How to use the break-even calculator
A crypto break-even calculator computes the exact exit price required to completely offset round-trip maker and taker exchange commissions, slippage, and cumulative funding rates. It reveals the exact price hurdle your trade must surpass before yielding positive net profit.
- 1Select your Trade direction (Long or Short) and target asset.
- 2Enter your planned Entry price and position Quantity (or notional value).
- 3Select an exchange fee preset or specify custom Maker / Taker fee percentages for entry and exit.
- 4Enter estimated execution slippage and anticipated holding funding payments if trading perpetual contracts.
- 5Optionally enter a Target Net Profit to calculate the precise exit price needed to pocket that gain after all transaction costs.
- 6Review the exact Break-even exit price, percentage hurdle, total friction cost, and net target price.
The formula
- Entry notional
- Entry price × Quantity
- Entry fee ($)
- Entry notional × Entry fee rate
- Break-even price (long)
- Entry price × (1 + Entry fee rate) ÷ (1 − Exit fee rate − Funding rate)
- Break-even price (short)
- Entry price × (1 − Entry fee rate) ÷ (1 + Exit fee rate + Funding rate)
- Total trading friction ($)
- Entry fee + Exit fee at break-even + Funding fee
- Target price for desired profit (long)
- (Target net profit + Total fees + Entry notional) ÷ (Quantity × (1 − Exit fee rate))
- Target price for desired profit (short)
- (Entry notional − Target net profit − Total fees) ÷ (Quantity × (1 + Exit fee rate))
Worked example: Spot vs Perpetual break-even on Bitcoin
Suppose you purchase 1 BTC at an entry price of 80,000 USD on an exchange charging 0.05% taker fee upon entry and 0.05% taker fee upon exit, with an estimated 0.02% 8-hour funding fee.
Your entry fee is 80,000 × 0.0005 = 40.00 USD.
To break even on a Long trade, the exit price must satisfy: Exit × (1 − 0.0005 − 0.0002) = 80,000 × (1 + 0.0005).
Break-even Exit = 80,000 × (1.0005 ÷ 0.9993) = 80,096.07 USD.
Bitcoin must rise by at least 96.07 USD (+0.12%) simply to cover round-trip exchange friction and funding before you make a single dollar of net profit.
Why High-Frequency Scalpers Must Account for Break-Even Hurdle
For long-term swing traders holding for 15%–30% swings, a 0.1% fee hurdle is marginal. However, for intraday scalpers targeting 0.3%–0.6% price movements, round-trip fees and slippage consume up to 30%–50% of gross profits. Calculating your exact break-even hurdle prevents closing winners too early into fee deficits.
Maker vs. Taker Fee Optimization
Exchanges incentivize liquidity provision by offering significantly cheaper maker fees (e.g. 0.02% or even 0.00%) for passive limit orders compared to taker fees (0.05%–0.075%) for aggressive market orders. Utilizing post-only limit orders on both entry and exit cuts the break-even hurdle by more than half.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the break-even price slightly higher than simply adding maker and taker fee rates?
Because the exit fee is calculated on the higher exit notional value rather than the original entry value. Compound division accounts for this asymmetric cost expansion.
Does higher leverage increase my break-even price distance?
No, the price movement percentage required to break even is independent of leverage (since fees scale linearly with notional value). However, the return on equity required to break even scales with leverage (e.g. at 20x leverage, a 0.1% fee hurdle requires a 2.0% ROE gain).
How do funding rates impact my break-even target on perpetuals?
If you hold a long position while funding rates are positive, you pay funding to short holders every 8 hours. Each funding deduction increases the cumulative friction cost and raises your break-even exit price higher.
Can limit post-only orders guarantee zero slippage?
Post-only limit orders guarantee that your order will only rest in the order book as a maker and will never cross the spread as a taker, completely eliminating entry execution slippage.