What Is a Maker vs Taker Fee?

Every trade executed on a centralised exchange incurs a fee. For most retail investors, this fee appears as a single percentage deducted from each transaction and is accepted without much thought. For active traders, where fees accumulate across dozens or hundreds of trades per month, understanding exactly how fees are structured and how to minimise them is a meaningful component of overall trading performance.

The maker-taker fee model is the dominant fee structure across major cryptocurrency exchanges globally. It distinguishes between two types of market participants based on whether their orders add liquidity to the order book or remove it. Makers add liquidity. Takers remove it. The distinction is not arbitrary: it reflects a deliberate exchange policy of incentivising the behaviour that makes markets more efficient and penalising the behaviour that consumes existing liquidity.

What a Maker Is

A maker is any trader whose order is placed into the order book and waits to be filled at a future time, rather than executing immediately against an existing order. Maker orders add liquidity to the market by posting a new buy or sell order at a specified price that other traders can trade against.

The most common maker order type is a limit order. As covered in our order types explained resource, a limit order specifies the exact price at which the trader is willing to buy or sell. A limit buy order placed below the current market price sits in the bid side of the order book waiting for the price to fall to that level. A limit sell order placed above the current market price sits in the ask side waiting for the price to rise. Neither order executes immediately because there is no existing counterpart order at that price: they wait in the book and make liquidity available for future takers.

The term “maker” comes from market making: the practice of continuously quoting buy and sell prices to provide liquidity to other market participants. Professional market makers on major exchanges earn the maker fee discount as compensation for the inventory risk they take by posting quotes that others can trade against. Retail traders using limit orders benefit from the same fee incentive even though they are not professional market makers.

What a Taker Is

A taker is any trader whose order executes immediately against an existing order already sitting in the order book. Taker orders remove liquidity from the market by consuming existing posted orders.

The most common taker order type is a market order. As covered in our order types explained resource, a market order executes immediately at the best available price in the order book, consuming whatever orders are available at the best bid or ask. Because the market order executes against existing posted orders rather than adding new ones, the trader placing it is a taker: they are taking liquidity that makers have provided.

A limit order can also be a taker order in specific circumstances. If a limit buy order is placed at a price equal to or above the current best ask, it will execute immediately against the existing ask rather than sitting in the order book. Because it executes immediately against an existing order, it is treated as a taker order and incurs the taker fee despite being a limit order in form.

The distinction is about timing and execution mechanics, not order type. An order that adds to the order book and waits is a maker order. An order that executes immediately against the existing book is a taker order.

Why Exchanges Charge Different Fees

Exchanges charge lower fees to makers and higher fees to takers for a straightforward economic reason: liquidity is the most valuable product an exchange provides to its users, and the makers who create that liquidity deserve to be compensated for doing so.

A deep, liquid order book with tight bid-ask spreads and large quantities available at each price level is what makes an exchange attractive to traders. Without makers continuously posting orders, the order book would be empty and trades could not execute. Takers who execute immediately against the book consume the liquidity that makers have created and take on no inventory risk themselves.

By charging lower fees to makers, exchanges incentivise participants to post limit orders rather than market orders, deepening the order book and improving the trading environment for everyone. By charging higher fees to takers who want the convenience of immediate execution, exchanges recover revenue while still encouraging the liquidity provision behaviour that makes the market function.

This is why on most major exchanges the maker fee is meaningfully lower than the taker fee, and why high-volume professional traders who can operate as makers earn significantly better economics than retail traders who predominantly use market orders.

Typical Maker and Taker Fee Structures

Fee structures vary across exchanges and are typically tiered by trading volume: higher 30-day trading volumes earn lower fees on both the maker and taker side. Understanding the fee tiers of the exchanges you use is part of trading cost management.

On major global exchanges like Binance and Kraken, base tier maker fees are typically in the range of 0.08% to 0.16% and taker fees in the range of 0.10% to 0.26%. High-volume traders who reach upper tiers can access maker fees as low as 0.00% to 0.02% and taker fees of 0.04% to 0.05%.

On Australian exchanges including CoinSpot, Swyftx, Independent Reserve, BTCMarkets, and CoinJar, fee structures vary. Some Australian exchanges use a simpler flat fee model rather than a maker-taker structure, particularly for retail-focused products. Where maker-taker structures exist on Australian exchanges, the spreads between maker and taker fees are similar in principle to global exchanges but the absolute fee levels and volume tiers differ by platform.

As covered in our understanding trading fees and best crypto exchanges Australia 2026 resources, comparing fee structures across exchanges is an important part of exchange selection for active traders, as fee differences compound significantly over high trading volumes.

The Fee Impact on Trading Performance

The real-world impact of maker versus taker fees on trading performance depends on trading frequency and position size. For casual investors making occasional purchases, the difference between a 0.10% maker fee and a 0.25% taker fee on a single trade is modest. For active traders executing multiple trades per day, the compounding effect of consistently paying taker fees rather than maker fees is significant.

Consider a trader executing $100,000 AUD in monthly trading volume. At a taker fee of 0.20%, monthly fees total $200 AUD. At a maker fee of 0.08%, monthly fees total $80 AUD. The difference is $120 AUD per month, $1,440 AUD per year, simply from using limit orders rather than market orders where the trading strategy allows it.

At higher volumes the impact is proportionally larger. A trader executing $1,000,000 AUD monthly pays $2,000 AUD per month in taker fees at 0.20% versus $800 AUD per month in maker fees at 0.08%: a difference of $14,400 AUD per year. This is the reason that fee optimisation through maker order usage is standard practice among professional and semi-professional traders.

The total cost of trading also includes the bid-ask spread as covered in our order book crypto explained resource and slippage from price impact on larger orders. Market orders incur both the taker fee and the spread cost simultaneously, making them more expensive than limit orders across both dimensions. Limit orders placed within the spread can actually earn the spread rather than paying it, further improving economics for disciplined limit order users.

Maker-Taker Fees in Perpetual Futures Trading

The maker-taker fee structure applies to perpetual futures and futures trading in the same way it applies to spot trading, with some additional considerations specific to derivatives markets.

On derivatives markets, maker and taker fees are typically lower than on spot markets because derivatives trading volume is extremely high and exchanges compete aggressively for that volume. On major derivatives exchanges, maker fees can be zero or even negative: some exchanges pay a rebate to makers for providing liquidity to the derivatives order book. Negative maker fees mean the exchange pays you a small amount for each maker order that is filled.

For active perpetual futures traders, the combination of maker fee rebates and avoided taker fees makes consistent use of limit orders instead of market orders a meaningful positive contribution to trading economics. A trader running a strategy with 0.02% maker rebates instead of paying 0.05% taker fees saves 0.07% per trade, which across high derivatives volume accumulates into significant AUD amounts over time.

The funding rate, as covered in our perpetual futures trading explained resource, is a separate cost or income stream for derivatives positions that interacts with but is distinct from maker and taker fees. Managing both components of derivatives trading costs, the fee structure and the funding rate, is part of the economics of active derivatives trading.

Fee Discounts and Native Exchange Tokens

Many major exchanges offer fee discounts to traders who hold and use the exchange’s native token to pay trading fees. Binance offers discounts for paying fees in BNB. Other exchanges have similar programs. These discounts apply on top of the base maker-taker fee structure and can further reduce trading costs for high-volume traders who are comfortable holding the exchange’s native token.

However, holding an exchange’s native token introduces exposure to that token’s price performance and to the exchange’s operational risk as covered in our risks of keeping crypto on an exchange resource. Evaluating whether the fee discount justifies the additional exposure is a decision individual traders should make based on their specific situation and the exchange’s reputation and regulatory status.

Volume-based VIP tiers are another fee reduction mechanism available on major exchanges. Traders who reach defined 30-day volume thresholds qualify for reduced maker and taker fees across all their trading activity. For traders approaching tier thresholds, the per-trade economics of crossing a tier can justify timing larger trades to qualify for the lower fee tier.

Practical Strategies for Minimising Fees

Several practical approaches reduce trading costs through better use of the maker-taker fee structure.

Default to limit orders where the trading strategy allows. For trades where immediate execution is not essential, placing a limit order at or near the current best bid or ask rather than a market order earns the maker fee rate and avoids the spread cost simultaneously. The tradeoff is potential non-execution if the price moves away from the limit before the order fills, which is acceptable for many trading strategies.

Understand when market orders are justified. Market orders are appropriate when immediate execution is more important than fee optimisation: entering a position during a fast-moving breakout, cutting a losing position quickly to limit further losses, or any situation where price certainty matters more than fee savings. Identifying these specific use cases rather than defaulting to market orders out of habit is the disciplined approach.

Monitor volume tiers and progress toward the next tier. Most exchange interfaces display your 30-day trading volume and your current fee tier. Being aware of how close you are to the next lower-fee tier allows informed decisions about whether to consolidate trading to a single exchange to reach a better tier rather than splitting volume across multiple platforms.

Compare exchange fee structures for your specific volume. As covered in our best crypto exchanges Australia 2026 resource, different exchanges offer better economics at different volume levels. An exchange with slightly higher base fees but aggressive high-volume tiers may offer better total economics for a high-volume trader than an exchange with lower base fees and minimal tier discounts.

Account for fees in trade planning. Including the round-trip fee cost, entry fee plus exit fee, as a hurdle rate in trade planning ensures that a trade’s expected return exceeds its guaranteed cost before it is entered. A trade expected to generate a 0.3% return with a 0.4% round-trip fee cost is a negative expectation trade regardless of how attractive the setup appears.

Fees on Decentralised Exchanges

On decentralised exchanges using automated market maker models, the maker-taker distinction does not apply in the same way. All traders pay a swap fee that goes to liquidity providers rather than to the exchange itself. As covered in our automated market maker explained resource, there is no order book and no distinction between orders that add or remove liquidity: all traders are effectively takers against the pool’s liquidity.

DEX trading additionally incurs gas fees for the blockchain transaction required to execute the swap. On Ethereum mainnet during periods of high network activity, gas fees can exceed the swap fee itself for smaller trades. Layer 2 network deployments of the same DEX protocols reduce gas costs significantly, making smaller DEX trades more economical.

For traders who primarily use DEXs for DeFi interactions, the relevant fee considerations are the swap fee percentage, the gas fee at the time of the transaction, and the slippage from price impact on the specific pool’s liquidity depth.

Key Takeaways

The maker-taker fee model charges lower fees to traders whose orders add liquidity to the order book and higher fees to traders whose orders immediately consume existing liquidity. Makers use limit orders that sit in the order book waiting to be filled. Takers use market orders or limit orders that execute immediately against existing orders. Exchanges incentivise maker behaviour because liquidity provision is what makes the market function efficiently for all participants.

For active traders, consistently using maker limit orders rather than taker market orders where the strategy allows reduces fee costs meaningfully, particularly at higher trading volumes. Fee differences compound significantly across monthly trading volume and represent a genuine edge that disciplined traders capture through order type discipline rather than market prediction. Volume tiers, native token discounts, and exchange selection based on fee structure are additional tools for fee optimisation.

For everyday investors who want to understand how exchange fees work and how to trade more cost-efficiently across Australian and global exchanges, our Runite Tier Membership provides the education and practical frameworks to develop that discipline. For serious traders who want personalised guidance on fee optimisation, exchange selection, and integrating cost management into a professional trading framework, our Black Emerald and Obsidian Tier Members receive direct specialist support. Find out more at shepleycapital.com/membership.