How Your Trading Fees Are Actually Calculated: Maker/Taker, VIP Tiers, Platform-Token Discounts
Taking apart the three multipliers of a trading fee, and working it through with an example of 100,000 USDT traded in a month: for the same volume, how much the tiers differ.
How Your Trading Fees Are Actually Calculated: Maker/Taker, VIP Tiers, Platform-Token Discounts
Bottom line first: The fee an exchange charges isn't "one number" — it's three multipliers stacked together: order type (maker/taker) × 30-day volume tier × platform-token discount. For the same trade, two people can pay rates that differ by more than double.
The three multipliers
| Multiplier | Meaning | The part you control |
|---|---|---|
| Maker / Taker | Resting an order and waiting to be filled (maker) is usually cheaper; immediately taking someone else's order (taker) is more expensive | Use limit orders instead of market orders — that saves money most of the time |
| VIP tier | Tiers by 30-day volume; the larger the volume, the lower the rate | Over the long run, volume decides it; but switching exchanges resets your tier (VIP3 on the old one → VIP0 on the new one) |
| Platform-token discount | Holding the platform token or paying with it gives a further discount | You need to hold that exchange's platform token — watch the token-price risk |
Worked from an example of 100,000 USDT traded in a month
Using this site's cost model (half spot / half futures, half of it maker, average holding time 3 days, 1 withdrawal per month):
| Exchange | Annual cost | In bps |
|---|---|---|
| OKX | $688 | 5.7 bps |
| Gate | $766 | 6.4 bps |
| Bitget | $768 | 6.4 bps |
| Binance | $781 | 6.5 bps |
| Bybit | $797 | 6.6 bps |
Note: the trading fees here are only part of the total cost. The same profile also carries funding fees, withdrawal fees, and slippage — for the full methodology and missing items, see the annual cost comparison.
The three things that cost you most
- Defaulting to market orders: what a high-frequency trader overpays in maker/taker spread over a year often exceeds all the "fee discounts" combined.
- Switching exchanges to save trading fees: after switching, the VIP-tier reset, funding-fee settlement, and gap-window costs can cancel out the savings. See the migration checklist first.
- Ignoring hidden costs: funding fees and withdrawal fees aren't in the fee table. Use the total cost to include them and see the real gap.
Next steps
- Total cost calculator: enter your volume, spot/futures ratio, maker share, and get your annual cost and best choice directly
- Five-exchange annual cost comparison: full methodology
- The real cost of funding rates: the hidden expense of holding perpetuals
Data source and fetch time: fee rates come from the exchanges' public fee pages on their official sites (this site flags these as "pending manual verification"), and funding-fee and withdrawal data come from public APIs (fetched 2026-10-12T13:47:06Z). The calculation methodology is public on the total cost page and can be recalculated item by item. Snapshot date 2026-10-12.
Disclaimer: This site provides education and tools; it is not investment advice and promises no returns.