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Data Report · 8 min read · ·Page updated

Cryptocurrency exchange fees, compared.

Verified spot and futures fee data across 11 major cryptocurrency exchanges as of September 2026. Lowest published rates, hidden costs, fee discount mechanisms, and the gap between headline rate and total cost.

H By HTBB Research Desk Published May 7, 2026 Sources: 11 official fee schedules
Key Findings
  • MEXC publishes the lowest spot fee (0% maker/taker on most pairs), but spreads on illiquid pairs widen the all-in cost.
  • Seven of the eleven — Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate.io, BingX and Weex — publish 0.10% as the standard spot taker rate. That convergence, not the outliers, is the number a first buyer meets.
  • Futures fees cluster at 0.02% maker / 0.05% taker; on the taker side Weex is the highest at 0.08%, with Bitget, HTX and XT.com at 0.06% and MEXC lowest at 0.02%.
  • Native-token fee discounts stack on top of referral rebates, but the size varies by exchange rather than following a single range: BNB on Binance is -25%, MX on MEXC -50%, GT on Gate.io tiered from -1%.
  • Across the 11, the median spot fee is 0.10% and the median futures taker fee is 0.055%.

The fee schedule as read

The table below shows standard published rates for new accounts at the entry tier (VIP 0 / Lv1 / Regular User). Rates do not include native-token discounts, VIP-tier discounts, or referral-code rebates — these are additional and stack with the base rate.

Table 1 · Entry-tier published rates across the 11 indexed exchanges
Exchange Spot maker Spot taker Futures maker Futures taker
Binance0.10%0.10%0.02%0.05%
OKX0.08%0.10%0.02%0.05%
Bybit0.10%0.10%0.02%0.055%
Bitget0.10%0.10%0.02%0.06%
Gate.io0.10%0.10%0.02%0.05%
HTX0.20%0.20%0.02%0.06%
MEXC0%0%0%0.02%
BingX0.10%0.10%0.02%0.05%
Weex0%0.10%0.02%0.08%
XT.com0.20%0.20%0.02%0.06%
BTSE0.20%0.20%0.02%0.055%

Why headline rate ≠ what you actually pay

The fee figure is only one input to total trading cost. The other — and often larger — is the spread: the gap between the best bid and best ask price. A 0% trading fee on a pair with 0.30% spread is more expensive in total than a 0.10% trading fee on a pair with 0.01% spread.

Spreads are not part of the dataset behind this report: they move minute to minute and we do not sample them. The direction is what matters here — the deeper the book, the tighter the spread, which is why a high-liquidity venue with a higher headline fee can still win on combined cost, and why a 0% fee on a thin altcoin pair often does not.

Worked example · Published fees only

Buying $10,000 of BTC: Binance charges 0.10% = $10; MEXC charges 0% = $0. Those are the published rates, and they are the only part of the cost this report measures. The spread you actually cross sits on top of both, and on a thin pair it can be the larger number — which is the case for choosing the deeper book even when its headline rate is higher.

Fee reduction mechanisms (and how they stack)

Major exchanges offer four mechanisms to reduce fees from the headline rate. They typically stack:

  1. Referral / affiliate code at registration: 20-60% discount for as long as the programme runs. A one-time choice at registration; it cannot be added later.
  2. Native token holding or fee payment: an additional discount whose size is set per exchange, not by a common range. Examples: BNB on Binance (-25%), GT on Gate.io (tiered from -1% to -28%), MX on MEXC (-50%).
  3. VIP tier based on 30-day volume or token holding: Progressive reductions. Binance VIP 9 = 0% maker; OKX Lv9 = negative maker.
  4. Maker vs. taker: Limit orders that rest on the book (maker) are typically 30-50% cheaper than orders that fill instantly (taker).

For most retail users, mechanism #1 (referral code) provides the best ratio of effort to long-term savings. It requires zero ongoing action and applies for as long as the exchange runs the programme. Our codes, as issued to this publication (fee schedules read September 2026):

→ See the full referral code and fee table

Methodology

All fee figures are read from each exchange's official fee schedule page; last re-read , with each cycle dated in the corrections log. Where the exchange publishes a tiered structure, we report the entry-tier (VIP 0 / Lv1 / Regular User / Standard) figures as these reflect what new accounts actually pay. Maker/taker split applies where the exchange differentiates; otherwise we report the single rate. Futures rates are USDT-margined perpetual contracts. We exclude promotional fee waivers limited to specific event windows.

References

  1. Binance Fee Schedule, Binance fee schedule (binance.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  2. OKX Fees, OKX Fees (okx.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  3. Bybit Trading Fee Structure, Bybit Trading Fee Structure (bybit.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  4. Bitget Fee Overview, Bitget Fee Overview (bitget.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  5. Gate.com Fee Overview, Gate.com Fee Overview (gate.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  6. HTX Fee Rate Rules (spot & USDT-margined futures), HTX Fee Rate Rules (spot & USDT-margined futures) (htx.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  7. MEXC Trading Fees Complete Guide, MEXC Trading Fees Complete Guide (mexc.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  8. BingX VIP & Fee Rates, BingX VIP & Fee Rates (bingx.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  9. WEEX Trading Fees, WEEX rate card (weex.com), accessed 2026-05-18 — the September cycle could not render this table.
  10. XT.com Trading Fees, XT.com Trading Fees (xt.com), accessed 2026-09-07.
  11. BTSE Spot Trading Fees, BTSE Spot Trading Fees (support.btse.com), accessed 2026-09-07.