Everybody wants to know the same thing before they buy an FTMO Challenge: what does it actually cost, and am I about to overpay? Fair question. FTMO is not the cheapest prop firm on the internet and it has never pretended to be. But FTMO's pricing has a twist that almost nobody accounts for properly, which is that your fee comes back to you in full when you get your first payout. That changes the maths completely. Let's break down every tier, every hidden cost, and every way to pay less.

👉 See the live price for your account size right now. Check current FTMO pricing and any active discount here — your fee is refunded 100% with your first reward withdrawal.

How FTMO Pricing Works In Plain English

FTMO charges you one single upfront fee to enter an evaluation. That is it. There is no monthly subscription, no platform fee, no data fee, no withdrawal fee, and no charge for moving into the funded stage. The fee you pay depends on three things: which programme you pick (1-Step or 2-Step), how big an account you want ($10,000 up to $200,000), and which account type you choose (Standard or Swing).

The One Thing That Makes FTMO Pricing Different

FTMO refunds 100% of your initial fee alongside your first reward withdrawal as a funded FTMO Trader. Read that slowly, because it reframes the entire purchase. You are not really buying an account, you are placing a deposit on your own discipline. Pass, perform, withdraw, and the fee returns to your pocket in full. Fail, and the fee is the total extent of your loss. FTMO itself frames this as "controlling the downside," and it is honestly the cleanest risk structure in retail trading.

Fees Are Quoted In Euros

FTMO is a Czech company, based at the Quadrio offices in Prague, and it prices in euros. So if you are paying in naira, dollars, pounds, or rand, your final charge shifts slightly with the exchange rate and with whatever your card issuer or crypto route adds on top. Always look at the checkout total, not the headline number.

👉 Lock in your account size and start the evaluation

FTMO 2-Step Challenge Pricing: Every Account Size

The 2-Step FTMO Challenge is the classic route: Phase 1 with a 10% profit target, then Verification with a 5% target, then your FTMO Account. Its standard list pricing is the most widely documented in the industry and runs as follows:

• $10,000 account: around €155

• $25,000 account: around €250

• $50,000 account: around €345

• $100,000 account: around €540

• $200,000 account: around €1,080

Those figures are consistently reported across independent pricing trackers including BrokerAnalysis and Traders Second Brain, and some trackers also list an intermediate $160,000 tier at roughly €860. Because FTMO adjusts tiers and runs promotional campaigns, treat these as a firm guide and confirm the live number at checkout.

What Each Tier Actually Buys You

• $10,000 at ~€155: the fee is about 1.55% of the account, which is the highest ratio, but the cheapest way to learn the rules with real skin in the game

• $25,000 at ~€250: roughly 1% of the account, a sensible step up once you have passed a free trial cleanly

• $50,000 at ~€345: about 0.69%, the sweet spot for traders with a proven strategy but a modest budget

• $100,000 at ~€540: about 0.54%, the most popular tier by a wide margin and the best balance of fee efficiency and payout size

• $200,000 at ~€1,080: also about 0.54%, the same efficiency as the $100k but double the reward potential and double the emotional pressure

The Key Insight Most Traders Miss

The percentage rules do not get harder as the account gets bigger. A $200,000 account has the same 10% target, the same 5% Maximum Daily Loss, and the same 10% Maximum Loss as a $10,000 account. Scaling up does not increase difficulty, it only increases the size of your fee and the size of your payout. So the correct question is never "which account can I afford," it is "which account size can I lose the fee on without it hurting."

👉 Pick your tier and get funded on up to $200,000

FTMO 1-Step Challenge Pricing

The 1-Step FTMO Challenge is FTMO's newer product. It removes the Verification phase entirely, so you pass one evaluation and go straight to an FTMO Account paying 90% of your simulated profits. Naturally, traders want to know if it costs more. Independent trackers such as TradingPilot report 1-Step pricing broadly in these ranges:

• €10K 1-Step: around €79

• €25K 1-Step: around €199

• €50K 1-Step: around €319

• €100K 1-Step: around €499

• €200K 1-Step: around €999

Note that these third-party figures are lower than the 2-Step list prices and may already include promotional reductions, so verify on the official checkout before assuming them. What is confirmed by FTMO directly is the structural difference: the 1-Step has no Verification phase, no Swing account option, and a tighter risk profile including a stricter daily loss limit.

1-Step Or 2-Step: Which Gives Better Value?

• Choose 1-Step if you want speed, you want the 90% split immediately, and your strategy tolerates a tighter daily loss limit

• Choose 2-Step if you want the more forgiving 5% daily loss room, a static maximum loss, and the option of a Swing account

• The honest verdict: the 1-Step is better value on paper, but only if your risk management is already tight enough to survive a narrower daily band. Cheap plus stricter is not cheaper if you fail twice.

👉 Compare 1-Step and 2-Step pricing side by side on the official page

Standard Versus Swing Account Pricing

FTMO offers two account types on the 2-Step programme and the Swing option carries a small premium, commonly cited in the region of 10% to 15% more per tier. Here is what that premium buys you, and it is worth understanding properly because it is one of the most misunderstood parts of FTMO's pricing.

What The Swing Premium Removes

• No requirement to close positions overnight

• No requirement to close positions before the weekend

• No restrictions on trading during selected high-impact news releases

• The trade-off is lower leverage, reported at around 1:30 on forex versus roughly 1:100 on Standard

The Detail That Saves Many Traders Money

Straight from FTMO's own FAQ: overnight, weekend, and news restrictions apply only once you are trading an actual FTMO Account, and they do not apply at all during the Evaluation Process regardless of account type. So if you are a day trader who simply wants freedom during the challenge, you do not need to pay the Swing premium. Only pay it if your funded strategy genuinely requires holding through weekends and news events.

Is There An FTMO Discount Or Offer Available?

Yes, and this is where a little patience can genuinely save you money. FTMO runs periodic promotional campaigns with reduced evaluation fees, and independent trackers have documented live discounts on individual tiers, including reduced pricing on the popular €100K accounts. FTMO also promotes "Special Offers" directly through its own newsletter subscription on the official site.

How To Actually Catch An FTMO Discount

• Subscribe to the FTMO newsletter on the official site, which is free and where special offers are announced

• Check the checkout page directly, since active promotions display as a struck-through original price next to the reduced one

• Historically, the heaviest discounting clusters around major seasonal sale periods, with reductions commonly reported in the 10% to 20% range

• Do not wait forever for a discount. A 15% saving on €540 is roughly €80, while one extra month of not trading a funded account can cost you far more than that in missed rewards.

👉 Grab whatever offer is live today. Open the official FTMO pricing page and check for an active discount — and remember, even at full price the fee comes back to you 100% with your first withdrawal.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Puts In The Brochure

Honest pricing articles include the costs that are not on the invoice. Here they are.

Failed Attempts Are The Real Expense

If you breach a rule, the fee is gone and a new evaluation is a new fee. Independent commentary consistently suggests the typical trader needs more than one attempt. Budget for two attempts and you will make far calmer decisions than a trader who bet their only shot on one run.

The Free Retry Softens The Blow

If you finish an evaluation with a positive balance and no rule breaches but simply miss the profit target, FTMO has offered a free retry rather than making you repurchase. That is a meaningful safety net and one of the reasons the effective cost of FTMO is lower than the sticker price suggests.

VPS Costs If You Run Algos

Running an Expert Advisor around the clock means paying for a VPS, typically $25 to $80 monthly. That is on you, not FTMO.

Reset Purchases

Some traders choose to buy a fresh evaluation immediately after a breach rather than waiting. That is a discretionary cost, not a mandatory one, but it is where impatient traders quietly spend three times what they planned.

Your Time

Thirty days of disciplined screen time never shows up on a receipt, but it is the most expensive input in the whole equation. Treat it accordingly.

What You Get Included At No Extra Cost

Judging FTMO's price without counting what is bundled in is how people conclude it is expensive. Everything on this list is included in the single fee:

• Account MetriX analytics with profit factor, risk-per-trade tracking, and a Discipline Score

• The full App Suite by FX Blue, reported at around 35 tools including simulators and risk calculators

• The Mentor App for enforcing your own self-imposed limits

• Access to FTMO Performance Coaches for psychology and discipline work

• The complete FTMO Academy, including a dedicated trading psychology course

• Free Trials with no time limit and as many attempts as you want

• Your choice of MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, or DXtrade

• Forex, indices, commodities, crypto, and stock CFDs

• 24/7 support by live chat, WhatsApp, email, and phone

• No withdrawal fees on your rewards

Price out human trading coaching, a psychology course, and a 35-tool analytics suite separately and you will struggle to land under a few hundred euros anyway. The evaluation is arguably the free part.

👉 Get the full toolkit, the Academy, and the coaching with your Challenge

Is FTMO Pricing Worth It? Let's Do The Actual Maths

Forget opinions and run the numbers on the most popular tier. A $100,000 2-Step Challenge costs roughly €540. Pass it, and there is no profit target on your FTMO Account, just risk limits. Produce a modest 5% month on $100,000 and that is $5,000 in simulated profit. At the base 80% split that is $4,000 to you, and at 90% via the Scaling Plan or the 1-Step route it is $4,500. On top of that, your first payout also includes your entire fee back.

The Break-Even Reality

• One month of solid performance on a $100k account can return roughly eight times the fee

• The fee is refunded in full on the first withdrawal, so a successful evaluation is effectively free

• There are no recurring charges eroding your margin month after month

• The Scaling Plan can grow a consistently profitable account well beyond your starting tier, with the ceiling reported as high as $2,000,000 in simulated capital and the split lifted to 90%

Where FTMO Pricing Loses

Be fair about this too. Newer firms undercut FTMO on entry price to buy market share, and some offer instant funding with no evaluation at all. If your single priority is the lowest possible number at checkout, FTMO will not win that fight. What FTMO wins on is the probability that your payout request is honoured a year from now, backed by operating since 2015, more than 4.5 million customers, over $650 million reported paid in rewards, 140+ countries served, and a 4.8 out of 5 Trustpilot rating.

How To Pay The Least For FTMO

If you want the lowest realistic total cost of getting funded, do this in order.

Start With The Free Trial

It costs nothing, has no time limit, and you can take as many as you need. Rehearse the exact rules until passing feels routine. Buying a paid challenge before you have passed a free trial is the single most expensive mistake in prop trading.

Buy The Smallest Tier That Motivates You

Prove the process on a $10k or $25k account first. Let the Scaling Plan grow your capital instead of your credit card.

Wait For A Promotion If You Can

Subscribe to the newsletter, watch for the struck-through prices at checkout, and buy during a campaign window.

Skip Swing Unless You Genuinely Need It

Remember, restrictions do not apply during the evaluation at all. Do not pay the premium for freedom you already have.

Protect The Fee With Risk Discipline

Risk 1% or less per trade and set a personal daily stop at 2%, well inside the 5% limit. The cheapest challenge in the world is the one you only have to buy once.

👉 Apply this plan and buy your Challenge at the best available price

FTMO Pricing FAQs

How much does FTMO cost?

FTMO's 2-Step Challenge is commonly listed from around €155 for the $10,000 account up to around €1,080 for the $200,000 account, with the 1-Step programme priced separately and reported lower by independent trackers. Confirm the live figure at checkout.

What is the cheapest FTMO account?

The smallest paid tier is the $10,000 account. Cheaper still is the Free Trial, which costs nothing at all and has no time limit.

Is the FTMO fee a one-time payment or a subscription?

It is a one-time payment per evaluation. FTMO does not charge monthly subscriptions or recurring fees.

Is the FTMO fee refundable?

Yes. FTMO refunds 100% of your initial fee alongside your first reward withdrawal as a funded FTMO Trader.

When exactly do I get my fee refunded?

With your first payout on your FTMO Account, not at the moment you pass the evaluation. You need to reach and request that first reward withdrawal to trigger the refund.

Does FTMO charge monthly fees?

No. There are no monthly fees, no platform fees, no data fees, and no withdrawal fees.

Are there any fees to withdraw my rewards?

No, FTMO does not charge withdrawal fees, though your chosen payment method or bank may apply its own charges.

Does FTMO offer discounts or coupon codes?

FTMO runs periodic promotional campaigns with reduced fees and announces special offers through its newsletter. Active discounts appear directly on the checkout page.

When are FTMO discounts usually available?

Historically the biggest reductions cluster around major seasonal sale periods, with commonly reported savings in the 10% to 20% range. Subscribing to the newsletter is the most reliable way to catch them early.

Which is cheaper, the 1-Step or the 2-Step FTMO Challenge?

Independent trackers report 1-Step pricing below the 2-Step list prices at equivalent account sizes, but the 1-Step applies tighter risk rules. Compare both on the official page since the cheaper fee is not automatically the better value for your style.

How much more does the Swing account cost?

The Swing account type carries a modest premium over Standard, commonly cited around 10% to 15% per tier, in exchange for removing overnight, weekend, and news restrictions on the funded account.

Do I need to pay for the Verification phase?

No. Verification is included in your 2-Step Challenge fee. There is no separate charge to move into Phase 2.

Do I have to pay anything to get my FTMO Account after passing?

No. Once you pass the Evaluation Process and complete verification, the FTMO Account is provided at no additional cost.

What happens to my fee if I fail the challenge?

The fee is forfeited and a new attempt requires a new purchase. If you ended in profit with no rule breaches but simply missed the target, you may qualify for a free retry instead.

Does FTMO charge for a reset or retry?

A voluntary fresh attempt means paying a fresh fee. The free retry applies only when you finished positive and broke no rules.

What currency does FTMO charge in?

Fees are quoted in euros, so your local cost varies slightly with exchange rates and your payment method.

What payment methods does FTMO accept?

FTMO supports card payments and crypto among its methods, with the full current list published in its FAQ. Payouts are available via bank transfer, crypto, and Skrill among other approved routes.

Is FTMO's price worth it compared to cheaper prop firms?

If your priority is the lowest checkout number, no. If your priority is payout reliability backed by operating since 2015, over $650 million reported in rewards, and a 4.8 Trustpilot score, then yes comfortably.

Which FTMO account size gives the best value?

The $100,000 tier is the most popular and offers strong fee-to-capital efficiency at around 0.54% of the account. For a first attempt, the $10,000 or $25,000 tiers keep your downside small while you prove the process.

Do bigger FTMO accounts have harder rules for the higher price?

No. The percentage-based targets and loss limits are identical across account sizes. Paying more buys more capital, not a harder test.

Are there any hidden fees with FTMO?

Not from FTMO itself. The genuine extra costs are your own: failed attempts, optional VPS hosting for algos, currency conversion, and your time.

Can I pay for FTMO with crypto?

Yes, crypto is among the accepted payment methods, and crypto is also one of the fastest routes for receiving your rewards.

Is there a free way to try FTMO before paying?

Yes. The Free Trial is completely free, has no time limit, and you can take as many as you need before spending anything.

Does the price include the Academy, coaching, and tools?

Yes, all of it. Account MetriX, the FX Blue App Suite, the Mentor App, Performance Coaches, and the full FTMO Academy including the psychology course are included at no extra charge.

How much can I earn back relative to the fee?

There is no cap. On a $100,000 account, a single disciplined 5% month at an 80% to 90% split is roughly $4,000 to $4,500, several times the entry fee, plus your fee refund on that first payout.

Is FTMO pricing the same in Nigeria and other African countries?

Pricing is set in euros globally, so your cost depends on conversion rather than location. Crypto payment and crypto payouts are useful for sidestepping slow banking corridors.

Final Verdict On FTMO Pricing

FTMO's fees look high next to the discount firms until you actually account for what is inside them. One payment, no subscriptions, no platform charges, no withdrawal fees, a full refund of your fee on your first payout, a free retry if you miss the target cleanly, an unlimited free trial before you commit, and a bundled toolkit of analytics, education, and human coaching that most firms would sell you separately. Structurally, this is one of the most trader-friendly pricing models in the industry, and it has been priced this way by the same Prague company since 2015.

Here is the honest bottom line. If you have an edge and the discipline to respect a daily loss limit, the fee is not a cost, it is a temporary deposit that comes straight back to you. If you do not have that discipline yet, the Free Trial and the FTMO Academy cost you absolutely nothing, and you should live there until passing feels boring.

👉 Stop comparing prices and start earning. Choose your FTMO account size and check today's price here — up to $200,000 in capital, up to 90% profit share, no monthly fees, and 100% of your fee refunded with your first withdrawal. If a promotional discount is live, it will show right at checkout, so grab it while it is there.

Risk note: trading involves significant risk. All FTMO accounts are demo accounts with fictitious funds and all trading is simulated, with rewards based on simulated profits. Pricing figures above are drawn from FTMO's official site and independent trackers and can change with promotions, tiers, and exchange rates, so always confirm the current fee on the official checkout page before purchasing.