Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

This device is too small

If you're on a Galaxy Fold, consider unfolding your phone or viewing it in full screen to best optimize your experience.

Skip to main content
Advertiser Disclosure Many of the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which The Motley Fool receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear), but our reviews and ratings are not influenced by compensation. We do not include all companies or all offers available in the marketplace.
    |    Accessibility Options

Magnifi Review: Innovative AI Investing Assistant, Hefty Price

Review Updated
Steven Porrello
Ben Gran
By: Steven Porrello
Steven Porrello
Steven Porrello
Writer

Steven is a personal finance writer covering topics from mortgages to credit cards to market news. He has written for The Motley Fool Canada, Ramsey Solutions, Nerdwallet, Clever Real Estate, and other major outlets. Steven launched his writing career at the age of four with his first book, "Revenge of the Bad Guys." He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.

See Full Bio

 and  Ben Gran
Ben Gran
Ben Gran

Ben Gran is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has written for regional banks, fintechs, and major financial services companies. Ben is a graduate of Rice University.

See Full Bio

Our Brokerages Experts

Nathan Alderman
Check IconFact Checked Nathan Alderman
Nathan Alderman
Nathan Alderman
Fact checker

Nathan Alderman has worked with The Motley Fool since 2005, making errors his arch-enemies in a variety of roles including a six-year stint as the dedicated fact-checker for The Motley Fool's premium newsletter services. As The Ascent's Compliance Lead, he makes sure that all the site's information is accurate and up to date, which ensures we always steer readers right and keeps various financial partners happy. A graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Nathan spends his spare time volunteering for civic causes, writing and podcasting for fun, adoring his wife, and wrangling his two very large young children.

See Full Bio

Many or all of the products here are from our partners that compensate us. It’s how we make money. But our editorial integrity ensures our experts’ opinions aren’t influenced by compensation. Terms may apply to offers listed on this page.

Magnifi might be for you if: You want commission-free investing with an AI-powered investment assistant. Magnifi's conversational AI assistant can help you analyze your brokerage accounts, do faster research, find investment opportunities, and make better-informed investment decisions. In this Magnifi review, we'll help you understand whether this brokerage with a unique AI investing tool could be a good choice.

Ratings Methodology
Magnifi

Magnifi

Our Rating:

Rating image, 3.5 out of 5 stars.
3.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Bottom Line

Magnifi is an online investment platform that lets you buy stocks and funds, just like other brokerages. But the big point of difference is Magnifi's unique conversational AI assistant to help you research, analyze your portfolio, and make investment choices. If you believe in the power of AI to help understand your investment opportunities, Magnifi could be a good choice. But The Ascent's research has found that Magnifi's AI capabilities might not be advanced enough -- or accurate enough -- to be worth paying the fees.

Fees:

$14 monthly (billed monthly); $11 monthly (billed annually)

Account Minimum:

$0

Alternatives to Consider

We recommend comparing brokerage options to ensure the account you're selecting is the best fit for you. To make your search easier, here's a short list of our best trading platforms of 2024.

Account Fees Account Minimum
Featured Offer
Logo for Robinhood
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
$0 for stocks, ETFs, and options; $5 monthly for Robinhood Gold $0
Open Account for Robinhood
Logo for SoFi Active Investing
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
$0 for stocks, $0 for options contracts $0
Open Account for SoFi Active Investing
Logo for E*TRADE
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
Commission-free; other fees apply $0
Open Account for E*TRADE

Full Magnifi review

Author's note: I've been investing for about twenty years, and I have not used Magnifi; I tend to prefer passive investing with low-cost index funds and ETFs, and I'm not a day trader or stock picker. I'm also somewhat of a skeptic about conversational AI and generative AI. I don't believe that the high-level, human-replacing capabilities that AI enthusiasts have hyped so heavily are going to materialize anytime soon. As my colleague Steven Porrello found when he tried Magnifi's AI assistant, this type of AI technology seems to have some hard limits on how useful it can be -- especially for complex creative tasks like investment research and financial advice.

Jump To

We tried it: Our team's experience

Here at The Motley Fool Ascent, we pride ourselves as real users of most of the products across our site. One of our brokerage experts, Steven Porrello, recently tried Magnifi's AI assistant -- here is his opinion:

Steven's review

The AI assistant is intriguing but, on the whole, it's underdeveloped. While it could analyze my portfolio for certain preset categories, it wasn't versatile, didn't answer all my questions, couldn't give me a clear path forward, and, all in all, wasn't as intelligent as I was hoping. This is a new piece of technology, so I don't expect it to perform without some kinks. But it had a ton of bugs, and the AI assistant's advising limits were rather shallow. I was hoping for more actionable advice and guidance tailored to my values, investing philosophy, and portfolio, not a patchwork of preset answers.

Investment offerings

With Magnifi, you can choose to invest in over 15,000 stocks and funds, but it doesn't have as wide of a range of investment types (or account types) as some other brokerages. Magnifi also allows you to connect your accounts from some other brokerages, so you can use the Magnifi AI assistant to analyze your portfolios in your other non-Magnifi accounts.

Here are the types of investments and accounts you can access directly with a Magnifi account.

Investments

Brokerage accounts

  • Individual taxable brokerage account
  • Joint taxable brokerage account

Commissions and fees

Magnifi does not charge any fees or commissions for trades that customers make. It does charge a subscription fee for its AI assistant, which can be paid monthly or annually (one yearly payment all at once). Magnifi subscriptions cost $11 per month (billed annually) or $14 per month (billed monthly).

Margin rates

Magnifi does not offer margin loans.

Research and education

Magnifi is like an AI-powered co-pilot to help you do investment research. It works like an investment search engine that answers your questions with conversational AI. Here are a few examples of the types of questions that Magnifi can help you answer:

  • "How can I invest $1,000?"
  • "Compare (names of three different stocks)."
  • "Am I paying any excess fees?"

Magnifi also offers educational content and investment insights. A few recent topics include:

  • 8 ways you can start investing today
  • How your portfolio is affected if interest rates drop
  • 4 factors that influence the price of oil
  • 3 uses for impact analysis in your investing
  • Using leveraged ETFs to grow your portfolio

Interface

Magnifi's AI assistant is the most unique part of its interface. Lots of online brokerages let you buy and sell stocks or trade ETFs; Magnifi gives you the ability to engage with conversational AI, ask specific questions, and get personalized insights about your investing goals. You also get interactive planning tools to help you with questions like whether you're on track for retirement.

At its best, Magnifi's AI assistant has the potential to generate investment ideas, identify opportunities to make trades, learn more about specific stocks and funds, and get faster access to market research data and analysis of portfolios. You can even make investments directly from within the conversation with Magnifi's AI assistant.

With Magnifi, you can buy (or sell) stocks and funds directly through your Magnifi brokerage account, or you can link with other investment accounts at other brokerages, including IRAs and 401(k) accounts. This lets you use the Magnifi AI assistant to track and analyze your portfolios in other accounts, and make big-picture decisions across all of your investment holdings.

Magnifi says that it can link with accounts from more than 200 financial institutions, including:

  • Charles Schwab
  • E*TRADE
  • Fidelity
  • Robinhood
  • Vanguard

App

Just like other conversational AI assistants, like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, Magnifi is available via mobile app -- on the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately, the Magnifi app does not get great reviews: only 3.7 stars on the App Store, and 3.6 stars on Google Play. A few recent customer reviews mentioned:

  • "Some things it does well, some things are a complete miss. Its ability to answer questions sometimes leaves a lot to be desired."
  • "Has some positive features but overall I've been let down. Not sure how much longer I'd give this service if things don't improve drastically soon as there just isn't any depth in my opinion."

But other customer reviews are more favorable. One customer mentioned, "When I have questions about investing terminology or how a particular stock has trended, I can simply ask the AI on the app as if texting a friend…The subscription fee is a small price to pay to become a more informed investor."

Magnifi could be helpful for basic investor research and education. But if you want more high-level research and professional-grade trading tools, other brokerages might be a better fit.

Customer service

Magnifi is not accredited by Better Business Bureau and has no reviews (or customer complaints) listed on BBB.org. It has no reviews on Trustpilot either. This could be a good sign, or it could just mean that Magnifi is a smaller, younger company compared to other big brokerages that have more customers (and sometimes attract more complaints). For an AI-driven, app-based investing platform like Magnifi, the company's reviews on the App Store and Google Play might be more indicative of the overall customer experience.

Magnifi doesn't appear to offer a wide range of ways to contact customer service, but you can email the support team at [email protected]. The company also lists two mailing addresses for offices in Boulder, Colorado, and New York.

Security

Magnifi is a registered investment advisor under supervision of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the company says it complies with all controls for cyber, data, and privacy. Magnifi's custodian and broker dealer is APEX Clearing Corp., which is regulated by FINRA and complies with all standards and best practices for security and data encryption. Magnify is also integrated with industry-leading partners like Plaid and Okta to protect your financial data and your online investing experience.

About

Founded in 2018, Magnifi is a commission-free online investing platform that offers a conversational AI assistant designed to help you invest. Investors can use Magnifi to buy and sell more than 15,000 stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. The Magnifi AI assistant can help compare and analyze investments side by side, or use Magnifi AI tools to analyze investments at linked accounts from other brokerages.

Magnifi has more than 45,000 members who have linked more than $1.6 billion of investment account assets to Magnifi as of Q1 2024.

Our brokerage rating methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, brokerages are rated on a scale of one to five stars. We primarily focus on fees, available assets, and account types; however, we also take into account features like research, education, tax-loss harvesting, and highly rated mobile apps. Our highest-rated brokerages generally include low fees, a diverse range of assets and account types, and useful platform features.

See our full methodology here: Ratings Methodology

FAQs

  • Yes, your money is safe at Magnifi. The company provides SIPC insurance for funds up to $500,000, which includes a maximum of $250,000 for cash.

  • Right now, you can find stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds on Magnifi.