Best Robo-Advisors of September 2026: 7 Compared on Fees, Minimums and Cash Drag

This page contains no affiliate links, and no provider on it pays us. Robo-advisors are SEC-registered investment advisers, and we do not act as a paid promoter for any of them. See our affiliate disclosure. Editorial placement is decided on published evidence and is not for sale.

By Lennit Herrera, founder and editor, Smart Money Picks  ·  Last updated September 27, 2026

The verdict: Fidelity Go is the best robo-advisor for most people this month. It charges no advisory fee on balances under $25,000, needs only $10 to start investing, and builds portfolios from Fidelity Flex funds that carry no expense ratio. It also has the best long-run record in the only independent live-money study of this category: Condor Capital, which funds real robo accounts and tracks them, made Fidelity Go its 2026 top pick after it delivered the strongest benchmark-adjusted return over the five years to March 31, 2026. If your balance is well above $25,000, Vanguard Digital Advisor is cheaper at a 0.20% gross fee. If cutting your tax bill is the priority, Wealthfront has the deepest tax tools here.

Fees, minimums and account rules verified against each provider’s own pricing pages, Form CRS or Form ADV brochures on September 26, 2026. Performance figures come from Condor Capital’s Digital Advice Report (formerly The Robo Report) and are linked where they appear. Cash APYs are variable and dated where quoted.

This article is general information, not financial advice. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal, and past performance does not guarantee future results.

On this page

• The short list: seven picks at a glance
• Comparison table: fees, minimums, tax-loss harvesting
• What each one costs in dollars at $5,000, $25,000 and $100,000
• How we picked
• 1. Fidelity Go: best overall
• 2. Vanguard Digital Advisor: best low fee on larger balances
• 3. Betterment: best for flexible, goal-based investing
• 4. Wealthfront: best for tax optimization
• 5. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios: best no-advisory-fee option for $5,000 or more
• 6. SoFi Automated Investing: best for starting with $50
• 7. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios: best for a built-in cash buffer
• Which robo-advisor is right for you
• What the independent performance data actually says
• “No advisory fee” and the cash allocation, explained
• Tax-loss harvesting: when it is worth anything
• What didn’t make the list, and why
• What a robo-advisor won’t do
• Frequently asked questions

The short list

• Fidelity Go: best overall. No advisory fee under $25,000, $10 to start, zero-expense-ratio funds, and the best five-year benchmark-adjusted return in Condor Capital’s tracking.
• Vanguard Digital Advisor: best low fee on larger balances. A 0.20% gross fee on index portfolios, a $100 minimum, tax-loss harvesting included and no advisory fee for the first 90 days.
• Betterment: best for flexible, goal-based investing. No account minimum, a $10 first deposit, 0.25% a year once you qualify, and self-directed stocks and ETFs alongside the managed portfolio.
• Wealthfront: best for tax optimization. 0.25% a year, tax-loss harvesting on every taxable account, and stock-level direct indexing from $100,000.
• Schwab Intelligent Portfolios: best no-advisory-fee option if you have $5,000. The trade-off is a mandatory cash allocation of 6% to 30% that Schwab earns on.
• SoFi Automated Investing: best for starting with $50. It now charges 0.25% a year, not zero, and includes a free 30-minute session with a financial planner.
• Ally Invest Robo Portfolios: best for a built-in cash buffer, with a $100 minimum. Read the SEC settlement note before choosing its no-fee version.

Comparison table

Advisory fees only. Every service also passes through the expense ratios of the funds in your portfolio, except where noted (Fidelity Go’s Flex funds carry none). Verified September 26, 2026.

What each one costs in dollars

Percentages hide the thresholds that matter, so here are the annual advisory fees worked out at three balances. These are our calculations from each provider’s published fee, before fund expenses.

*At $24,000 or more, Betterment switches to 0.25% automatically. Vanguard says its net cost for an all-index portfolio is about $15–$16 a year per $10,000, after crediting back fund revenue, and it charges no advisory fee for your first 90 days. Fidelity Go’s 0.35% applies to the whole balance once it reaches $25,000, not just the part above it.

How we picked

We compared twelve automated investing services and kept the seven above. The twelve were the seven picks plus M1, Empower Personal Strategy, Merrill Guided Investing, Acorns and J.P. Morgan Automated Investing, which turned out to be closed. We do not test investment accounts ourselves, and we have not opened accounts at these providers. Every fee, minimum and feature below was read from the provider’s own pricing page, help center, Form CRS or Form ADV Part 2A brochure on September 26, 2026. Performance claims come from Condor Capital, which puts its own money into live robo accounts and publishes the results, and each one is linked.

Five things decided the ranking:

• What you pay in dollars at a realistic balance, including fees that switch on at a threshold and cash allocations that act like a fee without being called one.
• How little you need to start. Minimums on this page run from $0 to $5,000.
• Tax tools, and who can actually use them. Tax-loss harvesting that starts at $50,000 is not the same feature as one that starts at $0.
• Independent evidence. Where Condor’s live-money tracking shows a consistent result over three and five years, it counts. A single strong year does not.
• Regulatory history. Four of the seven providers have settled SEC charges tied to their robo products. We name each one in its block, because a disclosure failure is something you should hear about.

1. Fidelity Go: best overall

• Advisory fee: $0 while your balance is under $25,000; 0.35% a year at $25,000 and above
• Minimum: $0 to open; $10 before your money is invested
• Tax-loss harvesting: Yes, on taxable accounts of at least $25,000
• Human help: Unlimited one-on-one coaching once you hold $25,000 or more
• Account types: Individual and joint taxable, Traditional, Roth, Rollover and SEP IRA, and HSA

Why Fidelity Go? Its funds cost nothing, and almost nobody else can say that. Fidelity Go invests in Fidelity Flex mutual funds, which its own brochure says do not charge management fees or, with limited exceptions, fund expenses. On a balance under $25,000, that makes the whole service genuinely free: no advisory fee and no expense ratios. Every other pick here passes through ETF expenses on top of its fee. The independent record backs up the price. In Condor Capital’s 2026 survey, Fidelity Go beat its normalized benchmark by 0.78 percentage points over the five years to March 31, 2026. That was the best benchmark-adjusted return in Condor’s tracked universe, and Condor named it the best overall robo-adviser for 2026. It is also the only pick here that manages a health savings account.

What we like

• Truly $0 on small balances, with no fund expenses layered underneath.
• A $10 starting point, tied with Betterment for the lowest on this page.
• Tax-loss harvesting and unlimited coaching both switch on at $25,000, so the fee buys something when it starts.
• Top five-year benchmark-adjusted performance in Condor’s live-account tracking.

Watch out for

• The fee is a cliff, not a slope. Fidelity’s brochure says the 0.35% applies to the entire account once it reaches $25,000, not just the dollars above it. At $24,999 you pay nothing; at $25,000 you pay $87.50 a year.
• 0.35% is the highest standard advisory fee on this page once you cross $25,000. Only Betterment’s Premium tier, at 0.65%, charges more. At $100,000 that is $350 a year, against $200 gross at Vanguard.
• You can only hold Fidelity’s own Flex funds. You cannot swap in a specific Vanguard or iShares ETF.

Best for: anyone starting out, or anyone who already banks or saves for retirement at Fidelity.
Skip it if: you will hold well over $25,000 and fees are your deciding factor. Vanguard costs less at that size.

See Fidelity Go’s fees and terms →  ·  Comparing the two giants directly? Read Fidelity vs Vanguard.

2. Vanguard Digital Advisor: best low fee on larger balances

• Advisory fee: 0.20% gross for an index portfolio, 0.25% for the active option. Vanguard puts the net cost of an all-index portfolio at about $15–$16 a year per $10,000.
• Minimum: $100 (or $5 for eligible 401(k) accounts)
• Tax-loss harvesting: Included in the advisory fee
• Human help: None. It is all-digital. Vanguard Personal Advisor starts at $50,000.
• Account types: Individual and joint taxable, Traditional, Roth, Rollover, Inherited and single-participant SEP IRA, plus eligible 401(k)s

Why Vanguard Digital Advisor? Above roughly $25,000, it is the cheapest fully diversified managed portfolio on this page that charges an explicit fee. It is also the only one that credits back part of what it earns from its own funds. Vanguard caps the gross fee at $20 per $10,000 a year for index portfolios. Its own net figure of about $15–$16 is lower because the revenue Vanguard keeps from its funds is subtracted. On a $100,000 portfolio, that is roughly $150–$160 a year, against $250 at Betterment or Wealthfront and $350 at Fidelity Go. New clients pay no advisory fee for the first 90 days, and tax-loss harvesting is included rather than sold as an upgrade. Vanguard also manages eligible employer 401(k)s, which no other pick here does.

What we like

• The lowest explicit advisory fee on a diversified portfolio here for anyone above Fidelity Go’s $25,000 line.
• Tax-loss harvesting included in the fee.
• A $100 minimum, and the first 90 days free of advisory fees.
• Among the strongest three-year benchmark-adjusted returns in Condor’s 2026 survey, alongside SoFi and Fidelity Go.

Watch out for

• There is no human at any price inside Digital Advisor. Getting a planner means moving to Personal Advisor, which needs $50,000 and costs about $30–$31 per $10,000 a year by Vanguard’s own figure.
• The active option costs more and isn’t fully credited. Vanguard says its fee figures exclude expenses paid to the funds’ third-party managers, which it does not credit back.
• The 90-day waiver has limits. Accounts you add more than 90 days after first enrolling don’t get it, and neither do employer-plan accounts enrolled by the plan.

Best for: hands-off investors with a larger balance who want the lowest fee and nothing extra.
Skip it if: you want to talk to a person, or you are under $25,000, where Fidelity Go costs nothing.

See Vanguard Digital Advisor’s fees and terms →  ·  If you would rather hold the funds yourself, see how to invest in index funds.

3. Betterment: best for flexible, goal-based investing

• Advisory fee: $5 a month by default; 0.25% a year once you set up $200+ a month in recurring deposits or reach $24,000. Premium is 0.65%.
• Minimum: No account minimum; $10 minimum deposit
• Tax-loss harvesting: Available on taxable accounts; the pricing page lists no separate charge
• Human help: Financial consultants by phone, video, chat or email on Premium ($100,000 minimum)
• Account types: Taxable, Traditional, Roth and SEP IRA, 401(k) rollover, Solo 401(k) and trusts

Why Betterment? It does the most outside the core portfolio. Betterment is the one robo here that also lets you buy individual stocks and ETFs in the same app, through self-directed investing. Its July 31, 2026 Form CRS says it waives its wrap fee on those self-directed assets. You can run a managed core and a handful of hand-picked holdings without a second brokerage. It also offers crypto exposure through regulated Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, though only in taxable accounts. It has goal-based sub-accounts, and a Cash Reserve account that paid 3.50% APY as of September 21, 2026, according to its pricing page. There is no account minimum at all.

What we like

• No account minimum and a $10 first deposit.
• Managed portfolios and self-directed stocks and ETFs under one login, with no wrap fee on the self-directed part.
• A clear path to human advice through Premium, with the fee dropping to 0.15% and 0.10% on money above $1 million.
• Among the strongest trailing one-year returns in Condor’s Q2 2026 commentary, for its Innovative Technology portfolio.

Watch out for

• The $5 monthly default is expensive on small balances. On $5,000 it is $60 a year, which works out to 1.2%. Betterment raised it from $4 to $5 on January 5, 2026, per Condor’s survey. A $200 monthly auto-deposit moves you to 0.25% immediately.
• Premium costs 0.65%, more than two and a half times the digital fee. That is $650 a year on the $100,000 minimum.
• Its tax-loss harvesting has a regulatory history. In 2023 Betterment paid a $9 million SEC penalty over undisclosed changes to its TLH algorithm, which the SEC said cost more than 25,000 client accounts about $4 million in potential tax benefits.

Best for: savers who will set up a monthly auto-deposit and want goals, cash and a little stock-picking in one app.
Skip it if: you will deposit a lump sum under $24,000 and never add to it. The $5 monthly fee makes that the worst-value setup on this page.

See Betterment’s fees and terms →  ·  Read our full Betterment review →

4. Wealthfront: best for tax optimization

• Advisory fee: 0.25% a year (S&P 500 Direct 0.09%; Nasdaq-100 Direct 0.12%)
• Minimum: $500 for the Automated Investing Account; $5,000 for S&P 500 Direct
• Tax-loss harvesting: Yes; stock-level direct indexing on taxable accounts of $100,000+
• Human help: None. Its advisory service is run by software.
• Account types: Taxable, IRAs, 529 college savings plans and custodial accounts

Why Wealthfront? It offers more tax machinery at a 0.25% fee than anyone else here. Tax-loss harvesting runs on taxable accounts from the $500 minimum. Once a taxable account reaches $100,000, you can opt into US Direct Indexing, according to Wealthfront’s July 23, 2026 Form CRS. It holds the individual stocks instead of one index fund, so there are far more individual losses to harvest. S&P 500 Direct brings the same idea down to $5,000 for a 0.09% fee, the lowest-cost product on this page. Unusually for a robo, Wealthfront lets you pick from a list of ETFs and set your own allocations to them. It also runs 529 plans, which none of the other six list.

What we like

• Stock-level direct indexing from $100,000, and a 0.09% S&P 500 Direct option from $5,000.
• You can customize the ETF lineup, which most robos don’t allow.
• 529 plans in the same account as retirement and taxable investing.
• A cash account paying 3.55% APY base as of September 18, 2026, per Wealthfront. New clients get a temporary boost.

Watch out for

• No human advisers at any balance. Wealthfront’s Form CRS states it does not employ individual advisors. If you are dealing with an inheritance or a business sale, you will need a person elsewhere.
• A $500 minimum, higher than every pick here except Schwab.
• Harvesting only pays off in a taxable account, and it has gone wrong before. In 2018 the SEC fined Wealthfront $250,000 after finding wash sales in at least 31% of accounts enrolled in its tax-loss harvesting.

Best for: higher earners with a large taxable account who want every available tax lever automated.
Skip it if: all your money is in IRAs, where tax-loss harvesting does nothing.

See Wealthfront’s fees and terms →  ·  Read our Wealthfront vs Betterment comparison →

5. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios: best no-advisory-fee option for $5,000 or more

• Advisory fee: $0, with no commissions
• Minimum: $5,000
• Tax-loss harvesting: Opt-in, for accounts with $50,000 or more invested
• Human help: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium, the planner tier, has been retired
• Account types: Individual, joint, custodial and revocable trust taxable accounts; Traditional, Roth, Rollover, Inherited, SEP and SIMPLE IRA

Why Schwab? It is the only large brokerage that charges no advisory fee at any balance, and it had the widest range of account types among our picks, from trusts to SIMPLE IRAs. The price is paid a different way, and Schwab’s own Form ADV brochure (June 30, 2026) spells it out. Every portfolio holds a cash allocation of generally 6% to 30%, depending on the strategy you choose. That cash sits at Schwab Bank, which earns the spread between what it makes on the deposits and what it pays you. The brochure says Schwab doesn’t charge an advisory fee “in part because of the revenue Schwab Bank generates from the Cash Allocation.” The rate you get is tied to the seven-day yield of the Schwab Government Money Fund. That is a legitimate trade, as long as you know you are making it. See the cash-drag section below for the arithmetic.

What we like

• $0 advisory fee and $0 commissions, at every balance.
• The broadest menu of account types on this page, including trusts and SIMPLE IRAs.
• Among the three strongest trailing one-year benchmark-adjusted returns in Condor’s Q1 2026 commentary.

Watch out for

• Up to 30% of your money may sit in cash. On a $50,000 account that is $3,000 to $15,000 not invested in stocks or bonds. Over a long horizon it can cost more than a 0.25% fee would.
• Schwab has been penalized for how it described this. In 2022 Schwab subsidiaries agreed to pay $187 million to settle SEC charges. The SEC said Schwab advertised the robo as having no hidden fees without telling clients about the cash drag.
• The Premium tier with planners is gone. Schwab announced its retirement in December 2025, per Condor’s survey, and its old page now redirects. The $5,000 minimum and $50,000 harvesting threshold are the highest on this page.

Best for: existing Schwab customers with $5,000 or more who value a zero advisory fee and don’t mind a large cash position.
Skip it if: you are young, investing for decades, and want every dollar in the market.

See Schwab Intelligent Portfolios’ terms →

6. SoFi Automated Investing: best for starting with $50

• Advisory fee: 0.25% a year, plus fund fees
• Minimum: $50 before your money is invested
• Tax-loss harvesting: Not offered
• Human help: One free 30-minute session with a financial planner for members; unlimited with SoFi Plus
• Account types: Individual and joint taxable, Traditional, Roth and SEP IRA

Why SoFi? It gets you in the door cheaply and has a strong long-run record. SoFi’s portfolios have been among the leaders in Condor Capital’s tracking for years. Condor’s 2026 survey lists SoFi among the three strongest benchmark-adjusted performers over three years, and among the standouts over eight years. Condor attributes that largely to a heavy US-equity allocation, so it is a feature of the portfolio’s risk, not magic. You can start with $50, and a free session with a financial planner is included, which is unusual at this price. An important correction: SoFi’s robo used to be free, and much of the web still says so. SoFi’s own page now states a 0.25% annual advisory fee.

What we like

• A $50 starting point.
• A free 30-minute planner session, with unlimited sessions on SoFi Plus.
• Consistently near the top of Condor’s multi-year performance tables.
• Investing, banking and loans in one app if you already use SoFi.

Watch out for

• It is no longer free. At 0.25% it costs the same as Betterment or Wealthfront, and those include tax-loss harvesting.
• No tax-loss harvesting at any balance. SoFi’s help center says so directly.
• The strong returns come with more stock exposure. Condor ties them to large US-equity allocations, which also means bigger drops in a bad market.

Best for: beginners with under $1,000 who want to start now and talk to a planner once.
Skip it if: you are investing in a taxable account of any real size. Wealthfront charges the same fee and harvests losses.

See SoFi Automated Investing’s fees and terms →  ·  Read our SoFi Invest review →

7. Ally Invest Robo Portfolios: best for a built-in cash buffer

• Advisory fee: $0 on the cash-enhanced portfolio (30% held in cash); 0.30% on the market-focused portfolio (about 2% cash)
• Minimum: $100
• Tax-loss harvesting: Not stated on Ally’s robo pages
• Human help: None stated
• Account types: Individual, joint and custodial; Traditional, Roth and Rollover IRA

Why Ally? It is honest about what it is: a robo with a deliberately large cash cushion, for people who want one. Ally’s cash-enhanced portfolio sets aside a permanent 30% in cash, pays interest on it, and charges no advisory fee. Its market-focused portfolio keeps only about 2% in cash and charges 0.30%. You choose between Core, Income, Tax-Optimized and Socially Responsible styles, starting from $100. For a nervous first-time investor who would otherwise leave everything in savings, a portfolio that is 70% invested beats one that is 0% invested.

What we like

• A $100 minimum and a clear choice between a cash-heavy and a fully invested portfolio.
• Four portfolio styles, including a tax-optimized one.
• Custodial accounts, which several competitors here don’t offer.

Watch out for

• The SEC settled charges over exactly this cash. On March 23, 2026, the SEC announced settled charges against Ally Invest Advisors. The SEC found it had not fully and fairly disclosed how it chose the 30% cash allocation for its no-fee accounts, including the conflict of interest, from September 2019 to August 2025. Ally paid a $500,000 civil penalty.
• 0.30% makes the market-focused version one of the pricier options here. It is above the 0.25% at Betterment, Wealthfront and SoFi and the 0.20% at Vanguard, and below only Fidelity Go’s 0.35% at $25,000 and up. That is $300 a year on $100,000.
• Ally’s robo pages don’t mention tax-loss harvesting, so don’t assume you get it.

Best for: cautious beginners who want a cash cushion built in and already bank with Ally.
Skip it if: you want full market exposure for the lowest fee. Vanguard or Fidelity Go does that for less.

See Ally Robo Portfolios’ terms →

Which robo-advisor is right for you

• You have under $25,000: Fidelity Go. No advisory fee and no fund expenses is impossible to beat on price. Starting with a few hundred dollars? Our guide to investing your first $500 covers the order of operations.
• You have $50,000 or more and just want low cost: Vanguard Digital Advisor, at about $15–$16 a year per $10,000 net, by Vanguard’s figure.
• Your money is in a big taxable account and you earn a lot: Wealthfront, for direct indexing from $100,000.
• You save a set amount every month and want goals and some stock-picking: Betterment, with a $200 monthly auto-deposit so you pay 0.25%, not $5 a month.
• You want to talk to a person: Fidelity Go coaching at $25,000, Betterment Premium at $100,000, or Vanguard Personal Advisor at $50,000. SoFi gives you one free planner session to start.
• You refuse to pay an advisory fee and have $5,000: Schwab, if you accept the cash allocation.
• You’d rather pick every holding yourself: a robo isn’t the right tool. See M1 Finance, which automates rebalancing of a portfolio you design, or our best investing apps for beginners.

What the independent performance data actually says

Almost every robo-advisor ranking you’ll read is built on fees and features, because returns are hard to compare. Portfolios differ in risk, and the providers publish their own numbers. The one independent exception is Condor Capital’s report, published for years as The Robo Report and now called the Digital Advice Report. Condor opens real accounts with its own money and compares each against a benchmark normalized for that portfolio’s mix of stocks and bonds. Its 2026 survey says the current edition tracks 34 live accounts across 24 providers.

Three findings are worth knowing, and all of them come from Condor’s June 2026 survey in the AAII Journal, covering periods ending March 31, 2026:

• Over five years, Fidelity Go beat its normalized benchmark by 0.78 percentage points, the best in the tracked universe.
• Over three years, SoFi, Fidelity Go and Vanguard Digital Advisor delivered the strongest benchmark-adjusted returns, “largely due to their substantial allocations to U.S. equities.”
• Over eight years, Fidelity Go, SoFi and Wealthfront were the standout performers.

Two cautions. First, a portfolio that beats its benchmark by holding more US stocks will also fall harder when US stocks fall, so this is partly a measure of risk taken. Second, one-year leaders shift from quarter to quarter. Condor’s Q2 2026 commentary put Betterment Innovative Technology, Schwab Domestic Focus and SoFi at the top over one year, while its Q1 commentary led with Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, SoFi and Schwab Domestic Focus. We weight the three- and five-year results and ignore any single year.

“No advisory fee” and the cash allocation, explained

Two of our seven picks advertise a $0 advisory fee on a portfolio that keeps a large slice in cash: Schwab and Ally’s cash-enhanced option. The model works because the provider’s affiliated bank holds your cash and earns more on it than it pays you. That isn’t hidden, but twice now the SEC has found it wasn’t disclosed clearly enough. Schwab paid $187 million in 2022, and Ally paid a $500,000 penalty in March 2026.

Here is how to think about the cost. Suppose you invest $50,000 for 20 years:

• At Wealthfront or Betterment, you pay 0.25% a year, $125 on $50,000, and roughly all of the money is in the market.
• At Schwab, you pay no advisory fee, but 6% to 30% of the account, $3,000 to $15,000, is in cash earning a money-market-style yield instead of stock returns.

Whether the cash costs you more than $125 a year depends on the gap between stock returns and cash yields over those 20 years, which nobody knows in advance. In years when stocks fall, the cash helps. Over long periods stocks have historically out-earned cash, so for a long-horizon investor the cash is usually the more expensive option. For someone who wanted a cash cushion anyway, it may cost nothing at all. The honest answer is to decide how much cash you want, and not let the robo decide for you. If you want cash on its own terms, a high-yield savings account or a money market account lets you choose the amount and see the APY.

Tax-loss harvesting: when it is worth anything

Tax-loss harvesting means selling an investment that has fallen, to book a loss you can use against gains, and buying something similar so you stay invested. Five of our seven picks offer it, with very different thresholds: Vanguard and Wealthfront from their minimums, Betterment on taxable accounts, Fidelity Go from $25,000, and Schwab from $50,000.

Three facts decide whether it matters to you:

• It only works in a taxable account. In an IRA or 401(k) there are no capital gains taxes to offset, so the feature does nothing. If all your robo money is in a Roth IRA, ignore it when you compare.
• It defers tax more than it erases it. Buying a replacement at a lower price lowers your cost basis, so part of the saving comes back as a larger gain when you eventually sell.
• The wash-sale rule is the trap. IRS Publication 550 disallows the loss if, within 30 days before or after the sale, you buy “substantially identical” securities. That includes purchases in your own IRA or Roth IRA. A robo can only see the accounts it manages. If you buy the same fund elsewhere, you can void its harvest without realizing it. That is exactly what the SEC found at Wealthfront in 2018.

For a high earner with a six-figure taxable account, harvesting can be worth more than the advisory fee. For a beginner with $3,000 in a Roth IRA, it is worth nothing, and the choice should come down to fees and minimums.

What didn’t make the list, and why

• M1 Finance. It automates rebalancing, but you design the portfolio yourself, so it isn’t a robo-advisor in the sense this page means. It also charges a $3 monthly platform fee unless you hold $10,000 or have an M1 Personal Loan, and it doesn’t offer tax-loss harvesting. It is a good tool for a different job; see our M1 Finance review.
• Empower Personal Strategy. It needs more than $100,000 to start and charges 0.89% on the first $1 million. That is a hybrid human-advice service priced like one, not a robo.
• Merrill Guided Investing. The online version charges a 0.45% annual program fee with a $1,000 minimum, nearly double the 0.25% tier, with no feature that justifies the gap for most people.
• Acorns. It charges a flat subscription of $4, $8 or $12 a month. On a small balance that is a very high percentage; $48 a year on $1,000 is 4.8%. We cover it in our Acorns review.
• J.P. Morgan Automated Investing. Closed. JPMorgan shut it down in 2024 and converted the accounts to self-directed brokerage accounts.
• Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium. Retired, as noted in Schwab’s block. The basic Intelligent Portfolios service continues.

What a robo-advisor won’t do

A robo-advisor invests money. It does not plan your finances. It won’t tell you to pay off a 24% credit card before investing, or to take your full 401(k) match first. It won’t tell you whether you should keep an emergency fund in cash before any of this, and you should. As the SEC’s investor bulletin on robo-advisers puts it, a robo’s recommendation “is limited by the information it requests and receives from you, typically through an online questionnaire.”

It also won’t protect you from the market. SIPC coverage, which every brokerage here carries, protects up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash, if the firm itself fails. It does not protect against a decline in the value of your investments. A robo portfolio that is 90% stocks will fall about as much as the stock market does.

And if your situation is complicated, like a business sale, an inheritance, stock options or a divorce, pay a fee-only human adviser for a plan. Before you trust any adviser, human or robot, you can look up its Form ADV and disciplinary history for free on the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest robo-advisor in 2026?

Under $25,000, Fidelity Go: no advisory fee, and its Flex funds carry no expense ratio. Above that, Vanguard Digital Advisor has the lowest explicit fee for a diversified managed portfolio, 0.20% gross for index portfolios and about $15–$16 per $10,000 net by Vanguard’s figure. Schwab Intelligent Portfolios charges no advisory fee at any balance, but it holds 6% to 30% of your portfolio in cash, which is a real cost over time.

Is SoFi’s robo-advisor still free?

No. SoFi’s automated investing page now states an annual advisory fee of 0.25%, plus fund fees, and many older articles online are out of date. It still has a $50 starting point and a free 30-minute planner session, but it doesn’t offer tax-loss harvesting.

Are robo-advisors safe?

They are regulated. Each one here is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and your securities are held at a brokerage that is a SIPC member. SIPC covers up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash, if the brokerage fails. It does not cover market losses, and a stock-heavy robo portfolio will fall in a downturn like any other stock investment. You can check any adviser’s record at adviserinfo.sec.gov.

Do robo-advisors beat the market?

They don’t try to. They aim to capture market returns cheaply through index funds. In Condor Capital’s live-account tracking, the best performers beat their normalized benchmarks modestly: Fidelity Go by 0.78 percentage points over five years to March 31, 2026. Condor ties the strongest recent results largely to heavier US-stock allocations, meaning more risk rather than skill.

Can I open a Roth IRA with a robo-advisor?

Yes. All seven picks here offer Roth IRAs. Tax-loss harvesting is irrelevant inside a Roth, so choose on fees, minimums and whether you want human help. For a small Roth, Fidelity Go’s $0 fee under $25,000 is hard to beat.

Is a robo-advisor better than a target-date fund?

For a single retirement account, a low-cost target-date fund does much of the same job: diversification and automatic rebalancing, with no advisory fee on top of the fund’s expense ratio. A robo adds value when you have taxable money to harvest losses on, several goals to manage separately, or want an allocation matched to a questionnaire rather than just a retirement year. If you’d rather do it yourself, see our guide to investing in index funds.

Bottom line

Start with Fidelity Go. Under $25,000 it costs nothing, its funds cost nothing, and it has the best five-year record in the only independent live-money tracking of this category. Move to Vanguard Digital Advisor if your balance grows well past $25,000 and fees are what you care about. Choose Wealthfront if you have a large taxable account and want the tax tools. Choose Betterment if you save monthly and want goals and stock-picking in one place.

Whatever you choose, check two things before you fund it. Find the fee in dollars at your balance, including any cliff. Find the share of your money that the robo holds in cash. Those two numbers explain almost every difference between these services.

Related reads

• Fidelity vs Vanguard: which brokerage for long-term investing
• Wealthfront vs Betterment, compared on fees and tax features
• Betterment review: fees, features and who it suits
• M1 Finance review: pies, pricing and the platform fee
• How to invest in index funds
• Best investing apps for beginners