> About this guide: I'm Lawrence, the writer behind supa.is. Between February and May 2026 I've published 42 OKX-specific guides on supa.is (recent examples: OKX VIP tier futures fee changes April 2026, OKX convert vs spot trading which saves more fees, OKX withdrawal cheapest network). The single most-repeated reader question I get across that archive — based on which of the OKX guide titles get the most reader follow-up questions — is exactly the maker-vs-taker fee question this article answers. I'm treating this guide as my standardized, footnoted answer to that question, so I can link readers here once instead of re-explaining each time.
What "maker" and "taker" actually mean
The terms come from order-book mechanics, not from any subjective notion of trader skill. OKX's Trading Fee Rules FAQ states it cleanly: "A maker order happens when you place an order that goes on the order book with a set price and quantity, such as a limit order that sits on the book until matched. A taker order occurs when you place a trade that is immediately filled against an order already on the order book." (OKX Trading Fee Rules FAQ, as of 2026-05)
The distinction is purely operational:
- A maker posts liquidity. Their order rests on the book waiting for a counterparty.
- A taker consumes liquidity. Their order matches something already there and fills immediately.
OKX's default rates at Lv 1
When you finish KYC and start trading, you are placed in the regular-user tier called Lv 1. As of May 2026, OKX's published Lv 1 rates are:
| Product | Maker fee | Taker fee |
|---|---|---|
| Spot | 0.080% | 0.100% |
| Perpetual swaps | 0.020% | 0.050% |
| Futures (delivery) | 0.020% | 0.050% |
Two observations that matter for new accounts:
1. Spot fees are roughly 4–5× perpetual fees at the same tier. On a $10,000 purchase taken at market on spot, you pay around $10 in fees; the equivalent notional opened as a perp position costs ~$5 per side. This is one of the structural reasons power users route as much directional exposure as they can through perps, even when they would be philosophically content with spot.
2. The maker–taker gap is wider in proportional terms on perps. Spot's maker is 80% of taker; perp's maker is only 40% of taker. If you can patiently work limit orders on perps, the relative discount is steeper than on spot.Why the "tiny" rate compounds
Beginners often look at "0.10%" and decide it is rounding error. It is not, for two reasons.
The fee is round-trip. Every position has an entry and an exit. A spot trade taken at the taker rate on both sides costs 0.20% before any market move. To break even, the price has to move 0.20% in your favor — and that is on a single trade with zero slippage. Volume amplifies it. A trader running ten round trips a day at 0.20% per round trip is paying 2% of capital in fees daily, before P&L. Over twenty trading days that is roughly 40% of capital just to participate. Even with small position sizing, the *fee share of expected edge* dominates everything once the average move per trade is in the 0.5%–1% range — a typical zone for short-term technical setups.The implication: for any beginner who expects to trade more than once or twice a week, getting onto the maker side of every avoidable trade is not a nice-to-have. It is the difference between a strategy that prints on paper and one that prints after fees.
Two ways to lower your rate beyond Lv 1
OKX's documentation describes two parallel ladders (OKX fees, as of 2026-05):
1. Volume-based VIP tiers (VIP 1–8). Climbing this ladder requires a 30-day rolling trading volume. The first jump from Lv 1 to VIP 1 typically requires several million USD of monthly notional volume — well above anything a retail beginner accumulates in a year, so it is not a near-term lever. As you reach higher VIP tiers, both maker and taker fees decline; the very top tiers see negative maker fees on certain products, meaning the exchange pays them to provide liquidity. 2. OKB-based regular-user tiers (Lv 2–Lv 5). Holding the OKB platform token can move you up within the regular-user track without any 30-day volume requirement. Each level corresponds to a minimum OKB balance and a small but compounding discount. For most beginners, this is a more realistic lever — but only if you would have held OKB anyway. Buying OKB purely for the fee discount is rarely worth it once you account for OKB's own price volatility.OKX has also been adjusting the framework over time. The April 2026 round of changes to VIP tiering and futures fees is dissected in our breakdown of the OKX VIP tier and futures fee changes — read that piece if you are deciding whether to grind volume now or wait.
The real beginner mistake: turning limit orders into taker orders
Here is where most new OKX users lose the maker discount without realising it.
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Sign up on OKX →A common mental model goes: "Limit order equals maker; market order equals taker." That is half right. The actual rule on OKX, consistent with the FAQ definition above, is:
- An order is a maker order only if it rests on the book before being matched.
- If a limit order is "marketable" — that is, it crosses the spread the moment you submit it — it executes immediately against a resting opposite-side order and becomes a taker order, even though you used the limit-order ticket.
1. Aggressive limit price. You want to buy and you type a limit price equal to or above the current best ask. Your "limit buy" instantly hits the ask. Taker fee.
2. Fast market. You set a limit buy slightly below the ask, but the price ticks up before the order arrives at the matching engine. The order is now marketable on arrival. Taker fee. 3. Stop-loss as market. Stop-loss orders, once triggered, become market orders by default. Taker fee. 4. Take-profit as market. Same logic. Taker fee. 5. IOC or FOK time-in-force. Immediate-Or-Cancel and Fill-Or-Kill orders are explicitly designed to take liquidity. Taker fee.To genuinely capture the maker rate, the post-only flag is the relevant tool. Marking an order post-only tells the exchange to reject the order entirely if it would execute on placement, rather than letting it cross as a taker. The cost is that some orders get rejected and you have to re-submit. The benefit is that every order that *does* fill is guaranteed to be a maker.
Funding rates are not maker/taker fees — but you should know them
When you trade perpetual swaps, there is a third cost that does not appear on the maker/taker schedule: the funding rate. Funding is a periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps the perp price tethered to spot. OKX explains the mechanism in detail on its perpetual futures learn page, and you can preview the live rate of any contract on its trading page.
Two things to keep straight:
- Funding is paid between traders, not to the exchange.
- Funding is paid on open positions at funding settlement. If you close before the settlement timestamp, you do not pay funding for that period.
Spot, margin, perp, and Convert: which fee schedule applies
OKX has multiple trading products and they do not all share the same fee table.
| Product | Fee model |
|---|---|
| Spot | Maker/taker schedule above |
| Margin (cross/isolated) | Same maker/taker as spot, plus borrow interest on the borrowed asset |
| Perpetual swaps | Lower maker/taker schedule, plus funding |
| Delivery futures | Same as perps for fees, no funding (basis cost into expiry instead) |
| Convert | A spread-baked-in quote, no separately quoted maker/taker |
How OKX compares to other major exchanges at the entry tier
A reality check: 0.10% taker is the default on OKX, but it is also approximately the global default for big centralized exchanges. The differences at the lowest tiers are smaller than newcomers expect. We did the side-by-side in OKX vs Binance vs Coinbase fee comparison, but the headline is:
- OKX Lv 1: 0.080% maker / 0.100% taker on spot.
- Binance lowest tier: similar headline rates on spot, with native-token-paid discounts available.
- Coinbase Advanced lowest tier: maker and taker rates that are higher than both at the entry level.
A practical fee-minimisation checklist for OKX beginners
You do not need a complex setup to stop bleeding fees. The bulk of the savings comes from three habits.
Use post-only when you have time. If your trading idea has a window of minutes or hours rather than seconds, set the limit price one tick inside the spread and flag the order post-only. Worst case, the order does not fill and you re-submit. Best case, you captured the maker discount on every fill for free. Plan exits in advance. Stop-loss orders that fire as market orders during a fast move pay taker fees on top of slippage. If volatility allows, use stop-limit orders with a controlled limit offset, accepting that occasionally the stop will not fill if price gaps through the limit. The trade-off is yours to make, but be aware that every stop triggered as market is a taker order. Concentrate volume, don't fragment it. A round trip done in five small chunks of 20% size each is typically five separate fee events, even on a single venue. Sometimes that is necessary for execution quality, but if it is just nervous over-management, it is a direct fee tax on your account.If you want a step-by-step walkthrough of opening an OKX account and getting to your first fee event, our OKX complete beginner guide covers registration, KYC, deposits, and the first trade in order.
Common questions
"Are OKX maker fees ever zero?" At very high VIP tiers on certain products, the maker fee can be zero or even negative (a rebate). This is not relevant for retail beginners. For Lv 1, both maker and taker are positive. "Does OKX charge fees on cancelled orders?" No. Only fills generate trading fees. Posting and cancelling a limit order — even many of them in sequence — costs nothing on the fee schedule. (There are anti-abuse limits on order rate, but no per-cancel charge.) "What about deposit and withdrawal fees?" Deposits are free; withdrawals carry a per-asset network fee that varies by chain. Fee minimisation on withdrawals is its own topic — fundamentally about choosing the cheapest network the receiving venue accepts. "Are listed fees the same in every region?" Mostly yes for retail at Lv 1, with minor regional adjustments and an EEA-specific framework. The OKX fee page automatically shows the schedule for the region you are accessing from. Always read the page after logging in to make sure you see the rates that will apply to *your* account. "Do I have to choose maker or taker when I place an order?" No. The classification happens automatically based on whether your order rests on the book or executes on arrival. The only direct user lever for guaranteeing maker classification is the post-only flag.Closing: cost is a habit, not a feature
The maker/taker spread is a tax on impatience. A beginner who places limits one tick inside the spread, marks them post-only, and waits the few extra seconds for a passive fill will quietly outperform the same beginner placing market orders — even before any improvement in trade selection. On OKX's Lv 1 schedule, the discount is 0.020 percentage points on spot and 0.030 on perps every time you avoid the taker side. Multiply by the round trips in a typical month and the saving funds a non-trivial slice of additional capital to trade with.
If you have not opened an OKX account yet, Sign up on OKX and the new-user setup will land you on the Lv 1 default schedule above. Bookmark the OKX fee page and re-check it whenever you take a longer break — the framework changes a few times a year, as the April 2026 update showed, and the cheapest order on Monday is not always the cheapest order in six months.
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Affiliate Disclosure & Risk Warning
This article includes an affiliate referral link to OKX. If you sign up through the link in this article, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. The fees, formulas, and account-tier information above are based on OKX's published fee schedule (linked in the article). Verify against your own account before trading.
Risk warning: Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk, including market volatility, leverage risk, regulatory risk, and platform risk. Only trade with funds you can afford to lose, and consult a qualified financial advisor in your jurisdiction before making investment decisions.