Kraken Fees Explained: What You Actually Pay Per Trade

Kraken's standard spot trading fee, on its Kraken Pro order book, is 0.40% for maker orders and 0.80% for taker orders at Tier 1, which covers any account with less than $2,500 in rolling 30-day volume^††. That is not the only fee Kraken charges, though: Kraken's simplified consumer buy/sell flow runs on a separate, higher rate that most searches for "Kraken fees" never surface. This article breaks down both fee surfaces, runs two real dollar examples at $500 and $5,000, and compares the numbers against Coinbase and Binance so you can see where Kraken actually sits.

DISCLOSURE: CompareCEX may earn a commission when you sign up through our links. This does not influence our editorial scores.

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

What Do Kraken's Trading Fees Actually Look Like?

Kraken runs two different trading surfaces inside the same account, and they are not priced the same way.

The 0.40%/0.80% figures are the ones worth memorizing, because they are what a Kraken Pro account pays at the entry tier before any volume discount^††. Fees step down as 30-day volume rises past that $2,500 mark, but Kraken's public schedule does not commit to a fixed floor on this page, so treat "it gets cheaper with volume" as directionally true rather than a specific number you can rely on.

Is Kraken's Consumer App the Same Price as Kraken Pro?

No, and this is the part most "Kraken fees" articles skip. Kraken's own fee schedule, checked directly on kraken.com on September 7, 2026, states that the simplified consumer app — the instant buy/sell flow most new users land on first — charges roughly 1% on instant and recurring trades and around 1.5% on custom orders, separate from the 0.40%/0.80% Kraken Pro schedule^†. Kraken's page also notes this consumer-app fee can be waived for Kraken+ members on up to $10,000 of monthly volume, though we do not have a verified figure for what Kraken+ itself costs. In practical terms: if you are buying crypto through Kraken's default app screen instead of the Pro order book, you are very likely paying several times the 0.80% Tier 1 taker rate, not the rate itself. Anyone comparing "Kraken vs Kraken Pro fees" is really comparing a simplified retail flow against an active-trading order book, not two versions of the same price.

How Much Does a Kraken Trade Actually Cost You?

Here are two round-trip trades — one entry, one exit, both filled as taker (market) orders — at Kraken Pro's Tier 1 rate, compared against Coinbase and Binance at their own regular tiers.

1. $500 round trip, Kraken Pro Tier 1: 0.80% taker × 2 sides = 1.6% of $500 = $8.00^†
2. $500 round trip, Coinbase (high end of its tiered range): 0.60% × 2 = 1.2% of $500 = $6.00^†
3. $500 round trip, Binance (regular VIP0 tier): 0.10% × 2 = 0.2% of $500 = $1.00^†
4. $5,000 round trip, Kraken Pro Tier 1: 1.6% of $5,000 = $80.00^†
5. $5,000 round trip, Coinbase (high end): 1.2% of $5,000 = $60.00^†
6. $5,000 round trip, Binance: 0.2% of $5,000 = $10.00^†

Scale that $5,000 example against a defined risk budget and the gap gets harder to ignore. Our knowledge base's core trading principle caps the acceptable loss on a single trade at 1% of the account — on a $10,000 account, that is a $100 risk budget . An $80 round-trip fee on Kraken's Tier 1 rate already consumes 80% of that budget before the trade can move against you at all, versus $10 on Binance for the identical trade size^††. Run your own trade size through our fee calculator instead of assuming which number applies to you.

Kraken Fees vs Coinbase and Binance: Which Is Cheaper?

At Tier 1, Kraken Pro's taker fee of 0.80% is higher than every other rate in this table, including Coinbase's most expensive tier of 0.60%^††. Kraken's maker fee of 0.40% only matches Coinbase's worst-case maker rate — Coinbase can fall as low as 0% for high-volume makers, something Kraken's entry tier does not offer^††. Binance is the flat-rate outlier here: its 0.10%/0.10% regular tier beats Kraken's Tier 1 on both sides of every trade, maker or taker^††††. For the full two-way breakdown, including regulation and coin count, see Binance vs Kraken.

What Mistakes Do Traders Make About Kraken's Fees?

1. Quoting the Kraken Pro rate for the consumer app, or vice versa. The 0.40%/0.80% Tier 1 figures apply to Kraken Pro's order book, not the simplified instant buy/sell flow, which Kraken's own schedule prices differently^††.
2. Assuming the entry tier is the best rate available. Tier 1 applies under $2,500 in 30-day volume; it is the starting point, not the floor, though Kraken does not publish a specific lower number on its public fee page.
3. Comparing only the maker or only the taker side. A round trip charges both legs. Kraken's 0.80% taker rate alone already costs more than a Binance round trip at both legs combined^††.
4. Skipping deposit and withdrawal costs entirely. These are real costs but are not part of the maker/taker schedule and are not verified in our data — check Kraken's account deposit/withdrawal screen directly before assuming the table above is the full picture.
5. Not sizing the fee against a defined risk budget. An $80 fee on a $5,000 round trip barely registers as "0.8% each way" until you compare it to what a 1%-of-account risk rule actually allows you to lose on the trade .

How Do You Cut Your Kraken Fee Bill? (4 Steps)

1. Trade on Kraken Pro's order book, not the instant buy screen, if the difference between roughly 1%/1.5% and 0.40%/0.80% matters to your trade size^†.
2. Use limit orders where possible. Kraken's maker fee (0.40% at Tier 1) is half its taker fee (0.80%), so resting orders cost less than market orders on the same size^††.
3. Check your actual 30-day volume on Kraken's account dashboard before assuming you are stuck at Tier 1 pricing.
4. Compare your real trade size against Binance or Coinbase with our fee calculator before assuming a lower headline number elsewhere is negligible; on a $5,000 round trip, the gap between Kraken's Tier 1 and Binance's regular rate is $70, as shown above^††.

If you are still deciding between platforms, our maker vs taker fees guide explains the mechanics behind both sides of every trade, and our lowest-fee exchange roundup ranks eight exchanges, Kraken included, by actual round-trip cost rather than marketing copy.

Related guides

• Coinbase Fees Explained — the same tiered-vs-flat breakdown, run on Coinbase's schedule instead of Kraken's.
• Lowest Fee Crypto Exchange — ranks Kraken against seven other exchanges at three trade sizes.
• Binance vs Kraken — the fee gap in this article, extended into a full two-way comparison on regulation and coins.

FAQ

Are Kraken and Kraken Pro the same fee schedule?

No. Kraken's official fee schedule prices its simplified consumer buy/sell flow separately from Kraken Pro's order book — roughly 1% on instant trades and 1.5% on custom orders on the consumer side, versus 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker at Kraken Pro's Tier 1^††. Trading through the Pro interface is the cheaper path for the same account.

Is Kraken cheaper than Coinbase?

Not at the entry tier. Kraken Pro's Tier 1 taker fee is 0.80%, which is higher than Coinbase's taker range of 0.05% to 0.60% at every point on that range, including Coinbase's most expensive tier^††. A high-volume Coinbase account beats Kraken's entry tier by a wide margin; even a low-volume Coinbase account at its worst rate still edges out Kraken's Tier 1 taker fee.

Does Kraken charge a deposit or withdrawal fee?

We do not have a verified number for this. Kraken's own fee schedule page states deposit and withdrawal fees are "static or dynamic" and depend on the asset and network, and directs users to the account deposit/withdrawal screen for current figures rather than listing them on the general schedule page (checked September 7, 2026).

Can I lower my Kraken fees without switching exchanges?

Yes, partly. Trading on Kraken Pro instead of the consumer app moves you from roughly 1%/1.5% to the 0.40%/0.80% Tier 1 schedule^†, and using limit orders shifts trades toward the lower maker rate^†. Neither changes the underlying tier structure, and the gap against a flat-fee exchange like Binance typically remains, as shown in the round-trip examples above.

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

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

Last updated: 2026-09-07