How Prop Firms Make Money

A prop firm's first and largest revenue line is the evaluation fee, and it arrives before the firm owes you anything. You pay, you trade a simulated account, and the firm's money is not at risk. At $100K the list price across 26 firms in our dataset runs from $74 to $3,495 with a median of $489 as of 13 September 2026. 2 firms in our dataset disclose what share of those fees ever reaches a funded account. Topstep reported that 16.8 percent of Combines passed in 2025 ^[1]. Tradeify reported that 17.2 percent of evaluations completed successfully between August 2025 and July 2026 ^[2]. Both figures are self-reported and unaudited.

A worked illustration

This is an illustration, not a model of any named firm. Assume a firm sells 1,000 one-time evaluations at $489, the dataset median at $100K. Fee income is $489,000. Assume one evaluation equals one participant. That is false in practice, since Topstep's participant pass rate of 51.8 percent is three times its per-Combine rate because people retry ^[1], and the assumption makes the funded count conservative. Apply the two disclosed pass rates: 168 evaluations pass at Topstep's 16.8 percent and 172 at Tradeify's 17.2 percent. Apply the two disclosed paid-trader shares: 33.3 percent of Topstep's funded participants received a payout and 28.5 percent of Tradeify's ^[1][2], giving 56 and 49 paid traders. Assume each paid trader receives a single payout of $3,000, chosen because it is the first-payout cap Blue Guardian applies to its Futures Standard programme and the per-cycle cap at Elite Trader Funding; no firm discloses an average payout. Payouts total $168,000 on Topstep's rates and $147,000 on Tradeify's, or 34 and 30 percent of fee income. Fees minus payouts leave $321,000 and $342,000 before any cost.

Now apply the promotions. 12 of 30 firms in our dataset showed a promo price as of 13 September 2026, and the promo averaged 50 percent of list. At a 50 percent realised fee, income falls to $244,500 while payouts do not move, and the margin before costs falls to $76,500 and $97,500. The illustration excludes platform licences, data, staff, marketing, affiliate commissions, payment processing, refunds, hedging costs and every second payout to a trader who keeps winning. It assumes the firm carries funded trades itself rather than hedging them, so each payout is firm cash. Most firms do not disclose which they do, and the trade-off between carrying that risk and paying to hedge it is a live debate in the industry ^[3].

Resets and re-entries

The second line is the second attempt. Topstep charges $99 to reset a Combine, on top of $99 per month for the $100K Combine itself. Our dataset holds no reset fee for Apex; its Standard evaluation at $100K is a one-time $399 list price, $39.90 on promo, so a second attempt is a second purchase at the same price. Either way the fee is paid again and the pass rate applies again. At the disclosed rates, roughly 5 in 6 evaluations end in a fee with no funded account, and a share of those buyers come back.

Splits on the minority

Payouts are the firm's largest cost, and they fall on a minority. 33.3 percent of Topstep's funded participants received a payout in 2025 ^[1]. 28.5 percent of Tradeify's did between August 2025 and July 2026 ^[2]. As of 13 September 2026 the profit-split floor was 80 percent at most of the 30 firms in our dataset and Apex paid 100 percent flat; as of 5 November 2026, 15 of 36 firms advertise up to 100 percent on at least one programme. The split only applies to profit a funded trader withdraws, and at the two firms that disclose, roughly 2 in 3 funded traders never reach that point.

Brokerage and spread income

Firms that own a broker earn on the trade itself, not only on the fee. FTMO bought OANDA from CVC, announced 3 February 2025 and closed 1 December 2025, and runs it as a standalone business ^[4][5]. FTMO's 2025 filings showed CZK 8.79 billion, about $422 million, paid for it, and FTMO's parent OHM reported 2025 consolidated revenue of CZK 8.9 billion, up 30 percent ^[6]. That is the only audited revenue figure in the industry. No authoritative count of firms or of total industry revenue exists. Topstep Brokerage, a CFTC-registered introducing broker clearing through Plus500, opened a waitlist on 27 January 2026 ^[7]. Tradeify's Slay Markets, clearing through NinjaTrader, launched on 19 May 2026 ^[8]. Each gives its owner a line of business on live accounts that sits outside the evaluation fee.

Add-ons

The fourth line is everything sold after the fee. Funded Trading Plus made its 90 percent split a paid add-on on 6 September 2026 per our changelog, and markets scaling to $5,000,000 as a paid add-on. Funded Futures Network charges a $120 activation fee after passing plus $126 per month for data once funded. Earn2Trade deducts a $139 activation fee from the first withdrawal. Topstep charges $149 to activate Express Funded. Take Profit Trader added a PRO activation fee and IQ Capital disclosed a monthly funded fee, both recorded on 6 September 2026. Each is income from a trader who has already passed, which is the point: it moves revenue from the roughly 83 percent who fail to the 17 percent who succeed.

Why the model is fragile

Fee income is front-loaded and payout obligations are back-loaded. A firm that grows fast collects fees today and owes payouts in the months to come, and if funded traders win together, the cash has to be there. The Funded Trader paused operations on 28 March 2024. Finance Magnates reported just over $2 million in blocked withdrawals in January and February 2024 against $17 million paid, and in August 2024 the firm said it had paid 30 percent of owed payouts ^[9][10]. Finance Magnates Intelligence counted 80 to 100 prop firm closures in 2024 ^[11]. Fees stop before payouts do.

Our view

Our view: the evaluation fee is the business, and everything else is a hedge against the fee running out. Two disclosed funnels put the pass rate near 17 percent and the paid-trader share near a third of the funded minority, which means most fee revenue never meets a payout. That is a sound business at scale and a fragile one in a downturn. Firms that own a broker have bought a second income line. Firms that sell add-ons to funded traders have shifted income onto the people who cost them money. Neither tells you whether your payout will arrive. Read the funnel where it exists, price the fee as the cost of one attempt, and treat any firm that discloses less than Topstep and Tradeify as having chosen not to.

What this means for you

Your fee is revenue on the day you pay it. Price it as the cost of one attempt at the disclosed rates, not as a deposit you expect to recover.

The add-ons arrive after you pass. Read the funded-stage fees, the activation charges and the split ladder before you buy, because that is where a firm's income from a successful trader sits.

A firm with a broker, an audited parent or a published funnel has told you something about how it earns. A firm with none of these has told you nothing, and you should price the fee accordingly.

Data note

Figures marked "our dataset" come from the PropTraderCheck structured dataset, and each carries its own date. Figures as of 13 September 2026 come from that snapshot: 30 firms with structured programme data (of 37 tracked), 159 programme rows, 48 programmes. Figures as of 5 November 2026 come from that snapshot: 36 firms with structured programme data, 916 programme rows. Regulatory positions are stated as of the date given and change.