Crypto futures trading involves more than just price movements. Multiple fees, including trading, funding, and holding costs, can impact overall returns. This guide breaks down each fee type, what triggers them, and how traders can account for these costs before entering a position to make more informed trading decisions.
TL;DR
- Crypto futures trading involves four key fees: maker/taker, funding, liquidation, and spreads
- Funding rates are recurring fees charged while a position remains open.
- Liquidation fees apply when positions are forcibly closed due to insufficient margin.
- Knowing these fees helps traders manage costs and avoid unexpected losses.
Four Types of Fee in Crypto Futures
Here are the key fees to understand on crypto futures platforms.
| Fee Type | When It Is Charged | Who Pays | Typical Range |
| Maker fee | When your limit order adds liquidity to the order book | The trader placing the order | 0.00% to 0.02% |
| Taker fee | When your market order removes liquidity from the order book | The trader placing the order | 0.03% to 0.06% |
| Funding rate | Every 8 hours, on open perpetual futures positions | Longs pay shorts (or vice versa) | 0.01% to 0.10%+ per interval |
| Liquidation fee | When the exchange forcibly closes your position | The liquidated trader | 0.5% to 1.5% of position value |
Each of these works differently. Each affects your net profit in a different way. Understanding the distinction is the starting point for trading with full cost visibility.
#1 Maker and Taker Fees
Every time you open or close a futures position, you pay either a maker fee or a taker fee. Which one depends on how your order interacts with the order book.
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- A maker order adds liquidity. When you place a limit order at a price that is not yet available in the market, your order sits in the order book waiting to be matched. Because you are adding depth to the market, exchanges reward this with lower fees.
- A taker order removes liquidity. When you place a market order that executes immediately against an existing order in the book, you are taking liquidity away. Exchanges charge slightly more for this because it reduces market depth.
In practice: if you enter a futures trade via a limit order set below the current price, you are a maker. If you hit “buy at market” and execute instantly, you are a taker. The fee difference is small per trade but significant across dozens of trades per week.
#2 Funding Rate
Main Guide: Funding Rate: How it Impacts Crypto Futures Returns
The funding rate is the fee type that catches most new futures traders off guard, because it is not charged when you open or close a trade. It is charged every 8 hours simply for holding a perpetual futures position.
Here is how it works. Perpetual futures have no expiry date. To keep the futures price anchored close to the spot price, exchanges use a funding mechanism: when the futures price trades above spot (bullish sentiment), longs pay shorts. When futures trade below spot (bearish sentiment), shorts pay longs.
Funding Rate Impact
| Scenario | Funding Rate (8 hrs) | Daily Cost | Weekly Cost | Impact |
| Calm Market | 0.01% | 0.03% | ~0.21% | Minimal cost |
| Strong Bull Run | 0.1% | 0.3% | ~2.1% | Significant cost |
This is why day traders who close positions within a single session pay zero funding, while swing traders holding for several days must account for this as a real cost against their profit target.
#3 Liquidation Fee
Main Guide: Liquidation: How To Avoid It in Crypto Futures?
When a futures position moves so far against you that your margin falls below the maintenance threshold, the exchange closes the position through liquidation. This is not free.
A liquidation fee is charged on the remaining position value at the point of closure. Depending on the exchange, this ranges from 0.5% to 1.5%. On a large position, this is not a rounding error. It is a meaningful additional deduction on top of the losses already incurred from the adverse price move.
There is also an insurance fund that most exchanges maintain. When a position is liquidated and the remaining margin does not fully cover the loss, the insurance fund covers the shortfall so other traders are not affected. The liquidation fee you pay partly funds this pool.
The practical implication: knowing your liquidation price before entering a trade matters not just for risk management but for fee planning. A trade that gets liquidated costs more than one you exit voluntarily with a stop-loss.
#4 Spread Cost
The spread is the difference between the best available buy price (ask) and the best available sell price (bid) in the order book at any given moment. It is not a fee charged by the exchange. It is a cost absorbed by market takers in every trade.
On liquid pairs like BTC/INR futures, spreads are tight, often fractions of a percent. On less liquid altcoin futures, spreads can be wider. If you enter and immediately exit a trade at market price, the spread alone means you start the position slightly negative. For high-frequency traders or those placing large orders, spread cost compounds quickly.
The way to minimise spread cost is simple: use limit orders where possible. This makes you a maker, earns a lower fee, and lets you choose your exact entry price rather than accepting whatever the market currently offers.
What Your Total Cost Actually Looks Like
Here’s how fees add up on a INR 10,000 futures trade held for 3 days at 5x leverage:
| Cost Component | Calculation | Approximate Cost |
| Taker fee (entry) | 0.05% of INR 50,000 position | INR 25 |
| Taker fee (exit) | 0.05% of INR 50,000 position | INR 25 |
| Funding rate (3 days at 0.03%/8h) | 0.27% of INR 50,000 | INR 135 |
| Total fees (no liquidation) | INR 185 |
That INR 185 in fees means your trade needs to generate more than 0.37% profit on the full position just to break even, before a single rupee of actual gain. At higher leverage, tighter spreads, or elevated funding, that breakeven threshold shifts further.
Final Thoughts: Fees Are Part of Every Trade Plan
The traders who consistently stay in profit are not always the ones who pick the best entries. They are the ones who account for every cost before they commit capital. In crypto futures, that means knowing your maker or taker fee, checking the funding rate before holding overnight, setting a stop-loss well above your liquidation price to avoid the liquidation fee, and using limit orders wherever the strategy allows.
WazirX Futures gives you visibility into your fee structure, margin, and liquidation price at the order stage. Use that information before every trade.
Frequently Asked Questions
A maker fee applies when your limit order adds liquidity to the order book. A taker fee applies when your market order executes immediately. Maker fees are lower because exchanges reward traders who improve market depth rather than reduce it.
No. Funding is only charged if you hold an open position at the exact moment the funding interval settles. Closing your position even a few minutes before the interval avoids that payment entirely.
When a position is liquidated, the exchange closes it and deducts a liquidation fee from your remaining margin. Any balance left after the fee and losses may be returned to your account, depending on the exchange’s liquidation policy.
Use limit orders to qualify for maker fees. Avoid holding positions through multiple funding intervals unless the trade thesis justifies the cost. Set stop-losses to exit voluntarily rather than being liquidated, which carries an additional fee.
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