The Options Regulatory Fee, or ORF, is a per-contract charge that options exchanges assess on customer trades to pay for their surveillance, examination, and enforcement programs. Individual exchange rates in 2026 run from about $0.0002 to $0.003 per contract side, but because every exchange your clearing firm belongs to assesses its own ORF, the combined charge on a single trade is larger than any one exchange’s rate. It shows up as a line item on your trade confirmation or brokerage statement, sometimes on its own and sometimes bundled into a general regulatory fees charge.
What the Fee Pays For
Every options exchange registered with the SEC has to police trading on its platform, and the ORF funds that work directly rather than routing it through general exchange revenue. The activities covered are spelled out in exchange filings: routine market surveillance, investigations into customer complaints, main-office and branch-office examinations of member firms, financial monitoring, and enforcement actions. Exchanges also fund their participation in the Intermarket Surveillance Group, which coordinates cross-market investigations into potential manipulation.1Federal Register. Self-Regulatory Organizations; Cboe Exchange, Inc.; Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of a Proposed Rule Change To Extend the Sunset Date of the Current Options Regulatory Fee (ORF) From December 31, 2025 to June 30, 2026
The SEC treats ORF revenue as ring-fenced. Section 6(b)(4) of the Exchange Act requires that exchange fees be reasonable and equitably allocated, and the SEC has consistently held that regulatory fee revenue must go to regulatory purposes rather than to the business side of an exchange.2Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Release No. 34-103005 – Notice of Filing and Immediate Effectiveness of Proposed Rule Change to Decrease the Options Regulatory Fee Exchanges review costs and revenue at least every six months and file rate changes with the SEC when the numbers drift out of alignment, which is why the ORF on your statement can shift from one half of the year to the next.
How the Fee Is Calculated
The ORF is charged per contract side, not as a percentage of trade value. A one-contract trade on a $10 stock carries the same ORF as a one-contract trade on a $1,000 stock, so the charge weighs more heavily on cheap options than expensive ones.
The part that surprises most traders is the stacking. Through June 30, 2026, most exchanges charge the ORF on all customer transactions cleared by their members, regardless of which exchange the trade actually executed on.3NYSE. NYSE Arca Options Fees and Charges If your clearing firm is a member of a dozen exchanges, one options trade triggers a dozen separate ORF assessments. Each rate is small; the combined charge is what you actually pay.
2026 Rates Through June 30
Rates for several major exchanges during the first half of 2026:
- Cboe Options: $0.0023 per contract side
- Cboe BZX Options: $0.0002 per contract side
- Cboe EDGX Options: $0.0002 per contract side
- Cboe C2 Options: $0.0003 per contract side
- Nasdaq (NOM): $0.0006 per contract side
- Nasdaq GEMX: $0.0008 per contract side
- NYSE Arca: $0.0026 per contract side
- BOX Exchange: $0.00295 per contract side
- MIAX Options: $0.0017 per contract side
These come from each exchange’s fee schedule.4Cboe. Cboe Options Exchanges Regulatory Fee Update Effective January 2, 20265Nasdaq. Options 7 Pricing Schedule3NYSE. NYSE Arca Options Fees and Charges6BOX Exchange. BOX Exchange Fee Schedule7MIAX. MIAX Options Fee Schedule Other exchanges assess their own ORFs as well, including ISE, PHLX, NYSE American, and MEMX. Added together, the combined ORF per contract typically runs a few cents, which is why the number on your statement can look larger than any single rate above.
The July 1, 2026 Structural Change
Starting July 1, 2026, several exchanges are changing how the ORF works. Instead of charging every customer trade cleared by their members, these exchanges will charge only on trades that actually execute on their platform.8Nasdaq GEMX. Options 7 Pricing Schedule Because each exchange is collecting from a smaller pool of transactions, per-contract rates at those exchanges are rising sharply. Nasdaq’s rate jumps from $0.0006 to $0.0157, and GEMX’s rises from $0.0008 to $0.0116.5Nasdaq. Options 7 Pricing Schedule Some Cboe exchanges are reverting to prior rates after temporary increases sunset on June 30.9Cboe. Cboe C2 Options Exchange Fee Schedule
Whether your total ORF per contract goes up, down, or stays roughly flat after July 1 depends on where your broker routes your orders. If routing skews toward exchanges with the biggest rate hikes, your per-trade regulatory cost will rise.
Who Pays and When It Applies
The ORF is assessed on options transactions cleared through the Options Clearing Corporation in the “customer” range. That covers individual retail investors and most institutional accounts. It excludes market makers and firm proprietary trading desks.4Cboe. Cboe Options Exchanges Regulatory Fee Update Effective January 2, 2026 If you’re trading through a standard brokerage account, you’re in the customer range.
The fee applies to every execution, whether you’re opening or closing a position and whether you’re buying or selling. What does not trigger the ORF is the exercise of an option or the assignment of shares. Those are post-trade settlement events processed by OCC, not exchange executions, so they fall outside the fee’s scope.
How the ORF Differs From Section 31 and the FINRA TAF
Two other small charges show up next to the ORF on options trades and are easy to confuse with it:
- SEC Section 31 fee. This funds the SEC and applies to the sale of securities, including options. Starting April 4, 2026, the rate is $20.60 per million dollars of sale proceeds. It is based on the dollar value of the trade, not the contract count, and it applies only when you sell.10U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Section 31 Transaction Fee Rate Advisory for Fiscal Year 2026
- FINRA Trading Activity Fee (TAF). FINRA charges $0.00329 per contract on the sale of an option in 2026. It is per contract like the ORF but applies only to sells, and it funds FINRA’s oversight of broker-dealers rather than exchange programs.11FINRA. Section 1 – Member Regulatory Fees
The scope is what separates them. The ORF funds individual exchange regulatory programs and applies to both buys and sells. Section 31 and the FINRA TAF hit only sell transactions and fund federal-level oversight. All three are typically passed through to customers and may appear as separate lines or a single bundled regulatory fees charge depending on the broker.
Tax Treatment
The ORF and other transaction-based regulatory fees factor into your cost basis. The IRS treats transaction costs, including commissions and regulatory charges, as part of the purchase price when you buy, which raises your basis, and as a reduction of proceeds when you sell.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 551, Basis of Assets Either way, your reportable capital gain shrinks slightly or your capital loss grows slightly. Most brokerages fold these fees into the cost basis reported on Form 1099-B, but it’s worth confirming that with your broker rather than assuming.