1. The cost nobody budgets: repeat attempts
Almost no one passes on attempt one, and firms price accordingly. Run the maths on a flagship account — FTMO's 100K 2-Step, €540 list, €439 on the promo we saw:
| Scenario | At promo €439 | At list €540 |
|---|---|---|
| Pass on attempt 1 | €439 | €540 |
| Pass on attempt 2 | €878 | €1,080 |
| Pass on attempt 3 | €1,317 | €1,620 |
The cheap-ticket version of the same trap: five failed attempts at Maven's $13 3-Step cost $65 — more than one $37 10K 1-Step with ten times the room. Cheap per attempt is not cheap per pass. The metric that matters is fee per $100 of drawdown room (we rank it on our cheapest firms page) multiplied by how many attempts your strategy realistically needs.
The one free rehearsal in this industry: FTMO's 14-day free trial runs the real rules at no cost. Every failed trial is a fee you did not pay.
2. Subscription vs one-time fee — the Topstep maths
Futures firms often charge monthly instead of once. Topstep's 50K Combine is $49/month on the Standard path (plus a $149 activation fee when you pass), or $95/month on the No Activation Fee path. Which is cheaper depends entirely on how fast you pass:
| You pass in… | Standard ($49/mo + $149) | No Activation ($95/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $198 | $95 |
| Month 3 | $296 | $285 |
| Month 6 | $443 | $570 |
Break-even is about 3.2 months: faster than that, the no-activation path wins; slower, the standard path wins. The general rule for any subscription firm: your honest expected timeline, not your best case, decides the price. Apex's newer models switched to one-time fees — the comparison is on our futures list.
3. The charges after the fee
- Activation fees. Topstep charges $149 per funded account on the Standard path — after you have passed. Budget it from day one.
- Add-ons. A better profit split is often a paid extra (Maven's 90% split is an add-on to its standard 80%), and Topstep sells an optional daily-loss-limit add-on. The advertised price buys the base product only.
- Payout charges and minimums. The5ers takes a 3.5% commission on Rise, crypto and bank withdrawals — $35 on a $1,000 payout — and its minimum withdrawal is $150. FXIFY pays out via Rise only, with a $50 minimum. Topstep's minimum payout is $125 and each request is capped at 50% of the account balance. A small first payout can cost proportionally more than you expect.
- Expiry. An untouched account is a fee fully wasted: most firms close accounts after 30 days without a trade opened (The5ers measures exactly that), and Apex closes paid accounts that do not log two days with at least $50 net profit in any rolling 30 days.
4. Money back: refund rules, firm by firm
Some fees come back — but only after you have earned payouts, and the timing varies enough to change the real cost:
| Firm / model | Fee refund |
|---|---|
| FTMO 2-Step | Refunded with your first reward |
| FXIFY One Phase | Refunded with your first payout |
| IC Funded | Refunded after your third payout |
| Maven (standard models) | Refunded after your third reward — Instant Mini excluded |
| FundingPips | Only the 2 Step Standard refunds, with the fourth reward |
From the firms' own pages and terms, checked 23 Oct 2026. A refund promise is worth nothing until you reach the payout it attaches to — count it as a bonus, never as a discount at purchase time.
5. What actually reduces the bill
- Pass the free version first. FTMO's trial, then its smallest account. Every other firm: smallest account first, scale after a payout — The5ers' growth plan and FTMO's scaling (+25% every 4 months) both reward that order.
- Match the drawdown type to your style before paying. The wrong basis ends accounts that the market did not — our drawdown guide shows the same trades ending three different ways.
- Use codes that are actually tested. Ours are verified at real checkouts before listing: PROPDIS gives 7% off CFD, up to 50% off Futures in our FundedNext test; PROPDEALHUB takes 10% off at Maven and Crypto Fund Trader and 30% off a first purchase at SabioTrade; FXIFY's 10% applies via link. At IC Funded, PROPDEALHUB gave 40% off in our 26 Oct 2026 retest (2-Step $5K $74.00 → $44.40; 10K $125 → $75; 25K $249 → $149.40 — the last two independently reproduced in the live audit's public checkout test); whether that 40% is the code itself or a promotion match is unconfirmed (asked IC Funded 26 Oct, awaiting reply). Full list with test dates: discount codes.
- Set a total budget, not a per-attempt one. Decide the most this experiment may cost in total — fees, repeats, subscriptions — and stop when it is spent. The traders who overspend are the ones who re-decide after every failure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are prop firm fees refundable if I fail?
No — a failed attempt's fee is gone at every firm we have reviewed. Refunds exist only as rewards for succeeding: typically returned alongside a payout (FTMO and FXIFY with the first one; IC Funded and Maven after the third; FundingPips' Standard after the fourth). Anyone promising a refund on failure is not describing a real firm's terms.
Is a subscription or a one-time fee cheaper?
It depends on your pass speed, and the crossover is closer than marketing suggests — on Topstep's two paths it is about 3.2 months. Subscriptions reward fast passers and punish slow ones; one-time fees cost the same however long you take. Estimate your timeline honestly, including practice time.
Do discount codes really lower the total cost?
Tested ones do — a 10% code on a €439 promo is €43.90 you keep, and over three attempts that is €131.70. But treat untested codes as worth zero: codes copied between coupon sites are routinely expired, region-locked or invented. Every code on our discount page shows its checkout test and date.
What is a realistic budget for a first year of challenges?
There is no universal number, but the structure is: pick the smallest account at a firm whose rules fit you ($13–$35 one-time tickets on our cheapest list; Topstep's $49/mo is a monthly subscription, not a one-time fee), allow for two to three attempts, add any subscription months and activation fees, and cap the total before you start. If that total would hurt to lose entirely, the account is too big — drop a size, not the budget rule.