Fidelity Go is free under $25,000 and uses zero-expense-ratio funds. Here's the full breakdown of how it works.
Fidelity is the quiet giant of American finance. While newer players spend heavily on marketing and flashy app design, Fidelity has spent decades doing something boring and effective: lowering costs to near zero and serving tens of millions of investors without much fanfare.
Fidelity Go is the robo-advisor extension of that playbook. It’s not the fanciest product. The app is fine, not remarkable. The portfolio is simple, not exotic. But the price is genuinely low and the underlying funds are some of the cheapest available anywhere.
For a lot of investors, that’s the whole ballgame.
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Fidelity Go is a digital advice product that invests your money in a portfolio of Fidelity Flex mutual funds. You answer a short questionnaire about goals and risk tolerance, and the system assigns you to one of several portfolio tracks ranging from conservative to aggressive growth.
Fidelity handles rebalancing automatically. There’s no account minimum to open. You can invest in a taxable account, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or rollover IRA.
The Flex funds used in the portfolios have 0% expense ratios. That’s not marketing — it’s literally zero. Fidelity covers the operating costs of those funds through its broader business rather than charging you directly.
Fidelity Go is free for balances under $25,000. That’s the entire story — no management fee, no advisory fee, no hidden cash drag.
Once your balance crosses $25,000, the fee is 0.35% per year, charged on your whole balance (not just the portion above $25,000). That’s higher than Betterment or Wealthfront, which charge 0.25% at all balance levels.
So the math is interesting. If you have $20,000, Fidelity Go is the cheapest robo-advisor on the market. If you have $100,000, you’d pay $350 a year at Fidelity vs. $250 at Betterment. The crossover point where Fidelity becomes the more expensive option is $25,000.
One thing that narrows the gap: because the underlying Flex funds have 0% expense ratios, your total cost at Fidelity Go is just the management fee. At Betterment or Wealthfront, you pay their management fee plus the expense ratios of the ETFs inside your portfolio (usually another 0.05% to 0.15%). So the real total cost gap is smaller than the headline management fees suggest.
The portfolios are straightforward. Depending on risk tolerance, you’ll get a mix of US stocks, international stocks, investment-grade bonds, and short-term bonds, all held through Fidelity Flex funds. The number of underlying funds is small — usually four or five — which some see as a feature and some see as a limit.
Automatic rebalancing runs whenever your allocation drifts. There’s no tax-loss harvesting at any balance level, which is a meaningful gap compared to Betterment, Wealthfront, and Schwab.
At $25,000 and above, Fidelity Go includes access to one-on-one coaching with Fidelity advisors. This isn’t unlimited hand-holding, but it’s meaningful access for a 0.35% fee.
For investors building their first $25,000, Fidelity Go is hard to beat. No management fee, no expense ratios inside the funds, no account minimum. The total cost is as close to zero as it gets in a managed product. If you’re 25 years old with $2,000 and you want to start investing, this is a defensible pick.
The underlying Fidelity ecosystem is another strength. If you already have a Fidelity 401(k) through work, a Fidelity HSA, or a Fidelity brokerage, consolidating feels seamless. Customer service is historically strong.
Simplicity is the third win. The Flex funds are boringly well-diversified. The interface isn’t trying to sell you crypto, margin, or options. It’s a robo that does robo things.
No tax-loss harvesting is the big one. For taxable accounts above $50,000 or so, TLH can meaningfully improve after-tax returns. Fidelity Go doesn’t offer it. If you’re planning to build a large taxable balance, this is a real consideration.
The fee structure above $25,000 is also not competitive. At $100,000, you’d pay $350 at Fidelity vs. $250 at Betterment or Wealthfront. Minus the expense ratio difference, the gap is probably $40 to $70 a year in Betterment’s favor. Small, but real, and it compounds.
Portfolio customization is minimal. You get the portfolio the algorithm assigns. You can’t swap funds, tilt toward ESG, or build custom weights like you can at M1 or even Betterment.
Fidelity Go is a strong pick if you’re starting with a small balance and want the lowest possible total cost on a managed product. It’s also strong if you already live inside Fidelity’s ecosystem and want your investing in the same app as the rest of your finances.
It’s a weaker pick once your taxable balance grows past $50,000 and the lack of tax-loss harvesting starts to matter more than the minor fee difference.
Fidelity Go is a pure, low-cost robo-advisor that works best for investors in the early stages of building wealth. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t have every feature, and it isn’t trying to win design awards. What it does well is get you invested in a diversified portfolio with as close to zero cost as anyone offers.
If that’s what you need, sign up. If you need more sophisticated tax features or more customization, look elsewhere.
You can open a Fidelity Go account with zero minimum and start investing in minutes through Fidelity’s site.
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