What pension drawdown costs across the UK market — UK Pension Drawdown Cost Index, September 2026

Name: UK Pension Drawdown Cost Index — September 2026
Creator: Compare Drawdown
Published: 2026-07-16
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On a £250,000 pot, platform charges range from £0 (InvestEngine, ETF-only) to £1,125 (Standard Life), before fund charges. Plans that bundle fund or management costs into one fee charge £1,225 to £1,350.

The Cost Index tracks what the 20 UK drawdown platforms you can open yourself charge, in one standardised table. Updated quarterly; this edition is dated 23 September 2026.

Download the data: CSV · JSON. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a link back. Follow provider fee changes with our Atom feed.

Headline numbers by pot size

Lowest, highest, median and spread compare platform charges only. Plans that bundle fund or management costs into one fee are shown in the last column and flagged in the ranking.

Pot size	Lowest	Highest	Median	Yearly spread	Bundled plans
£50,000	InvestEngine £0	EQi £431	£175	£431	£350 to £375
£100,000	InvestEngine £0	Standard Life £450	£270	£450	£700 to £750
£250,000	InvestEngine £0	Standard Life £1,125	£431	£1,125	£1,225 to £1,350
£500,000	InvestEngine £0	Standard Life £2,250	£431	£2,250	£2,100 to £2,350

If the pot stayed at £250,000, 20 years of that £1,125 yearly gap would be £22,500, before any lost investment growth.

The median platform charge is £175 on a £50,000 pot, £270 on £100,000, £431 on £250,000 and £431 on £500,000 (plans that bundle fund or management costs left out).

Platform charges assume you hold funds. Some platforms cap charges on shares, ETFs and investment trusts, which can be much lower.

The full ranking

Yearly platform, product and drawdown charge, ranked by the £250,000 column, cheapest first. Fund charges are excluded unless the plan is flagged as including them.

#	Provider	£50k pot	£100k pot	£250k pot	£500k pot
1	InvestEngine Fees checked 3 Sept 2026	£0	£0	£0	£0
2	CMC Invest Fees checked 3 Sept 2026	£132	£132	£132	£132
3	Moneybox Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£75	£150	£150	£150
4	Interactive Investor Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£72	£72	£180	£180
5	Scottish Widows Fees checked 24 Jun 2026	£125	£198	£198	£198
6	Barclays Direct Investing (formerly Smart Investor) Fees checked 3 Sept 2026	£270	£270	£270	£270
7	Vanguard Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£75	£150	£375	£375
8	IG Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£390	£390	£390	£390
9	EQi Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£431	£431	£431	£431
10	Fidelity Personal Investing Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£175	£350	£500	£1,000
11	AJ Bell Youinvest Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£125	£250	£625	£875
12	Legal & General Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£125	£250	£625	£1,250
13	Charles Stanley Direct Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£210	£360	£660	£660
14	Aviva Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£175	£350	£875	£1,750
15	Hargreaves Lansdown Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£175	£350	£875	£1,500
16	Bestinvest Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£200	£400	£1,000	£1,500
17	Standard Life Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£225	£450	£1,125	£2,250
18	PensionBee Includes fund charges Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£350	£700	£1,225	£2,100
19	J.P. Morgan Personal Investing (formerly Nutmeg) Includes investment management Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£375	£750	£1,275	£2,150
20	Penfold Includes fund charges Fees checked 23 Sept 2026	£375	£750	£1,350	£2,350

What has changed since the July 2026 edition

Includes corrections to our own data — see the fee changes log for what changed and why.

Interactive Investor: £252 → £180 on a £250,000 pot
IG: £210 → £390 on a £250,000 pot

Added to the index: InvestEngine, Barclays Direct Investing (formerly Smart Investor), EQi, Moneybox, CMC Invest, Penfold.

No longer in the index: Aegon, Quilter, Prudential, St James's Place, True Potential, Royal London, Nucleus (formerly James Hay).

Download the July 2026 edition: CSV · JSON

What the index shows

Flat fees win as the pot grows

Percentage fees suit smaller pots and flat fees larger ones: on a £50,000 pot the median percentage-based charge is £175 against a median flat fee of £201, but on a £100,000 pot it is £350 against £201 (11 percentage-fee and 6 flat-fee platforms). Percentage-based charges grow with the pot, while flat and capped charges stand still, so where your pot sits relative to that crossover is the single most useful thing to know about drawdown charges.

Bundled plans are a different product

Plans that bundle fund or management costs into one fee charge £1,225 to £1,350. Their fee also pays for the funds or for someone to manage the investments, so it is not comparable with a platform charge on its own. You should know which of the two you are paying for, and what the same service costs elsewhere.

Methodology

Source: published platform, product and drawdown charges for the UK drawdown platforms tracked by Compare Drawdown, as applied by our live fee comparison. Snapshot dated 23 September 2026, refreshed quarterly.
Figures are the yearly charge for running a drawdown pot of £50,000, £100,000, £250,000 and £500,000 (the download adds £1,000,000). The £50,000 and £1,000,000 figures are calculated from the same published tiers.
Fund charges (OCF) are excluded — typically 0.10–0.20% for index trackers and 0.50–1.00% for active funds on top — as are dealing and withdrawal fees. Plans that bundle fund charges or investment management into one fee are included, flagged, and left out of the headline range.
Platform charges assume you hold funds. Some platforms cap charges on shares, ETFs and investment trusts, which can be much lower.
Fees change. Confirm figures with the provider before relying on them. Full detail in how we compare.

Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite this index as "Compare Drawdown, UK Pension Drawdown Cost Index, September 2026" with a link to this page. For comment from Phil Handley, see our press page.

Compare the providers we track at your exact pot size with the fee comparison, model your income with the drawdown calculator, or find your best-fit provider.