Exchange fee math, with worked trades

A percent is a dollar amount only after you pick the button

Exchange ads quote a fee as if it were one number. The profiles on this site keep two or three, because they are different products. An order-book taker fee is the rate for an order that fills immediately against someone else's resting order. A maker fee is the rate for an order that sits on the book and is filled later. A spread is the gap between the price you are offered and a reference price, and it can be the entire charge on a simple-buy screen. The short fee guide names those pieces. This page multiplies them.

Every dollar figure below is arithmetic on a rate the exchange profile already cites, from pages read on 18 October 2026. It is not a trade this site placed, and it is not a quote you will see tomorrow if the schedule changes. Open the profile before you rely on the percent. The ranking table on this page sorts those entry taker rates. Affiliate links are not an input.

Basis points are the unit the sort uses. One basis point is 0.01 percent. A taker fee of 90 basis points is 0.90 percent. On a $1,000 fill, 0.90 percent is $9. That conversion is the whole trick. The rest is knowing which percent applies to the button you press.

One notional, four order books

Take a $1,000 fill at the entry tier, the tier a new account is on before volume discounts. These are the published entry rates on the profiles, not a special deal.

Coinbase Advanced's intro tier on the profile is 0.50 percent maker and 0.90 percent taker. As a taker, the fee on $1,000 is $9. As a maker, if the order actually rests and fills, it is $5. You do not get the maker rate by tapping a market buy. A market buy takes liquidity. It pays the taker rate.

Kraken Pro's entry tier on the profile is 0.40 percent maker and 0.80 percent taker. The same $1,000 taker fill is $8. The maker fill is $4. Kraken's schedule, as described on the profile, can also move the tier when assets are held on the platform, not only when volume rises. A fee you computed at the top tier is not the fee on a new account, and a fee you computed after a large balance appears is not the entry example either.

Gemini ActiveTrader's entry tier on the profile is 0.60 percent maker and 1.20 percent taker. A $1,000 taker fill is $12. A maker fill is $6. That taker rate is the highest entry taker rate in the comparison set. It is still the order-book price, not the simple Gemini screen.

Binance.US Advanced, on the profile, is 0 percent maker and 0.02 percent taker on standard pairs. A $1,000 taker fill is $0.20. A maker fill at that entry rate is $0. The profile also notes BNB/USD at 0.01 percent taker, and that the company says it is licensed in 32 states. The cheap rate is irrelevant in a state where the account cannot be opened. The simple Buy Crypto flow is not this $0.20. The profile says that flow includes a spread.

The button that is not on the table

Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini all describe a simple buy that is not the Advanced or Pro row. Coinbase says the simple trade shows the fee on the preview and includes a spread in the quoted price. There is no single published simple-trade percent on the profile, so this page will not invent one. If the preview says you pay $1,030 for an amount of BTC that the order book would price near $1,000, the $30 is the cost that matters, whether or not a line labeled 'fee' shows $9.

Robinhood's US default route charges no commission. The profile says Robinhood is paid a rebate inside the spread. There is no taker percent to multiply. The number in the comparison table is the other route: exchange routing for Legend and some advanced orders, 0.50 percent maker and 0.95 percent taker at the entry tier, from the US fee PDF. On $1,000, that taker fee is $9.50. It is not what the default button charges. People who compare 'Robinhood is free' with 'Coinbase Advanced is 0.90 percent' are comparing a spread they have not measured with a commission they have.

Uphold, on the profile, is a spread product. The comparison uses the high end of the published BTC/ETH spread, 220 basis points, which is 2.20 percent. On $1,000 that high end is $22. A spread is not a commission invoice. You see it as a worse price. The profile is the place to read the range. This paragraph only shows what 2.20 percent of $1,000 is.

Two fees can stack, and a third is not a trading fee

A taker fee comes out of the fill. A spread can sit inside the price at the same time, on products that charge both. The profiles say Coinbase's simple trade works that way. Adding the Advanced taker example to a guessed spread would double count or invent. Use the preview for the simple button. Use the maker/taker table only when you are placing an order-book order.

Stablecoin pairs are often a different row from BTC pairs. The short fee guide says Gemini and Bitstamp publish those exceptions. Do not take the BTC taker example on this page and apply it to a USDC conversion. Open the row.

A withdrawal is not in these numbers. Moving the coin off the exchange can cost a network fee, and sometimes a venue fee, on top of the trade. The withdrawal guide is that second bill. A $0.20 trade followed by a $15 withdrawal is not a $0.20 round trip.

Volume tiers fall as 30-day volume rises. The Binance.US profile notes the taker rate on other pairs falls to 0.01 percent at $500 million of 30-day volume. That is a real published step, and it is not the rate on a $1,000 account. Quoting the bottom tier as 'the fee' is how a schedule gets misread.

How to do the next one yourself

Write down the product: simple buy, or order book. If it is the order book, write down maker or taker. Find that cell on the venue's own schedule, or on the profile that cites it. Multiply the notional by the percent. A $250 buy at 0.90 percent is $2.25. A $250 buy at 0.02 percent is $0.05. Then read the preview. If the preview's all-in price is far from that product, you are on the other product.

The comparison sorts entry taker fees because that is the rate for an order that fills now. It will not match a patient limit order, and it will not match a simple buy. Both of those can be the right tool. They are not the sort key.

1. Name the venue and the button. Simple buy, Advanced, Pro, ActiveTrader, or exchange routing.
2. Read the entry tier, not the tier at the bottom of the PDF.
3. Convert basis points if you need to. Divide by 100 to get percent, then multiply by the dollar size.
4. If the order will rest, use the maker cell. If it will fill now, use the taker cell.
5. For a simple buy or a default 'no commission' route, ignore the taker cell and read the preview or the spread description.
6. Add the withdrawal only when you plan to leave the exchange. It is a separate line.

• You used a rate from the profile or the venue's schedule, with the date that schedule was read.
• You did not apply Coinbase Advanced's 0.90 percent to a Coinbase simple buy.
• You did not apply Robinhood's 0.95 percent exchange-routing taker fee to the default route.
• You did not treat Binance.US's 0.02 percent as available in every state.
• You kept the spread and the commission as two ideas when the product charges both.
• You checked the pair. A BTC taker cell is not automatically the stablecoin cell.

Questions

Published entry rates

1. Binance.US · 0.00% maker / 0.02% taker
2. Bitstamp · 0.30% maker / 0.40% taker
3. Crypto.com · 0.25% maker / 0.50% taker
4. Kraken · 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker
5. Coinbase · 0.50% maker / 0.90% taker
6. Robinhood Crypto · 0.50% maker / 0.95% taker, exchange routing
7. Gemini · 0.60% maker / 1.20% taker
8. Uphold · Spread, high end 2.20%