Updated Rules checked 2026-10-21
I checked the built-in trading bots at the 13 exchanges this site covers. Eleven of them have grid bots: Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, MEXC, Gate, BingX, KuCoin, HTX, XT and Pionex. For WEEX and Ourbit, I found no description of built-in bots on their official websites as of 2026-10-21. Nine exchanges offer DCA or Martingale (buy-more-on-dips) bots, and five offer funding rate or spot-futures arbitrage bots. Most bots carry no separate usage fee; what you pay is the trading fee on every fill. The exceptions: Pionex’s Futures Moon, Leveraged Grid and Margin Grid charge 20% of total profit instead, and KuCoin’s futures bots charge a flat 0.06%.
The same bot can cost several times more in monthly fees at one exchange than at another. Take a 1,000 USDT Spot Grid that completes 20 round trips a day, for 60,000 USDT of monthly volume: at HTX and XT, with a 0.2% spot fee, you pay 120 USDT; at Binance, Bybit and Bitget (0.1%), 60 USDT; at Pionex (0.05%), 30 USDT; and at MEXC, with a 0% spot Maker fee, nothing. When you compare bots, the exchange’s fee rate matters more than whether the bot itself charges anything.
Below, a table first lays out which bots each of the 13 exchanges offers. Then I go through each type with a fee or capital calculation, and finish with profit sharing on copied bots, whether bot trades earn referral rebates, and the “AI bot with guaranteed profit” scam.
Key points: 11 of the 13 exchanges offer grid bots; I could not find built-in bots on the official websites of WEEX and Ourbit. OKX, Bybit, Bitget, MEXC, KuCoin and Pionex state that the bots themselves are free and only the trading fees on fills apply; Binance’s terms say bot trades may incur trading fees. There are two kinds of exceptions: Pionex’s Futures Moon, Leveraged Grid and Margin Grid charge no trading fees and take 20% of total profit instead, and KuCoin’s futures bots charge a flat 0.06% with no Maker/Taker split. Using the fees in OKX’s official Smart Arbitrage example, opening and closing cost about 0.3% in total; at a funding rate of 0.01% every 8 hours, it takes about 10 days to earn the fees back. None of the 13 exchanges states word for word whether bot trades earn referral rebates; Pionex only states that on coin-margined futures, fees are recorded whether you place orders manually or through a bot.
The data below was checked against official pages on 2026-10-21 (data check date) and is provided for reference.
Which trading bots does each exchange offer? 13 exchanges compared
I sorted the bots listed on each exchange’s official pages into five categories, using the official names. The same type goes by different names at different exchanges: Bitget’s “Trend following” and Gate’s and KuCoin’s “CTA” and “AI Trend”, for example, are all strategies that place orders based on indicators or trends.
| Exchange | Grid | DCA / Martingale | Arbitrage | Other | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Spot Grid, Futures Grid | Spot DCA, Futures DCA (adds to the position at set intervals as the price falls) | Arbitrage Bot (funding rate) | Rebalancing Bot, TWAP, VP | Trading Bots terms (updated 2026-01-04) |
| OKX | Spot Grid, Futures Grid | Recurring Buy, Spot Martingale, Futures Martingale | Smart Arbitrage, Arbitrage Order | Smart Portfolio, TWAP, Iceberg, Signal Bot | Trading bots overview (updated 2026-10-19) |
| Bybit | Spot Grid, Futures Grid (USDT perpetual) | DCA (spot, perpetual), Futures Martingale | Not listed officially | Futures Combo | Bot differences explained, Trading bot page |
| Bitget | Spot Grid, Futures Grid, Position Grid | DCA, Martingale | Funding Rate Arbitrage | Trend following, TradingView signal bot | Trading bots page, Product fees FAQ |
| MEXC | Spot Grid (2–200 grids), Futures Grid (1–50x) | Spot DCA | Not listed officially | — | Spot Grid FAQ, Futures Grid guide, Spot DCA guide |
| Gate | Spot Grid, Futures Grid, Infinite Grid, Margin Grid | Quick DCA, Spot Martingale, Futures Martingale | Spot-Futures Arbitrage, Cross-Exchange Arbitrage | Smart Rebalancing, CTA, Signal Bot, Combined Indicators | Strategy bots page |
| BingX | Spot Grid, Spot Infinity Grid, Futures Grid | Martingale | Not listed officially | Signal strategy | Strategy trading page |
| KuCoin | Spot Grid, Infinity Grid, Margin Grid, Futures Grid | DCA, Spot Martingale, Futures Martingale | Not listed officially | Smart Rebalance, AI Trend, DualFutures AI | Bot guide (updated 2025-07-30), delisting announcement (2025-09-18) |
| HTX | Spot Grid, Futures Grid | Not stated officially | Not stated officially | Not stated officially | Grid user guide, Futures Grid campaign announcement |
| XT | Spot Grid, Futures Grid | Not stated officially | Not stated officially | Not stated officially | Futures Grid page, Spot Grid introduction (2026-02-12) |
| WEEX | Not found on the official website | — | — | — | — |
| Pionex | Spot Grid, Infinity Grid, Reverse Grid, Leveraged Grid, Margin Grid, Futures Grid, Futures Moon | Spot Martingale, Futures Martingale, TWAP DCA | Spot-Futures Arbitrage (listed in the rebate rules), hedging bot | Rebalancing Bot, Signal Bot, HODL bot | Bot help section, Rebate rules |
| Ourbit | Not found on the official website | — | — | Futures copy trading, which is not a bot | Copy trading guide |
Source: each exchange’s official pages in the last column, checked 2026-10-21. “Not listed officially” means the exchange’s official bot list doesn’t include that type; “Not stated officially” means the official pages I found don’t mention it. HTX’s and XT’s help pages only cover grids.
One thing to know about HTX first: the HTX user agreement prohibits users in Taiwan from trading derivatives, so Futures Grid is not available to users in Taiwan. Details are in the HTX review.
A few differences that don’t fit in the table: Bybit’s Futures Grid only supports USDT perpetuals (Bybit Futures Grid FAQ); MEXC’s Futures Grid uses hedge mode with cross margin, and each user can run up to 10 at once (MEXC Futures Grid guide); and Pionex has 7 kinds of grid bots alone. How grids work, their settings and profit and loss in three market scenarios are covered in What is grid trading, so I won’t repeat them here.
Do trading bots cost money? How are fees charged?
Most exchanges state that bots are free to use and only the normal trading fee applies to each fill. Bybit puts it as “there are no fees for using trading bots”, but every bot fill is charged a trading fee, and perpetual contracts also carry funding fees (Bybit bot differences explained). Binance’s terms say trades by grid, rebalancing and arbitrage bots “may incur trading fees” (Binance Trading Bots terms). Here are each exchange’s rules and VIP 0 fees:
| Exchange | How bots are charged | Spot Maker / Taker | Futures Maker / Taker | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | The terms list no separate bot fee; fills pay the normal rates | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | Terms, Fee page |
| OKX | Grid fills pay the same fees as manual trades | 0.08% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | Spot Grid guide, Fee page |
| Bybit | Bots are free; the MNT fee discount doesn’t apply to bots (checked 2026-10-11) | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.055% | Differences explained, Fees overview, Fee structure |
| Bitget | No subscription fee for Spot Grid, Futures Grid and Position Grid; not stated officially for other bots | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.06% | Product fees FAQ (2026-08-20) |
| MEXC | No extra fee for creating a grid; Futures Grid fees match the main account and the MX discount isn’t supported | 0% / 0.05% | 0% / 0.02% | Spot Grid FAQ, Futures Grid guide, Fee page |
| Gate | Net grid profit = grid profit − 2 × trading fee | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | Spot Grid tutorial, Fee page |
| BingX | Spot Grid pays spot fees; Futures Grid pays perpetual futures fees | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% | Spot Grid guide, Futures Grid FAQ |
| KuCoin | Free; spot bots get 20% off the LV0 fee, futures bots pay a flat 0.06% | 0.1% / 0.1% (bots 0.08%) | 0.02% / 0.06% (bots flat 0.06%) | Bot guide, Bot FAQ |
| HTX | Grid fees equal spot fees | 0.2% / 0.2% | 0.02% / 0.06% | Grid user guide, Fee page |
| XT | Not stated officially | 0.2% / 0.2% | 0.02% / 0.06% | VIP fee announcement |
| Pionex | Bots are free; Futures Moon, Leveraged Grid and Margin Grid charge 20% of total profit instead | 0.05% / 0.05% | 0.02% / 0.05% | Trading fee overview |
Source: the official pages linked in each row; bot fee rules checked 2026-10-21. VIP 0 fees come from this site’s per-exchange fee guides, checked against the official fee pages between 2026-10-07 and 10-19. KuCoin’s 0.1% is the rate for Class A coins.
Three exceptions are worth noting. KuCoin’s futures bots charge 0.06% whether you’re the Maker or the Taker, three times the 0.02% for a manual Maker order (KuCoin bot guide); on the same 10,000 USDT of volume, the bot pays 6 USDT and a manual Maker order pays 2 USDT. Pionex’s Futures Moon, Leveraged Grid and Margin Grid charge no trading fees while running; instead, they take 20% of total profit when you close the bot, reduce the position or withdraw profit, and nothing if there’s no profit (Pionex trading fee overview). On 2023-12-01, Gate announced that Spot Grid and Infinite Grid fees on three pairs, BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT and ETH/BTC, would drop from 0.2% to 0.05%, with no end date in the announcement (Gate grid fee cut announcement). Whether it still applies, go by the fee shown on the order page.
Platform-token fee discounts don’t always work on bots either: Bybit states that the MNT discount doesn’t apply to trading bots (Bybit fees overview), and MEXC’s Futures Grid doesn’t support the MX discount. A discounted rate you get on manual trades may disappear once you move to a bot. For a full rundown of fees and platform-token discounts at each exchange, see Exchanges with the lowest fees; for how to tell Maker from Taker, see Maker vs Taker fees.
Grid bots: how much do monthly fees differ for the same grid?
Each buy-low, sell-high round trip a grid completes only earns the small spread of one grid, yet every fill pays a fee. That’s why the fee rate weighs more heavily on grids than on ordinary trading.
Example setup (a demonstration, not a parameter recommendation): a Spot Grid with 1,000 USDT, split into 20 grids, each buying and selling 50 USDT, with 0.5% spacing per grid. Assume 20 completed round trips a day (40 fills) over a 30-day month, for volume of 50 × 40 × 30 = 60,000 USDT. Grids place limit orders, so here I assume every fill is a Maker fill. Each round trip grosses 50 × 0.5% = 0.25 USDT, so the monthly gross profit is 0.25 × 20 × 30 = 150 USDT.
| Spot fee (Maker) | Exchange | Monthly fees | After fees | Fees as share of gross profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | MEXC | 0 | 150 USDT | 0% |
| 0.05% | Pionex | 30 USDT | 120 USDT | 20% |
| 0.08% | OKX; KuCoin spot bots | 48 USDT | 102 USDT | 32% |
| 0.1% | Binance, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, BingX | 60 USDT | 90 USDT | 40% |
| 0.2% | HTX, XT | 120 USDT | 30 USDT | 80% |
Source: fees from the fee table in the previous section (each exchange’s official fee page); formula 60,000 × fee rate. The number of fills and the spacing are assumptions; calculated 2026-10-21.
With the same grid, the 0.2% fee at HTX and XT eats 80% of the gross profit, while MEXC’s 0% Maker fee costs nothing. At a 0.2% fee, the spacing per grid has to exceed about 0.4% or the grid loses more the more it trades, twice the threshold at a 0.1% exchange. How that threshold is calculated and what happens at different grid counts is covered in Pionex grid bot fees.
Futures Grid follows the same logic: 1,000 USDT of margin at 5x leverage gives a notional value of 5,000 USDT; split into 20 grids, that’s 250 USDT per grid, and at 20 round trips a day, monthly volume is 300,000 USDT. At the 0.02% Maker fee most exchanges charge, monthly fees are 60 USDT; KuCoin’s futures bots, at a flat 0.06%, pay 180 USDT; MEXC’s futures Maker fee is 0%, so nothing. Futures Grid also pays funding fees: when your position is on the same side as the funding rate, you pay once every settlement period. The calculation is explained in What is the funding rate.
DCA vs Martingale bots: what’s the difference, and how much capital do you need?
The two often get mixed up, but they work differently:
- DCA (fixed amount at fixed intervals): Bybit’s DCA bot buys a fixed amount at fixed intervals regardless of price (Bybit bot differences explained); OKX’s Recurring Buy starts at 2 USDT and pays spot fees (OKX Recurring Buy tutorial); MEXC’s Spot DCA allows up to 10 coins per plan (MEXC Spot DCA guide).
- Martingale (buy more on dips): each time the price falls by a set step, the bot buys more, with the order size growing by a multiplier, to lower the average cost; when the price rebounds to the take-profit level, it sells the whole position. Binance’s Spot DCA belongs to this type: price deviation can be set from 0.1% to 15%, and both the step and the order size can be given multipliers (Binance Spot DCA parameters, updated 2026-01-08).
The cost of DCA is simply the spot fee on each purchase; a per-exchange calculation is in Crypto DCA fees. With Martingale, the issue is the capital it needs, more than the fees. OKX’s official example uses these settings: initial order 100 USDT, add to the position every 5% drop, price step multiplier 1.5, order size multiplier 2.0, so the 4 add-on orders are 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 USDT (OKX Martingale strategy explainer). Widening the step at each level by the step multiplier, from a starting price of 100:
| Order | Trigger price (falling from 100) | Order size | Total invested | Average cost | Rebound needed to break even |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial order | 100 | 100 USDT | 100 USDT | 100.00 | 0% |
| Add-on 1 | 95 (−5%) | 200 USDT | 300 USDT | 96.61 | 1.7% |
| Add-on 2 | 87.5 (−12.5%) | 400 USDT | 700 USDT | 91.19 | 4.2% |
| Add-on 3 | 76.25 (−23.75%) | 800 USDT | 1,500 USDT | 82.56 | 8.3% |
| Add-on 4 | 59.38 (−40.6%) | 1,600 USDT | 3,100 USDT | 68.71 | 15.7% |
Source: settings from OKX’s official Martingale example; trigger prices, average costs and break-even rebounds are my own calculations from those settings, excluding fees; calculated 2026-10-21.
Two numbers in this table deserve a close look. First, the “initial order 100 USDT” you enter on screen actually requires 3,100 USDT once all 4 add-ons fill, 31 times as much. Second, once the add-ons are used up, the bot stops buying. If the price keeps falling from 59.38 to 50, you hold about 45.1 coins worth about 2,256 USDT, an unrealized loss of about 844 USDT, or 27% of the total invested; at 40, the loss is about 1,295 USDT, roughly 42%. OKX itself states that Martingale is not a principal-protected strategy and can still lose money in an extreme one-way decline; Binance’s terms require users to accept that a DCA bot may end up in a position that is “permanently at a loss (including total loss)” (Binance Trading Bots terms).
The futures version of Martingale adds leverage on top. OKX’s Futures DCA guide says high leverage magnifies losses when the market moves against you, and if your margin falls below the maintenance margin, OKX may liquidate the position (OKX Futures DCA guide, updated 2026-09-14).
How do arbitrage bots (funding rate arbitrage) make money? How many days to earn back the fees?
An exchange’s “arbitrage bot” is usually funding rate arbitrage: you buy spot and open an equal short on the perpetual contract at the same time, so the price moves on the two sides cancel out and what you earn is the funding fee the short receives. OKX describes Smart Arbitrage as holding equal, opposite positions in spot and perpetual contracts, with profit coming mainly from funding fees during the holding period, usually when the funding rate is positive (OKX Smart Arbitrage guide, updated 2026-08-11). Binance’s funding rate arbitrage bot uses 2x leverage on the futures leg by default, and the terms state the bot keeps running until the user ends it or it is liquidated (Binance Trading Bots terms). Bitget’s Funding Rate Arbitrage and Gate’s Spot-Futures Arbitrage and Cross-Exchange Arbitrage are all on their bot pages (Bitget, Gate).
The cost covers four fills. OKX’s official example for a Level 1 user: spot buy 0.1%, perpetual open 0.05%, perpetual close 0.05%, spot sell 0.1%, and it says it usually takes 7 days or more to cover the fees. At these rates, a full open and close costs about 0.3% of the position value. The table below shows how many days it takes to earn back 30 USDT in fees on a 10,000 USDT position, with funding settled 3 times a day:
| Funding rate per 8 hours | Received per day | Days to earn back 30 USDT in fees |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01% | 3 USDT | 10 days |
| 0.005% | 1.5 USDT | 20 days |
| 0.003% | 0.9 USDT | About 33 days |
| Negative | You pay instead | Never earned back, and you pay more |
Source: fees from the Level 1 user example in OKX’s Smart Arbitrage guide; the funding rates are assumptions, slippage excluded; calculated 2026-10-21.
The funding rate isn’t fixed; when it turns negative, shorts pay longs. OKX also lists the risks of arbitrage: slippage when opening and closing both sides at once, the two sides’ quantities briefly not matching, automatic position reduction when the futures risk ratio falls below 300%, and auto-deleveraging (ADL) in extreme markets. Once opened, the funds are isolated from your trading account, and the strategy stops automatically if the asset is suspended or delisted (OKX Smart Arbitrage guide). For how the funding rate is calculated and each exchange’s settlement intervals, see What is the funding rate.
What are rebalancing, TWAP and signal bots?
- Rebalancing: keeps the asset ratio you set, selling a little of a coin that has risen and adding a little to one that has fallen. Binance calls it the Rebalancing Bot, and its terms state that these trades may incur trading fees (Binance terms); OKX calls it Smart Portfolio, KuCoin Smart Rebalance, Gate Smart Rebalancing, and Pionex the Rebalancing Bot. Say you hold 1,000 USDT split evenly between BTC and USDT. After BTC rises 10%, the portfolio is 550 / 500, and you need to sell about 25 USDT of BTC to get back to 50/50; at a 0.1% fee, that rebalance costs only about 0.025 USDT. The cost depends mainly on how often it rebalances.
- TWAP (time-weighted): splits one large order into many small ones filled in batches over a period of time. Binance’s terms state that TWAP and VP order fills depend on liquidity, with no guarantee that the whole order fills or that the price beats a regular market order (Binance terms). Pionex’s TWAP DCA bot locks the funds it needs while it runs (Pionex TWAP guide).
- Signal bots: receive external signals and place orders automatically. OKX’s Signal Bot can take TradingView signals (OKX trading bots overview), and Bitget also has a signal bot that connects to TradingView. The bot only places orders as the signals say; what it trades on is the signal you feed in.
Can you copy someone else’s bot? How does profit sharing work?
Several exchanges let you copy another user’s bot directly. What you copy is a bot with a fixed set of parameters, not a trader’s orders, and the profit-sharing rules differ by exchange:
| Exchange | Bot copy rules | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Pionex | Profit sharing is charged only when the copied bot closes in profit, at a rate the KOL sets; for copies made through Discover, the platform and the KOL split it half and half; each copy needs at least 100 USDT | How to copy a KOL’s bot, Bot sharing guide |
| Gate | Copied bots are free to use; after the bot ends, 5% of the profit goes to the original creator, with no limit on copy layers | Gate bot instructions (2024-04-19) |
| Bitget | Four fixed profit-sharing rates, 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%, chosen by the expert; settled only after the copy ends, and losses are not shared | Bitget bot copy trading guide (updated 2025-09-26) |
| BingX | Spot Grid supports copying; Futures Grid currently doesn’t; profit sharing not stated officially | BingX grid tutorials, all in one, Futures Grid FAQ |
| Binance | Grid parameters can be copied from other users’ existing grid strategies; profit sharing not stated officially | Trading Bots terms |
| Bybit | The leaderboard on the bot page has a “Copiers” column; profit sharing not stated officially | Bybit trading bot page |
Source: the official pages linked in each row, checked 2026-10-21.
Profit sharing on copied bots is mostly based on “profit when the bot ends”, and the trading fee on every fill the bot makes still applies. A copied grid’s range is whatever the other user set at the time; if the price has already left that range, the copy will just sit there. How profit sharing, fees and slippage compare when copying traders is covered in Copy trading costs.
Do bot trades earn referral rebates?
Rebates are calculated on the trading fees actually paid. Binance’s Referral Pro FAQ states that only trades that generate trading fees count toward volume, and zero-fee trades don’t generate commission (Binance Referral Pro FAQ, updated 2026-08-05). By that principle, Pionex’s Futures Moon charges no trading fees while running, so there’s nothing to rebate. As for whether bot trades count, here’s what each exchange officially says:
| Exchange | What the official rules say | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Binance | Covers trading fees on spot, margin and futures; doesn’t mention bots specifically | Referral Pro FAQ |
| OKX | The rebate is a return of trading fees paid by invited users; strategy trading isn’t excluded, and bots aren’t mentioned | Affiliate program rules (checked 2026-10-17) |
| Bybit | No automatic fee rebate from the exchange | Bybit fee rebate |
| Pionex | On coin-margined futures, fees are recorded whether orders are placed manually or by a bot; the rebate rules list spot, leveraged tokens, futures and spot-futures arbitrage, and products not listed have no rebate by default | Rebate program FAQ, Rebate rules |
| Bitget, MEXC, Gate, BingX, KuCoin, HTX, XT | Not stated officially | Each exchange’s referral program rules |
Source: the official pages linked in each row, checked 2026-10-21 (the OKX row on 2026-10-17).
For exchanges that don’t state it, the most direct way to check is to let the bot run for a day or two, then look in your rebate records for the matching trades. KuCoin has one more detail: spot bots already get 20% off and futures bots pay a flat 0.06%, and the official guide states that these bot fee rates don’t apply to VIP levels (KuCoin bot FAQ).
Sign up for Pionex with referral code KEVINWU and the fee reduction is currently 15% (updated 2026-10-23), paid out in USDT every hour. Taking the Spot Grid example above, with 60,000 USDT of monthly volume at a 0.05% fee, the table below plugs in the current reduction rate:
| Monthly volume | Fees (0.05%) | Auto rebate (15%) | Net fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 USDT | 5 USDT | 0.75 USDT | 4.25 USDT |
| 60,000 USDT | 30 USDT | 4.5 USDT | 25.5 USDT |
| 300,000 USDT | 150 USDT | 22.5 USDT | 128 USDT |
Example at a spot fee rate of 0.05% and the current 15% automatic rebate (rate updated 2026-10-23). Your exchange statement prevails.
Referral codes and automatic fee rebate rates for other exchanges are collected in Crypto exchange referral codes; for the actual fees after rebates, see Exchange fees after rebates.
What are the risks of trading bots?
Bots only place orders by their rules; they don’t judge the market, and the official guides all say profit isn’t guaranteed. Pionex writes that “grid trading does not guarantee profit” (Pionex grid guide), Bitget’s bot page warns that trading bots can magnify losses in volatile markets (Bitget trading bots page), and Gate says you may lose your entire investment (Gate bot instructions). Depending on the bot type, the risk is concentrated here:
- Grids in a one-way market: if the price breaks below the lower limit of the range, a Spot Grid ends up fully in coins, and the grid profit earned so far may not offset the unrealized loss; if it breaks above the upper limit, the coins were sold long ago and you earn less than if you had just held. Calculations for three market scenarios are in What is grid trading.
- Martingale’s growing capital and losses: the add-on size grows by a multiplier, and in the example above the actual investment is 31 times the initial order; once the add-ons are used up and the price keeps falling, the loss grows with the coin’s price drop.
- Liquidation on Futures Grid and Futures Martingale: Bybit states that a Futures Grid is liquidated when the maintenance margin rate reaches 100%, and the maximum loss is the amount invested in the bot (Bybit Futures Grid FAQ); Binance states that in extreme markets the margin may be fully liquidated (Binance Futures Grid guide). The higher the leverage, the smaller the adverse move that can get you liquidated and wipe out your margin. You can estimate the liquidation price with the liquidation price calculator.
- Negative funding rates and automatic deleveraging in arbitrage: when the funding rate turns negative, you pay; OKX states that positions are automatically reduced when the futures risk ratio falls below 300%, and extreme markets add ADL.
- Fees higher than you expect: running a tight grid at an exchange with a 0.2% fee can let fees eat most of the gross profit, and at some exchanges platform-token discounts don’t apply to bots.
To understand the difference between futures and spot first, see Spot vs futures; for how futures fees are calculated, see How futures fees are calculated.
Is an “AI quant bot with guaranteed profit” a scam?
“AI bots” and “quant arbitrage platforms” that advertise fixed daily returns or guaranteed profit are a common scam pitch. In January 2024, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an advisory titled “AI Won’t Turn Trading Bots into Money Machines”: AI can’t predict the future or sudden market changes, and claims of high or guaranteed returns are red flags for fraud. It cites the Mirror Trading International case, a Ponzi scheme that took more than 1.7 billion USD in bitcoin (CFTC trading bot fraud advisory).
In Taiwan, the usual pattern is the fake investment scheme described by the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB, 刑事警察局): you meet someone on social media or a dating app, get pulled into an investment group, are allowed some small wins first, then are steered to an investment website or app to put in large sums, and are finally refused withdrawals on grounds such as insufficient wagering volume or a required margin deposit (CIB common scam methods: fake investment). Compared with a legitimate exchange, there are three things to check:
- Where the bot runs: an exchange’s bots are created on its official website or app, and the funds stay in your own account. If you’re asked to transfer USDT to another “platform”, a wallet address or a “bot account”, it isn’t an exchange’s bot.
- How fees are charged: the bots at the exchanges above charge trading fees, or take a published share of profit. A membership fee, license fee or “unfreezing fee” you must pay before you can withdraw isn’t in any of these exchanges’ rules.
- How returns are described: the official pages all say profit isn’t guaranteed. A promise of a fixed 1% or 2% return every day is a red flag in itself.
How to spot copy-trading and signal-group scams is covered in How to spot copy trading scams; for blocked withdrawals and demands to pay fees first, see What to do when an exchange won’t let you withdraw. If you suspect a scam in Taiwan, call the 165 anti-fraud hotline, or check and report it on the 165 anti-fraud website (165全民防騙網).
FAQ
Which exchange has the most trading bots?
By their official lists, Pionex and Gate offer the most types. Pionex has 7 kinds of grid alone (Spot, Infinity, Reverse, Leveraged, Margin and Futures Grid, plus Futures Moon), along with Martingale, TWAP DCA, the Rebalancing Bot and Signal Bot. Gate’s bot page lists more than ten, including grids, Martingale, Spot-Futures Arbitrage, Cross-Exchange Arbitrage and CTA. OKX officially lists 11 strategies. Of the 13 exchanges, WEEX and Ourbit have no built-in bots that I could find on their official websites.
Do exchange trading bots cost money?
Most have no separate usage fee and only charge the trading fee on each fill. OKX, Bybit, Bitget, MEXC, KuCoin and Pionex all say so, and Binance’s terms only say bot trades may incur trading fees. The exceptions: Pionex’s Futures Moon, Leveraged Grid and Margin Grid take 20% of total profit instead, and KuCoin’s futures bots charge a flat 0.06%. Copying someone else’s bot adds profit sharing; at Gate, for example, it’s 5% of the profit.
Which exchange has the lowest grid bot fees?
Looking only at VIP 0 spot fees, MEXC’s 0% spot Maker fee is the lowest, followed by Pionex at 0.05% and OKX at 0.08% Maker; Binance, Bybit and Bitget charge 0.1%, and HTX and XT 0.2%. For a 1,000 USDT Spot Grid with 60,000 USDT of monthly volume, 0.1% costs 60 USDT and 0.2% costs 120 USDT.
What’s the difference between a DCA bot and a Martingale bot?
DCA buys a fixed amount at fixed intervals, regardless of price. Martingale buys more each time the price falls by a set step, with the order size growing by a multiplier, and sells only when the price rebounds to the take-profit level. With the settings in OKX’s official example (initial 100 USDT, size multiplier 2, 4 add-ons), filling every order takes 3,100 USDT, 31 times the initial order.
Is a funding rate arbitrage bot a sure profit?
No. Arbitrage income comes from funding fees, and when the funding rate turns negative you pay instead. With the fees in OKX’s official example, opening and closing cost about 0.3% in total; at a funding rate of 0.01% every 8 hours, it takes about 10 days to earn the fees back. OKX also lists risks such as slippage, automatic position reduction and ADL, and Binance’s arbitrage bot uses 2x leverage on the futures side by default, so it can be liquidated.
Can a futures grid bot get liquidated?
Yes. A Futures Grid uses leverage, so if the price moves far enough against you, the position is liquidated. Bybit states that liquidation happens when the maintenance margin rate reaches 100%, and the maximum loss is the amount invested in the bot.
Do bot trades earn referral rebates?
None of the 13 exchanges states word for word that bot trades always earn rebates. Rebates are calculated on the trading fees actually paid, so bots that charge no trading fees while running, like Pionex’s Futures Moon, leave nothing to rebate; Pionex states that on coin-margined futures, fees are recorded whether orders are placed manually or by a bot. The most direct way to check is to let the bot run for a day or two, then see whether those trades appear in your rebate records.
Can you trust an “AI bot that earns 1% a day”?
No. A guaranteed return is a fraud red flag. The CFTC warns that AI can’t predict the market and that claims of high or guaranteed returns are signs of fraud. An exchange’s bots are created in its official app, and the funds stay in your own account. If you’re asked to move coins to another platform or pay a fee before you can withdraw, call Taiwan’s 165 anti-fraud hotline.
How grids work and their profit and loss in three market scenarios: What is grid trading. Grid fee thresholds and grid-count calculations: Pionex grid bot fees. DCA costs by exchange: Crypto DCA fees. Copy trading costs: Copy trading costs. VIP level requirements: Exchange VIP levels compared. Referral codes: Pionex referral code, Binance referral code, OKX referral code, Bitget referral code, KuCoin referral code, Gate referral code; for Bybit’s rebate option, see Bybit fee rebate.