The bottom line — three points

Two of the most misunderstood line items in prop trading are the “refundable” fee and the “reset.” Both sound like safety nets. Neither works the way most traders assume.

  • A “refundable fee” is almost never cash back. At most firms it is a reward reimbursement: you recover it only when you reach a funded payout, not when you pass the evaluation.
  • A reset is almost always a paid product, not a free do-over — typically 30–60% of a fresh evaluation fee, and increasingly capped at 2–3 per account.
  • The rules can move under you. Refunds and payouts can be voided retroactively, and at least one firm changed terms on existing account holders in 2025–2026. Your fee is only as safe as the rulebook you can be held to.

Below, each claim is mapped to a primary or reputable source. This article is informational and is not investment, legal, or tax advice.

How prop firm fees actually work: entry fee vs refundable fee

When you buy a challenge, you usually pay a single up-front fee. Whether any of it comes back depends on a label that is easy to skim past.

An entry fee (sometimes “evaluation fee” or “challenge fee”) is the price of the attempt. A so-called refundable fee is the same payment with a conditional promise attached: the firm will return it later, but only if you meet a downstream condition — usually reaching a funded payout. The fee does not sit in escrow waiting for you. You front it, you trade, and the refund is processed as part of a later reward.

That distinction matters because the marketing word “refundable” implies a money-back guarantee. In practice it is closer to a rebate you earn by succeeding, not a deposit you can recall by changing your mind.

Refund-on-first-payout: the industry-standard model explained

The dominant refund structure across major firms is refund on first payout. You do not get the fee back when you pass the evaluation. You get it back bundled into your first profit withdrawal from the funded account (FTMO official FAQ).

FTMO states its fee is refunded together with the trader’s first Reward (profit) withdrawal on the 2-Step Challenge — not at the moment the challenge is passed (FTMO official FAQ). A reputable comparison gives a worked example: a roughly €540 fee on a $100K 2-step account is returned alongside the first payout, so a $3,000 payout effectively becomes $3,000 plus the €540 refunded. Treat the exact figures as illustrative and confirm them against FTMO’s current pricing.

The logic is straightforward from the firm’s side: refunding only at first payout means the fee is returned only to traders who both passed and proved they can produce a withdrawable profit. Traders who pass but never reach a payout never trigger the refund. So the headline “refundable fee” is real, but the gate sits further down the funnel than most buyers picture. For a wider view of where money quietly leaks, see prop firm hidden costs.

FTMO case study: 2-step refund vs 1-step no-refund

The single most common misread of FTMO’s policy is assuming every product refunds the fee. It does not.

  • 2-Step Challenge: the one-time fee is refunded with your first Reward on the funded account (FTMO official FAQ).
  • 1-Step Challenge: the entry fee is not refunded, even after a successful pass (FTMO official FAQ — separate 1-step page).

This is a clean illustration of why you must read the FAQ for the exact product you are buying, not the firm in general. Same brand, same dashboard, opposite refund outcome depending on which evaluation path you choose. If you are weighing the paths themselves, see one-step vs two-step vs instant funding. For FTMO’s full profile, see FTMO.

True refunds vs reward reimbursements: the 7-day window trap

There is a meaningful difference between a true cash-back refund (you get your money returned to your card) and a reward reimbursement (your fee is added on top of a profit payout). Most “refundable fee” promises are the second kind.

FundedNext’s policy makes the line explicit. Its only true money-back window is within 7 days of purchase and only if no trade has been placed; the moment any trade opens, the fee is non-refundable (FundedNext Help Center). After that point, recovering your fee means reaching a funded payout, not requesting a refund.

Timing details can also shift by purchase date. FundedNext changed its refund timing in 2026: Stellar 1-Step accounts bought before January 12, 2026 get the refundable fee back with the first Performance Reward, while accounts bought on or after that date get it back only with the third Performance Reward withdrawal (FundedNext Help Center — verify current terms on the official page). Two traders on the same product can therefore wait very different lengths of time for the same fee, based purely on when they purchased.

A few more FundedNext specifics worth knowing:

  • The $25 cTrader/Match-Trader platform fee is always non-refundable, because it is paid directly to the platform provider, not the firm (FundedNext Help Center).
  • FundedNext also advertises an additional Challenge Reward paid on first payout, separate from the fee refund. The exact percentage and calculation vary by product, so confirm the current figure on the official Help Center before relying on it (FundedNext Help Center — verify on the official site).

For the firm’s wider terms, see FundedNext.

Free resets vs paid resets: what you actually pay

A reset restarts an evaluation (or in some futures models, an active subscription account) back to its day-one state so you can try again without buying a brand-new challenge. The marketing sometimes implies this is free or trivial. It is usually neither.

Resets are typically paid and cost roughly 30–60% of a new evaluation fee (The Prop Firm Guide). For a 100K account, resets commonly run about $50–$150. That is cheaper than buying a fresh evaluation, but it is far from free, and the savings shrink once you have reset more than once.

Genuinely free resets exist mainly as seasonal promotions rather than standing policy. FTMO, for instance, runs occasional free-reset promotions during seasonal periods (The Prop Firm Guide — verify promo availability with FTMO). Treat “free reset” as a limited-time offer to confirm, not a permanent feature.

Reset pricing by account size and firm

Concrete numbers, with the caveat that prop firm pricing changes often — verify each on the firm’s own page before paying:

  • Topstep: a reset costs the same as the monthly rebill — roughly $49 (50K), $99 (100K), and $149 (150K) on the Standard path (Topstep Help Center — verify current pricing).
  • Tradeify: a 100K reset is about $95, versus a roughly $169 initial evaluation (The Prop Firm Guide). See Tradeify and our Tradeify review.
  • FTMO: resets are generally paid, with occasional free-reset promotions in seasonal periods (The Prop Firm Guide — verify with FTMO).
  • FundedNext: verify reset availability and pricing per product on the official Help Center, as terms vary by account family.

What a reset restores is specific. A Topstep Reset returns the Trading Combine to its day-one starting balance, Maximum Loss Limit, Consistency Target, and trading-day count, and pushes the rebill date out 30 days. It is limited to 2 resets per account per day, and it only works on an active subscription (Topstep official Help Center). There is also a useful edge case: if a Topstep account was in profit before a reset and no trades were placed afterward, Support may adjust the new profit target (Topstep official Help Center). For Topstep’s full profile, see the futures prop firms explained guide.

One broader 2026 trend: many firms now cap resets at roughly 2–3 per account, tightening from earlier “unlimited reset” offers (The Prop Firm Guide — verify per firm). If your plan relies on grinding multiple resets, confirm the cap first.

Reset vs restart: doing the math before you pay again

The key decision is not just “how much is a reset” but “when does a reset make sense versus walking away or buying fresh.” Two distinctions matter.

First, timing relative to a breach. A reset purchased before a breach — a clean restart while your account is still alive — is generally more useful than a discounted retry after a breach. After a breach, some firms offer a discounted retry, sometimes applied automatically, but any such discount only arrives after you have already lost the attempt. Confirm whether a post-breach discount exists, and its size, on the firm’s own page before counting on it.

Second, reset cost versus fresh evaluation. If a reset is 30–60% of a new fee, resetting is usually cheaper than rebuying — but only if your strategy and the account size are unchanged and you genuinely believe the loss was variance, not a structural problem with your approach. If you keep hitting the same wall, paying repeatedly to restart the same plan is the more expensive mistake. The consistency rule and the difference between a daily loss vs max drawdown limit are common structural reasons accounts die — fixing those beats resetting into the same trap.

A quick rule of thumb: if the math of repeated resets starts approaching the cost of two or three fresh evaluations, you are no longer buying retries — you are funding the firm. Compare base prices and reset terms side by side on our comparison data.

What voids a refund or payout: consistency rules and hidden audits

A fee refund and a payout share the same vulnerability: both can be voided retroactively when a firm audits your full trade history at withdrawal time. Passing the evaluation does not lock in your money; the audit at payout is where many denials happen.

Common triggers reported across the industry (Thor Trade Copier — verify against each firm’s rulebook):

  • Consistency-rule violations — a single day’s profit exceeding the firm’s allowed share of total profit.
  • Cross-account hedging — taking opposing positions across accounts to game the evaluation.
  • Copy-trading flagged by identical fills or shared IPs — even unintentional mirroring can trip detection.
  • Prohibited instruments — trading symbols or products the rulebook excludes.
  • Incomplete KYC — identity verification gaps that surface only when you request a withdrawal.

The practical lesson is that the audit happens at the moment you try to take money out, not when you sign up. That is also when a refund can quietly evaporate. For the broader risk taxonomy, see prop firm scam risks and how to vet firms in how to choose a prop firm.

Retroactive rule changes and real trader losses

The most uncomfortable risk is that the rulebook itself can change after you are already trading. In December 2025, FundingTicks altered rules for existing account holders, with traders reporting up to roughly $21,000 in profits removed (Thor Trade Copier — verify with primary reporting). Whether or not every figure holds up, the structural point stands: in an unregulated space, the terms you agreed to are not always the terms you are held to.

This is why refund and reset math should never be evaluated in isolation from firm stability. A generous refund policy is worthless if the firm rewrites it, delays payouts, or closes. For how often that has actually happened, see prop firm shutdowns history and the live shutdown tracker. Whether you are trading the firm’s own balance sheet or a simulated book also shapes how durable any promise is — see funded vs simulated capital.

Checklist: how to avoid losing your challenge fee

In a space where “refundable” rarely means cash back and rules can shift, your protection is your own diligence before you pay.

  • Read the exact product FAQ. Refund triggers differ by product within the same firm (FTMO 2-step refunds, 1-step does not).
  • Know your true money-back window. If there is one, it is usually short (7 days at FundedNext) and void the moment you place a trade.
  • Separate platform fees from challenge fees. Platform charges (e.g., FundedNext’s $25) are paid to a third party and are never refunded.
  • Confirm the refund timing trigger. First payout vs third payout can mean weeks of difference (FundedNext’s 2026 change).
  • Check the reset cap and price before relying on retries. Many firms cap at 2–3 resets; budget resets as 30–60% of a fresh fee.
  • Reset before a breach when possible. A clean restart beats a post-breach discount.
  • Pre-clear your strategy against the rulebook. Consistency rules, hedging, copy-trading, prohibited instruments, and KYC are the usual payout-killers.
  • Weight firm stability heavily. A refund policy is only as good as the firm honoring it — favor long track records and transparent payouts (see payout transparency).

Bottom line

In 2026, “refundable fee” and “free reset” are best read as conditional offers, not guarantees. Most refunds are reward reimbursements gated behind a funded payout; most resets are paid products with tightening caps; and both refunds and payouts can be undone by an audit or a rule change. The traders who keep their fees are the ones who read the specific product terms, separate platform charges from challenge fees, and weigh firm stability as heavily as the refund headline.

We update this page as firm policies evolve. If you cite it, please link back to this page (PROP NAVI) as the source.

Two firms with long track records

Refund and reset terms only matter if the firm is still there to honor them. Two firms in our data meet “10+ years and Trust: High” (see methodology).

FTMO — the largest operator’s track record

11 years in operation (since 2015). Its 2-Step Challenge fee is refunded with the first Reward; the 1-Step fee is not (FTMO official FAQ) — a reminder to read the exact product terms.

→ Visit FTMO

The5%ers — a 10-year veteran

10 years in operation (since 2016). An instant-funding pioneer, for traders who prefer to skip the evaluation fee entirely.

→ Visit The5%ers