The question is not about fees for live market data. The question is about inactivity fee. IB charges 10 USD/month if you don't create at least 10 USD in commission per month. If you generate more than 10 USD/month in commission they don't charge this inactivity fee. In between, if you for example generate 6 USD in commission fee, you have to pay 4 USD. However, if the account value exceeds 100 k USD (or equivalent) they waive the inactivity fee.
My impression is that IB is not interested in the group of customers who have less than 100 k USD in their account and don't trade, but use a buy&hold strategy. IB lives from trading commissions, they are not like a bank.
if you traded like emptying a machine gun you would not have an issue of $12. pathetic or pathos. it is your choice
All of this information is clearly available and explained on IB's website. As the other person indicated, 100k account size waives the fee, as does generating a certain small amount of commissions in a month. If $10/mo is make or break for you, and you don't generate that amount in commissions, perhaps you are better suited for low cost mutual funds like index funds at Vanguard.
I don't like paying fees but it's really not an inactivity fee at all. It's a fee for the data, which technically is NOT free, but is fee waived if you trade a certain amount. A platform like TWS for $12 a month is nearly free. Years ago , garbage with 1/100 the features was $350 a month
Sorry, but I was under the impression that this topic was about activity fee, as mentioned by IB on this page: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=4969 See the section called "Monthly Activity" and select the appropriate row from the table. Market data subscriptions are a separate topic at IB and charged separately, depending on which market data you subscribe to.