Crypto Trading Fees Explained: Maker, Taker, Gas & Spreads

Crypto trading fees are the costs you pay to buy, sell, and move cryptocurrency, and they come in several forms. Exchanges charge maker and taker fees on each trade, often around 0.1% to 0.5%, and may hide extra cost inside the spread between the buy and sell price. Separately, blockchain networks charge fees to process transactions — on Ethereum these are called gas fees. Deposits and withdrawals can add still more. Small percentages add up, so understanding each fee helps you keep more of your money.

Why Fees Matter

Fees can feel trivial in the moment. A charge of a fraction of a percent on a single trade barely registers. But those small percentages compound, and over time they quietly eat into your returns — especially if you trade frequently. Every time you buy or sell, a slice of your money goes to the fee, and that slice never gets a chance to grow with the rest of your position.

Consider what happens when you trade actively. If you buy and sell many times in a month, you pay the fee on both sides of every round trip. A strategy that trades often has to overcome all of that accumulated cost just to break even. The trader who makes a handful of deliberate moves keeps far more of their money than the one who churns in and out constantly, even if both start with the same balance and pick the same coins.

Fees also make honest comparison harder than it looks. Two platforms can both advertise themselves as low-cost while charging very different amounts once you actually place a trade. One might show a low headline rate but bury cost in a wide spread; another might charge a visible fee but nothing extra. The only way to know which is genuinely cheaper for how you trade is to understand each type of fee and where it hides. That is what the rest of this guide covers.

Trading Fees: Maker vs Taker

The most direct cost is the trading fee, charged every time you buy or sell on an exchange. Most exchanges structure this using a maker and taker model, and the difference between the two comes down to what your order does to the market.

A maker order adds liquidity to the order book. When you place a limit order that sits and waits for someone to trade against it — a resting order at a price you choose — you are "making" a market for others. Because you are providing liquidity that the exchange wants, maker fees are usually lower, and some platforms discount them heavily.

A taker order removes liquidity from the order book. When you place a market order that fills immediately against orders already sitting there, you are "taking" that liquidity away. Because you are consuming what makers provided, taker fees are usually higher.

This matters for beginners because the default, easiest action — tapping buy to purchase at the current price — is a market order, which pays the taker rate. Taker fees often fall somewhere around 0.1% to 0.5% per trade, though the exact number depends on the platform. Many exchanges also use volume tiers: the more you trade over a rolling period, the lower your fee rate drops. Most beginners sit at the standard, higher tier, so it pays to know what that rate actually is before you start. Understanding the difference between order types is the first step, and our guide on crypto order types walks through each one in plain language.

Spreads: The Hidden Fee

Not every cost shows up as a labeled fee. The spread is the gap between the price to buy an asset and the price to sell it at the same moment. If you could buy a coin for one price and instantly sell it back for a lower one, the difference is the spread — and it is a real cost, even though no line item calls it a fee.

This matters most on the simple, beginner-friendly "simple buy" screens that many exchanges offer alongside their advanced trading interface. The one-tap screen is convenient, but it frequently bundles a wider spread into the quoted price instead of charging a visible fee. You tap buy, you get a clean-looking price, and the platform's margin is baked into that number. The result is that you can lose value the instant you buy, before the market moves at all, because you could not turn around and sell at the same price.

The practical lesson is to always compare the true cost, not just the advertised fee. A platform that shows "no fees" on its simple buy screen may still be more expensive than one charging a modest, transparent trading fee, once the spread is accounted for. Where possible, check the price on the advanced trading screen, where spreads are typically tighter and the fee is stated openly, rather than relying on the convenient one-tap button.

Network and Gas Fees

Trading fees and spreads go to the exchange. Network fees are different: they are paid to the blockchain network itself, to the participants who validate and permanently record your transaction. Your exchange does not set these fees and does not keep them — they are the cost of using the underlying network.

Because network fees pay for limited block space, they rise and fall with congestion. When many people are transacting at once, the network gets crowded and fees climb as users effectively bid to have their transactions processed sooner. When activity is quiet, the same transaction can cost far less. This is why a transfer that was cheap one day can be noticeably more expensive the next.

On Ethereum, these network fees are called gas fees. Gas is the unit that measures the computational work a transaction requires, and you pay for it in ETH. A simple transfer uses little gas; a more complex interaction with a smart contract uses more. Bitcoin transactions carry a network fee too, paid to miners who confirm the transaction and include it in a block. Whatever the network, the key point is the same: moving crypto on-chain has a cost that is separate from anything your exchange charges, and that cost depends on how busy the network is at that moment.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

Getting money into and out of an exchange can cost you too, and the amount depends heavily on the method you choose.

Deposits

On the way in, bank transfers are often cheap or even free, which makes them the most economical way to fund an account. Debit-card purchases are more convenient and instant, but they frequently carry a premium of a few percent. That convenience fee can dwarf the trading fee itself, so relying on card purchases for regular buying is an easy way to overpay without realizing it.

Withdrawals

On the way out, withdrawing crypto to your own wallet usually incurs a network fee, since the transaction has to be broadcast to the blockchain. Some exchanges pass along the actual network cost, while others add a markup on top and charge a flat withdrawal fee that may be higher than the underlying network fee. Because these costs are often fixed per withdrawal rather than a percentage, they hit small transfers hardest. Moving a tiny amount off an exchange can lose a meaningful chunk of it to fees, which is another reason many small, frequent transactions cost more overall than fewer larger ones.

Other Costs to Watch

Beyond the main categories, a few less obvious costs can appear depending on how and where you trade.

Currency-conversion fees apply when you fund an account in one currency but trade in another. If the platform converts your money behind the scenes, it may apply a conversion charge or a less favorable exchange rate, quietly adding to your cost.

Inactivity fees are uncommon but not unheard of. Some platforms charge a periodic fee on accounts that go dormant for a long stretch. It is worth checking the fee schedule so a rarely-used account does not slowly drain.

Funding costs on leveraged products are a category of their own. Trading with leverage — borrowing to increase your position size — typically carries ongoing funding or borrowing charges that accrue for as long as you hold the position. Beyond the cost, leverage is risky: it magnifies losses as well as gains and can wipe out a position quickly. It is rarely suitable for beginners, and the extra fees are only one of several reasons to be cautious with it.

Here is a quick reference to the main fee types and who charges each one.

Crypto fee types at a glance

Fee type	Who charges it	Typical range or notes
Trading fee (maker/taker)	The exchange	Often ~0.1%–0.5% per trade; taker usually higher than maker; drops at higher volume tiers
Spread	The exchange (often hidden)	Baked into the buy/sell price gap; wider on simple one-tap buy screens
Network / gas fee	The blockchain network	Varies with congestion; called "gas" on Ethereum; separate from any exchange fee
Deposit fee	The exchange	Bank transfers often cheap or free; debit-card buys can carry a premium of several percent
Withdrawal fee	The exchange	Usually a network fee, sometimes with an exchange markup; often fixed, so it hits small transfers hardest

How to Minimize Fees

Once you know where fees come from, keeping them down is mostly a matter of a few consistent habits.

Prefer limit orders. A limit order that rests on the book usually qualifies for the lower maker fee rather than the higher taker fee. If you are not in a rush, setting a price and letting the order fill can cost less than tapping buy at market.

Use the advanced trading screen. The one-tap simple buy button is convenient but tends to carry wider spreads. The advanced or "pro" trading interface on the same exchange usually offers tighter pricing and a clearly stated fee, so you can see exactly what you are paying.

Make fewer, larger trades. Because some costs are fixed per transaction and every trade pays a fee, many tiny trades add up to more than a few well-considered larger ones. Consolidating your activity reduces how often you hand over a slice of your money.

Compare fee schedules. Before you commit to a platform, read its actual fee schedule rather than trusting a "low fee" tagline. Look at the standard maker and taker rates, deposit and withdrawal costs, and whether the simple buy screen carries a hidden spread. Our guide on how to choose a crypto exchange covers what else to weigh alongside fees.

Avoid high-fee card purchases. When a cheaper bank transfer is available, use it instead of a debit card for routine buying. The card premium is easy to overlook but can cost far more than the trade itself.

Practice Fee-Aware Trading

Reading about fees is one thing; building the habit of accounting for them is another. The best way to internalize how costs affect your results is to practice trading before real fees are on the line — and that is exactly what a paper trading simulator is for.

Paper trading lets you buy and sell with virtual money at real market prices, so you can rehearse the mechanics of placing orders and managing a position without any financial risk. CustomCrypto is a free iOS app built for this. It gives you a virtual balance you can set anywhere from $100 to $1,000,000 (the default is $10,000), tracks 38 cryptocurrencies with real-time prices from CoinGecko, and keeps everything on your device. There are no accounts to create, no ads, and no tracking — your data stays entirely on your phone. It is for practice and education only, not financial advice.

Using a simulator first lets you build fee-aware instincts before they cost you anything: the habit of reaching for a limit order, the discipline to avoid churning in and out, and a feel for how a strategy needs to clear its own costs to come out ahead. If you want to understand how the practice environment differs from a live account, our guide on paper trading vs real trading spells out the key differences — and one of the biggest is that real trades carry the fees this article describes, while practice trades do not.

By the time you fund a real exchange, you will already know how orders work, where fees hide, and how to keep more of your money. That preparation is worth far more than chasing the lowest headline rate on a comparison chart. You can download CustomCrypto free and start practicing today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are maker and taker fees?

Maker and taker fees are the two sides of an exchange's trading fee. A maker order adds liquidity to the order book, such as a resting limit order that waits to be filled. A taker order removes liquidity immediately, such as a market order. Taker fees are usually higher, and beginners placing market orders typically pay the taker rate, often around 0.1% to 0.5% per trade.

What is a crypto spread?

A crypto spread is the gap between the price to buy and the price to sell an asset at the same moment. A wider spread means you effectively lose value the instant you buy, because you could not sell back at the same price. Simple one-tap buy screens often bundle a wider spread into the price instead of showing a visible fee, making the true cost harder to see.

What are gas fees?

Gas fees are the network fees paid to process a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. They go to the network that validates and records the transaction, not to your exchange. Gas fees rise and fall with network congestion, so the same transaction can cost more when the network is busy. Bitcoin and other blockchains charge their own network fees under different names.

How can I reduce crypto trading fees?

Prefer limit orders, which usually qualify for the lower maker fee, and use the advanced trading screen instead of one-tap buy to avoid wide spreads. Make fewer, larger trades rather than many tiny ones so fixed costs matter less, compare fee schedules before you commit, and avoid high-fee debit-card purchases when a cheaper bank transfer is available.