Topstep Rules, Payouts and Costs Explained

Topstep is a futures-only prop firm with a three-stage program. The Trading Combine is a monthly-subscription evaluation. The Express Funded Account (XFA) is a simulated funded account that pays real money. The Live Funded Account (LFA) trades the firm’s capital and cannot be applied for: Topstep’s risk team calls you up. Three 2026 changes shape the rules below. Traders who joined on or after January 12, 2026 are on a 90/10 split from the first dollar, and the Back2Funded window has been 30 days since May 29. Since June 2, a daily loss limit chosen at Combine checkout doubles the XFA payout caps.

Everything below comes from Topstep’s help center, price configurator and Terms of Use on the date in the box above, with the arithmetic that decides whether an account ever pays you back; we re-check it every four weeks.

Topstep plans and prices: Trading Combine 50K, 100K and 150K

Every Combine is the same account under the same rules; you choose the size, the subscription and whether to add a daily loss limit (the “Responsible Trading Advantage”). The price is locked for the life of the Combine. Topstep’s configurator discounts only the No Activation Fee (NAF) subscription with the limit on, and shows the $149 activation fee of the Standard subscription unchanged with the limit on.

Micros count one tenth of a mini. The daily loss limit is fixed at checkout and follows the account into the XFA; chosen at Combine checkout it also doubles the XFA payout caps, which adding it later at activation or reactivation does not.

USD before tax, as displayed on the verification date. A reset costs the monthly price of your subscription, every rebill adds a free reset credit (two resets per account per day at most), and the subscription type cannot be changed after purchase.

The CME charges for all data on simulated accounts: Topstep covers Level 1, while Level 2 is a $38 add-on billed on the 28th and never prorated. Simulated commissions hit every trade ($3.78 per round turn, entry plus exit, on ES; $1.22 on MES). The platform is TopstepX in a desktop or mobile browser; the help center says there is no mobile app yet, and one is announced. Quantower can connect with TopstepX credentials, without strategy automation.

Topstep Trading Combine rules: one rule, two objectives

Topstep reduces the evaluation to “one rule and two objectives”: do not let the balance hit the maximum loss limit; reach the profit target; keep your best day at or below 55% of it. There is no minimum number of days, but the consistency target rules out a one-day pass: two is the fastest.

• No clock. The subscription rebills every 30 days until you pass or cancel and cannot be paused; show as passed before the rebill date or you pay another month.
• Reset instead of restart. Hitting the loss limit makes the account ineligible but keeps the subscription alive. A reset (paid, or the free credit earned at each rebill) returns everything to zero and pushes the rebill date out 30 days; do it the day before the rebill date, because renewals process early that day.
• Unlimited Combines, one profile. A second profile is a Terms of Use violation.
• Nothing carries over. Combine profits do not move to the XFA, which starts at $0; the size cannot be changed after purchase, and a Combine not activated within 30 calendar days is suspended.

What can you trade with Topstep, and when: CME futures only, flat by 3:10 PM CT

Topstep is a day-trading program in futures only, listed on CME, COMEX, NYMEX and CBOT: equity index futures and their micros (ES, NQ, RTY, YM, NKD), FX futures, Micro Bitcoin and Micro Ether, energies, metals, treasuries, grains and livestock. Stocks, options, forex, spot crypto and CFDs are not available.

• Day trading only. The trading day runs from 5:00 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT; be flat by 3:10 PM CT or by the product’s own close if earlier. Topstep auto-flattens about ten seconds before; its help center warns that risk managers may start flattening from 3:08 PM CT. No overnight or swing positions.
• Volatility caps. During extreme volatility Topstep tightens limits on specific products. At the time of writing energies and gold are capped at 3 / 6 / 9 minis by size, and full-size silver, copper and platinum are at zero. In an XFA the caps are lower still at low balances: one mini of crude or gold below a $1,500 balance.

The Topstep maximum loss limit explained (and the optional daily loss limit)

The maximum loss limit is an end-of-day trailing drawdown: set from the closing balance, it rises as that balance grows, never comes down, and locks once it reaches the starting balance. Topstep’s 50K example: start at $50,000 with the limit at $48,000; a $500 win closes day one at $50,500 and lifts it to $48,500. A $500 loss the next day returns the balance to $50,000; the limit stays at $48,500. The breach, though, is checked in real time on net P&L including open positions: an unrealized loss that touches the limit liquidates the account at market, even if the fill lands back above the line.

In the Combine a breach means liquidation and no funding until you reset. In the XFA the limit starts at −$2,000 / −$3,000 / −$4,500 below the $0 starting balance and locks at $0 once the balance has reached $2,000 / $3,000 / $4,500. After the first payout it is set to $0 in any case. A breach there closes the account permanently. Topstep states the limit “cannot be adjusted or changed” and makes no exceptions.

The daily loss limit is separate and optional in the Combine and the XFA (automatic in Live). Hit it and trading stops until 5:00 PM CT, with no violation. Added at Combine checkout it is fixed ($1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000); Topstep’s own figure next to it is that 63% of traders lost their Combine on day one. A personal limit set later in TopstepX is adjustable.

Topstep Express Funded Account (XFA) rules: $0 start, scaling, five accounts

The XFA is a simulated account whose “50K” label is buying power, not a balance. You start at $0 and build it from profits, which is why Topstep suggests a first payout only once the floor has locked at $0. The payout path, XFA Standard or XFA Consistency, is picked at activation and locked, like the size; there is no monthly fee.

Topstep’s Scaling Plan in mini equivalents (10 micros = 1 mini); limits move only between sessions and drop when a payout lowers the balance.

• Five active XFAs at most, any mix of sizes and paths; a sixth waits on hold. A trade copier can run them together, up to $750K of combined buying power; it is disabled automatically while a payout processes.
• Inactivity: no trades for more than 30 days and the XFA may be closed.
• Losing it: a breach closes the XFA. Before the first payout it can be reactivated for a fee (below); after a payout the only way back is a new Combine. Closing an XFA voluntarily while payout-eligible pays up to 50% of the balance, capped at $5,000, per the XFA rules page; the rest is forfeited.

Topstep payout rules: XFA Standard vs. XFA Consistency (caps, timing, methods)

Payouts are requested from the dashboard between Sunday 5:00 PM CT and Friday 5:00 PM CT, with a $125 minimum and a 90/10 split. Each request can be 50% of the balance, up to a cap set by size, path and daily loss limit.

The doubled caps are a “limited time offering” that began on June 2, 2026 with no end date announced. The help center grants them only when the daily loss limit was chosen at Combine checkout, not at XFA activation or reactivation. Topstep’s terms page for the offer is broader (any account with an active daily loss limit, existing traders included): we report the restrictive help-center version; confirm with support. Live payouts have no dollar cap.

• XFA Standard: five winning days of $150 or more in net P&L, not consecutive, since the account opened or your last request, plus a positive net profit since that payout (the first is exempt). A day locks in at 4:00 PM CT; a request made after 5:00 PM CT counts as the next trading day, which is then excluded from the new cycle.
• XFA Consistency: three trading days with at least one trade each and a largest day at or below 40% of the window’s net profit (math below).
• After every payout the maximum loss limit is set to $0 permanently, the counts restart and the ratio is recomputed from the next trading day.
• Timing and methods: internal approval takes 1–3 business days. US traders: Aeropay, with no Topstep fee, instant after approval if your bank supports real-time payments and otherwise 1–3 business days (Topstep advertises under 9 seconds on average). Also ACH (1–3 business days, $30) or Prop-to-Brokerage into a Topstep Brokerage account (same day if requested by 12 PM CT, no fee). International: wire/SWIFT (5–10 business days, $30); Wise (1–3 business days, no Topstep fee) only for China, Canada and the UK.
• Paperwork: payouts go only to a bank account in your name, with a W-9 or W-8BEN; US persons with $600 or more in a year get a 1099-NEC on the gross amount. Traders on the dashboard before January 12, 2026 keep 100% of their first $10,000.

The Topstep consistency rules, with the math (55% and 40%)

In the Combine the rule raises the bar rather than failing you. Your best day must stay at or below 55% of the profit target ($1,650 on a 50K; Topstep’s own table says ‘less than’). Exceed it and the target becomes best day ÷ 0.55: a $1,800 day turns $3,000 into $3,273, and a $2,200 day the next session moves it to $4,000. Losses do not shrink the best day, there is no rounding and no buffer, and you cannot repair it the same day: profit added to the session that set the record only raises the record.

In XFA Consistency the 40% ratio works the other way: best day ÷ 0.4 = the net profit you need before the request opens. A $2,000 day requires $5,000 of net profit in the window; $3,600 on $9,500 is 37.9% and qualifies. Above 40% you simply keep trading until the ratio falls. After a payout the window resets, so the balance left in the account does not count.

Topstep activation fee, resets, Back2Funded and refunds

• Activation fee: $149, once per XFA, Standard subscription only; the XFA is ready within minutes of paying; never refunded, even for the wrong account.
• Resets: the monthly price, one free credit per rebill, no refunds; credits earned today expire after a year and are tied to size and subscription type.
• Back2Funded: an XFA closed by a breach before its first payout can be reactivated at the same size and path, up to twice per account. It costs $599 (50K), $699 (100K) or $829 (150K) plus sales tax, $50 less with the daily loss limit. It must be an XFA earned through a Combine, on the current dashboard, with the trader in good standing and not on the Focused Trader Plan. You have 30 calendar days to decide (30 since May 29, 2026; the older XFA rules page still says 7 and also predates the doubled caps), the account restarts from $0 at the next session, nothing is refundable.
• Refunds are “generally not available”. Exceptions: a 14-day satisfaction guarantee on your first-ever Combine (up to one monthly payment, if you have not passed) and two 28-day cases with no trades on the account: a forgotten rebill (reset credit unused) and a wrong size. Resets, activation fees, reactivations and Level 2 data are never refunded, passing right after a charge earns no proration, and a chargeback is itself listed as prohibited conduct.
• Identity check: a physical government ID and a selfie before your second purchase; until then you can trade but not buy. Cards must be in your own name.
• Eligibility: 18 or older; citizens or residents of about 35 countries (Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela among them) cannot buy a Combine or receive payouts, and residence counts even when citizenship is eligible.

What Topstep prohibits: VPN and VPS, hedging, news windows; what it allows: bots

The Terms of Use say it in one sentence: “Using any VPN or VPS on Accounts is strictly prohibited and may result in account termination and forfeiture of profits.” The help center adds that “VPNs, proxy services, TOR, geo-location obfuscation, and other identity-masking services are not permitted”. The API article draws the technical line: “All trading activity must originate from your personal device. The use of VPS, VPNs, and remote servers is prohibited by Topstep’s Terms of Use. Running automation on a VPS can result in account suspension or removal from the program.” A private server may store data, backtest, log and show a read-only dashboard; it may not place, modify, cancel or relay an order.

• Automation is allowed, with conditions, in the Combine and the XFA through the TopstepX API ($29 per month, a separate TopstepX API subscription), from your own machine, with every order final. High-frequency trading and algorithms built to exploit simulated fills are prohibited; the API is not available on Live.
• Hedging across accounts, yours or anyone else’s, is prohibited. A first detection gives a short window to un-hedge before liquidation; later attempts are liquidated on sight, and repeated ones can close every account involved, without appeal and with profits forfeited. Copy trading in the same direction is fine.
• News: five minutes before and after Tier 1 releases (CPI, FOMC, NFP, PPI) no new positions in index and metal minis, and index and gold micros capped at 3 / 6 / 9 contracts by size in the Combine. In an XFA the news cap follows the scaling plan and is a single micro below a $2,000 balance on a 50K. Trading full size into a major release on purpose is a listed prohibited strategy.
• Also banned: positions within 2% of a CME price limit, “account stacking”, trading for others, a second profile, exploiting simulator fills. Sanctions run from a warning to a deleted trading day, a reset, a denied payout or a permanent ban with balances forfeited; one appeal within 30 days.

What a Topstep account really costs before the first payout

Take a 50K Combine, the size Topstep advertises; assume you pass in the first month and take the largest first payout XFA Standard allows.

• Money out: $49 plus the $149 activation fee on the Standard subscription, $198; $95 on the NAF subscription, or $85 with the daily loss limit. Taxes, Level 2 data and any failed month come on top.
• What the account must do: $3,000 to pass with no day above $1,650, then a $4,000 XFA balance, because a $2,000 request needs twice that under the 50% rule, with five days of $150 or more. About $7,000 of simulated profit for a first payout of $1,800 net (90% of $2,000). With the daily loss limit the cap is $4,000, the balance needed $8,000 and the net payout $3,600.

First month only, before tax and before the $30 ACH or wire fee. Every extra month or paid reset adds $49 (Standard) or $85–$95 (NAF), which is where most bank statements part ways with the brochure (our data on what traders actually spend before a first payout).

• Standard or NAF? Count billing units, months plus paid resets: Standard costs $49 × units + $149, NAF $95 × units, or $85 × units with the limit. Without the limit, NAF is cheaper if you are funded within three units and Standard from four; with it, NAF wins up to four ($340 against $345) and Standard from five ($394 against $425).

Topstep’s own 2025 disclosure, printed at the foot of its pages, is the reality check. 16.8% of Combines started were passed and 51.8% of participants passed at least one; 33.3% of funded participants received a payout, and 0.71% of XFA traders were called up to Live.

Know your real Topstep number

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Topstep Live Funded Account, Pro Account and Labs products

The Live Funded Account is run with real capital and real costs. There is no application: the risk team reviews XFA traders case by case and, when it calls, you move to Live or close the XFA.

• Size and transfer: the Live account size is the average tier of your XFAs with at least one payout, rounded up to 50K, 100K or 150K, and it caps what transfers. Topstep’s example: four 50K XFAs holding $25,000 each make a $50K Live account, so $50,000 of the $100,000 is lost.
• Tradable and reserve: 20% of the transferred balance is tradable at once (minimum $10,000); the other 80% is a reserve released in 25% steps each time you make the Combine profit target again ($3,000 / $6,000 / $9,000), reviewed weekly. Reserve not yet released is forfeited if the account closes.
• Risk: the daily loss limit is $2,000 / $3,000 / $4,500 and grows with profit. It steps down to $2,000 and 5 contracts if the tradable balance falls to $10,000 or below, and to $1,000 and 3 contracts at $5,000 or below. The floor is $1,000: below it the account closes and the remainder is paid out.
• Payouts: 5 winning days of $150+, no dollar cap, 50% of the balance until 30 winning days, then 100% and one payout per business day; total payouts cannot exceed 90% of the starting balance plus net trading profits. A monthly Topstep Octagon bonus pool of $250,000 sits on top.
• Costs: professional exchange data at $133 per exchange per month, passed through from the exchange (Topstep covers one and says it does not profit from them), live commissions and your platform license. The API and trade copier are not available; all XFAs close, and you hold one LFA at a time.
• Not everywhere: traders in countries without a live brokerage partner (Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland and Vietnam are on the list) cannot currently move to Live. They can earn up to $200,000 in total XFA payouts and may be offered a simulated Pro Account with the XFA payout caps.

Topstep Labs sells one-time products: no rebill, no resets, 90-day expiry. The Static 25K and 50K Combines cost $75 and $149 with XFA payout caps of $4,000 and $8,000; the 250K Freedom Combine costs $499 with a $25,000 cap. The Challenges pay a fixed $1,500, $3,000 or $6,000 once, with no split and no path to Live. The line-up changes monthly: on the verification date the two drops on sale were $3,000 Challenges at $65 and $199. The Static and Freedom Combines and the $1.5K Powered Up Challenge ($99) can be bought any time, up to five of each per month.

Who the Topstep rules suit

Topstep’s evaluation is forgiving on time (no deadline, resets at the monthly price, a free credit every month) and strict on shape. The 55% rule means the Combine is passed by two or more ordinary days, never one great one, and the XFA pays in slices of at most 50% of a balance that starts at zero. It suits day traders of CME futures who post many $150-plus days and trade from their own desk. It does not suit anyone who wants to hold overnight, run a server, hedge between accounts or wait for one big payout. Whatever your style, log every subscription month and reset as a cost and count them per firm, because on Topstep the subscription meter, not the 90% split, decides whether you are ahead.

Frequently asked questions

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