Maker vs Taker Fees
Why exchanges charge two different rates — and how to land on the cheaper one.
Key takeaways
- A maker adds liquidity with a resting limit order. A taker removes liquidity by matching an existing order.
- Takers pay more because exchanges subsidize makers to keep the order book deep.
- To guarantee maker status, use post-only orders — they reject rather than fill as a taker.
- At institutional tier (>$10M monthly volume), some exchanges pay maker rebates (negative fees).
The order book
Every major centralized crypto exchange runs a limit order book: a continuously updated list of buy and sell orders at specific prices. The highest buy (bid) and lowest sell (ask) define the current "spread" — the gap where no orders match.
Someone has to place orders in the book for others to trade against. Those people are makers. Someone else has to come in and take those offers at the posted price. Those are takers. Every trade has exactly one of each.
Why the pricing asymmetry
An empty order book is a dead exchange. A book with thin depth means slippage — a $10K market buy can move the price 1%+. Exchanges compete on depth, which is why they charge takers more than makers. The maker fee is essentially a subsidy for providing liquidity.
Typical 2026 spot rates at the retail tier
- Binance: 0.10% maker / 0.10% taker (one of the few with zero spread at retail)
- Bybit spot: 0.10% / 0.10%
- OKX spot: 0.08% / 0.10%
- Kraken Pro: 0.25% / 0.40%
- Bitstamp: 0.30% / 0.40%
- Coinbase Advanced: 0.40% / 0.60%
For full fee context see Exchange fees explained.
The post-only flag
The subtle trap: limit orders aren't automatically maker orders. If you place a buy at a price higher than the best ask, it fills immediately and you pay taker fees on the entire fill.
Post-only (a checkbox on most pro interfaces) changes this: if the order would be an immediate taker, the exchange rejects it instead of filling it. You're guaranteed maker status or rejection. Use it for non-urgent entries and exits where timing flexibility lets you wait for the book to come to your price.
Institutional maker rebates
At high enough 30-day volume, some exchanges pay you for making — a negative maker fee. Binance VIP-9 (≥$4B monthly volume) has historically offered maker rebates. OKX, Bybit, and a few others also pay rebates at top tiers. This is how market makers run profitable HFT operations — earning small rebates on millions of trades per day.
For retail traders this is mostly aspirational — the first meaningful tier break usually starts at $100K monthly. Focus first on choosing a cheap exchange (Binance, Bybit, OKX) and use post-only where you can.