Their website says $0.65 per contract. Anyway to lower this? I also figured out the lower priced contracts below 0.13 get a discount of 0.05 for each 0.01 lower ie. 0.12 is $0.60 0.11 $0.55 etc.
Not sure you can get a lower rate at Fidelity. Some other brokers charge less (contract fee), but may make it up with customers having to pay a higher spread. There is "no free lunch", in case you hadn't guessed so far. EVERYBODY who handles a trade or provides a service needs to get paid.. by somebody.... otherwise they wouldn't be able to stay in business. Terms/players not always obvious.
NBBO says you can't be filled at a worse price unless you're looking for liquidity that isn't readily accessible. Fidelity also has access to dark liquidity so that good size should be available. If you trade thousands of contracts a day you can get rates down to 20 cents plus fees. You can also get closing at a nickel and under free plus fees. Having $5 million or more in equities can also get you a cheap rate again plus fees. Fees are really a big deal in SPX and VIX or when you need a high-touch trade. $5 million puts you on an institutional desk where some of the best rates live. There will also be a lot of fine print in those rates. Read up on three topics - Option Linkage - Preferenced Liquidity and Market Maker step up.