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Crypto Futures Fees Compared

Maker and taker fees on the four biggest futures venues — side by side, so leverage stops quietly eating your account.

Updated Oct 2026 · By TokVS

B
Bybit
Smooth futures trading, frequent promos
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B
Binance
World's largest, deepest liquidity
Sign up on Binance

The short answer

On maker fees, all four exchanges tie at 0.02%. On taker fees, Binance and OKX lead at 0.05%, Bybit charges 0.055%, and Bitget 0.06%. The per-trade gap looks tiny — and it is. But futures traders do dozens of round trips, and leverage multiplies every fee by your leverage multiple. That's why this page exists: the fee schedule matters more in futures than anywhere else in crypto.

The fee table (standard tier)

ExchangeFutures makerFutures taker
Binance0.02%0.05%
OKX0.02%0.05%
Bybit0.02%0.055%
Bitget0.02%0.06%

Standard (non-VIP) tier. Exchanges adjust fees periodically — always confirm on the exchange's official fee page before committing size.

What "maker" and "taker" actually mean

Every trade is one of two things. A maker order is a limit order you place on the book that waits to be filled — you "make" liquidity, so you pay the lower rate. A taker order executes immediately against orders already on the book — market orders are always taker orders, and so are limit orders priced aggressively enough to fill instantly. The practical takeaway: patience is literally cheaper. If your strategy can wait seconds for a fill, limit orders cut your fee bill by more than half on every exchange above.

Funding rates: the fee nobody quotes

Perpetual futures — the contracts most people trade — have no expiry. Instead they have funding payments, typically every 8 hours, flowing directly between longs and shorts to keep the contract price anchored to spot. When funding is positive, longs pay shorts; when negative, the reverse. The exchange doesn't take a cut — but the cost is real, and for positions held days at a time, funding can exceed the trading fee itself. Before holding any leveraged position overnight, check the funding rate and its recent history on the exchange. A "cheap" 0.02% maker fee means nothing if you're paying 0.1% in funding three times a day.

How leverage multiplies your fee bill

Here's the math most beginners never do. You put up $1,000 margin at 10x leverage: your position is $10,000 notional. A taker round trip at 0.05% costs $5 to open and $5 to close — $10 total, which is 1% of your margin, gone before price moves a cent. At 20x leverage, the same round trip costs 2% of margin. Ten such trades erase roughly 20% of the account in fees alone. This is the quiet killer of small futures accounts — not bad calls, but death by a thousand fee cuts. The defenses are simple: lower leverage, fewer trades, limit orders.

Fee tiers: what you're actually on

The numbers in the table are standard-tier rates — what every new account pays. All four exchanges run VIP programs that discount fees for high monthly volume, but the thresholds are serious (tens of millions in volume for the meaningful tiers). As a beginner or regular trader, you are on standard, and that's fine: order type and trade frequency move your costs far more than a VIP tier you can't reach. Don't contort your trading to chase a discount.

Five habits that cut futures fees

  1. Default to limit orders. Maker vs taker is the single biggest lever — 0.02% vs 0.05–0.06% on every fill.
  2. Trade less often. Every round trip has a fixed fee cost. Fewer, higher-conviction trades beat constant scalping on a small account.
  3. Check funding before holding. If funding is heavily against your side, either wait for the reset or reconsider the hold.
  4. Keep fees under 0.5% of margin per trade. If the fee math on a setup exceeds that, the setup needs a bigger edge — or smaller leverage.
  5. Compare before you commit. Run your expected monthly volume through a fee calculator (ours is on the exchanges page) instead of guessing.

Trading futures regularly? Start where derivatives traders cluster: Sign up on Bybit

Which exchange for which futures trader

Fees are close enough that fit matters more than a 0.005% taker gap. Bybit built its reputation on derivatives — the futures interface is where it shines. Binance has the deepest liquidity, which means the tightest spreads on major pairs (a hidden cost the fee table doesn't show). OKX offers strong tooling for active traders who want depth across products. Bitget is popular with traders who follow other traders' positions. Pick the venue whose strengths match how you actually trade; the fee table above just keeps anyone from overcharging you.

A note on "zero-fee" promotions

Exchanges periodically run zero-maker-fee or fee-rebate promotions on select pairs. They're real, but they're temporary and usually exclude the pairs beginners trade most. Don't choose a venue for a promotion — choose it for the everyday fee schedule, which is what you'll actually pay month after month.

Funding in practice: a worked example

Numbers make funding concrete. Say you hold a $20,000 long position on a perpetual contract and the funding rate is 0.01% per 8-hour interval — a completely ordinary reading in a bullish market. Each interval costs you $20,000 × 0.01% = $2. Three intervals a day = $6/day. Hold for a week and you've paid $42 in funding alone — more than four times the $10 round-trip trading fee on the same position at taker rates. Now flip it: when funding is negative, you get paid to hold the long. Sophisticated traders check funding before every multi-day hold and sometimes choose their direction partly based on it. The lesson isn't to fear funding — it's to price it into the trade before you enter, the same way you'd check the spread. Most exchanges show the current funding rate and a countdown to the next payment right on the futures trading screen; make glancing at it part of your pre-trade checklist.

A final word on choosing by fees alone

It's tempting to pick the exchange with the lowest taker number and call it a day. Resist that. Across these four venues, the maximum taker gap is 0.01% — on a $5,000 position, that's fifty cents per trade. Your leverage choice, your order type and your trade frequency each move the needle 10–100x more. A trader on 3x leverage using limit orders on the "expensive" exchange pays far less than a 20x market-order scalper on the "cheap" one. Get the big decisions right first; let the fee table be the tiebreaker it is.

Ready to trade futures? Open an account, start on low leverage (3–5x), and use limit orders while you learn the mechanics. The fee math above is your guardrail.
B
Bybit
Smooth futures trading, frequent promos
Sign up on Bybit
B
Binance
World's largest, deepest liquidity
Sign up on Binance

Same fees as signing up directly — our link costs you nothing extra.

Do futures fees differ from spot fees?

Yes — futures are cheaper on all four exchanges shown here. Standard-tier futures sit around 0.02% maker / 0.05% taker, versus roughly 0.08–0.10% on spot. Exchanges price futures aggressively because volumes are far higher.

Which exchange has the lowest futures fees?

On maker fees, all four tie at 0.02%. On taker fees, Binance and OKX at 0.05% are the lowest of the four. But funding rates and spreads can matter more than a 0.005–0.01% taker gap, so don't pick on this number alone.

What is a funding rate?

A periodic payment between longs and shorts on perpetual contracts — usually every 8 hours — that keeps the contract price anchored to spot. It isn't paid to the exchange. Holding a position through several funding intervals can cost more than the trading fee itself.

Do market orders always pay taker fees?

Yes. Any order that executes immediately against resting orders counts as a taker order. Only limit orders that sit on the order book and get filled later earn the maker rate.

Can fees really wipe out a small futures account?

Slowly, yes. A 20x-leverage round trip at taker rates costs about 2% of your margin in fees alone. Ten such trades erase roughly 20% before price movement is even counted. This is the math most beginners never do.

Do futures fees change over time?

Yes — exchanges adjust fee tiers periodically. Treat any article, including this one, as a snapshot. The exchange's official fee page is the source of truth; check it before committing size.

Are VIP fee tiers worth chasing?

Not for beginners. VIP discounts require serious monthly volume. Order type (limit vs market) and trade frequency save far more for regular traders than chasing a tier you won't reach.

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