MT4 vs MT5 in 2026: I Tested the Timeframes MT5 Adds

Every “MT4 vs MT5” article you have read compares feature lists: MT5 has more order types, more objects, a better strategy tester, native economic calendar. All true, all easy to check, and none of it answers the only question a trader actually has — will my results be different. So I picked the one difference that can be measured with price data alone, the extra timeframes, and measured it.

What is actually different between MT4 and MT5?

Strip the marketing and there are four real differences.

• Timeframes. MT4 gives you 9: M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, D1, W1, MN. MT5 gives you 21, adding M2, M3, M4, M6, M10, M12, M20, H2, H3, H6, H8, H12. This is the difference I test below.
• Order handling. MT5 is netting-capable and supports more pending order types. If you run one position per symbol, you will not notice.
• The tester. MT5’s strategy tester is multi-threaded and does real multi-currency runs. If you build EAs, this is the reason to move.
• Indicators do not transfer. An MQL4 file will not run on MT5. Whatever custom tools you use decide this argument more than any feature list does.

Everything else — charts, the install path for a custom indicator, the order ticket — is close enough that a trader switching platforms is productive in an afternoon.

How was the timeframe question tested?

Same data and the same discipline as my moving average crossover test, so the numbers are directly comparable.

• Data: 16,926 EURUSD 5-minute bars, June 3 to August 26, 2026. The higher timeframes are built by gluing those bars together — 2 for M10, 3 for M15, 4 for M20, 6 for M30, 12 for H1. Any candle that would span a data gap is dropped rather than faked.
• Rule: EMA 10 crosses EMA 30 on the candle close, enter at the open of the next candle, 8 pip stop, 16 pip target, hard exit after 12 candles. Identical on every timeframe.
• Pessimistic fills: if a single candle touched both the stop and the target, it is counted as a stop. No trade overlaps another.
• Costs: every table shows gross and a net column with 1.0 pip of round-trip spread removed.

Do MT5’s extra timeframes make money?

Read the two bold rows against their neighbours. M10 sits between M5 and M15 and it performs exactly like something sitting between them — better than M5, worse than M15. M20 sits between M15 and M30 and does the same thing. Neither MT5-exclusive timeframe found anything its MT4 neighbours missed. They interpolate.

That is not a small result, because the entire folk argument for MT5 among discretionary traders is “more timeframes, more chances to find the one that fits.” On this pair, this rule and three months of data, the extra granularity added nothing that the next timeframe up did not already have.

Two rows deserve a warning label. H1 is the worst line in the table, but it is also only 38 trades — that is a number to distrust, not to act on. And the M5 row losing money is not news: it matches the moving average settings measurements, where fast configurations lost in every arrangement tested.

Does the result hold with different settings?

One rule proving one point is not evidence, it is an anecdote. Here is the same test at three moving-average pairs. Each cell is gross pips per trade, then net after 1 pip of spread.

Four of the eighteen cells survive the spread. Three of them sit on M15 and M30, which every MT4 install has had since 2005. The fourth is M10 at EMA 20/50, at +0.16 pips — the thinnest positive in the grid, and the honest way to report it is that one MT5-only cell scraped into profit rather than that MT5 won something.

The grid also shows how fragile all of this is. M30 goes from the best cell in the table at EMA 10/30 to the worst at EMA 20/50. A platform choice is not what is moving those numbers around.

Which one should you actually install?

My reading of the table, stated as advice rather than data:

• You use custom MQL4 indicators: stay on MT4. This decides it before any other argument. Your tools will not run on MT5, and re-buying them is a real cost against a benefit this test could not find.
• You build or test EAs: go to MT5. The multi-threaded tester is a genuine, large improvement, and it has nothing to do with timeframes.
• You are starting today with no tools to move: install MT5. It is the platform being developed, and there is no measured penalty for using it.
• Do not switch for M10 and M20. They interpolate between the timeframes you already have. Choosing the right timeframe matters, but M15 and M30 were the right ones here and both platforms have them.

And the finding that outranks the platform question entirely: the gap between the best and worst row of the first table is 3.53 pips per trade, all on identical data. Whichever platform you open, the timeframe you trade on and the spread you pay decide more than the logo on the window.

Frequently asked questions

Is MT5 better than MT4 in 2026?

Better maintained, yes. Better for your results, not measurably. On this test the two timeframes MT5 adds in the intraday range, M10 and M20, both finished behind MT4’s M15 and M30 on the same data and the same rule. Choose MT5 for the strategy tester and the newer codebase, not for a trading edge.

Can I use MT4 indicators on MT5?

No. MQL4 and MQL5 are different languages, and an .ex4 file will not load in MT5. If you rely on custom indicators, that incompatibility is the whole decision, and it is why so many working traders are still on MT4.

What timeframe should I trade on MetaTrader?

On this dataset, M15 and M30 were the only two that survived spread across more than one setting. M5 lost money in every configuration and H1 had too few trades to judge. That matches what the EMA against SMA comparison found: the length of what you are measuring matters far more than which flavour of average or which platform you measure it with.

Does MT5 have more timeframes than MT4?

Yes — 21 against 9. The extras are M2, M3, M4, M6, M10, M12, M20, H2, H3, H6, H8 and H12. I could test M10 and M20 here because both divide cleanly into 5-minute bars; the others need finer data than this dataset holds.

What data was this run on?

16,926 EURUSD 5-minute bars, June 3 to August 26, 2026 — the same set behind my Stochastic against RSI comparison and my ADX against Supertrend filter test. Higher timeframes were rebuilt from those bars, and any candle spanning a gap in the data was discarded rather than stitched.