A market data fee is a subscription charged for access to a price feed rather than for trading on it. In retail forex the broker's own quotes normally come with the account, but data that originates from an exchange — index and share CFDs referencing listed prices, futures-derived quotes, or depth beyond the top of the book — is licensed by that exchange, and the licence cost is passed on.
The charge usually varies by whether the subscriber is classified as a professional or a non-professional user, and platforms often waive it once a monthly volume or commission threshold is met, which turns it into a cost that appears only when trading is quiet. Charting and analytics subscriptions sit alongside it as a separate recurring expense. None of this appears in a spread comparison, so it belongs on the same page as the per-trade costs whenever a genuine total is being worked out.
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Guide
How Execution Models Work: ECN, STP and Market Maker
Market maker, STP and ECN describe where the other side of a trade comes from — and what each model changes about spreads, requotes and order handling.