Crypto exchanges compared: maker and taker fees, spreads and rules
Every rate here comes off the venue's own fee schedule, read down to the last step, and each record shows the day it was checked. The ranking grades disclosure, and what a venue lets you trade belongs to the grid, which the score ignores.
How much do crypto exchange fees cost per trade?
Every exchange here bills the same unit: a percentage of every trade, and it drops as your 30-day volume grows. Not one of the eight sells a seat. The only dollar figures in the category are two memberships at $4.99, and each waives trading fees up to a volume cap, verified July 29, 2026.
The unit of the bill is one trade. Each fill carries a maker or a taker rate, and the rate steps down as 30-day volume rises.
Two of the 8 sell a membership instead. It costs $4.99 monthly and waives trading fees only up to a volume cap.
The published rate is not the whole price. Buying through a one-click widget adds a spread that no fee schedule prices.
What you trade moves the rate as much as how much you trade. Fiat pairs and thin-liquidity coins sit above major pairs at the same tier.
A tier is not always earned by trading. Several venues read your asset balance or your holding of their own token, whichever puts you higher.
Withdrawal sits outside the maker and taker schedule everywhere here. It is quoted per asset and per network at the moment you send.
Ranked by a transparency score: pricing transparency 60%, user satisfaction 40%. Capability is not scored. It is the condition grid below. Prices are read from vendor pricing pages and re-checked per product on the dates shown. ComparEdge sells no crypto exchanges and takes no payment for placement. How the score is built.
01 / 06
Crypto exchanges ranked: fee disclosure, regulation and copy trading
Two rows here carry a monthly price, and both of them are memberships. Everything else is priced per trade, so the fee schedule that decides your cost lives inside each record, not on the axis.
Sorted by transparency scorePriced tiers 4 / 4Full disclosure 2 / 8How to read this table
Reading the console
Only two venues here publish a monthly figure, and both figures buy a membership rather than access, so the axis carries two marks and a lot of empty space. Every other row reads Priced per trade, public fee schedule. That is not a withheld price. The rate is public, it simply is not monthly, and the schedule behind it sits in the record below. Where the entry column reads Per trade, holding the account costs nothing and the money starts at your first fill.
Price axis
One shared logarithmic axis, $4.99 to $299.99. A tick further right is genuinely dearer. The tall tick is the cheapest paid tier.
Diamond
A flat platform fee, billed per month, not per seat.
Granted
Listed on the vendor’s own pages on the verify date.
Conditional
Present, but some tiers carry no published price.
Not on the record
Absent from the recorded feature set. It means unlisted, not incapable.
01BybitPriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions listedPer trade85Alternatives to Bybit
02KrakenFree tierAll tiers pricedRegulated listedCopy trading not on the recordOptions not on the record$4.99flat84Alternatives to Kraken
03OKXPriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions listedPer trade83Alternatives to OKX
04CoinbaseNo free tierAll tiers pricedRegulated listedCopy trading not on the recordOptions not on the record$4.99flat80Alternatives to Coinbase
05BinancePriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions listedPer trade78Alternatives to Binance
06BitgetPriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions not on the recordPer trade73Alternatives to Bitget
07KuCoinPriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions not on the recordPer trade71Alternatives to KuCoin
08Gate.ioPriced per trade, public fee scheduleFree tier0 of 0 tiers pricedRegulated not on the recordCopy trading listedOptions not on the recordPer trade69Alternatives to Gate.io
GrantedSome tiers sealedNot on the recordFlat account fee, not per seatScore ranks pricing transparency and user ratings, not capability. Capability is the grid.
Scroll the console sideways to reach the remaining conditions.
02 / 06
Every exchange's fee schedule and the date we checked each rate
Each table below is a fee schedule rather than a price list. Every row is a 30-day volume tier, and the money is the maker and taker rate the venue takes on each fill. A row marked Contact sales is not sales-gated here: the tier arrives on its own once your volume or your balance qualifies, and nobody negotiates it. Coinbase and Kraken are the two exceptions, each also selling a membership, and that is the figure the axis marks.
Perpetuals and copy trading in one account, for traders who use an exchange to execute rather than to hold. Spot is not the main event at Bybit, and its fiat pairs cost more than its crypto pairs at the same level.
Spot, perpetuals and options each run their own ladder, so a rate quoted on one tab means nothing on the next. The spot ladder is seven steps end to end, and the published table is only the global case: verified accounts read their own.
Where Bybit holds up
Top-tier derivatives trading with deep perpetual contract liquidity
Copy trading with transparent trader performance histories
Built-in trading bots (Grid, DCA) included at no extra cost
Strong liquidity post-FTX migration from competing exchanges
Anyone funding in dollars or euros who wants a licensed venue holding the balance, rather than the widest coin list. Kraken publishes futures rates far under its spot rates, which is unusual for a venue this conservative.
Critical gapThe interface exhibits latency during high-load periods.
Plan table and expert take
Kraken: expert take
Instant buys and Pro orders are two price lists on one account, and the instant one costs several times the Pro rate before spread. Kraken+ at $4.99 waives that fee up to a monthly volume cap, which is the whole reason the membership exists.
Where Kraken holds up
Never hacked - 13+ year clean security record
Proof-of-reserves published regularly for transparency
Once one login has to cover spot, options and copy trading beside a decentralised exchange, OKX is the venue that reaches all four, and the Web3 wallet it ships is open source.
Critical gapThe identity verification process frequently fails during re-validation.
Plan table and expert take
OKX: expert take
Two schedules live under one brand, the global book and the US entity, and the US rates run materially higher at the same level. The global ladder ends with three tiers where the maker is paid instead of charged, which is where the market makers sit.
Where OKX holds up
Integrated Web3 wallet with seamless CEX-to-DeFi bridge
Built-in DEX aggregator for competitive on-chain swap rates
Mature copy trading with detailed trader analytics
Competitive fees and OKB token discount structure
★★★★★4.7CE scoreG2 4.6 · 53 reviewsFounded 2017Verified July 8, 2026
A membership in place of a fee schedule: Coinbase One Basic at $4.99 a month zeroes trading fees up to a volume cap, with two dearer steps above it. That suits small, regular buyers on a licensed US venue more than anyone trading size.
Retail buys and Advanced orders bill differently: the simple screen prices a spread plus a flat fee, the terminal a maker and taker rate. No native token exists to shave either. The Coinbase One Basic membership is the only lever, and it stops at its cap.
Where Coinbase holds up
US publicly traded and regulated - highest trust level for American users
FDIC-insured USD balances and proven security record
Coinbase Advanced Trade for lower-fee active trading
Once your 30-day turnover runs into the millions, the schedule keeps going for another nine steps, and paying fees in BNB takes a quarter off the rate at every one of them. Licensing differs from one country to the next, and that is the trade you make.
Critical gapThe platform experiences persistent KYC verification latency and navigation complexity which hinders onboarding for new users entering the ecosystem.
Plan table and expert take
Binance: expert take
A VIP level needs two things at once, the 30-day volume floor and a minimum BNB balance, so the tier is bought as much as traded. The volume that counts adds up spot, margin, convert, copy trading and bots, which is friendlier than it sounds.
Where Binance holds up
Highest liquidity and largest coin selection in the market
The copy-trading leaderboard is the product here, for newer futures traders who would rather mirror a record than build their own entries. Bitget's spot schedule stops at eight steps, and the last of them zeroes the maker side.
Four separate tracks can put you on a tier: 30-day spot volume, 30-day futures volume, total assets, or the BGB you hold, and the best of the four is the one that counts. The level is recomputed daily, so a quiet month drops you back.
Where Bitget holds up
Most developed copy trading marketplace with 100,000+ registered traders
Detailed trader performance history including drawdown metrics
BGB token for fee reductions
Growing exchange with active regulatory licensing effort
★★★★☆4.2CE scoreG2 4.1 · 9 reviewsFounded 2018Verified July 8, 2026
Trading bots and a listings page that runs ahead of the majors, for anyone chasing a token before the larger venues list it. The VIP tiers here lift the daily withdrawal ceiling as well as cutting the rate.
Critical gapReported latency in withdrawal execution and ineffective automated resolution systems impede user operations.
Plan table and expert take
KuCoin: expert take
Spot is split into three coin classes, and the class decides whether you pay the headline rate, double or triple, at every level of the ladder. The KCS discount narrows to the taker side once you are deep enough, which is where it saves least.
Where KuCoin holds up
Widest early-stage altcoin selection - 700+ pairs
Built-in trading bots included without extra subscription
Competitive 0.1% base fees with KCS discounts
Lending marketplace and trading competitions for additional yield
★★★★☆4.1CE scoreG2 4 · 35 reviewsFounded 2017Verified July 8, 2026
Once the token you want is listed nowhere larger, this is the venue that carries it, and the fee schedule behind it runs seventeen steps, the deepest we recorded in this category. It also carries the lowest user rating on this page.
The GT discount thins as the ladder deepens and matches the standard rate from the tenth tier up, so the token saves money while your volume is small and nothing once it is large. A separate flat rate on Alpha trades holds at every level.
Where Gate.io holds up
Largest altcoin selection in the market (1,700+ pairs)
IEO launchpad for early access to new token sales
Copy trading and leveraged products
Operating since 2013 - reasonable exchange longevity
★★★★☆4.0CE scoreG2 3.9 · 227 reviewsFounded 2013Verified July 8, 2026
Which crypto exchange is cheapest for a modest monthly buy?
At a couple of hundred dollars a month you sit on the entry tier everywhere, so the schedules do not sort them. The bill turns on the path you buy through and the coin you pick: majors on the order book cost the standard rate, fiat pairs and thin coins cost more. Kraken+ and Coinbase One Basic both sell a waiver at $4.99, each with its own cap.
What do fees cost on a ten thousand dollar trade?
At the standard rate five of these eight charge, a tenth of a percent, ten dollars a side. OKX shaves the maker side; Kraken and Coinbase sit well above on their terminals. The first step down lands in a different place on each venue, from ten thousand dollars of 30-day volume on Coinbase to a million on Binance. For most accounts the entry rate is the rate all year.
How do you avoid paying the spread on an instant buy?
Place the order yourself. The one-click screen and the pro terminal are two products under one brand, and only the terminal charges the published maker and taker rate. On Kraken and Coinbase that switch saves more than any fee tier you are likely to reach. It costs you a limit order and a minute of attention.
Why are crypto exchange fees so complicated?
Three numbers move at once. Your tier depends on 30-day volume and sometimes on your balance, the rate depends on which coin and which pair you trade, and the path you buy through decides whether a spread lands on top. A single headline rate answers none of that, so each schedule below is printed in full.
When does an exchange membership pay for itself?
Work it against the fee you would otherwise pay, not against the schedule. Kraken+ at $4.99 covers the instant-buy fee to a monthly ceiling, so about five hundred dollars of one-click buying already pays for it. Coinbase One Basic caps its waiver much lower, which puts the saving close to the price of the membership.
Does holding the exchange's own token cut your fees?
On five of the eight it does, and each catch is different. Binance takes a quarter off its published rate when you settle in BNB, KuCoin narrows its KCS discount to the taker side once you are high enough, and the Gate.io discount thins as you rise until it is gone. Read the discount column, not the headline.
Are futures cheaper than spot?
Yes, and not by a little: on every venue here that runs both, the futures maker rate at the first tier sits several times under the spot one. The catch is not the fee. Perpetual positions pay funding to whoever holds the opposite side, every few hours, and that number moves with the market.
What does it cost to take your money off an exchange?
Not what the fee schedule says, because no maker and taker table we read prices a withdrawal. That number is quoted per asset and per network at the moment you send, and it moves with the network rather than with your tier. A higher tier raises the daily withdrawal ceiling, which is a limit, not a discount.
What gets you into a VIP tier?
Turnover, usually, though rarely turnover alone. Binance wants a 30-day volume and a minimum BNB balance at the same time. Bybit and OKX take whichever is higher, your volume or a snapshot of your assets, and refresh it daily. Bitget reads four tracks at once and puts you on the best one you qualify for.
Why do the rates in my account differ from the published page?
Region, mostly. OKX runs a separate schedule for its US entity at materially higher rates than the global one, and Bybit tells verified users to read a personal fee page because rates vary by market. Some tiers cannot be reached at all from certain countries. Treat any published table as the global case.
Does the zero on the entry tier mean trading is free?
No. It means the account costs nothing to hold. Our grid marks that as a zero tier on every venue but Coinbase, whose only listed rows are the memberships it sells. Trading itself is priced per fill from the first order, and the only rows that buy zero fees are those two memberships, both capped.
Field note 01
The costs a crypto exchange fee schedule leaves out
Every schedule on this page ends at the trade. Moving the coin out is priced somewhere else, per asset and per network, and it tracks the network rather than your tier. On a small balance one transfer costs more than a month of trading does.
The rest of the exit is not priced at all. A transfer sent without the memo the receiving venue asks for does not arrive, and recovering it becomes a support case. Verification checks carry time limits, and a withdrawal held while one runs is a cost the fee page has no line for.
Field note 02
Volume tiers rarely change what a retail account pays
The bottom of these schedules is not for retail. The last steps ask for turnover in the billions over thirty days, and the rates worth quoting live down there. Almost every account stays on the first or second step for its whole life.
So read the first step, not the last. For anyone who is not a trading desk, the bill comes from the entry rate and the two prices around it: the spread on the way in, the fee on the way out.
The verdict on crypto exchangesSigned review · Updated
Oleh KemFounder & Lead AnalystComparEdge Editorial
Every venue here publishes its trading fee schedule, so that is not where the difference lives. It lives in how you buy, and in what leaving costs.
Buy through the simple widget and a spread rides on top of the rate you read. Take funds out and the charge sits outside the schedule entirely, set by the coin and the route it travels, on no page you were shown. Read those two lines before you compare a single tier.
MethodWe read the published fee schedule of every one of eight venues, subscriptions and volume tiers alike, and dated each figure .
DisclosureCollection is tool-assisted; every verdict is written and signed by a human analyst.
05 / 06
Not sure which? Answer one, take a shortlist.Pick the line that sounds like your team. Each one opens the vendor built for it.
How this review is made. Prices are read from vendor pricing pages and re-checked on the dates shown against each product. Condition columns reflect the feature set recorded on the vendor’s own pages on that date. ComparEdge sells no crypto exchanges and takes no vendor payment for placement. Where a vendor publishes nothing, this page says so rather than estimating. Ranking is by transparency score: pricing transparency 60%, user satisfaction 40%. What a product can do is shown in the condition columns and carries no weight in the number.
Oleh Kem
