Kraken charges 1% plus a spread on Instant Buy, 1.5% on custom orders, 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker at Tier 1 on Kraken Pro spot, 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on futures, and a fixed per-asset fee on crypto withdrawals, per Kraken's fee schedule retrieved 9 September 2026.
Key Takeaways
Kraken runs two fee schedules: the app charges 1% plus a spread, while Kraken Pro starts at 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker.
The 9 July 2026 restructure doubled the entry taker rate and now sets your tier by spot volume, futures volume or assets held, whichever is better.
Holding $20,000 on Kraken buys Tier 3 pricing, 0.22% and 0.38%, without a single trade.
The same $1,000 perpetual trade costs $5.00 round trip in the Kraken app and $1.00 on Kraken Pro futures.
Crypto withdrawals are flat per network, from 0.000015 BTC on Bitcoin to 1.0551 USDT on Solana.
Outside the US, UK and EEA, MEXC's published entry rate of 0.0000% maker and 0.0500% taker puts a $1,000 taker order at $0.50 against $8.00 at Kraken Tier 1.
Search for Kraken fees and the first page of results still tells you that Kraken Pro starts at 0.25% maker and 0.40% taker.
That was true until 9 July 2026.
Most of the pages ranking for this question were written before the change and have not been updated.
The second thing those pages miss is that Kraken is two products.
The Kraken app charges a flat 1% plus a spread on every instant buy, sell or convert.
Kraken Pro charges a maker and taker rate that starts high and falls with volume or with the assets you hold.
A third layer, withdrawal fees, is published on a separate page and rarely makes it into any comparison.
This guide puts all three layers on one page with a retrieval date on every number, then runs the same $1,000 trade through six Kraken scenarios so you can see what the schedule means in dollars.
Every figure below comes from Kraken's fee schedule and support center, retrieved 9 September 2026, unless a different date is shown.
Product | Maker, entry tier | Taker, entry tier | Best published rate | Notes |
Kraken app: Instant Buy, Sell, Convert, Recurring | 1% flat fee plus spread | 1% flat fee plus spread | 0% fee with Kraken+ on up to $10,000 a month | Custom orders 1.5%; small-balance conversions 3%; spread still applies |
Kraken Pro spot, most pairs | 0.40% | 0.80% | 0.00% maker and 0.05% taker at Pro 5 | Tier 2 at $2,500 of volume; Tier 3 at $10,000 of volume or $20,000 held |
Kraken Pro spot, maker-rebate pairs | 0.38% | 0.80% | Maker rebate of 0.02% from Tier 12 | Selected lower-liquidity pairs only |
Stablecoin, pegged token and FX pairs | 0.20% | 0.20% | 0.00% maker and 0.001% taker above $100 million | Volume here does not count toward spot tiers |
USDG pairs | 0.00% | 0.01% | 0.001% taker above $100 million | USDG as the base currency only |
Kraken Pro futures | 0.02% | 0.05% | Maker rebate of 0.006% and 0.0125% taker at Pro 5 | Not available, or not counted toward tiers, for clients in the US, Canada or New Zealand |
Kraken app Perps | 0.25% of notional to open | 0.25% of notional to close | No tiers published | Certain regions only |
Margin, on top of trading fees | 0.02% to 0.04% to open | Same rate every 4 hours as rollover | Bitcoin 0.01% to 0.02% | 2% liquidation fee; rates are dynamic |
US stocks and ETFs | Zero commission | Zero commission | Regulatory fees passed through | US clients only |
xStocks | 0% with USD or USDG, 1% with other assets | 0% with USD or USDG, 1% with other assets | Kraken Pro xStocks: 0.10% taker with a 0.02% maker rebate | Not offered in the US, UK, Canada or Australia |
Data verified as of 9 September 2026 against Kraken's fee schedule and help center. Kraken notes that fees may display incorrectly if you use a VPN.
The Kraken app charges 1% on instant and recurring trades and 1.5% on custom orders.
Conversions below the minimum order size pay a fixed 3% under the Convert Small Balances feature.
On top of the fee, the quoted price includes a spread, and Kraken's schedule says the spread varies with volatility, asset, order size and type, VIP status and account activity, and that Kraken may retain any excess.
No spread percentage is published anywhere on the schedule.
Card purchases add a processing fee that Kraken shows only on the confirmation page, and the first purchase on a new card locks an equivalent amount of your balance from withdrawal for 72 hours, per Kraken's card purchase page updated 19 August 2026.
Kraken+ costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year after a 30-day trial and waives the trading fee on up to $10,000 of monthly app volume in USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR or CHF.
The waiver does not touch the spread, does not cover card processing fees, and does not apply to anything on Kraken Pro.
Kraken Pro runs 17 tiers: twelve numbered tiers and five Pro tiers.
Tier 1 is 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker for anyone with under $2,500 of trailing 30-day spot volume and no qualifying balance.
Tier 2 drops to 0.30% and 0.60% at $2,500, and Tier 3 to 0.22% and 0.38% at $10,000 of volume or $20,000 of assets on platform.
Maker fees reach zero at Tier 12, which needs $10 million of volume or $10 million held, and taker fees bottom out at 0.05% at Pro 5.
A separate rebate schedule applies to selected lower-liquidity pairs: it starts at 0.38% maker and pays makers a 0.02% rebate from Tier 12 upward.
Kraken's support page on trading fees, updated 5 September 2026, puts the full range at minus 0.02% for makers to 0.80% for takers, and confirms that orders cancelled before execution are free.
Pairs where a stablecoin, pegged token or fiat currency is the base asset, such as USDT/USD or EUR/USD, charge 0.20% on both sides at the entry tier and fall to 0.00% maker and 0.001% taker above $100 million.
USDG pairs are cheaper still at 0.00% maker and 0.01% taker.
Volume on these books does not count toward your spot tier, and spot volume does not count toward their schedule either.
Kraken Pro futures start at 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker and fall to a 0.006% maker rebate and 0.0125% taker at Pro 5.
The Kraken app offers a simpler product called Perps that charges 0.25% of notional to open and 0.25% to close.
The same $1,000 position therefore costs $1.00 round trip as a taker on Kraken Pro futures and $5.00 in the app.
Margin fees sit on top of your spot trading fee.
Opening a position costs 0.02% to 0.04% for most assets and 0.01% to 0.02% for Bitcoin, and the same rate is charged again as a rollover fee every four hours the position stays open.
Kraken's own worked example of a $20,000 short held for 24 hours comes to $88 in total fees, including the four-hourly rollover charges.
Automatic liquidations carry a 2% fee and skip the order book, so no trading fee applies to that leg.
xStocks, the tokenised equities, trade fee-free when bought with USD or USDG and at the standard 1% when bought with other assets, with a spread built into the price. On Kraken Pro, xStocks use a 0.10% taker rate with a 0.02% maker rebate.
The restructure did three things.
First, it raised the entry tier to 0.40% and 0.80% and inserted a new Tier 2 at $2,500.
Second, it let assets on platform qualify you for a tier: hold $20,000 on Kraken and you trade at Tier 3 rates without any volume.
Third, it made the balance test point-in-time, so a market drop or a withdrawal can move you down a tier the same day.
Two exclusions matter for anyone counting on volume to climb the ladder.
Purchases made with Instant Buy, conversions, and trades on stablecoin and FX pairs do not count toward spot volume.
Only Kraken Pro and Kraken Desktop trades on crypto pairs and xStocks pairs do.
Futures volume also qualifies you for a tier, except for clients in the US, Canada and New Zealand, where only spot volume and assets on platform count.
Kraken's schedule states that the price shown in Instant Buy, custom and recurring purchases includes a spread, and that the spread gives you price certainty at execution.
It also states that Kraken may retain any excess spread and that the size varies from one transaction to the next.
Because no percentage is published, this layer cannot be added to the table above, and a Kraken Pro order-book trade is the only way to trade on Kraken without paying it.
Kraken's withdrawal fee page, last updated 31 December 2025 and captured on 9 September 2026, lists a flat fee and a minimum for every asset and network.
Asset and network | Withdrawal fee | Minimum withdrawal, including fee |
BTC, Bitcoin | 0.000015 BTC | 0.000218 BTC |
ETH, Ethereum | 0.00014 ETH | 0.000168 ETH |
ETH, Arbitrum One, Base, Optimism or Polygon | 0.00015 ETH | 0.0003 ETH |
USDT, Ethereum | 0.6425 USDT | 0.771 USDT |
USDT, Tron | 1 USDT | 6 USDT |
USDT, Solana | 1.0551 USDT | 1.26612 USDT |
USDT, Polygon | 1 USDT | 2 USDT |
USDT, Arbitrum One | 1 USDT | 4 USDT |
USDC, Ethereum | 0.6509 USDC | 0.78108 USDC |
SOL, Solana | 0.005 SOL | 0.011 SOL |
XRP, XRP Ledger | 0.05 XRP | 12.05 XRP |
Data verified as of 9 September 2026 against Kraken's cryptocurrency withdrawal fee page. Fees change without notice, and the figure on the confirmation screen is the one you pay.
Two things stand out.
The Bitcoin fee of 0.000015 BTC is far below the 0.0002 to 0.0005 BTC figures that older guides still quote.
And Tron, the network most people default to for USDT, is one of the more expensive Kraken routes at 1 USDT with a 6 USDT minimum, while Ethereum costs 0.6425 USDT.
The table below runs one $1,000 trade through six Kraken scenarios using published fees only.
The MEXC column applies to readers outside the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, where MEXC does not operate.
Scenario | Kraken rate | Kraken fee | MEXC rate | MEXC fee |
Instant Buy in the Kraken app | 1% plus spread | $10.00 plus spread | Spread-based Quick Buy, not compared | n/a |
Kraken Pro spot, taker, Tier 1 | 0.80% | $8.00 | 0.05% | $0.50 |
Kraken Pro spot, maker, Tier 1 | 0.40% | $4.00 | 0.00% | $0.00 |
Kraken Pro spot, taker, Tier 3 ($10,000 of volume or $20,000 held) | 0.38% | $3.80 | 0.05% | $0.50 |
Kraken Pro futures, taker, open and close | 0.05% twice | $1.00 | 0.020% twice on BTCUSDT | $0.40 |
Kraken app Perps, open and close | 0.25% twice | $5.00 | MEXC does not publish a separate app-only perpetuals rate | n/a |
Data verified as of 9 September 2026 against Kraken's fee schedule and MEXC's official fee page, screenshots dated 7 September 2026. MEXC's spot taker rate falls to 0.0400% with the MX fee deduction, and MEXC's standard perpetual pairs charge up to 0.040% taker.
Scale the taker case to a month and the gap becomes an annual line item.
Ten thousand dollars of taker orders a month costs $60 at Kraken's Tier 2 rate, $38 once Tier 3 applies, and $5 on MEXC.
Over a year that is $720, $456 and $60.
A trader running $100,000 of notional a month through perpetuals pays $50 on Kraken Pro futures at Tier 1 and $20 on MEXC's BTCUSDT pair.
Kraken's futures taker rate only reaches 0.02% at Tier 9, which needs $100 million of futures volume, $1 million of spot volume or $1 million held on the platform.
If you trade outside the US, UK and EEA, that is the gap to price before your next market order.
Kraken's entry tier is cheaper than the two US-focused venues it is most often compared with and more expensive than the large offshore exchanges.
Exchange | Spot maker, entry tier | Spot taker, entry tier | Verified against official schedule |
Kraken Pro | 0.40% | 0.80% | 9 September 2026 |
Coinbase Advanced | 0.60% | 1.20% | 24 July 2026 |
Gemini ActiveTrader | 0.60% | 1.20% | 1 September 2026, schedule dated 9 July 2026 |
OKX | 0.08% | 0.10% | 24 July 2026 |
Bybit | 0.10% | 0.10% | 8 September 2026 |
MEXC | 0.00% | 0.05% | 7 September 2026 |
Entry-tier rates before token, VIP or campaign discounts, verified against each platform's official fee schedule on the dates shown.
MEXC does not serve residents of the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, so if you live in one of those regions Kraken is the licensed option and this section does not apply to you.
For everyone else, the comparison comes down to four points.
The pain at Kraken is the entry tier: a new trader pays 0.80% on every market order until trailing volume passes $2,500, and still pays 0.60% until it passes $10,000.
MEXC's published entry rate applies from your first trade: 0.0000% maker and 0.0500% taker on its main pairs, or 0.0400% taker with the MX fee deduction switched on, per MEXC's official fee page. On perpetuals, MEXC's standard pairs charge 0.000% to 0.010% maker and 0.000% to 0.040% taker, and BTCUSDT carries a special rate of 0.000% maker and 0.020% taker.
On the $1,000 taker order above that is $0.50 against $8.00, and on the $10,000 monthly example it is $60 a year against $720.
Withdrawals lean the same way on most networks: 0.094 USDT on Ethereum against 0.6425, 0.18 on Solana against 1.0551, and 0.0065 on Polygon against 1, with Tron level at 1 USDT on both.
The one route where Kraken is cheaper is Bitcoin itself, at 0.000015 BTC against MEXC's 0.00002 BTC.
We run MEXC Learn, so read this section as the view of an interested party.
Our position is that Kraken's schedule is clear and complete on the trading-fee layer, and that its problem is the layer most guides leave out: the entry tier a small trader actually pays, and the spread the app never itemises.
We also want to be clear about where Kraken wins.
MEXC does not offer bank withdrawal rails of this kind: free ACH withdrawals in the US, €1 SEPA withdrawals and near-instant Faster Payments in the UK have no MEXC equivalent.
Kraken's assets-on-platform path means a holder can reach Tier 3 without trading, and its Bitcoin withdrawal fee is lower than ours.
For automated traders, MEXC's API futures schedule of 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker, in force since 1 June 2026, is higher than Kraken's Tier 1 futures rate of 0.02% and 0.05%, so an API strategy priced on that schedule can cost more with us than on Kraken.
What we ask you to compare is the fee you will actually pay at your size, on the interface you will actually use, which is why every number on this page carries a date and a source, as set out in how we verify exchange data.
Kraken makes sense for residents of the US, UK, EEA, Canada and Australia who want a licensed venue with bank rails, for anyone holding $20,000 or more on the platform who can take Tier 3 pricing without trading, and for US clients who want stocks and crypto in one account.
It makes less sense for a small trader placing market orders in the app or at Tier 1 on Kraken Pro, where 1% plus spread or 0.80% is the effective rate.
Outside the US, UK and EEA, a cost-sensitive taker pays less on MEXC at every Kraken tier up to Pro 4, and the same 0.05% at Pro 5.
Where you live decides the answer before any fee does.
Kraken serves clients in the United States outside Maine and New York, the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area under its Irish MiCA licence, Canada and Australia, and lists Japan among the regions it does not serve, per its licensing page updated 17 August 2026.
MEXC is not available to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom or the EEA, it appears on ESMA's list of non-compliant entities, and it is offboarding Netherlands customers by 31 October 2026 with final offboarding on 16 November 2026.
Japan is a special case: Kraken does not serve Japanese residents, while MEXC's apps are not available in Japanese app stores and MEXC appears on the Financial Services Agency's list of unregistered operators, so we do not recommend that residents of Japan open an MEXC account.
What are Kraken's spot trading fees?
Kraken Pro charges 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker at Tier 1, falling to 0.00% maker and 0.05% taker at Pro 5.
The Kraken app charges a flat 1% plus a spread on instant trades.
Is Kraken Pro cheaper than the Kraken app?
Yes, on published fees: a $1,000 limit order costs $4.00 at Tier 1 on Kraken Pro against $10.00 plus spread in the app.
Kraken+ removes the app's 1% fee on up to $10,000 a month but not the spread.
What is Kraken's Bitcoin withdrawal fee?
Kraken charges 0.000015 BTC with a minimum withdrawal of 0.000218 BTC including the fee, per its withdrawal fee page captured 9 September 2026.
Older guides quoting 0.0002 or 0.0005 BTC describe a previous schedule.
What is Kraken's USDT withdrawal fee?
It depends on the network: 0.6425 USDT on Ethereum, 1 USDT on Tron, Polygon and Arbitrum One, and 1.0551 USDT on Solana.
The Tron minimum is 6 USDT including the fee.
How can I lower my Kraken fees?
Use limit orders on Kraken Pro rather than the app, and note that since 9 July 2026 a $20,000 balance on Kraken qualifies you for Tier 3 rates without trading.
Instant Buy volume never counts toward a tier.
Is Kraken+ worth it?
Kraken+ costs $4.99 a month and waives the 1% app fee on up to $10,000 of monthly volume, so it pays for itself above roughly $500 of app trades a month.
It does not remove the spread and does not apply to Kraken Pro.
What are Kraken's futures fees?
Kraken Pro futures charge 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker at Tier 1 and fall to a 0.006% maker rebate and 0.0125% taker at Pro 5.
The Kraken app's Perps charge 0.25% to open and 0.25% to close.
Does Kraken charge a spread?
Yes, Instant Buy, custom and recurring purchases include a spread in the quoted price, and Kraken states that its size varies and that Kraken may retain any excess.
Kraken Pro order-book trades do not include this spread.
How do Kraken's fees compare with MEXC's?
At the entry tier Kraken Pro charges 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker against MEXC's 0.0000% and 0.0500%, so a $1,000 taker order costs $8.00 against $0.50.
MEXC is not available in the US, UK or EEA.
This article was written by MEXC Learn, part of MEXC, which competes with Kraken for customers outside the regions listed above.
Fees, tiers and availability change without notice, and every figure here was verified on the date shown and may have moved since.
Nothing on this page is investment, legal or tax advice, and margin and derivatives products can produce losses larger than your initial outlay.
MEXC is not available to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area.
If you trade outside those regions and want to check the numbers yourself, MEXC's fee page opens without an account.