Futures trading fees work differently from spot trading fees, and that distinction is exactly where a lot of confusion happens when traders search for a “0 fee futures” exchange. Unlike a spot trade, where a single maker or taker fee is the entire transaction cost, a futures position carries a maker/taker fee on order execution plus a separate, recurring funding rate that’s exchanged between long and short position holders for as long as the position stays open. This guide explains exactly how 0-fee futures trading works, what it does and doesn’t cover, and how to evaluate whether a “0 fee” futures platform is actually the lowest-cost way to trade perpetual futures contracts.
Futures Fee Comparison: Industry Standard vs. 0 Fee
| Fee Component | Typical Industry Rate | KCEX Futures Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Maker fee | 0.02% – 0.04% | 0% |
| Taker fee | 0.05% – 0.075% | 0.01% |
| Funding rate | Market-determined, typically every 8 hours | Market-determined, typically every 8 hours |
| Position opening/closing cost (maker order, $10,000 position) | $2.00 – $4.00 per side | $0 |
| Position opening/closing cost (taker order, $10,000 position) | $5.00 – $7.50 per side | $1.00 |
Maker Fees, Taker Fees, and Funding Rates: The Three Costs of Futures Trading
To understand what “0 fee futures” really means, it helps to separate the three distinct cost components involved in any futures trade. The maker fee applies when you place a limit order that sits on the order book and adds liquidity — for example, setting a buy order below the current market price and waiting for it to fill. The taker fee applies when you place a market order, or a limit order that executes immediately against existing liquidity, removing depth from the order book rather than adding to it. The funding rate is entirely separate from both: it’s a periodic payment exchanged directly between traders holding long positions and traders holding short positions, designed to keep the perpetual futures contract’s price anchored close to the underlying spot price. When one side of the market is crowded (for example, if far more traders are long than short), the funding rate typically turns positive, meaning longs pay shorts; the reverse happens when shorts dominate.
How KCEX’s 0% Maker / 0.01% Taker Futures Fees Work
KCEX’s futures trading fee schedule sets the maker fee at 0% and the taker fee at 0.01%, a rate structure positioned among the lowest published futures fees in the industry. In practice, this means a trader who places limit orders that add liquidity to the order book pays nothing in trading fees to open or close a futures position, while a trader who uses market orders (or limit orders that fill immediately) pays a fee of just 0.01% of the position’s notional value per side. On a $10,000 position, that works out to $1.00 as a taker versus $0 as a maker — a meaningfully lower cost than the 0.05%-0.075% taker fees common at many other platforms, where the same $10,000 position could cost $5-7.50 in taker fees alone.
Why 0% Maker Fees Specifically Matter for Futures Traders
The maker/taker fee distinction matters more in futures trading than it might first appear, because many futures trading strategies are specifically designed around limit orders rather than market orders. Traders running grid strategies, those scaling into a position across multiple price levels, and market-making style approaches that place resting orders on both sides of the current price all rely heavily on maker-side execution. A 0% maker fee means these strategies can be run without a fee cost per order — which matters enormously when a single strategy might place dozens or hundreds of orders over the course of a trading session. By contrast, a strategy that relies purely on market orders for fast entry and exit will pay the taker rate on every single execution, making the 0.01% taker fee the more relevant number for that trading style.
What 0-Fee Futures Trading Does NOT Eliminate
- The funding rate: this is a separate, market-determined cost (or occasional credit) that applies to any open perpetual futures position regardless of the trading fee schedule, and it can add up meaningfully for positions held over many funding intervals
- Liquidation risk: leveraged futures positions can be liquidated if the market moves against you enough to erode your margin, a risk that exists independently of trading fees
- Slippage on large orders: a market order large enough to move through several price levels on the order book can experience price slippage beyond the quoted rate, particularly in lower-liquidity contracts
- Bid-ask spread: even with 0% fees, the natural spread between the best bid and best ask represents a real, if often small, transaction cost
Calculating Your Real Futures Trading Cost
To estimate the actual cost of a futures trade, add together the entry fee, the exit fee, and the funding rate accrued over the time the position is held. For a maker-entry, maker-exit trade on KCEX, that’s effectively $0 in trading fees plus whatever funding rate applies during the holding period. For a taker-entry, taker-exit trade on a $10,000 position, that’s roughly $2.00 in trading fees (0.01% each way) plus funding. Compare that to a platform charging 0.05% taker fees, where the same round-trip trade would cost roughly $10.00 in fees alone before funding — a difference that becomes significant for traders executing multiple futures trades per week. The funding rate itself is typically displayed directly on the futures trading page and updates periodically (commonly every eight hours), so it’s worth checking the current rate before opening a position you intend to hold for an extended period, since a consistently unfavorable funding rate can outweigh fee savings on a held position.
Who Benefits Most From Low-Fee Futures Trading
- Grid and market-making strategies: strategies placing many resting limit orders benefit directly from a 0% maker fee, since fee costs would otherwise apply to every single order filled
- High-frequency and scalping traders: traders opening and closing many positions per day see fee savings compound quickly compared to standard industry taker rates
- Arbitrage traders: strategies that depend on capturing small price differences between markets are directly more viable when the fee cost per trade is minimized
- Traders hedging spot positions: using futures to hedge an existing spot holding often involves opening and closing positions relatively frequently as market conditions change, making low trading fees valuable over time
0 Fee Futures vs. 0 Fee Spot: Which Should You Prioritize?
Traders new to the space sometimes assume that “0 fee” is a single, uniform feature of an exchange, when in reality spot and futures markets have entirely separate fee schedules and cost structures that should be evaluated independently based on how you actually trade. If your strategy is built around holding positions for days or weeks with occasional entries and exits, spot trading fees matter more since you’re not paying a recurring funding rate, and a 0% spot fee directly and fully translates into fee-free trading. If your strategy involves leverage, short positions, or hedging — activities only available through futures or margin markets — then the futures fee schedule and funding rate become the more relevant numbers to evaluate, since a 0% spot fee doesn’t apply to those trades at all. Many active traders use both markets in combination: spot for core position building and futures for leveraged directional bets or hedging, which is exactly why an exchange offering competitive rates across both markets, like KCEX’s 0% spot fees paired with 0% maker / 0.01% taker futures fees, tends to be more useful than a platform that’s aggressively low-cost on one market while charging standard rates on the other.
A Practical Example: Comparing Total Futures Trading Costs Over a Month
Consider a trader who opens and closes five futures positions per week, each sized at $5,000 notional, using a mix of maker and taker orders roughly split evenly. Over four weeks, that’s 20 round-trip trades. On a typical exchange charging 0.03% maker and 0.06% taker fees, assuming half the entries and exits are maker and half are taker, the trader would pay roughly $1.50 per side on maker trades and $3.00 per side on taker trades, adding up to approximately $180 in trading fees over the month — before counting funding rate costs, which apply identically regardless of which exchange is used since funding is a function of market positioning rather than the platform’s fee schedule. On KCEX’s 0% maker / 0.01% taker structure, the same 20 round-trip trades would cost roughly $10 in total trading fees for the maker-side trades (effectively $0) plus the taker-side portion at $0.50 per side — a total of around $10-20 for the entire month, versus $180 elsewhere. That gap, multiplied across a full year of active futures trading, illustrates why the specific fee tier matters far more for high-frequency futures traders than for someone opening a handful of positions per year.
Trading Futures on KCEX
KCEX offers futures trading with a 0% maker fee and a 0.01% taker fee, among the lowest published futures rates in the industry, alongside 0% maker and taker fees on spot trading. As with any futures platform, always check the current funding rate on your chosen contract and manage leverage carefully, since liquidation risk exists independently of how low the trading fees are.
FAQ: 0-Fee Futures Trading
What does “0 fee futures” mean exactly?
It typically refers to a 0% maker fee on futures trades — meaning limit orders that add liquidity cost nothing to execute — while a small taker fee may still apply to market orders. On KCEX, futures trading carries a 0% maker fee and a 0.01% taker fee.
Does 0 fee futures trading include the funding rate?
No. The funding rate is a separate, periodic cost (or credit) exchanged between long and short position holders, independent of the trading fee schedule, and it applies regardless of how low the maker/taker fees are.
Is a 0% maker fee better than a 0% taker fee for futures trading?
It depends on your trading style. Strategies using limit orders (grid trading, market making, scaling into positions) benefit most from a 0% maker fee, while strategies relying on market orders for fast execution are more affected by the taker fee rate.
How much can I save trading futures with 0% maker / 0.01% taker fees versus a typical exchange?
On a $10,000 position, a typical exchange charging 0.05-0.075% taker fees could cost $5-7.50 per side, versus $1.00 on KCEX’s 0.01% taker rate — and $0 if executed as a maker order on both platforms’ 0% maker tiers where applicable.
Are there other costs to consider besides fees when futures trading?
Yes — funding rates, bid-ask spread, slippage on large market orders, and liquidation risk from leverage are all costs and risks that exist independently of the trading fee schedule.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Futures trading involves leverage and carries substantial risk of loss, including liquidation. Always understand funding rates and manage position sizing carefully. Fee information current as of September 2026.
