Ask Price

What is the ask price?

Every quote on a currency pair shows two prices side by side: the bid and the ask (sometimes called the “offer”). The ask price is the price at which your broker is willing to sell the base currency to you. It’s the price you get filled at when you buy, or go long, on a pair.

For example, if EUR/USD is quoted as 1.0850 / 1.0852, the ask price is 1.0852. Place a buy order right now, and your position opens at 1.0852, not 1.0850.

Ask vs. bid: reading a two-sided quote

The ask is always the higher of the two prices, sitting just above the bid. That small gap is the spread — the broker’s built-in cost of facilitating the trade, usually quoted in pips. In the example above, the spread is 1.0852 − 1.0850 = 0.0002, or 2 pips.

Worked example

Suppose EUR/USD is quoted at a bid of 1.0850 and an ask of 1.0852. You buy 1 standard lot, opening your long position at the ask price, 1.0852. Immediately after entry, the price would need to rise back above your entry (and cross the spread) before the trade shows a profit — this is why the spread is described as a cost paid at entry, not a fee billed separately.

If EUR/USD then rises to 1.0900 and you close by selling at the bid, you’ve captured roughly a 48-pip net move, worth about $480 on a standard lot.

Why it matters to a trader

Every buy order executes at the ask, making it the key number for planning long entries, setting stop-loss distances, and estimating the real cost of entering a trade. Comparing the ask against the bid — the spread — is one of the simplest, most direct ways to judge how competitively a broker prices a given pair.

Quick recap

• The ask price is what you pay when buying a currency pair.
• It’s always higher than the bid price; the difference is the spread.
• Ask and bid together define the true cost of entering or exiting a position.