Topstep is the pioneer and leader in the list of the and has been around since 2012. They have paid out over $40 million to their traders in the last 4 years alone.
Topstep is a futures-only prop firm that lets a trader prove a strategy in a simulated evaluation, earn a funded account, and collect real payouts on simulated results. It is one of the best funded trader programs and fits disciplined futures day traders who want a documented, predictable path to funding and can trade inside hard risk limits. It is the wrong product for anyone trading stocks, options, or forex, and a poor fit for traders who resent a recurring monthly fee while they learn.
How Topstep Works
The program runs on three stages. A trader starts in the Trading Combine, a paid monthly evaluation that uses real market data inside a simulated account. Passing means reaching a profit target without breaking the rule that ends accounts: the Maximum Loss Limit. There is no minimum time requirement, so the Combine can be cleared in a couple of days or stretched across months of attempts.
Clear it and Topstep issues an Express Funded Account. The balance opens at $0 and grows only from trading profits, and a trader can hold up to 5 of these accounts at once. The account is still simulated, but the payouts it generates are real money.
Strong performance can earn an invitation to a Live Funded Account that trades genuine firm capital. That promotion is Topstep’s decision, monitored by its risk managers, and a trader cannot request it. Turning it down is not really an option either, since the only alternative to accepting is closing the funded account. The live stage carries a mechanic that catches traders off guard: a call-up to a $100K Live Funded Account does not hand over $100K to trade. The starting balance is 20% of combined funded-account balances, with a $10,000 minimum, while the other 80% sits in reserve and unlocks in four 25% increments as the trader hits profit targets ($3,000, $6,000, or $9,000 by size). Drop below $1,000 and the live account is liquidated. Traders in jurisdictions where Topstep cannot offer live market access are instead routed to a simulated Pro Account that mirrors most live parameters at the same three sizes.
The structure rewards traders who treat the evaluation as a habit-building exercise rather than a lottery ticket. Topstep reports more than $1 billion paid out, a 92.26% payout approval rate, and a community north of 200,000 traders, figures that point to a process built to be passed and paid rather than gamed against the customer.
The TopstepX Platform
Topstep funnels every account through TopstepX, its proprietary futures platform. The platform is where most of the firm’s design philosophy lives, and it does more than route orders.
Charting and trade management
TopstepX builds in TradingView charts, which removes the usual friction of bolting a third-party charting package onto a prop account. Order handling leans on drag-and-drop brackets: a trader sets profit targets and stops before entry, then adjusts them on the chart as the trade develops. For an active futures trader who manages positions by feel of the tape, having entries, targets, and stops live on one surface matters more than a longer feature list would suggest.
Built-in risk guardrails
This is the part a generic platform does not replicate. A trader can set a personal daily loss limit that freezes the account once hit, a daily profit target that locks the account after a good session to stop the giveback, hard caps on the number of daily or weekly trades, and a manual account lockout for the day. None of these are required, but they exist to solve the single behavior that ends most evaluations: one undisciplined session. Topstep notes that 63% of traders have lost an account in a single day, and the guardrails are aimed squarely at that statistic.
Proprietary tools
TopstepX also ships daily price levels and a sentiment gauge called The Tilt, which shows where the Topstep trading community is leaning in real time. These are the kind of extras that read as marketing until a trader actually uses them as a second opinion on a crowded level. They will not carry a weak strategy, and no indicator does, but they are genuine additions rather than repackaged defaults.
What Traders Can Trade
Topstep is futures and nothing else. The tradeable list covers the CME group across equity index futures (ES, NQ, RTY, YM and their micros), energy (CL, NG, and micros), metals (GC, SI, HG, and micros), currency futures (6E, 6B, 6J, and others), interest rate products (ZB, ZN, ZF), agricultural contracts (ZC, ZW, ZS), and crypto micros (MBT, MET).
That breadth is real, but the boundary is hard. A trader who wants to trade equities, options, or spot forex gets no path here. The futures-only scope is the first filter any reader should apply before reading another word about pricing.
Topstep Pricing
The Combine is a monthly subscription that rebills roughly every 30 days until a trader passes or cancels. Topstep splits it into two paths, and the choice is locked once a purchase is made.
| Account Size | Standard Path | No Activation Fee Path |
|---|---|---|
| $50K | $49/month | $95/month |
| $100K | $99/month | $149/month |
| $150K | $199/month | $229/month |
The Standard Path costs less each month but charges a one-time $149 activation fee for each Express Funded Account earned. The No Activation Fee Path costs more monthly and waives that fee entirely on passing. Adding a Daily Loss Limit at checkout on the No Activation Fee Path triggers a recurring Responsible Trading discount of $10, $20, or $30 by account size, which narrows the gap between the two paths considerably.
The math behind the two paths is straightforward. A trader confident of passing in 1 or 2 attempts pays less overall on the No Activation Fee Path because the $149 activation fee never lands. A trader who expects to grind through several months of attempts pays less on the Standard Path, then absorbs the activation fee once funding finally arrives. The decision is a bet on how quickly a trader will pass, and it cannot be reversed later.
Payment runs on Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. PayPal is not accepted, and applicable sales tax or VAT is added at checkout. At least 1 card must stay on file while a Combine is active, because removing every card closes the account.
The Costs That Do Not Show Up in the Headline Price
The monthly subscription is the number traders compare across firms, and it is the wrong number to anchor on. Several other costs shape what Topstep actually costs over a full cycle.
Commissions
Every filled trade carries a round-turn cost deducted straight from the account balance, built from the exchange fee, a $0.04 NFA regulatory fee, and Topstep’s commission of $1.00 round-turn on minis and $0.50 on micros.
| Contract | Round-turn cost |
|---|---|
| E-mini S&P 500 (ES) | $3.80 |
| Micro E-mini S&P 500 (MES) | $1.24 |
| Crude Oil (CL) | $4.04 |
| Gold (GC) | $4.24 |
| Micro Gold (MGC) | $1.74 |
On a $50K funded account where the first payout cap sits at $2,000, a trader churning dozens of ES round turns a day is handing back a meaningful slice of progress to costs. The numbers are competitive for the futures space, but they are not zero, and they compound on high-frequency styles.
Data, resets, and reactivation
Level 1 top-of-book data is included. Level 2 depth-of-market data, required for ladder or matrix trading, is a $38 monthly add-on billed on the 28th and not prorated. A reset, which restarts a failed Combine with a fresh balance, costs the same as one monthly rebill, so a trader who resets often is effectively paying for two subscriptions in a month.
The sharpest cost sits at the funded stage. Breaching the Maximum Loss Limit in an Express Funded Account liquidates and closes it. Reactivating through the Back2Funded option costs $599 for a $50K account, $699 for a $100K, and $829 for a $150K, and is allowed only twice and only within 30 days of closure. Those are large numbers against the monthly subscription, and they reframe the loss limit as something with a literal price tag attached.
Rules and Restrictions That Decide What Topstep Is Worth
A prop firm is its rule set. Topstep documents its mechanics in detail, which is a point in its favor, but the rules still bind tightly.
The Maximum Loss Limit
The Maximum Loss Limit is the one rule. It trails the account’s high-water balance and is set at the end of each day, so a profitable session raises the floor a trader cannot fall back below. Hit it and the account is gone, in the Combine through a paid reset and in a funded account through the expensive reactivation path above. For an undercapitalized trader building early equity, this trailing floor is the mechanic to understand before anything else, because it punishes one oversized loss far more than a string of small ones.
Payout mechanics
Payouts run on a 90/10 split, with the trader keeping 90% and a $125 minimum per request. There are two qualification paths. The Standard path needs 5 winning days of at least $150 each, not necessarily consecutive. The Consistency path needs only 3 trading days but requires that no single day exceed 40% of total profit, which forces a trader to spread gains rather than rely on one explosive session.
Express Funded Account payouts are capped by size, from $2,000 on a $50K Standard account up to $6,000 on a $150K Consistency account, while Live Funded Account payouts carry no dollar cap. After 30 winning days in a Live Funded Account, daily payouts of up to 100% of the balance unlock. US traders can take instant payouts through Aeropay with no Topstep fee, international traders use Wise on a 1 to 3 day timeline with no Topstep fee, and ACH or wire transfers each carry a $30 charge.
The Consistency path deserves a flag. Its 40% rule directly works against how profitable trading often behaves, where a small number of standout days carry the month. A trader whose edge produces occasional large winners will find the Consistency target fighting that pattern, and for them the Standard path is the better fit despite needing more qualifying days.
Refunds, cancellation, and chargebacks
The Combine is largely non-refundable because it grants instant access to live data and a trading account. The one meaningful exception is a 14-day satisfaction guarantee that refunds up to 1 monthly payment, available only on a first-ever Combine and only if the trader has not yet passed. Cancellation is the trader’s responsibility through the dashboard, and a forgotten subscription is refundable only within 28 days of the charge and only with no trading activity.
Chargebacks carry teeth. Topstep treats filing a dispute without a valid reason as prohibited conduct that can suspend or permanently remove an account, so a billing question is meant to go through support first. A trader who disputes a charge through the bank as a shortcut risks the entire account.
Next you can compare scaling plans, read the TradeDay review, Apex Trader funded account review and Earn2Trade review. And if you haven’t seen it yet, consider reading our best prop trading firms roundup.
Bottom Line
Topstep is one of the most clearly documented prop firms a futures trader can choose, and its payout process is the strongest part of the package. The transparency cuts both ways: the rules are spelled out, and they are strict. For a disciplined futures day trader who can respect a trailing loss limit and a recurring fee, it is close to a category leader. For everyone else, the fit breaks fast.
Pros
- Payout process is transparent and generous by category standards: a 90/10 split, a $125 minimum, instant fee-free payouts for US traders through Aeropay, and a reported 92.26% approval rate against more than $1 billion paid.
- TopstepX bundles TradingView charts, drag-and-drop trade management, and built-in risk guardrails that directly target the behavior that ends most evaluations.
- Two pricing paths let a trader match cost to how quickly they expect to pass, with a recurring discount for adding a Daily Loss Limit.
- Account flexibility is strong, with up to 5 Express Funded Accounts and a trade copier supporting up to $750K in combined buying power.
Cons
- The subscription rebills every 30 days until a trader passes or cancels, and resets cost a full month each, so a slow-to-pass trader can spend well beyond the headline price before earning a dollar.
- A single Maximum Loss Limit breach in a funded account is expensive to undo, with reactivation running $599 to $829 and capped at two attempts.
- Futures only. Stock, options, and forex traders have no path here at all.