Exclusive: MetaQuotes to Increase MetaTrader Licensing Fees Next Month by “At Least 20%”

MetaQuotes, the developer of MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, has sent a notice to its clients stating that it will increase licensing fees from January 1, 2025, as first reported by the Russian version of Finance Magnates.

Although the software giant did not specify the price increase, an industry source predicted that it might rise by at least 20 percent.

MetaTrader Price Is Going Up

“We would like to notify of an upcoming amendment to the monthly license fees of the MetaTrader 4 products,” the notice sent by MetaQuotes stated, a copy of which was seen by Finance Magnates RU. “Our commitment to providing you with the highest quality products and services has led to an increase in operating costs which, ultimately, necessitated this price update.”

This notice only mentioned MetaTrader 4, but brokers using MetaTrader 5 also received similar letters, with MetaTrader 5 specified in them.

Although MetaQuotes does not publicize its licensing fees, they depend on the packages. According to industry sources, support for one MetaTrader license (desktop, web, and mobile) costs a broker an average of $10,000 a month. Thus, if a broker licenses both MT4 and MT5, they need to pay a monthly fee of about $15,000 to $20,000. The price increases by an additional $3,000 to $5,000 for white-label platforms.

A Monopoly in the Trading Industry

MetaQuotes has a virtual monopoly in the over-the-counter trading industry due to the popularity of its two trading platforms, MT4 and MT5. However, it is now pushing the adoption of MT5, the newer version, over the legacy MT4, and has even stopped issuing new licenses for the latter.

Finance Magnates Intelligence recently gathered historical data on both MetaTrader platforms and is projecting that MT5 will surpass MT4 in terms of CFDs trading volume in 2025.

The company also asserts its dominance in the industry and has made it difficult for offshore entities to acquire new MT5 licenses. The influence of the software company became evident earlier this year when it cracked down on the use of its platform by prop trading platforms to offer services to United States residents.

Interestingly, the pushback against MetaQuotes is increasing demand for its competitor trading platform providers. After the crackdown last February, many prop trading platforms rushed overnight to integrate other trading platforms to continue their services to US clients. Now, most of them offer multiple platforms, with MetaTrader being one of their offerings.

Notably, most prop trading platforms provide their services on demo servers of MetaTrader. Thus, MetaQuotes does not generate any revenue from these prop trading activities, regardless of the trading volumes.