Quote from JackR:
There is only a fee if you do not trade and just enter and cancel. Your actual cancel charge can go from zero to a bunch depending on what you do on any given day.
Cancelling an order costs $1.20 per order no matter how many contracts are on the order.
Credit against the cancel fee is based on contracts and is $0.20 or $.25 per contract executed depending on routing selected. There are credit caps shown in the examples below.
When an order expires there is no fee.
Here are the examples from the IB web site -
US Options executed through TWS via SMART:
Customer enters 3 option orders, each for 2 contracts, and cancels all three orders.
1 option order for 20 contracts is later executed.
3 x $1.20 = $3.60 Cancel Fee
20 x $0.25 = $5.00 Execution Credit; the cap is $3.75
Since credits are greater than cancel fee, nothing is charged.
US Options executed through TWS Direct to a Specific Exchange:
Customer enters 3 option orders, each for 2 contracts and cancels all three orders.
1 option order for 10 contracts is later executed.
3 x $1.20 = $3.60 Cancel Fee
10 x $0.20 = $2.00 Execution Credit; the cap is $1.20
$2.40 in cancellation fees is charged.