The cost question is one of the more dishonestly answered in prop firm marketing. The advertised evaluation fee is presented as the total cost of access. In practice, the fee is one component among several, and the others are sometimes larger. This guide is a walk through every cost a prop firm can pass to you, with how to estimate the realistic total before you commit.
The headline number matters mostly for comparison shopping; the realistic total is what you actually pay.
The fee structure: one-time vs subscription
The two dominant pricing models in 2026 work very differently.
One-time evaluation fees are the standard for forex / CFD prop programs (FTMO, FundedNext, FundingPips, The5%ers, Alpha Capital, and many others). You pay once for the evaluation, and the fee gives you access to the program for an unlimited or extended period (typically 30 to 60 days minimum trading days, with optional extensions). Fees range from $30 to $1,000 depending on account size, with the most common bracket being $50 to $200 for a $25,000 to $100,000 simulated account.
Monthly subscriptions are the standard for futures prop programs (Topstep, Apex, TradeDay, MyFundedFutures, Take Profit Trader). You pay a monthly fee while the evaluation is active, which means the cost scales with how long the evaluation takes you. Subscriptions range from $25 to $300 per month depending on account size, with $99 to $150 being the most common bracket for a $50,000 to $100,000 evaluation. Some firms charge an additional activation fee ($149 at Topstep) when the trader passes.
For a one-month evaluation, the two models can be roughly comparable in total cost. For evaluations that take three months, subscription models cost more in absolute terms but only if the trader fails to pass faster.
The reset fee: failure isn’t always terminal
Many firms now offer “reset” options — for a fee, a trader who breached can reset their account to start the evaluation over. Reset costs typically range from $30 to $150, often discounted from the original evaluation fee.
The reset option is genuinely useful for traders who breach on something they can correct, but it has a less-discussed effect: it raises the realistic cost of getting funded. A trader who pays $99, fails, pays $69 to reset, and passes on the second attempt has paid $168 to get funded — 70% more than the headline price. A trader who needs three attempts pays $237. The structure converts what looks like a fixed cost into something closer to a per-attempt cost.
The honest way to think about it is: budget for two to three attempts at the headline price plus reset costs, and treat anything less as a positive surprise.
Withdrawal mechanics: minimums and processing
The withdrawal side has its own costs, less prominent in marketing.
Minimum withdrawal thresholds range from $50 (some forex firms) to $300 (Take Profit Trader, Trade The Pool). A funded trader earning $200 over a payout cycle at a firm with a $300 minimum has to either wait two cycles or carry the balance forward. For traders running small profit cycles, the minimum can defer access to earnings noticeably.
Withdrawal processing fees are uncommon among the major firms but appear at some smaller operators. A typical structure is $25 to $50 deducted from each withdrawal, which substantially reduces the effective profit share for small payouts.
KYC and verification requirements before first withdrawal are universal and not technically a cost, but they can delay first access to earnings by 7 to 14 business days at firms with rigorous processes. A trader who passes the evaluation in week three and submits withdrawal documents the same day may receive first payment in week five.
Commission and platform costs
For futures-prop programs running live execution, real exchange commissions apply. CME futures contracts typically cost $1 to $5 per side per contract depending on the broker and account size. Over an evaluation involving 100 round-trip contracts, that is $100 to $500 in commissions, which comes out of the trader’s profit. The firm usually does not absorb this cost; it is passed through.
For simulated forex / CFD programs, no real commissions apply on the trader side, but the firm’s internal spreads are sometimes wider than retail broker spreads — this is structurally similar to a commission. Smaller account sizes often have less favourable simulated spreads.
Platform fees are rare among major firms but appear at some smaller operators ($20 to $50 monthly for premium charting tools, etc.). Read the platform-access page before paying.
The cost of failure: the elephant in the room
This is the largest cost in the prop firm model, and it is rarely calculated.
With pass rates clustering around 5 to 15 percent (see our companion guide on pass rate statistics), most evaluation fees are paid by traders who do not pass and never receive a payout. If you assume your personal pass rate is at the higher end of that range — say, 15 percent — then on average you would pay 6.7 evaluation fees per successful funding. At a $99 headline fee, that is roughly $660 expected total cost per funded account.
Most traders do not pay 6.7 times the headline; they either succeed quickly, or they stop after one or two failures. But the expected total across the population is what determines the firm’s business model and what should anchor your cost expectations. The headline fee is what you pay per attempt, not what you pay for funding.
Worked calculation: headline $99 → expected total $660
The abstract “2x to 4x” doesn’t land as well as a concrete example.
Case: FX 2-step program, headline evaluation fee $99 (a typical $100k account)
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Fee per attempt | $99 | |
| Reset fee (per use) | $69 | Typical after firm discount |
| Your realistic pass rate | 15% | Upper end of population average |
| Expected attempts | 1 / 0.15 = 6.7 | To pass |
| Expected total cost | $99 × 6.7 ≈ $660 | Pay-per-attempt model |
With resets:
| Scenario | Calculation | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Pass on first try | $99 | $99 |
| Pass on attempt 2 (1 reset) | $99 + $69 | $168 |
| Pass on attempt 3 (2 resets) | $99 + $69 × 2 | $237 |
| Pass on attempt 4 (3 resets) | $99 + $69 × 3 | $306 |
Across the population, with a 15% pass rate, 85% drop out. The expected value works out to 0.15 × $99 + 0.85 × (cost of next attempt) — expanded recursively, that converges to about $660 in total.
That is 6.7 times the headline. The firms are not lying; the headline number is “per attempt,” not “to funding.” Looking at the population math, aggregate evaluation fees generate the firm’s revenue, and that revenue funds the payout pool for successful traders.
People with higher pass rates (disciplined traders) reach a funded account for $200 to $400, while those with lower pass rates can spend $1,000 or more. You cannot know your true pass rate in advance, so budgeting for “worst case 3 attempts = $237” and treating anything below that as a bonus is the most honest operational framing.
How to estimate the realistic total
Three numbers, multiplied:
- Evaluation fee per attempt (or monthly subscription times expected months).
- Reset fee (if you take a reset, otherwise zero).
- Expected number of attempts (your honest estimate, given your trading record and the difficulty of the firm’s rules).
A trader who is realistic about their own pass rate and willing to multiply by attempts gets to a realistic total that is usually 2 to 4 times the headline price. A trader who treats the headline as the total is going to be disappointed on average.
The comparison table shows the headline evaluation fee for every firm we track, alongside the rule structure (which lets you estimate difficulty) and the operating history (which is the only protection against being part of a “fees paid to a now-defunct firm” statistic).
The honest framing
A prop firm evaluation fee is best treated as the price of an option, not as the cost of buying a funded account. The option pays out a meaningful potential upside (a funded account with real or simulated capital) with a low-but-not-zero probability. Like any option, its expected value depends on how realistic the holder is about both the probability and the upside.
For traders who match the structural pattern the firm filters for, the option has positive expected value at the headline price. For most traders, it does not. The headline price is the option premium; the realistic total is what you pay across attempts; the funded payout is what you receive on the small fraction of options that exercise into the money.
This page is informational and is not investment advice. Always confirm the current pricing on the firm’s official site before paying.