How Are Futures Fees Calculated? On Notional Value, Not Margin: 13 Exchanges Worked Out (2026)

Updated 2026-10-16・Rules checked 2026-10-12

Futures fees are calculated as position notional value × fee rate, charged once when you open and again when you close. Notional value equals margin times leverage, so with the same 1,000 USDT of margin, a 20x position pays 20 times the fees of a 1x position. The exchange looks at how big a position you opened, not how much money you put in.

It is easier to remember as a share of margin: one entry and one exit cost roughly “fee rate × leverage × 2”. With a 0.05% Taker rate at 20x, a single round trip eats 2% of your margin; do 100 round trips in a month and the fees add up to 2 times your margin, or 200%. The higher the leverage and the more often you trade, the more you save with limit orders (Maker) and referral code rebates.

Across the 13 exchanges covered on this site, the Taker rate for regular users (VIP 0) on USDT-margined perpetual futures ranges from 0.02% to 0.08%; Maker is 0.02% at most of them and 0% at MEXC. Below I work through 5x, 20x and 50x examples, and cover liquidation fees, isolated vs cross margin, where fees are deducted from, and ways to cut fees.

Key points: futures fee = notional value × fee rate, notional value = margin × leverage, and the fee is charged once on opening and once on closing. Round-trip fees as a share of margin = fee rate × leverage × 2: at 0.05% Taker, that is 2% at 20x and 5% at 50x. Whatever your leverage, the price has to move at least 0.1% in your favor just to cover 0.05% Taker fees on opening and closing. Leverage also magnifies the gap between Maker and Taker: at 20x, the same round trip costs 1.2% more of your margin with Taker orders than with Maker orders. Liquidation fees vary by exchange: Bybit charges no liquidation fee on perpetual futures, OKX charges its Taker rate, and Pionex’s example liquidation fee rate is 1.75%.

The information below was checked against official pages on 2026-10-12 (data check date) and is provided for reference.

How are futures fees calculated?

Each exchange words it a little differently, but they all multiply the value of the filled position by the fee rate:

• Binance: fee = position value × fee rate, where position value = contract quantity × fill price (Binance futures fee guide, updated 2026-05-01).
• OKX: USDT-margined fee = fee rate × (number of contracts × contract multiplier × contract face value × fill price). OKX states that fees are calculated on trade value and have “no direct relationship with your leverage”; leverage only affects how large a position you can open, and opening and closing fees are the same (OKX trading fee FAQ).
• Gate: fee = position value × (Maker/Taker rate), charged only when you open, close or reduce a position. It is “unrelated to leverage”, and unfilled or cancelled orders are not charged (Gate futures fee guide).
• Pionex: states outright that “contract notional value = margin × leverage”, and each futures trade is charged once on opening and again on closing (Pionex fee calculation guide).

For coin-margined (inverse) contracts, position value is “contracts × face value ÷ fill price”. The result is an amount of coin, and the fee is charged in that coin too; a BTCUSD contract, for example, charges BTC. Bybit’s official example is 10,000 BTCUSD contracts filled at USD 8,000, giving a position value of 10,000 ÷ 8,000 = 1.25 BTC (Bybit futures fee guide, updated 2026-08-05). All the calculations in the rest of this article use USDT-margined contracts.

What is the difference between notional value and margin?

Margin is the money you put into a position; notional value is the size of the position it actually controls. Trading fees and funding fees are both calculated on notional value, and so are profit and loss. The table below keeps margin at 1,000 USDT and the Taker rate at 0.05%, and changes only the leverage:

Leverage	Notional value	Opening fee	Round trip	Share of margin	Adverse move that wipes out the margin
1x	1,000 USDT	0.5 USDT	1 USDT	0.1%	100%
5x	5,000 USDT	2.5 USDT	5 USDT	0.5%	20%
10x	10,000 USDT	5 USDT	10 USDT	1%	10%
20x	20,000 USDT	10 USDT	20 USDT	2%	5%
50x	50,000 USDT	25 USDT	50 USDT	5%	2%
100x	100,000 USDT	50 USDT	100 USDT	10%	1%

How it is calculated: notional value = 1,000 × leverage; opening fee = notional value × 0.05%; the round trip assumes the same opening and closing price and multiplies by 2. The last column is 1 ÷ leverage and ignores fees and maintenance margin. The real liquidation price is closer than that, because the position also has to keep maintenance margin, and fees come out of the margin or your balance as well. To work out a liquidation price, try the liquidation price calculator. With leveraged trading, an adverse price move can trigger a forced liquidation and you can lose all of your margin.

What people often miss in this table: fees are a fixed share of notional value. Using Taker orders on both entry and exit costs 0.1%, regardless of leverage. So whether you trade at 5x or 50x, the price has to move 0.1% in your favor just to break even on fees; with Maker orders on both sides (0.02%), it is 0.04%. What leverage changes is how big that 0.1% is relative to your margin: at 50x, a 0.1% price move equals 5% of your margin.

5x, 20x, 50x leverage: how much do the fees differ?

Using the most common VIP 0 rates, Maker 0.02% and Taker 0.05% (Binance, OKX, Gate, BingX and Pionex all use this pair), with margin again at 1,000 USDT:

Leverage	Taker both sides	Maker both sides	Maker open, Taker close	Extra cost of Taker over Maker
5x (notional 5,000)	5 USDT (0.5%)	2 USDT (0.2%)	3.5 USDT (0.35%)	3 USDT (0.3%)
20x (notional 20,000)	20 USDT (2%)	8 USDT (0.8%)	14 USDT (1.4%)	12 USDT (1.2%)
50x (notional 50,000)	50 USDT (5%)	20 USDT (2%)	35 USDT (3.5%)	30 USDT (3%)

The math at 20x: Taker on both sides is 20,000 × 0.05% × 2 = 20 USDT; Maker on both sides is 20,000 × 0.02% × 2 = 8 USDT; opening with a limit order and closing at market (for example when a stop-loss triggers) is 20,000 × 0.02% + 20,000 × 0.05% = 4 + 10 = 14 USDT. The figures in parentheses are the share of margin.

The Maker–Taker rate gap is only 0.03%, but once it is multiplied by leverage and by two legs, it comes to 0.3% of margin at 5x and 3% at 50x. The higher the leverage, the more your order type affects your costs. How Maker and Taker are defined, and how to make sure your orders are Maker, is covered in Maker vs Taker fees.

Over a month: 100 round trips cost 2 times your margin

A single trade does not look like much; what adds up is the number of trades. Same 1,000 USDT of margin and 20x leverage, with a different number of round trips per month:

Round trips per month	Monthly volume	All Taker	All Maker	Taker as share of margin
10	400,000 USDT	200 USDT	80 USDT	20%
30	1,200,000 USDT	600 USDT	240 USDT	60%
100	4,000,000 USDT	2,000 USDT	800 USDT	200%

The math: monthly volume = 20,000 × 2 × round trips; fees = monthly volume × fee rate. At 100 round trips, all with Taker orders, you pay 2,000 USDT a month, 2 times your margin, which means your trades have to earn an extra 200% just to cover fees. Switching everything to Maker brings it to 800 USDT, 1,200 USDT less. That still leaves out funding: if you hold a perpetual position through a settlement time, you also pay or receive a funding fee; see what the funding rate is and how it is calculated.

Futures fees compared across 13 exchanges

The table shows each exchange’s regular-user (VIP 0) rates on USDT-margined perpetual futures, sorted by Taker from lowest to highest. The cost columns again use 1,000 USDT of margin, 20x leverage and Taker orders on both sides.

Exchange	Maker	Taker	One round trip at 20x	100 round trips a month	Official source
MEXC	0%	0.02%	8 USDT (0.8%)	800 USDT	MEXC futures calculation guide
Ourbit	0.02%	0.04%	16 USDT (1.6%)	1,600 USDT	Ourbit fee announcement
Binance	0.02%	0.05%	20 USDT (2.0%)	2,000 USDT	Binance futures fee guide
OKX	0.02%	0.05%	20 USDT (2.0%)	2,000 USDT	OKX fee page
Gate	0.02%	0.05%	20 USDT (2.0%)	2,000 USDT	Gate fee page
BingX	0.02%	0.05%	20 USDT (2.0%)	2,000 USDT	BingX perpetual futures fee schedule
Pionex	0.02%	0.05%	20 USDT (2.0%)	2,000 USDT	Pionex fee calculation guide
Bybit	0.02%	0.055%	22 USDT (2.2%)	2,200 USDT	Bybit trading fee structure
Bitget	0.02%	0.06%	24 USDT (2.4%)	2,400 USDT	Bitget futures order cost guide
KuCoin	0.02%	0.06%	24 USDT (2.4%)	2,400 USDT	KuCoin fee page
HTX	0.02%	0.06%	24 USDT (2.4%)	2,400 USDT	HTX “My Fee Rate” page
XT	0.02%	0.06%	24 USDT (2.4%)	2,400 USDT	XT futures fee rate guide
WEEX	0.02%	0.08%	32 USDT (3.2%)	3,200 USDT	WEEX spot and futures fee calculation guide

A few notes on the table:

• MEXC: 0%/0.02% is the standard rate on the fee page and in the futures calculation guide, and MEXC notes that rates may be adjusted for promotions or by region. When I read MEXC’s public contract specification data on 2026-10-12, most USDT contracts were Maker 0% and Taker 0.02%, but some were 0.01%/0.04% or higher. Before you place an order, go by the rate shown on the trading page and in your trade history.
• Ourbit: 0.04% is the general rate; Ourbit’s Taiwan VIP user fee announcement of 2025-04-23 lists the futures Taker rate for Taiwan VIP 0 as 0.05%. For a Taiwan account, the most accurate figure is “Your exclusive rate” on the fee page after you log in.
• HTX: HTX’s user agreement prohibits users in Taiwan from trading derivatives, so the futures rate in the table only matters in regions where futures trading is allowed.
• WEEX: since 2025-05-30, 167 trading pairs have a higher Maker rate (0.03%–0.08%), while Taker is still 0.08%; go by the trading page.
• BingX: it also offers “Standard Futures”, which charge 0.045% only once, on closing, but the fill price includes a spread, so it cannot be compared directly with perpetual futures.

For each exchange’s VIP rates, platform token discounts and funding rate details, click the exchange name in the table to open its full fee guide. The table below shows the same Taker rates after the automatic fee rebate from the exchange when you sign up with this site’s referral code; it updates automatically when rebate rates change.

Fees are each exchange's published VIP 0 taker rates; after the rebate = fee × (1 − automatic rebate). Rebate rates synced 2026-10-24. Actual fees vary by VIP level, pair and product; your exchange statement prevails.

Do you pay fees on opening, closing and liquidation?

You pay on both opening and closing, at the same rate; what matters is whether that fill is Maker or Taker. Unfilled and cancelled orders are free. Reversing a position counts as a close plus an open, so it is charged twice; market-triggered take-profit and stop-loss orders and one-click close are all charged as Taker. When you are forcibly liquidated, exchanges handle it very differently:

Exchange	What is charged on liquidation	Official source
Bybit	No liquidation fee on perpetual or delivery futures	Bybit fee overview (updated 2026-04-08)
OKX	A fee at the Taker rate of your current tier	OKX trading fee FAQ
Binance	Liquidation Clearance Fee, calculated on position notional value and that contract’s rate, which is listed on the trading rules page	Binance futures liquidation rules (updated 2026-01-04)
Pionex	Liquidation fee = notional value of the liquidated portion × that pair’s liquidation fee rate; the official example rate is 1.75%	Pionex forced liquidation guide
KuCoin	The system pre-freezes part of the liquidation fee based on position direction and size and charges it on the actual close or liquidation; the guide gives no rate	KuCoin futures fee guide
BingX	Liquidation triggers when “margin ratio ≤ maintenance margin ratio + Taker fee rate”, so the closing fee is built into the threshold	BingX perpetual futures fee schedule
Bitget, Gate, MEXC, XT, WEEX, HTX, Ourbit	Their futures fee guides do not state a liquidation fee rate; Ourbit states that fee vouchers cannot be used for liquidation fees	Each exchange’s fee guide (see the comparison table above)

Pionex’s example shows the gap best: for a 20,000 USDT BTCUSDT long, closing it yourself at market costs 20,000 × 0.05% = 10 USDT; if it is fully liquidated, the liquidation fee is 20,000 × 1.75% = 350 USDT, 35 times as much as closing it yourself. Pionex also notes that the rates in its documentation may not be the latest, and each pair’s liquidation fee rate is shown in the contract information in the app. Setting a stop-loss and closing the position yourself is usually cheaper than waiting to be liquidated.

Are fees the same for isolated and cross margin?

The rate is the same. None of the official fee schedules of the 13 exchanges I checked list separate rates by margin mode; the fee is always notional value times the Maker or Taker rate. The difference between isolated and cross margin is where the money comes from, and how close to liquidation you are afterward:

• Isolated margin: each position has its own margin. BingX states that in isolated mode, funding fees are deducted from that position’s initial margin; at Gate and WEEX, futures trading fees also come out of the position margin. Once part of the margin is deducted, that position’s liquidation price moves closer.
• Cross margin: the whole futures account balance is shared. BingX states that in cross mode, funding fees are deducted from the balance; Pionex’s liquidation guide also says that in cross mode, whether you get liquidated depends on the assets of the entire futures account. Costs do not fall on a single position, but all positions in the account affect each other.

Sources: BingX perpetual futures fee schedule, Gate futures fee guide, WEEX spot and futures fee calculation guide (updated 2026-01-08), Pionex forced liquidation guide.

Where are futures fees deducted from?

• USDT-margined contracts: deducted in the settlement currency, USDT for USDT contracts and USDC for USDC contracts. Bybit states that fees come out of the account balance and do not affect the initial margin of that order (Bybit futures fee guide); Gate and WEEX state that they come out of the position margin.
• Coin-margined contracts: deducted in the underlying coin, for example BTC for BTCUSD (the guides of KuCoin, OKX, Bybit and HTX all say so).
• With a platform token discount turned on: the fee is paid in the platform token instead, but the token has to be in the right account. Binance’s BNB must be in the USDT-margined futures account; if there is not enough, USDT is charged with no discount. MEXC’s MX must be transferred into the futures account. Bybit’s MNT must be in the Unified Trading Account; if it cannot cover the whole fee, the original currency is charged instead, with no partial discount.
• Displayed profit and loss: Pionex states that the PNL on the futures page does not yet include the closing fee. In its official example, PNL shows a 20 USDT profit, the closing fee is 0.5 USDT, and 19.5 USDT actually reaches the account. For what was actually charged on each trade, go by the trade details or statement.

How much do referral code rebates save on futures fees?

An exchange referral code rebate refunds a percentage of the fees you actually pay. The formula is: fees actually paid = fees × (1 − rebate rate). The rebate is based on fees, not trade volume, so the more fees you pay, the more you get back. The trader above with “20x and 100 round trips a month” has a monthly fee base of 2,000 USDT. Rebates also stack with Maker orders: first bring the rate down from 0.05% to 0.02%, then get part of that 0.02% back.

Take Binance as an example: for accounts registered with this site’s referral code, the automatic fee rebate from the exchange on USDT-margined futures is 20%. The table below plugs in the volumes for 10, 30 and 100 round trips a month, and the figures update with the current rebate rate.

Example at a futures fee rate of 0.05% and the current 20% automatic rebate (rate updated 2026-10-24). Your exchange statement prevails.

To run the numbers with your own margin, leverage, trade count and exchange, use the perpetual futures cost calculator, which includes fees, funding and rebates. Each exchange’s rates ranked after rebates are covered in actual fees after referral code rebates and lowest-fee crypto exchanges.

If you trade with high leverage and high frequency, pay special attention to these rules:

• Very short-term trades may earn no rebate: XT’s referral risk control rules state that a trade opened and closed within 60 seconds loses its rebate, and more than 8 such trades a day may trigger risk controls (XT referral risk control rules, updated 2026-09-23). WEEX treats opening and closing within 5 minutes as abnormal trading and deducts rebates depending on the circumstances (WEEX abnormal trading policy).
• Binance futures rebates have a time limit and a tier limit: futures rebates last 12 months from when you open your futures account (no such limit if the referrer’s commission rate is 30% or more), and they stop once you reach VIP 3 or above (Binance Referral Pro FAQ). For the trade-off between VIP and rebates, see how VIP tiers affect referral code rebates.
• Pionex calls it a fee reduction: Pionex calls its referral code benefit a fee reduction, returned to your account in USDT after trades settle; both futures and trading bot trades count.
• Bybit has no automatic fee rebate from the exchange: if you sign up with a referral code, Bybit does not refund fees to the invitee. To get part of your futures fees back, you can use a rebate site such as Fee Otter. That extra rebate is paid by Fee Otter, not by the exchange and not by Kevin Wu; the rate is whatever Fee Otter’s page shows at the time. For the steps, see Bybit fee rebate (Fee Otter).
• Ourbit charges no spot fees: so rebates come only from futures and DEX trading.

How can you lower futures fees?

Using the earlier scenario of “1,000 USDT margin, 20x, 100 round trips a month”, that is, 4 million USDT of monthly volume at the VIP 0 Taker rate of 0.05% (2,000 USDT a month), here are the options ranked from the biggest saving:

1. Switch to Maker orders: moving everything to Maker at 0.02% costs 800 USDT, a saving of 1,200 USDT (60%); moving only half to Maker costs 2,000,000 × 0.05% + 2,000,000 × 0.02% = 1,000 + 400 = 1,400 USDT, still a saving of 600 USDT. Tick Post-Only when you place a limit order, and any order that would fill immediately is cancelled instead of becoming a Taker order. The trade-off is that a limit order may not fill.
2. Get a rebate with a referral code: no change to how you trade; see the calculator above for how much comes back. Combined with Maker orders, the effects multiply. You have to enter the referral code when you sign up; whether you can add one afterward depends on each exchange’s rules.
3. Platform token discounts (only some exchanges apply them to futures): paying Binance futures fees with BNB gives 10% off, turning 2,000 USDT into 1,800 USDT and saving 200 USDT; MEXC’s MX discount is 20% off and also applies to futures; Bybit’s MNT gives 10% off on USDT perpetuals, but not for copy trading, API, trading bots or liquidation orders; HTX’s HTX/TRX discount is only 5% off on futures. Bitget, KuCoin, Gate and XT list platform token discounts for spot only; OKX, WEEX and Pionex have no platform token discount, BingX does not officially list one either, and Ourbit’s OUR is currently not available to regular users. Holding a platform token also exposes you to its price swings.
4. VIP tiers: the exchanges with the lowest thresholds are in the table below. With 4 million USDT of monthly volume, you would already be VIP 2 at XT; OKX VIP 1 needs 5 million, and Bybit VIP 1 needs 10 million.

Exchange	Easier tier to reach	Requirement (any one)	Futures Taker
XT	VIP 1	30-day futures volume of 200,000 USDT or average assets of 30,000 USDT	0.06% → 0.054%
HTX	Prime 1	30-day futures trading value of 300,000, total assets of 5,000, or holding 1,000 HTX	0.06% → 0.055%
WEEX	VIP 1/VIP 2	5-day asset balance of 10,000/30,000 USDT, or 30-day futures volume of 1 million/5 million USDT	0.08% → 0.075%/0.06%
Bitget	VIP 2	30-day futures volume of 10 million USDT or assets of 50,000 USDT	0.06% → 0.04%
BingX	VIP 1	30-day futures volume of 10 million USDT or previous-day assets of 50,000 USDT	0.05% → 0.04%
OKX	VIP 1	30-day futures volume of USD 5 million or assets of USD 100,000	0.05% → 0.045%
Bybit	VIP 1	30-day futures volume of USD 10 million or assets of USD 100,000	0.055% → 0.04%

VIP thresholds and rates follow each exchange’s fee page (XT, HTX, WEEX, Bitget, BingX, OKX, Bybit). Qualifying by assets means keeping money on the exchange, which is a risk in itself; buying coins or depositing funds just to reach a tier is not necessarily worth it. Also, at some exchanges referral code rebates stop once you reach a higher tier, so before upgrading, read how VIP tiers affect referral code rebates.

FAQ

How are futures fees calculated?

Futures fee = notional value × fee rate, charged once on opening and once on closing. Notional value is margin times leverage: 1,000 USDT of margin at 10x gives a notional value of 10,000 USDT, so at 0.05% Taker you pay 5 USDT to open and another 5 USDT to close, 10 USDT for the round trip.

Does higher leverage mean higher fees?

Yes, if your margin stays the same. Higher leverage opens a bigger position with the same margin, and fees grow in proportion: at 0.05% Taker, one round trip is 0.5% of margin at 5x, 2% at 20x and 5% at 50x. If the position size stays the same and you just put in less margin, the fees are the same, because the exchange only looks at notional value.

Are perpetual futures fees charged on opening or on closing?

Both, at the same rate; what matters is whether that fill is Maker or Taker. BingX’s Standard Futures are the exception: they charge 0.045% only once, on closing, but the fill price includes a spread. If you hold a perpetual position through a settlement time, there is also a separately calculated funding fee.

Do you pay a fee when you are forcibly liquidated?

It depends on the exchange. Bybit charges no liquidation fee on perpetual or delivery futures; OKX charges the Taker rate of your current tier; Binance charges a Liquidation Clearance Fee based on notional value and that contract’s rate; Pionex’s official example liquidation fee rate is 1.75%, far above the usual 0.05% Taker rate. Setting a stop-loss and closing the position yourself is usually cheaper than being liquidated.

Are fees the same for isolated and cross margin?

Yes, the rate does not depend on margin mode. The difference is where the fee is deducted: isolated margin takes it from that position’s margin, which moves that position’s liquidation price closer; cross margin takes it from the whole futures account balance, which all positions share.

How are Binance futures fees calculated?

On Binance USDT-margined futures, regular users pay Maker 0.02% and Taker 0.05%, and fee = position value × fee rate. With 1,000 USDT of margin at 20x and Taker orders on both entry and exit, that is 20,000 × 0.05% × 2 = 20 USDT; paying with BNB gives 10% off, bringing it to 18 USDT. The discount only applies if the BNB is in the USDT-margined futures account. For full rates, see the Binance fee guide.

Can you get rebates on futures fees?

At most exchanges, yes: after you sign up with a referral code, the exchange refunds a percentage of the fees you actually pay. Bybit is the exception, with no automatic fee rebate from the exchange; at XT, trades opened and closed within 60 seconds, and at WEEX, quick open-and-close trades within 5 minutes, may not earn a rebate. If you have not received a rebate, check against what to do if you did not receive a rebate.

Is the funding rate a trading fee?

No. Funding is money that longs and shorts pay each other; the exchange does not collect it, and it earns no rebate. It is also calculated on notional value: at a 0.01% rate, a 20,000 USDT position pays or receives 2 USDT at each settlement, and the longer you hold, the more it adds up.

Is a limit order always Maker?

Not necessarily. If a limit order matches an opposing order as soon as it is submitted, you pay the Taker rate; only the part that rests in the order book first and is filled later counts as Maker. To make sure it is Maker, tick Post-Only when you place the order, and the system cancels any order that would fill immediately.

For each exchange’s full fees, see the Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget and other fee guides. For funding, see what the funding rate is and how it is calculated; for the Maker–Taker difference, see Maker vs Taker fees; to try your own numbers, use the perpetual futures cost calculator and the liquidation price calculator. Every exchange’s referral code and rebate is listed in the exchange referral code overview.