather than on the free tier.
Do free robo-advisors still charge fund fees?
Almost always. The expense ratios of the ETFs or index funds inside your portfolio are charged inside the fund, whatever the advisory fee is. The exception is a platform using its own zero-expense-ratio funds, which genuinely removes the layer.
Is a free robo-advisor safe?
Charging nothing does not change the custody arrangements. These are registered investment advisers with assets at regulated custodians, typically carrying SIPC coverage against the failure of the broker rather than against investment losses. The risks worth attention are ordinary market risk and the cost of a cash requirement, not the platform disappearing.
What is the cheapest option if I do not want a robo-advisor at all?
Keeping the brokerage account you already have. There is no advisory fee because nothing is under management, so you pay only the expense ratios of the funds you choose. What it costs instead is the maintenance: nothing rebalances for you and nothing harvests losses.
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Walnut is informational and is not an investment adviser, and nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation of any platform. Free tiers, balance thresholds, cash allocations and fund line-ups change frequently and have changed before; verify current terms on the provider's own site.