Spread · Coinbase
How much spread does Coinbase really charge?
Measured this month: €1.71 average hidden spread on a €1,000 buy — 4,192 observations (month to date).
Coinbase vs. the covered-venue average
Coinbase · €1.71
Covered-venue average · €3.56
Both figures from the same August 2026 period, 12 measured venues (list-price venues excluded from the average).
Right now
Live, on a €1,000 BTC buy: €12.00 fee + €0.04 spread = €12.04 all-in.
Heads-up: Coinbase’s Convert / Instant-Buy button typically adds ~0.5–2.0% on top of this — not included above; this page prices the spot order book, which avoids it. Curated typical range, not a live quote.
What this actually is
Every exchange publishes a maker/taker fee — Coinbase's taker fee is 1.20%. That fee is real, but it is not the whole cost. A market order also crosses the exchange’s live bid-ask spread — the gap between the best buy and sell price sitting in the order book at that moment. That gap moves with liquidity and is never printed on any fee schedule.
We measure it directly instead of estimating it: replay Coinbase’s real order book for a €1,000 order, every hour, and record the difference between the quoted fee and what the order actually receives. The “0% fee” venues in our index are exactly the ones this catches.
Full reliability record: /exchanges/coinbase. Live comparison across every covered venue: skontro.com. How the engine measures cost: /true-cost/methodology.
Not investment advice. Skontro is not a CASP under MiCAR. Reliability Scores are information, not recommendations: every negative datapoint is dated and sourced, the methodology is public, and no exchange can pay to change a score.