MetaTrader 4 Brokers: Why No New Broker Can Add MT4 Now

No. MetaQuotes stopped selling MetaTrader 4 licences, and says so on its own page for brokers. Every firm offering MT4 today runs a licence it already held, and a broker that does not have one cannot add it.

That single fact reorders the decision. The question is not which broker has the best MT4, because the platform build is identical wherever you meet it. The question is which of the firms already holding a licence still treats MT4 as a product it maintains, and how you tell the difference before you fund anything.

What three brokers published about MetaTrader 4 on 4 September 2026

Three brokers are listed because three answered. Exness, XM, HFM, Admirals, FP Markets and Vantage returned an HTTP 403 or 404 to the same request and were not measured, which is a limit of this reading rather than a finding about those firms.

Addresses requested and read on 4 September 2026. Companies are named because broker terms are set by the company that signs your agreement, not by the brand. A redirected address is evidence about that address on that date, not proof a broker has withdrawn MT4.

What MetaQuotes Stopped Selling, and When

MetaQuotes writes MetaTrader and sells it to brokers. It does not hold client money and does not open accounts, which it states plainly on the same pages. Brokers buy a server licence, run it on their own hardware, and connect their pricing to it.

On its MetaTrader 4 for Brokers page, MetaQuotes states that the platform licences are no longer available for purchase, that its development effort is on MetaTrader 5, and that further conceptual updates will be released only for that platform. Its MetaTrader 5 equivalent still invites firms to order the platform and describes licence tiers with different component sets.

The company gives no date for the change on that page, and this article does not supply one. What matters for a reader choosing an account is the present state rather than the anniversary: one platform is sold and developed, the other is neither.

The consequence is arithmetic. A broker running MT4 today bought its licence before the door closed. A broker without one has no route to add it, however many clients ask. When a firm leaves the set, nothing replaces it. Which platform your own account type allows is a separate question, and our page on which platform your account type actually allows compares the two on features and on the account-level restrictions brokers publish.

What a Legacy Licence Does and Does Not Guarantee

A closed licence list is not a shutdown notice. MT4 servers run, orders fill, and the terminal still receives the maintenance builds MetaQuotes ships. Nothing in the wording above says the platform stops working, and nobody reading this should close a working account over it.

What the wording does remove is the promise of anything new. Conceptual development goes to MetaTrader 5, so features that arrive there are not coming to MT4. A platform in that position is maintained rather than improved, and the gap widens by default rather than by decision.

The second thing it does not guarantee is the broker’s own commitment. Holding a licence and choosing to keep selling accounts on it are different decisions, and the second one is reversible at any time. None of the three brokers checked for the table publishes a support horizon for MT4: no end date, no migration schedule, no statement that the platform will be offered next year.

That silence is the honest finding, and it is the one a reader should carry into the decision. You are not choosing between brokers that have committed to MT4 and brokers that have not. You are choosing among firms that have all declined to say.

Why the Official MT4 Broker List Is Not a Register

Search for MT4 brokers and the first result is MetaQuotes own broker page for MetaTrader 4. It carries the vendor’s name, so readers treat it as the authoritative list of who holds a licence. It is not that.

Read on 4 September 2026 it showed 15 broker cards, each with an Open an Account button, several tagged with sponsored labels, and each card carrying minimum deposit, spread and leverage figures supplied by the broker. The MetaTrader 5 version of the same page showed 24. Those counts describe how many firms bought placement on each page, not how many run each platform.

The gap between the two numbers is easy to misread in the wrong direction. It does not mean fewer brokers run MT4 than MT5, and this page does not claim that. It means the MT5 page sold more slots, which is what a listing page measures.

The page says as much about its publisher. MetaQuotes states there that it does not act as a broker, runs no brokerage business of its own, and answers for nothing that happens on an account opened through a firm it lists. A reader treating the page as a licence register is reading an advertising unit as a public record, and the vendor has not invited that reading.

How to Confirm a Broker Runs MT4 Before You Deposit

Three checks settle it, and all three run before any money moves. None depends on a comparison site.

First, request the broker’s own MT4 address and watch where it lands. This is what produced the table above, and two of three addresses did not serve an MT4 page. A redirect to a MetaTrader 5 page is not proof MT4 has gone, but it is a question worth putting to support in writing before you fund an account rather than after.

Second, open a demo and read the terminal itself. The title bar and the Help menu name the platform and its build number, and the server list shows which servers the company actually runs. A firm that markets MT4 but offers no MT4 demo server has answered the question.

While that demo is open, the same window shows the execution mode and the stops level on your instrument. Our page on the execution mode set on your account explains why that setting decides whether an order is accepted at all.

Third, check which company the MT4 account would sit under. Terms differ by entity, and the platform a brand advertises in one jurisdiction is not always the platform its local company runs. The account tier decides part of this too, since some tiers exist on one platform only; our guide to how account tiers change the terms covers what varies between them.

Run the three in that order. The first costs seconds, the second costs a demo signup, and the third is the one that decides which rules apply to you.

Where the Comparison Sites Contradict Each Other

The two editorial pages ranking for this search publish broker figures without naming a source for any of them, and where their numbers cover the same broker they disagree.

One states 7,435 tradeable symbols for IC Markets. The other states 3,583 for the same broker. Neither cites a broker document, a date of measurement, or an entity, so a reader has no way to tell which is stale, which is measuring something different, or whether either was ever checked. The same pages carry a count of MT4 servers, a share of combined MT4 and MT5 volume, and a platform symbol ceiling, each stated the same way.

Dates make it worse rather than better. One of the two shows no publication or update date at all for the guide while embedding broker reviews stamped with 2026 dates. The other shows a publication date and no modified date. On a subject where the vendor has stopped selling the product, a page that cannot be dated is a page that cannot be checked.

This is why no broker figure from either page appears here. Where this article states a number it names where it was read and when, and where it could not read something it says so instead of estimating.

What Happens to an MT4 Account That Already Exists

Nothing changes on its own. An existing MT4 account keeps its history, its open positions and its expert advisors as long as the broker keeps running the server, and closed licence sales have no effect on accounts already opened.

The risk is not the platform ending. It is a broker deciding to move its clients, which is a commercial decision it can take with notice at any time. That is when the cost lands, because it is not a matter of downloading a different terminal.

Strategies written in MQL4 do not run on MetaTrader 5. The languages differ, and compiled indicators and expert advisors have to be rewritten rather than converted, which is work measured in weeks for anything non-trivial. Our comparison of what a broker configures on MT5 covers what changes on the other side, and it is worth reading before a move rather than during one.

If your account depends on code you cannot rebuild, the useful step now is knowing whether it would still run somewhere else, and keeping the source files rather than only the compiled version.

When MT4 Is the Wrong Choice for You

Choosing MT4 in 2026 is choosing a platform the vendor has closed to new brokers and stopped developing. For some readers that is the right trade, and for others it is a cost they will pay later.

If you are opening a first account and have no MQL4 code to protect, the closed licence list is a reason to look elsewhere. You would be starting on the platform with no further development, in a set of brokers that can only shrink, to gain a familiarity you do not yet have. Nothing here transfers, so there is nothing to preserve.

If you trade instruments outside currencies and metals, MT4 was built around a narrower set than its successor, and you may find the instrument you want is not on the MT4 server even at a broker whose MT5 server carries it. Check the specific symbol on a demo rather than the broker’s instrument count.

If you run an automated strategy without leaving a machine on, the platform version is not your constraint at all. What decides that is whether the broker offers hosting near its trade server, which our page on running an expert advisor without your own machine on covers for both platforms.

easytradeweb.com may be compensated if you open an account through a link on this page. That does not change anything stated above, which comes from pages read on the dates given.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MetaTrader 4 discontinued?

Not for traders. MetaQuotes states that MT4 platform licences are no longer available for purchase and that conceptual updates go only to MetaTrader 5, which closes the platform to new brokers. Accounts at brokers that already hold a licence continue to work.

Can a new broker still add MetaTrader 4?

No. On its MetaTrader 4 for Brokers page MetaQuotes states the licences are no longer available for purchase, so a firm without one has no route to offer the platform. The list of MT4 brokers can lose members and cannot gain them.

How do I check that a broker really runs MT4 before depositing?

Request the MT4 address published by the broker and see whether it serves an MT4 page, then open a demo and read the platform name, build number and server list in the terminal. Finally confirm which company would hold the account, because terms are set by that company.

Will my existing MT4 account stop working?

Not because of the licence change, which applies to sales to brokers rather than to accounts already open. The risk is a broker choosing to migrate its clients, and in that case code written in MQL4 has to be rewritten for MetaTrader 5 rather than converted.

Why do MT4 broker lists disagree with each other?

Because most publish figures without naming a source or a date. Two of the pages ranking for this search state different symbol counts for the same broker, and neither cites a broker document, so there is no way to tell which reading is current.

Which of These Applies to You

If you hold MQL4 code that works and cannot be rebuilt cheaply, MT4 is worth choosing deliberately, and the broker to look for is one still serving a real MT4 page rather than redirecting the address to its successor.

If you are starting out with nothing to carry across, the closed licence list argues the other way, and the familiarity you would be buying is familiarity with the platform that is no longer being developed.

Either way the check that decides it is the demo terminal, not a ranking, and it takes less time than reading one of the lists.