Best Crypto Exchange With Low Fees: Real Maker/Taker Numbers Compared

Q: Which exchange has the highest fees on this list?

Kraken, at 0.4% maker and 0.8% taker on its entry tier — the highest of the six, and 16x MEXC's cost on an identical $2,000 round trip.

MEXC charges 0% maker and 0.05% taker at the entry tier, the cheapest of six exchanges we checked; Kraken's entry tier costs 16x more on an identical $2,000 round trip.

Last verified: September 17, 2026 See our sources

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At the entry tier, MEXC has the lowest spot trading fees of the six exchanges we checked: 0% maker and 0.05% taker^†^†. Kraken has the highest: 0.4% maker and 0.8% taker at its entry tier^†^†. The gap is real and large — on an identical $2,000 round trip, Kraken's entry-tier fee comes out 16x higher than MEXC's. But "low fees" here means the regular, no-VIP, entry-level rate only: we do not have verified withdrawal-fee data for any of these exchanges, so this page compares trading fees, not the total cost of moving money in and out.

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RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

How Do Spot Trading Fees Compare Across Exchanges?

All six figures below are each exchange's regular, entry-tier maker/taker rate for spot trading — no VIP tier, no 30-day volume discount applied.

Exchange	Maker fee	Taker fee	Coins listed
MEXC	0%^†	0.05%^†	~1,000^†
OKX	0.08%^†	0.1%^†	~300^†
Binance	0.1%^†	0.1%^†	~350^†
KuCoin	0.1%^†	0.1%^†	~300^†
Gate.io	0.2%^†	0.2%^†	~1,500^†
Kraken	0.4%^†	0.8%^†	~600^†

MEXC's 0% maker fee^† means a limit order that adds liquidity costs nothing at the entry tier, and its 0.05% taker fee^† is roughly half of OKX, Binance, and KuCoin's 0.1% taker rate^†^†^†. Gate.io sits noticeably higher at 0.2%/0.2%^†^†, despite listing the most coins of the six at roughly 1,500^† — coin count and fee level don't move together here. Kraken's entry tier is the outlier on cost, at 0.4% maker and 0.8% taker^†^†, well above every other exchange in this table.

What Does the Fee Gap Cost You on an Actual Trade?

Numbers alone don't tell you what a fee gap means in dollars. Here's a $2,000 round trip — one buy, one sell, both filled as market (taker) orders — at each exchange's entry-tier taker rate, from MEXC's 0.05%^† up to Kraken's 0.8%^†.

Exchange	Taker rate	Round-trip cost on $2,000
MEXC	0.05%^†	0.05% × 2 × $2,000 = $2
OKX	0.1%^†	0.1% × 2 × $2,000 = $4
Binance	0.1%^†	0.1% × 2 × $2,000 = $4
KuCoin	0.1%^†	0.1% × 2 × $2,000 = $4
Gate.io	0.2%^†	0.2% × 2 × $2,000 = $8
Kraken	0.8%^†	0.8% × 2 × $2,000 = $32

The same $2,000 round trip costs $2 on MEXC and $32 on Kraken^†^† — Kraken's entry-tier fee is 16 times MEXC's on the identical trade. For someone making one or two trades a month, the dollar gap between $2 and $32 is real but small in absolute terms. For someone round-tripping the same size multiple times a day, that multiplier compounds fast, because every single trade pays it again. Run your own trade size through our fee calculator to see what the gap looks like at your actual position size — it scales linearly with the taker rate, so a $10,000 trade multiplies every number in this table by five.

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What This Page Doesn't Cover

This comparison is limited to spot maker/taker fees at the entry tier, and it's worth being explicit about what's missing rather than letting you assume the numbers above tell the whole story:

Withdrawal fees. We do not have verified withdrawal-fee data for any of these six exchanges in our knowledge graph yet — it's being added, but isn't available today. Do not assume the exchange with the lowest trading fee also has the lowest withdrawal cost; we simply can't confirm either way right now.
VIP and high-volume tiers. Every rate on this page is the regular, entry-level tier. High-volume traders on any of these exchanges typically unlock lower rates through 30-day volume discounts or native-token fee reductions, but we don't have verified tier-by-tier data to publish specific numbers here.
Spreads and card-purchase markups. If you buy crypto directly with a card or through a built-in "buy" widget instead of placing a spot order, the effective cost is usually higher than the maker/taker rate because of the spread baked into the quoted price. We don't have verified spread data for these exchanges, so we're not going to estimate a number.

Once you know your own withdrawal habits, trade frequency, and typical position size, the fee calculator lets you model the pieces this page can verify against the pieces you'll need to check directly on each exchange before you decide.

One more scope note: every number above is a spot trading fee. If you're comparing costs for futures or perpetual contracts, the fee structure is different — funding rates, different maker/taker tiers, and often different discount schedules — so don't apply these spot numbers to a futures account. Our guide to choosing a crypto futures platform covers that separately.

The Fee Gap Is Real, But It's Not the Whole Game

A 16x difference between the cheapest and most expensive exchange on this page looks like a huge, decisive number, and if you're a very high-frequency trader running dozens of round trips a day, it genuinely is one of the biggest levers you control. For most retail traders, though, it's worth putting that number in perspective.

Our knowledge base treats trading as an iceberg: the visible part — clicking buy and sell, watching a chart, comparing maker/taker rates across exchanges — gets rewarded instantly, so everyone does it. The submerged ~70% — journaling every trade, reviewing what actually happened after it closed, sizing positions consistently, building the discipline to sit out when there's no real edge — pays nothing today, so almost nobody does it, and that gap is a large part of why most traders lose money over time . A maker/taker rate is easy to compare in five minutes and feels like control. Whether you're taking trades with a real edge, sizing them the same way every time, and keeping a record you actually review afterward is harder to see and takes longer to build — but it decides far more of the outcome than which exchange charges 0.05%^† versus 0.1%^† on a single trade. Chasing the cheapest rate while skipping the habits that determine whether a trade should have been taken at all is optimizing the visible 30% and ignoring the part that actually decides the result.

That doesn't make the fee comparison pointless — a real trader's cost structure matters, and paying 16x more than necessary on every trade is a habit worth fixing. It just means the exchange you pick shouldn't be the only decision you spend time on.

Common Mistakes When Comparing Exchange Fees

Quoting a VIP or high-volume rate as if it's what a new account pays. Every rate in this article is the regular, entry tier; VIP discounts require 30-day volume most retail accounts never reach.
Assuming the cheapest trading fee also means the cheapest total cost. Withdrawal fees, spreads, and card markups aren't covered here because we don't have verified data — check each exchange's current schedule before assuming.
Comparing spot fees to a futures account. Futures and perpetuals use a different fee structure with funding rates; see our futures platform guide for that comparison instead.
Counting only one leg of a trade. A single order pays the taker rate once; a full round trip (buy, then sell) pays it twice, which is why the worked example above uses two-sided math.
Treating coin count as a fee signal. Gate.io lists the most coins of the six at roughly 1,500^† but has a higher taker fee than MEXC, OKX, Binance, or KuCoin^†^†^†^†^† — the two numbers move independently.

See our methodology for how we source and verify these figures, and our best crypto exchanges list if you're weighing fees against other factors like security and coin selection. Our MEXC review and Gate.io review go deeper on the two exchanges at opposite ends of this fee table.

FAQ

Which exchange has the lowest fees on this list?

MEXC, at 0% maker and 0.05% taker on its regular entry tier^†^† — the lowest of the six exchanges compared here.

Which exchange has the highest fees on this list?

Kraken, at 0.4% maker and 0.8% taker on its entry tier^†^† — the highest of the six, and 16x MEXC's cost on an identical $2,000 round trip.

Do these numbers include withdrawal fees?

No. We do not have verified withdrawal-fee data for any of these six exchanges, so this comparison covers spot maker/taker trading fees only. Check each exchange's current withdrawal schedule directly before moving funds.

Do VIP tiers change this comparison?

They can. Every rate above is the regular, entry-level tier with no volume discount applied. High-volume traders on any of these exchanges may unlock lower rates, but we don't have verified tier-by-tier data to publish specific numbers.

Are these the same fees for futures trading?

No. This page covers spot trading only. Futures and perpetual contracts use a different fee structure, including funding rates. See our guide to choosing a crypto futures platform for that comparison.

See our best exchanges list for more comparisons, and read our affiliate disclosure for how we're funded.