Quotex Review - Is It Safe And Legal? [2025]
Our Rating: 1.5/5
We do NOT recommend trading with Quotex, here is why:
Quotex is an online trading platform primarily focused on binary options, where traders predict if an asset's price will go up or down within short timeframe (usually 1-5 minutes). Since its launch in 2019, Quotex has grown rapidly by marketing itself as an easy way for beginners to make money online, attracting over 41 million active traders worldwide, mainly from countries like Pakistan, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa.
You’ve likely seen Quotex promoted on YouTube or social media with promises of high returns and simple, fast-paced trading. But is Quotex really a safe platform, and can you reliably make money on it as a beginner?
The short answers are:
No, Quotex is not a safe broker, because it is not regulated by any financial authorities, it does not offer any investor protection, and its fixed time trading model is considered illegal in most countries.
No, you are highly unlikely to make money with Quotex in the long run, because it only offers binary options, a trading type that is very similar to gambling by nature, where the broker has a mathematical edge over the trader.
In this detailed Quotex review, we will break down the evidence showing why this platform is unsafe, how its features can be misleading, and what you should do instead to protect your capital and trade responsibly.
However, before we analyze the risks, it's important to understand what Quotex offers and why it has become so popular.
What Is Quotex? Features Overview
As we mentioned, Quotex is a binary options broker (also known as “Fixed Time Trading”), where traders predict whether the price of an asset will go up or down within a short time frame (Quotex features 5 seconds to 4 hours).
Quotex offers some very attractive features for beginner traders:
The Quotex trading platform has the usual clean, very intuitive interface optimized for beginner traders, just like the platforms of other typical binary option brokers.
Let’s analyze the platform features more in detail:
- Quotex offers 5 - 59 second, 1 - 59 minute, and 1- 4 hour trades. The profits that you can earn vary across different securities, ranging from 20% - 93%.
- Quotex offers 400+ free trading tools, featuring 20+ drawing tools like Fibonacci, trend lines, and price range. The trading chart is customizable and offers 11 trend indicators and 18 oscillators, such as RSI, Stochastic oscillator, and moving average.
- Quotex provides integrated trading signals, claiming an 87% accuracy rate to help traders make decisions.
- Quotex hosts tournaments with $0 - $10 entry fees that enable you to earn bonuses and prizes up to $1,500 by competing with other traders.
Quotex offers over 200 tradable assets, including commodities, crypto, stocks, and currency pairs. However, it is important to note that many of these are traded "over-the-counter" (OTC), meaning the price is provided by Quotex itself and not necessarily from the live global market.
- Stocks: Pfizer Inc (OTC), Intel (OTC), American Express (OTC)
- Indices: NASDAQ 100, Dow Jones, S&P/ASX 200
- Currency Pairs: USD/PKR (OTC), USD/ZAR (OTC), USD/INR (OTC), EUR/CAD, USD/JPY
- Commodities: Silver (OTC), UKBrent (OTC), USCrude (OTC)
- Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (OTC), Ethereum (OTC)
Based on the above facts, you could think that Quotex is an established and legit broker, but there are some major red flags around the broker that are worth discussing. Let’s start with its legality.
Is Quotex legal?
Quotex is considered illegal and an unauthorized trading broker in most countries worldwide, but in many countries, it operates in a "regulatory gray area."
So let’s break down the legal status of Quotex in key regions:
Quotex is illegal in the USA & Canada
In the USA and Canada, offering binary options to retail clients from unregistered offshore platforms is strictly prohibited. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversee the binary options market in the US, and they have not authorized Quotex to offer its services, while the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) explicitly prohibit binary options trading.
Quotex is illegal in Europe (EEA) & the United Kingdom
The primary European regulator, ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), and the FCA in the UK have permanently banned the sale and marketing of binary options to retail clients. As Quotex only offers binary options trading, the broker is illegal for retail traders in the EU and UK.
Quotex is not legal in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Quotex is illegal in India, because it is not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s "Alert List" of unauthorized trading platforms.
In Pakistan, Quotex is not considered legal, as it is not licensed by the SECP, which has issued warnings against dealing with unlicensed entities.
Quotex is also not legal in Bangladesh because it doesn't have a BSEC licence, which is required for all legally operating brokers in the country.
Quotex is in a legal gray area in South Africa
Quotex is not licensed by the FSCA, but South Africans are allowed to use offshore trading platforms at their own risk.
What This Mean for You as a Trader?
You can technically open a Quotex account in most countries (except USA, Hong Kong, Israel, Russia, and the European Economic Area), but your money is not protected by any governmental or financial authority.
As you can see, Quotex is a risky broker from a legal perspective alone, but let’s give you some even stronger arguments why we don’t trust this broker.
SCAM
Is Quotex Safe or Scam?
We believe that Quotex is not safe and you should not open an account with them because their trading platform, trading tools, and service agreement are designed to make traders lose money in the long run.
Take a closer look at some of our strong arguments why we think that Quotex is not a safe broker.
1. Quotex Is Not Regulated at All
Quotex is operated by a company based in St. Kitts and Nevis, an offshore location with no meaningful regulatory framework for online trading. This is the #1 reason we do not trust Quotex and the most critical risk to your money.
This lack of regulation means:
- There is no official oversight of the operation of Quotex.
- Your money is not held in segregated accounts, which means that Quotex reinvests your money and uses it to pay for its operation.
- There is no investor compensation fund to protect you if the company fails or acts fraudulently.
Financial authorities in several countries, including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Portugal's CMVM, and Italy's CONSOB, have also placed Quotex on their official warning lists for operating without a license.
2. It's Easy to Lose Money While Trading at Quotex
Quotex exclusively offers binary options trading, a high-risk, high-reward trading type that makes trading very exciting, but also very risky. It's very hard to be profitable at binary options trading, even for experienced traders, because asset price movements are almost unpredictable in timeframes as short as 5 seconds.
Quotex does not offer other trading instruments, like CFDs or traditional stocks, where traders could open longer trades, choose leverage levels, and set stop-loss and take-profit levels according to their personal risk tolerance.
3. Misleading Marketing Tactics and Trading Tools
Quotex uses misleading marketing tactics and questionable trading practices that make potential traders believe that they can make easy and guaranteed money on their platform. Here are a few examples we found of such unethical business practices:
Trading Signals with 87% Accuracy
Quotex advertises that it provides trading signals with an 87% accuracy rate, which is very unrealistic, especially in fixed-time trading. The broker does not provide any explanation of how these signals are generated or verified.
Quotex suggests that traders can make easy profits by following these signals, but it's doubtful that these signals result from actual advanced technical analysis and are not just generated randomly.
When we tested the signals of Quotex, we had a 45% success rate, which means that we lost money by following the signals.
Strict Deposit Bonus Terms
Quotex offers promo codes and deposit bonuses to new traders, but according to the Quotex service agreement, "these bonuses are subject to specific terms and conditions," and "funds credited as bonuses are not directly withdrawable. When a client performs trading operations, the funds they deposited are used first, and only after these are exhausted can the bonus funds be utilized for further operations."
Brokers often use these terms to make withdrawals harder and lock traders' funds in the platform.
Quotex "Guaranteed Winning" Strategies
Quotex mainly became famous because of the hundreds of YouTube videos discussing "secret trading tricks", "always winning strategies", and "guaranteed profits" from Quotex affiliates.
We understand that these claims are coming from Quotex affiliates and not from the broker directly, but as we explained in our Quotex affiliate program overview article, the broker does not sanction misleading promises, like heavily-regulated brokers do.
4. Many Negative User Reviews
Quotex receives many negative reviews about the difficulty in money withdrawals, blocked trading accounts and bad customer service from its users complaining on Reddit, Trustpilot, and other credible review platforms.
Here are Quotex ratings across scam detection, investing-related review platforms:
- Trustpilot: 4.5/5 Trustscore with 4.7k reviews
- Google Play Store: 1.8/5 with 1.54k reviews
- Traders Union: 4.3/10 on regulation and safety
Here is an actual review from a user on Google Play Store:
“
Avoid using the JazzCash payment method on Quotex. The platform fails to process payments properly through JazzCash, and if anything goes wrong, the support is extremely unresponsive. The so-called "live chat" is just an automated queue system with no real help. Very disappointing experience. Use other payment options or avoid the platform altogether.”
Is Quotex halal or haram?
- Quotex only offers binary options trading which is often viewed as a form of gambling (maysir) that is clearly haram (forbidden) in Islam. Binary options involve a high degree of uncertainty and speculation, which is prohibited under Sharia law.
- Quotex does not offer an Islamic accounts that comply with Sharia principles by eliminating elements like interest (riba) and excessive uncertainty (gharar).
If you are looking for a similar broker to Quotex that is Sharia-compliant, Olymptrade offers a good halal alternative.
Can You Really Make Money With Quotex?
It is possible to make high profits in the short run with Quotex, but it is very hard to consistently make money with the broker in the long run, because the whole trading environment is designed to favor the broker, not the trader.
Here are the specific reasons why:
1. The Payout Structure Requires an Unrealistic Win Rate
The Quotex payout structure is the first major disadvantage for the trader because when you win a trade, Quotex pays out around 80-90% (can be as low as 20% sometimes) of your investment as profit, but when you lose a trade, you lose 100% of your investment.
Because of this unfair payout structure, you need a win rate of roughly 55-59% just to break even. Achieving high and consistent win rate on short-term trades is hard even for professional traders.
2. Technical Indicators and Signals Are Ineffective on Short Timeframes
Quotex encourages very short trades, often between 5 and 60 seconds, negating the effectiveness of proper technical analysis. While the platform offers indicators like the RSI and MACD, these tools were designed to analyze trends over days or weeks. So, using an indicator to predict a 5-second price movement is not a reliable trading strategy, making it essentially gambling on random market "noise."
We also tested the Quotex signals on a random sample of 500 trades, and we only saw a win rate of 45%, making the advertised 87% trading signal accuracy unreliable.
Overall, the trading tools provided by Quotex create a false sense of control, making you believe you are analyzing the market when in reality, you are just making random bets.
3. The OTC Price Feed Creates a Major Conflict of Interest
Quotex uses an Over-the-Counter (OTC) price feed for many of its assets, especially during weekends. This means the price you see is not the live global market price, but a price stream generated and controlled by Quotex itself.
This creates a massive conflict of interest, as you are placing a bet against the broker in a game where the broker also controls the “score”. Even if your prediction is correct based on real-world market action, the OTC price can be slightly different, causing you to lose the trade.
4. Blocked Accounts and Withdrawal Problems
Even if a Quotex trader gets lucky and makes a profit against these odds, you can face challenges withdrawing your hard-earned money.
As we mentioned earlier, many user complaints show that Quotex often blocks accounts and rejects withdrawals if a trader is successful. This means making a profit on the platform is not the same as actually receiving your money in your bank account.
What is the Best Quotex Alternative?
After learning about the risks of an unregulated, binary-options-only broker like Quotex, the logical next step is to find a safer alternative. There are many similar brokers to Quotex like Olymptrade, Binomo or IQ Option and we have compared some of them with Quotex:
However, the best Quotex alternative is not simply another binary options platform, because all these platforms essentially offer the same core features, unfair payout structure and none of them is regulated by a strong financial authority. The solution is to choose a broker that meets two critical standards:
- It Must Be Regulated by a Reputable Authority. The broker should be licensed by a real financial regulator (like the FSCA in South Africa, or top-tier authorities like CySEC or the FCA). This ensures your funds have proper legal protection.
- It Must Offer a Fairer, Skill-Based Trading Model. The broker should offer Forex and CFD (contract for difference) trading , which enables you a similarly high profitibality than trading on Quotex, but CFDs offer fair payouts and you can actually use trading indicators and other tools to correctly predict price movements.
Although we do not recommend using Quotex due to the significant risks involved, this review would not be complete without answering the most common practical questions about the platform. The following sections provide a factual overview of how to open an account, the different account types, and the deposit and withdrawal process.
Quotex Mobile App
Quotex only offers an official Android App for mobile traders, but it often faces technical issues, particularly with depositing funds. Quotex does not have an iOS app, a desktop app, or an official APK version you could download.
If you really want to trade on Quotex, we suggest that you stick with the official web platform instead of downloading unverified or buggy apps, because it’s a more technically secured, stable, and user-friendly trading environment.
Account Opening
The account opening process is very simple at Quotex, and if you want to open a trading account with them despite our warning, go to their official website or download their mobile app from the Google Play Store. Then, follow the steps below:
Step 1:
Go to the Sign Up page.
Step 2:
Choose your country of residence and preferred currency. Available currencies include USD, EUR, GBP, and BRL. Your chosen currency affects your deposit options.
Step 3:
Enter your e-mail address and create a strong password.
Step 4:
Confirm that you are 18+ years old and not a US citizen/resident, and click the “Registration” button.
Note: You can also sign in using your Facebook or Google account.
Step 5:
You can then input your complete name, date of birth, and address on the accounts tab later.
To protect your Quotex account and prevent unauthorized people from logging in, we suggest you set up 2FA and other security measures after creating your trading account.
After these simple steps, you can start trading with a free demo account immediately.
Account Types
Quotex offers two account types, a live account for real money traders and a free, $10,000 demo account to try out their platform and practice trading strategies. Here’s an overview of each account type:
Live Account
The live account provides you access to all features of the Quotex trading platform, where you use your real money to make actual trades for profit. The live account is comprised of three levels determined by your maintaining balance:
- Standard: Beginner-level account that doesn’t require maintaining balance.
- Pro: Casual traders level requiring 4,000+ GBP, 4,700+ EUR, or 5,000+ USD of balance. Pro level provides a +2% profit increase with better market promotions than the standard tier.
- VIP: Professional traders level requiring 8,000+ GBP, 9,400+ EUR, or 10,000+ USD of balance. VIP level provides a +4% profit increase with the best market promotions and overall benefits.
Demo Account
The Quotex demo account allows you to test out the binary options trading without risking your real money. This allows you to check the tools featured and practice whether your strategies would work with Quotex. The demo account provides you with a $10,000 virtual money that you can reset anytime, where you can test the same indicators and other charting tools on live accounts. However, the Tournaments feature is not available in the demo, so you would have to use your own money if you want to participate in these events.
Money Deposit and Withdrawal
Quotex offers a wide selection of deposit and withdrawal methods, including credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), cryptocurrencies (e.g, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, etc), and local banks or e-wallets in emerging countries (e.g., JazzCash, UPI, OVO, GCash).
The minimum deposit at Quotex is $10 for most countries and payment methods (just like at most binary options brokers), and the broker does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees.
To withdraw money from your Quotex account, you have to use the same payment method that you used to deposit money. Quotex withdrawal requests are usually processed quickly (typically between 1-5 business days).
Our rating
Verdict: Not recommended
We don’t recommend Quotex because it’s an unregulated binary options broker, where you’ll likely lose your money in the long run.
Additionally, your funds are not protected by any trusted financial authority and you have no legal recourse if something goes wrong.
If you want to get started with online trading, we recommend using a regulated broker, which offers a similarly beginner-friendly platform to Quotex, but offers much stronger investor protection and fair trading conditions.
Quotex FAQs
Whether Quotex is gambling or not depends mainly on your trading experience level. Quotex is a binary options platform, and for most Quotex users, trading on the platform is very similar to gambling as they bet on short-term price movements with limited financial knowledge, and they either receive a high fixed payout or lose their entire bet, just like in a casino.
However, asset price movements are not random, and experienced traders can predict them to some extent, so for them, Quotex is similar to trading with other financial derivatives.
Risk Warning & Legal Disclaimer:
The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. We do not provide personal recommendations and are not responsible for any losses resulting from your trading activity. Online trading involves significant risk — especially fixed time trades and CFDs, which are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Always ensure you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Users are solely responsible for complying with their local laws and regulations.
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