Public direct indexing review: Public.com direct indexing fees, the $1,000 minimum and how it compares.
What Public's Direct Index Account really costs, read from its own fee schedule and disclosure, why the $1,000 minimum grows with every stock you add, and when a 0.09% account beats it. Design the index here first, then fund it.
The backtest did not run just now. Tap Backtest it to try again.
Educational only · Never places a trade
In short
Public's Direct Index Account costs 0.19% a year and opens at $1,000, the lowest minimum of any US direct indexing provider. You pick one of 100+ indexes, optionally cut it to the top 50, 100 or 300 stocks, choose a weighting and exclude names, and Public harvests losses automatically each time the account rebalances or cash moves in or out. It is not the cheapest on fee: Wealthfront and Frec charge 0.09% for the S&P 500. Public makes the most sense below $5,000, or when you want an index neither of them sells.
Public direct indexing fees, from its own fee schedule
How much does Public direct indexing cost?
Three numbers matter, and only the first one appears in the marketing. All three come from Public's fee schedule, last updated September 23, 2026, and its direct indexing help articles.
Management fee
0.19%
"For Direct Index Accounts, the annual Management Fee is 0.19%." It accrues daily, is deducted monthly, and comes out of the cash balance inside the Direct Index account. No expense ratio sits underneath, because you hold the stocks rather than a fund.
Minimum
$1,000+
"There is a minimum of $1,000 to open a Direct Index account." Then a second rule: the system sets your portfolio minimum so "the smallest position in your portfolio is at least $5.00". More stocks, higher minimum.
Leaving
$100
The outgoing ACAT transfer fee. Incoming transfers are $0 and an outgoing domestic wire is $25. Nobody reviewing Public's direct indexing mentions the exit cost, and on a $1,000 account it is a tenth of the balance.
Keep two Public products apart when you read about fees. The Direct Index Account is 0.19%. Generated Assets, the product that turns a written prompt into an investable basket, is a separate advisory account at 0.49% on the same fee schedule. Some coverage blurs the two. If you want a custom theme at the direct indexing price, the route is a Direct Index on an existing thematic index with your own exclusions, not a Generated Asset.
Public Investing, the broker, can also charge brokerage fees on top of the advisory fee. Public selects the order routing for Direct Index trades itself, so the $0.003 per share Smart Order execution fee you can opt into on a regular Public account does not apply to them. The fee to watch is the exit fee above.
Basis points turned into a yearly bill
Public direct indexing cost in dollars, next to 0.09% and 0.40%
The yearly management fee at each balance. The middle column is the cheapest S&P 500 direct index you can open at that size, the last column is the big-brokerage price.
| Balance | Public at 0.19% | At 0.09% | At 0.40% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $1.90 | Not open (Wealthfront $5,000, Frec $20,000) | Not open |
| $5,000 | $9.50 | $4.50 at Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct | $20 at Fidelity Managed FidFolios |
| $25,000 | $47.50 | $22.50 at Wealthfront or Frec | $100 at Fidelity |
| $50,000 | $95 | $45 | $200 |
| $100,000 | $190 | $90 | $400 at Fidelity or Schwab |
| $250,000 | $475 | $225 | $1,000 |
Below $5,000 there is no 0.09% option at all, so Public is the only direct index you can open and the fee question does not arise. From $5,000 to $20,000, Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct is half the price if the S&P 500 is what you want. From $20,000, Frec's S&P 500 strategy matches that 0.09%. The gap in dollars is small at every balance on this table: $95 against $45 on $50,000. What decides the choice is usually the index menu and the tax mechanics further down, not the fee.
The right comparison is not Public against Wealthfront anyway. It is any direct index against a 0.03% S&P 500 ETF, and a direct index only earns its fee if the losses it harvests offset real gains you realize elsewhere. Our direct indexing fees compared with the tax benefit page puts both on the same basis-point axis, and the direct indexing calculator runs the numbers for your balance and tax bracket.
Why $1,000 is a floor, not the price of a whole index
What is the real minimum for Public direct indexing?
The rule
Public sizes the portfolio so its smallest holding is at least $5.00. That makes the working minimum roughly $5 divided by the weight of the smallest stock in the index you pick, and never less than $1,000.
Equal weighting
Easy to work out. 50 stocks at $5 each is $250, so the $1,000 floor applies. 300 stocks is $1,500. All 500 stocks of a large-cap index is $2,500 before the smallest one reaches $5.
Index weighting
Much higher. In a cap-weighted index the smallest company can be a tiny fraction of the largest. If it is 0.01% of the index, $5 needs a $50,000 account. Below that, Public holds a sample.
Public states the consequence itself: "a $1,000 initial investment may only enable you to track some, but not all, of a particular benchmark index's stocks." That is also why its customization screen offers the top 50, 100 or 300 stocks of an index. At a small balance you are choosing which slice of the index to own, and every stock you drop adds tracking error against the benchmark.
This is the part worth testing before you fund anything. Build the version you would actually hold (say the top 100 of the S&P 500, equal weighted, without the three names your employer restricts) in the studio at the top of this page, backtest it against the full index, and look at how far it drifted in 2022 and 2023. If the gap is larger than you would accept from a fund, hold more stocks or a different index. Every provider's published minimum is compared line by line on our direct indexing minimums by platform page.
Read from Public's direct indexing disclosure
Does Public direct indexing do tax loss harvesting?
1
Pick and shape the index
One of 100+ indexes, then top 50, 100 or 300 stocks, index, market cap or equal weighting, and any exclusions.
2
Choose a rebalancing schedule
Monthly, quarterly, yearly or never in the settings help article. The harvesting article also lists daily.
3
Harvesting runs at those moments
"Each time your DI Portfolio is rebalanced" and every time cash flows in or out, it sells losers and buys similar stocks from the index.
4
You report it
Losses land on your 1099-B. Up to $3,000 a year offsets ordinary income, the rest carries forward.
The schedule matters more than it looks. Harvesting is tied to rebalancing, so on a quarterly schedule a stock that falls 20% in February and recovers by March is never sold at a loss, unless you happen to add or withdraw cash in between. A shorter schedule catches more of those dips at the price of more trades and more tracking drift. The only way to turn harvesting off, per the disclosure, is to set the schedule to "None".
The wash sale gap. Public's disclosure is unusually direct about this: its software watches for wash sales only within the one Direct Index account and "lacks visibility" into your other Direct Index accounts at Public, your regular Public brokerage account, and accounts elsewhere. If you hold an S&P 500 ETF at another broker and buy the same stocks there on a monthly auto-invest, or your spouse trades the same names, a harvested loss can be disallowed and Public "may not be able to provide notice of such wash sale in advance of your receipt of the IRS Form 1099". Schwab says the same about its own product. Our wash sale calculator shows what a disallowed loss does to your basis.
You also cannot trade individual stocks inside the Direct Index. To drop a company you exclude it in the settings and Public sells it at the next rebalance. That is standard for managed direct indexing, but worth knowing if you expected a brokerage account with harvesting bolted on.
Public vs Wealthfront vs Frec vs Fidelity vs Schwab
Public direct indexing vs the other self-serve platforms
The five US direct indexing products you can open yourself without a financial advisor. Each figure is from the provider's own pricing page, fee schedule or Form ADV.
| Product | Annual fee | Minimum | Index choice | Harvesting | Outgoing transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Direct Index Account | 0.19% | $1,000, higher as you add stocks | 100+ indexes, top 50 / 100 / 300, three weightings | At each rebalance and cash flow, on the schedule you pick | $100 outgoing ACAT |
| Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct | 0.09% | $5,000 | S&P 500 only (Nasdaq-100 Direct is 0.12%) | Automated, ongoing | $0 |
| Frec Classic | 0.09% to 0.35% by strategy | $20,000 or $50,000 by strategy | 25 strategies | Automated, ongoing | $75 full or partial |
| Fidelity Managed FidFolios | 0.40% index, 0.70% active | $5,000 per strategy | Five index strategies plus active ones | "On a limited basis, at the discretion of the portfolio manager" | None in the fee schedule |
| Schwab Personalized Indexing | 0.40%, 0.35% above $2M | $100,000 | Six strategies, no S&P 500 | Automated, ongoing | $50 full, $0 partial |
Where Public wins
The $1,000 entry, and the menu. More than 100 indexes, including thematic and sector ones such as the Solactive AI Technology Index, plus equal weighting and a top-50 cut.
Public vs Wealthfront
For a plain S&P 500 from $5,000, Wealthfront is 0.09% against 0.19% and charges nothing to transfer out. Public is the pick if you want a different index or weighting. The full breakdown is in our Wealthfront direct indexing review.
Public vs Frec
From $20,000 Frec is cheaper on the S&P 500 (0.09%) and on its large-cap strategy (0.10%), and publishes a harvest rate for each of its 25 strategies. Fourteen of its 25 strategies cost more than 0.15%, up to 0.35%. See the Frec direct indexing review.
Match the account to the balance and the job
Is Public direct indexing worth it for you?
A good fit: someone starting with $1,000 to $5,000 in a taxable account who wants to own the stocks rather than a fund and will keep adding money every month. Each deposit triggers a rebalance and a harvesting pass, so regular contributions make the schedule question matter less. Also a good fit: anyone who specifically wants an equal-weighted or thematic direct index, which the 0.09% providers do not sell.
A poor fit: someone with $20,000 or more who wants the S&P 500 and nothing else. They pay twice the fee of Wealthfront or Frec for the same benchmark. Also a poor fit: anyone who trades the same large-cap stocks in another account, because Public will not see those trades when it checks for wash sales.
Not a fit at all: an IRA or Roth IRA. Public offers direct indexing in taxable accounts only, and harvesting has no value inside a tax-deferred account. If your goal is simply to beat or track the market with no tax angle, the honest answer is a 0.03% index fund, and you can compare your portfolio to the S&P 500 to see whether any customization is earning its keep.
Public direct indexing questions
What people ask before they open a Public direct index
How much does Public direct indexing cost?
Public charges a 0.19% annual management fee on a Direct Index Account. Its fee schedule, last updated September 23, 2026, says the fee accrues daily and is deducted monthly, and the help center adds that it comes out of the cash balance in the Direct Index account. On $10,000 that is $19 a year. There is no fund expense ratio on top, because you own the stocks directly.
What is the minimum for Public direct indexing?
The account minimum is $1,000, the lowest published by any US direct indexing provider. The real minimum for your portfolio can be higher: Public sizes it so the smallest position is at least $5.00, so an index with more stocks needs more money. Public itself warns that $1,000 may only track some of an index's stocks, not all of them.
Is Public direct indexing worth it?
At small balances, only if you realize capital gains elsewhere that harvested losses can offset. The fee is small in dollars, $19 a year on $10,000, but the tax benefit is also small because the losses you can harvest scale with the balance. Above $5,000 Wealthfront charges less for the S&P 500, and above $20,000 Frec does, so Public's edge is the $1,000 entry and the index menu.
Is Public the cheapest direct indexing platform?
No. Public has the lowest minimum, not the lowest fee. Wealthfront S&P 500 Direct and Frec's S&P 500 strategy both charge 0.09%, less than half of Public's 0.19%. Several syndicated articles call 0.19% the lowest direct indexing fee in the industry, which is wrong. Public is cheaper than Fidelity Managed FidFolios and Schwab Personalized Indexing, which both charge 0.40%.
Does Public direct indexing do tax loss harvesting?
Yes, automatically, but only at specific moments. Public's disclosure says harvesting runs each time the portfolio rebalances and each time cash moves in or out. How often that happens depends on the rebalancing schedule you choose. Setting the schedule to None, or Buy and Hold, is the only way to switch harvesting off.
Does Public check for wash sales across my accounts?
No. Public says its harvesting software watches for wash sales only inside the one Direct Index account. It "lacks visibility" into your other Direct Index accounts at Public, your regular Public brokerage account and anything outside Public. If you buy the same stock elsewhere within 30 days of a harvested loss, you have to catch it yourself.
Can I buy or sell individual stocks in a Public direct index?
No. Public manages the Direct Index as a whole and does not let you trade single stocks inside it. To drop a company you change the index settings and exclude it, and the position is sold at the next rebalance or when you trigger a manual rebalance. If you want to trade individual names, keep them in a separate brokerage account.
Is Public direct indexing available in an IRA?
Not today. Public's help center says direct indexing is available only in taxable brokerage accounts. That costs you less than it sounds: tax loss harvesting does nothing inside an IRA or Roth IRA, because gains and losses there are not taxed each year. A plain index fund is the cheaper choice for retirement accounts.
How do I transfer out of Public direct indexing?
Public's fee schedule charges $100 for an outgoing ACAT transfer, against $75 at Frec, $50 at Schwab for a full transfer and $0 at Wealthfront. Incoming transfers are free. Before you move, check whether the receiving broker accepts fractional shares, because a direct index at a small balance is mostly fractional positions.
Is Public.com legit?
Yes. Direct indexing advice comes from Public Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, and brokerage from Open to the Public Investing, Inc., a FINRA and SIPC member. Both are subsidiaries of Public Holdings, Inc. SIPC protects securities up to $500,000 if the broker fails. It does not protect against the market falling.
Sources
Public management fees, Generated Assets fee, transfer and wire fees from the Public fee schedule at public.com/disclosures/fee-schedule, last updated September 23, 2026. Harvesting triggers, the opt-out and wash sale monitoring from the Public Direct Index and Tax Loss Harvesting Disclosures at public.com/disclosures/DI. The $1,000 minimum, the $5.00 smallest-position rule, the fee deduction from cash, customization options, rebalancing frequencies, the no-single-stock-trading rule and taxable-only availability from Public's help center. Index count and the partial-tracking warning from public.com/direct-indexing. Wealthfront, Frec, Fidelity and Schwab figures from the sources listed on our direct indexing minimums and ACATS transfer fees pages. Read on September 26, 2026; fees change, so confirm with the provider before you fund an account. Indexes is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Public or any company named here. We make index construction and backtesting software: we do not manage money, place trades or give tax or investment advice.
Design the index before you fund the account
Pick the stocks, the weighting and the exclusions, backtest the result against the full S&P 500, and see how much tracking error your version carries. Then open whichever provider sells that index cheapest.
Keep reading