Real-world costs of the "0% - 3%" DMA (Elite Smart Router) fee?

Alpaca Trading
1

Hi everyone,

Newbee here. I’m probably migrating to Alpaca, but I need to nail down the exact execution costs for direct routing. The recent (May 13) Brokerage Fee Schedule update lists the Elite Smart Router (DMA) fee as a highly variable “0% - 3% / Per Transaction”.

I reached out to official support for a baseline calculation (e.g., a standard $40k notional execution), but they only reiterated that the fee is variable and “could range from 0 to 3%.” Since a maximum 3% fee on a $40k trade would be $1,200, this level of ambiguity makes hard-coding risk management impossible.

My questions for anyone actively using the DMA :

  1. How is this 0–3% actually applied in practice? Is it truly a percentage of notional value, or is this just regulatory CYA language for illiquid/OTC stocks?

  2. For standard exchange-listed equities, are you seeing fractional per-share rates, or actual percentage-based transaction fees?

I would really appreciate any real-world data from developers who have already audited their live DMA fills.

Thanks in advance.