Measured data · last updated 26 September 2026
How wide do forex spreads get during high-impact news releases?
At the biggest US releases — CPI, Nonfarm Payrolls and Fed rate decisions — the typical broker account's spread on the major pairs more than doubled in the half-minute around the release: EURUSD reached 5 pips against a normal spread of 2.1, and GBPUSD and USDJPY reached 7–10 pips against under 3. At 1 release in 10 the typical account reached 8–15 pips, and the widest account at a release typically showed 12.5–24 pips.
These are measurements, not estimates: our software records spreads second by second on the broker accounts it is connected to when each release prints, across 35 to 65 releases of each type from March 2021 to September 2026. The method is set out in full below.
Normal spread vs spread at news time, by pair
| Pair | Normal spread | Typical account at news time (median release) |
Typical account (1 release in 10) |
Widest account (median release) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSD | 2.1 | 5.0 | 8.0–8.6 | 12.5–15.5 |
| GBPUSD | 2.3 | 7.0–8.0 | 13.0–13.7 | 19.5–23.0 |
| USDJPY | 2.7 | 8.0–10.0 | 13.0–15.0 | 20.0–24.0 |
All figures in pips. Each range runs from the lowest to the highest of the three releases (US CPI, Nonfarm Payrolls, Fed rate decision); the full breakdown by release is in the next table. The normal spread is a separate measurement, from Impact's spread panel (see the method below). CPI and Nonfarm Payrolls print at a time when other data often prints in the same second, so their figures describe the market at that moment, not one release in isolation.
What this page does not cover: other releases, minor and exotic pairs, and how long spreads take to return to normal after the release. The figures are the widest spread in a window of about 5 seconds before to about 25 seconds after each release.
By release and pair, in pips
| Release · pair | Releases measured | Typical account (median release) |
Typical account (1 release in 10) |
Widest account (median release) |
Normal spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US CPI · EURUSD | 58 | 5.0 | 8.4 | 12.5 | 2.1 |
| US CPI · GBPUSD | 55 | 8.0 | 13.0 | 22.0 | 2.3 |
| US CPI · USDJPY | 58 | 10.0 | 15.0 | 24.0 | 2.7 |
| Nonfarm Payrolls · EURUSD | 65 | 5.0 | 8.6 | 14.0 | 2.1 |
| Nonfarm Payrolls · GBPUSD | 60 | 8.0 | 13.0 | 23.0 | 2.3 |
| Nonfarm Payrolls · USDJPY | 64 | 8.0 | 15.0 | 22.0 | 2.7 |
| Fed rate decision · EURUSD | 37 | 5.0 | 8.0 | 15.5 | 2.1 |
| Fed rate decision · GBPUSD | 35 | 7.0 | 13.7 | 19.5 | 2.3 |
| Fed rate decision · USDJPY | 38 | 8.0 | 13.0 | 20.0 | 2.7 |
Releases from March 2021 to September 2026. All figures in pips. "Typical account" is the middle account at a release; "widest account" is the single widest account at that release. Each column is then summarised across releases, as labelled.
What the table shows
- Spreads more than double at the typical account. EURUSD goes from 2.1 pips to 5 at the median CPI or Nonfarm Payrolls release; GBPUSD and USDJPY go from under 3 pips to 8–10.
- One release in ten is much wider. At the typical account, 1 US release in 10 took EURUSD to around 8.5 pips and GBPUSD or USDJPY to 13–15.
- Accounts differ widely. At the same release, the widest account typically showed roughly two and a half to three times what the middle account did. Which account you trade on matters as much as which release it is.
Impact reports what happened. It gives no trading advice, and past spreads say nothing certain about the next release.
How this was measured
- Window. For each release, our software records the spread each connected broker account showed every second, from about 5 seconds before the release time to about 25 seconds after it.
- Per account. For each account we take the widest spread it showed in that window, converted to pips.
- Per release. Across the broker accounts our software is connected to at that moment, we record the smallest, the middle (median) and the widest of those figures. Which accounts are connected varies from release to release.
- Across releases. The table gives the median of those per-release figures, plus the 90th percentile for the typical account.
- Which releases. US Consumer Price Index (month on month), US Nonfarm Payrolls and the Federal Reserve interest-rate decision, matched by their scheduled time. Other data often prints at the same second (at 12:30 UTC, US and Canadian releases frequently land together), so a figure describes the market at that moment, not one release in isolation.
- Normal spread. The median quoted spread for the pair across Impact's spread panel, the figure Impact shows as "normal spread", at 25 September 2026. It is a separate measurement from the news-time accounts above.
- Updates. Figures are as of 25 September 2026 and will be refreshed as new releases are recorded.
See also: how much EUR/USD, USD/JPY and gold move after Nonfarm Payrolls and after Fed decisions, EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY after US CPI, how much gold moves after the US CPI release, measured minute by minute, and prop firms' news-trading rules next to these measurements.
See it for every release
Impact shows this for each economic release as it happens: the spread at news time for every instrument the release moved, next to the normal spread, with second-by-second reaction charts and every past occurrence of the same release.