Topstep review: Trading Combine prices, rules and payouts

Overview

Topstep is a futures prop firm: Topstep Trader launched in 2012, and its terms of use give an address in Chicago, United States. Its only evaluation is the Trading Combine (50K, 100K or 150K), run by TopstepTrader, LLC; passing it earns an Express Funded Account (XFA). You trade CME Group futures, not forex, on TopstepX or on Quantower through TopstepX. Topstep says 16.8% of the Combines started in 2025 were passed. Facts were checked on Topstep’s official pages on 7 October 2026.

Programs and prices

The Trading Combine is a monthly subscription, rebilled every 30 days until you pass or cancel, with no time limit. There are two pricing paths, fixed at purchase:

• Standard Path: $49, $99 or $199 a month (50K, 100K, 150K), plus a $149 activation fee for each XFA you earn.
• No Activation Fee Path: $95, $149 or $229 a month, with no fee when you pass.

Fees are not refundable. The one exception: first-time buyers who have not passed can get up to one monthly renewal payment back within 14 days.

Rules

• Profit target: $3,000, $6,000 or $9,000 (6% of each size). If your most profitable day exceeds 55% of the profit target, the target increases (a consistency rule); you can pass in as few as 2 days.
• Maximum Loss Limit: $2,000 (50K), $3,000 (100K) or $4,500 (150K), as an end-of-day trailing drawdown that rises with your end-of-day balance, never moves down and locks at the starting balance. Open losses count in real time.
• Daily loss limit: optional ($1,000, $2,000 or $3,000); hitting it ends trading for the session but is not a rule violation.
• News: allowed, but trading your maximum position size into a major news event is prohibited.
• Overnight and weekends: not allowed; all positions must be closed by 3:10 PM CT every weekday.
• Automation: via TopstepX API Access, billed separately at $29 a month.

Payouts

Traders keep 90% of profits. Payouts depend on trading days, not dates: the XFA Standard option needs 5 winning days of $150 or more in net profit, and XFA Consistency needs 3 trading days with no day above 40% of net profit. Each request can be up to 50% of the balance, within a cap set by account size. The minimum payout is $125.

Countries

Topstep’s eligibility article (dated 4 September 2026) lists 32 countries whose citizens cannot trade or receive payouts; permanent residency also counts. It includes Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Venezuela, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Turkey. Traders from some other countries, such as Ghana and Kuwait, can earn XFAs and up to $200,000 in total payouts but cannot get a Live Funded Account.

Before you buy a challenge

• Check both country lists against your citizenship and residency.
• Compare the two pricing paths over the months you expect to need.
• Make sure you can be flat by 3:10 PM CT every weekday.

We have not tested this company with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.