Topstep Review 2026: The OG Prop Firm That Invented This Whole Game

What Is TopStep, Really?

Topstep isn’t just another prop firm. They’re the prop firm. Founded in 2012 in Chicago (where else would a futures trading company start?), these guys came straight out of the CBOT trading pits and created the entire “funded trader evaluation” business model that literally every other prop firm copied.

Topstep sits firmly in “industry leader” territory. They’re not always the cheapest (yet, often they are), not the most lenient, but they’re the most established futures prop firm with the best educational ecosystem. If you’re serious about futures trading as a career, this is where you start.

Think about that. Before Topstep, your options for trading futures were:

1. Risk your own capital
2. Work for an actual prop trading firm (good luck getting hired)
3. That’s it

Topstep changed the game by saying “prove you can trade consistently in a sim, and we’ll give you real capital.” It was revolutionary then, and it’s still the gold standard now.

The company has evolved significantly since 2012. They rebranded from “TopstepTrader” to just “Topstep” in 2020, modernized their platform, and in 2023 dropped the bombshell: switching from a 2-step evaluation to a 1-step model. The prop firm community went absolutely insane, TopStep had to pause new signups for two weeks because demand was so high.

In 2024, they launched TopstepX, a trading platform based on the ProjectX tech stack. While ProjectX was the baseline for some other prop firms too, in late 2025 TopstepX acquired the entire ProjectX technology and now uses this platform as their only platform (no competitor is using it anymore).

Today, Topstep has funded over thousands of traders and paid out millions in profits. They’re based in Chicago, and get 673,000 Google searches per month. This isn’t some garage operation, this is institutional-level legitimacy.

Yet, with all the recent changes, you can see a sentiment shift on Trustpilot reviews. The average score went from 4.5 in February 2025, to now currently 3.4. While Trustpilot on its own is not necessarely an distinguesed factor, it still shows that the community is not entirely happy with anything. A lot of rule changes, platform shifts, and pricing updates may have counted towards to the increasingly bad reviews.

The Trading Combine: Your Evaluation (Now Just One Step)

Many prop firms still make you jump through two evaluation hoops. Topstep said “screw that” and condensed it into a single Trading Combine. Here’s how it works.

The Three Account Sizes

You pick your starting capital level, and that determines your monthly cost, profit target, and loss limits:

Please note, the above prices are only valid for challenges that end up in a one-time activation fee, once funded. That means if you do one of those lower-cost challenges, you pay an $149 activation fee once you completed the 1-step challenge.

If you want to avoid the one-time activation fee of $149, you can do that by chosing the higher-priced challenges, which have the same rules, but the different pricing and $0 activation fee:

• $50 Trading Combine: $109
• $100 Trading Combine: $159
• $150 Trading Combine: $209

The Rules (Simple, But Strict)

Topstep made their evaluation deliberately simple. There’s really only one hard rule that’ll kill your account instantly:

Don’t exceed the Maximum Loss Limit (MLL)

That’s it. Blow past your max loss, and you’re done. No appeals, no “but I was about to recover!” excuses. You fail.

But here’s what makes Topstep different from most firms: the MLL is calculated at end of day, not intraday.

What does this mean in practice? If you’re trading the $50K account with a $2,000 max loss, you can be down $1,800 intraday and fight your way back to positive before 4 PM CT. With firms that use “intraday trailing drawdown” or “high-water mark” rules, you’d be instantly liquidated at $2,000 down, game over, no recovery possible.

This end-of-day calculation gives you breathing room. It respects the fact that futures can move violently intraday, and good traders can manage their way out of tough positions. It’s a more realistic simulation of professional trading.

The Objectives (Not Rules, But You Need Them to Pass)

February 5, 2026, Topstep introduced another rule set which now let’s you select to either use the Standard Path to get funded, or the Consistency Path.

In the Standard Path, you need 5 winning days with a profit above $150 to request a payout. The downside, you can only request 50% of the current account balance for payout (up to $5,000). The profit split is 90/10.

The Consistency Path is different. Here, you need to trade at least 3 days, and keep a 40% consistency target in mind. So, one single profit can not be higher than the overall profit in an account. Topstep provides a “Consistency Target Calculator” to help you figure out the math. The point of this rule? They want to see consistent performance, not lottery-ticket trading. One home run doesn’t make you a professional trader, repeatability does. The downside is similar to the Standard Path, you can only request 50% of the current account balance for payout, but at least up to $6,000. The profit split is 90/10.

Position Sizing: The Scaling Plan & Dynamic Live Risk Expansion

Scaling Plans for Express Funded Accounts

The Scaling Plan controls how many contracts you’re allowed to trade based on your account balance at the end of each day.

Think of it like a dial that goes up or down overnight. If your balance grows, you unlock more contracts tomorrow. If it drops, you step back down. It never changes mid-session though, so whatever your limit is at the open, that’s what you’re working with all day.

It only applies to the Express Funded Account now. Topstep replaced it with the Dynamic Live Risk Expansion system for Live Funded Accounts back in July 2025.

A few practical things to know:

• Check your Trade Report after 5 PM CT each day to see what your limit is for the next session
• On TopstepX, micros and minis use a 10:1 ratio (so 2 lots = 20 MES, for example). On NinjaTrader or Tradovate, each micro counts as 1 lot
• If you accidentally exceed your limit, you have 10 seconds to fix it before it becomes a violation
• Most platforms will reject oversized orders automatically, but it’s not guaranteed, so don’t rely on that

The whole point is to stop traders from over-leveraging early on. You start small, prove you can manage risk, and the plan opens up more size as your balance grows.

Here is how it looks like per account size:

Account Size	Account Balance	Max Contracts
$50K	Below $1,500	2 Lots
	$1,500 – $2,000	3 Lots
	Above $2,000	5 Lots
$100K	Below $1,500	3 Lots
	$1,500 – $2,000	4 Lots
	$2,000 – $3,000	5 Lots
	Above $3,000	10 Lots
$150K	Below $1,500	3 Lots
	$1,500 – $2,000	4 Lots
	$2,000 – $3,000	5 Lots
	$3,000 – $4,500	10 Lots
	Above $4,500	15 Lots

Dynamic Live Risk Expansion for Live Funded Accounts

On July 22, 2025, and only for Live Funded Accounts, Topstep replaced the old Scaling Plan with their new Dynamic Live Risk Expansion.

Topstep’s Dynamic Live Risk Expansion is basically a scaling system that rewards you for staying profitable in your Live Funded Account. As your net profits grow, you move up tiers, and each tier unlocks a higher Daily Loss Limit and eventually more contracts to trade.

Here’s how it actually works: you start with a default Daily Loss Limit tied to your account size ($2k for a 50K account, $3k for 100K, $4.5k for 150K). Hit enough profit to reach the next tier, stay there for 10 active trading days, and your DLL goes up. The top end is genuinely impressive, with the 150K account potentially reaching a $100k DLL at the $1M profit tier.

A few catches worth knowing. You can’t skip tiers. If your profits dip below a tier before you’ve logged those 10 days, the counter resets when you climb back up. Payouts don’t count toward your tier progression either, only profits sitting in the funded account matter.

The expanded contract sizing piece requires Risk Team approval and is only available once you’re at Tier 4 or higher with at least $100k in your live account. So it’s not automatic.

On the downside, there’s a “Path to Reduction” too. Draw down significantly from your starting balance and the Risk Team starts watching closely, potentially tapping you on the shoulder (literally a pit trading term) to discuss what’s happening.

Due to its high complexity, I consider the risk HIGH, that traders will do something wrong with their position size and risk losing their funded account due to rule breach. How do you think about it?

Trading Hours & Prohibited Activity

You’re trading during standard CME Group hours. Depending on the product, this can mean nearly 24-hour access to markets.

What you cannot do:

• Hold positions overnight (all positions must be closed by end of day)
• Exploit the simulation (slow data feeds, connected accounts, etc.)
• Use scalping algorithms that abuse lack of slippage in the sim
• Copy trades across multiple accounts (hedging between accounts)

Topstep monitors for “prohibited conduct” aggressively. If they catch you gaming the sim, trying to exploit the fact that it’s not a live market, your account gets shut down immediately and you’ll likely be banned. They publish statistics showing less than 1% of traders called up from Express Funded to Live Funded actually make it, partially because they’re removing anyone they suspect of cheating.

After You Pass: The Two-Tier Funded System

This is where Topstep gets interesting. Unlike most firms that just give you “a funded account,” Topstep has a two-stage system: Express Funded → Live Funded.

Express Funded Account (Stage 1)

Pass your Trading Combine, pay a one-time $149 activation fee, and you’re in an Express Funded Account.

The Express Funded Account (XFA) is what you get after passing the Trading Combine. It’s still simulated, but this is where you start taking real payouts.

The one hard rule: Don’t let your balance hit the Maximum Loss Limit. That’s it. No profit target, no consistency requirement (depending on which path you choose).

Two paths to payouts as of February 2026:

	Standard	Consistency
Payout trigger	5 winning days of $150+	3 days traded, 40% consistency
Max payout	$5,000	$6,000
Profit split	90/10	90/10

The Consistency path gets you to a payout faster (3 days vs 5), but there’s a catch. Your biggest single day can’t represent more than 40% of your total profits. So if you smash one huge day on ES and grind small the rest of the time, you won’t qualify.

A few other things worth knowing:

• You can run up to 5 XFAs simultaneously
• No trading for 30+ days and the account gets closed for inactivity
• The Scaling Plan still applies here, controlling your max contracts based on daily balance
• You can mix Standard and Consistency accounts if you want

Honestly the Consistency path is interesting for traders who already trade disciplined size. If you’re the type who has one massive outlier day and then flat trades, Standard probably suits you better.

Live Funded Account (Stage 2)

The Live Funded Account (LFA) is where real money gets involved. After proving yourself in the Express Funded Account, Topstep evaluates you for a call-up to Live. Here’s how it all works.

Account Size

Your LFA size is based on the average balance across all your eligible XFAs (only accounts with at least one payout count). That average rounds up to the nearest tier: $50K, $100K, or $150K.

Starting Balance

You don’t get the full amount on day one. The structure is:

• 20% of your combined XFA profits is available immediately (minimum $10,000)
• The remaining 80% sits in a Reserve

So if you transfer $75K in combined profits, you start with $15K to trade and $60K locked in Reserve.

Unlocking the Reserve

This is the part most traders don’t expect. You unlock Reserve capital in 4 equal chunks by hitting profit targets, which are the same targets from your Trading Combine:

• $50K account: $6,000 profit target (wait, $3K, sorry)
• $100K account: $6,000 profit target
• $150K account: $9,000 profit target

Hit the target, get 25% of your Reserve released. Repeat 4 times until fully unlocked. The Risk Team reviews this every Monday after close, with funds hitting your account by Tuesday.

Daily Loss Limit

Same structure as before: $2K, $3K, or $4.5K depending on account size. Drops to $2K flat if your tradable balance falls below $10K regardless of account tier.

A few important things:

• You can take payouts before unlocking all Reserve capital
• One massive winning trade won’t unlock multiple Reserve tiers at once
• If your starting 20% balance hits zero, the account closes and the remaining Reserve is forfeited
• Any XFA balance above your LFA cap gets forfeited on transfer, it doesn’t carry over

The Shoulder Tap is basically the Risk Team stepping in when your drawdown reaches concerning levels, potentially dropping you back to a simulated account to regroup before returning to Live.

The Profit Split: 90/10, or 50% in Reality?

Topstep advertises a 90/10 profit split, but the full picture is a bit more nuanced than that.

In the Express Funded Account, you can only withdraw up to 50% of your balance per payout request, capped at $5,000 (or $6,000 on the Consistency path). So even if you’ve built up a $20,000 balance, you’re pulling out $5,000 maximum, and Topstep still takes 10% of that. The other 50% stays in the account.

That means the 90/10 split doesn’t apply to your full balance, only to whatever portion you’re actually allowed to withdraw at that moment.

In the Live Funded Account it improves significantly. Once you hit 30 winning days in Live, you can withdraw up to 100% of your balance and keep all of it. But that 50% withdrawal cap with the 90/10 split in the Express stage is something worth understanding before you sign up, because you cannot withdraw the full amount earned from your profit split.

The Trading Platform: TopstepX (only)

Topstep has moved to a single supported platform: TopstepX. If you were using NinjaTrader, Tradovate, or any other third-party platform, that option is going away. The one exception is Quantower users, who can still connect via the ProjectX data feed.

The Educational Ecosystem: TopstepTV and More

This is where Topstep absolutely crushes the competition. No one else comes close.

TopstepTV

Live streaming market coverage 5 days per week, from the London open through overnight close. Professional traders breaking down price action, market analysis, and trading strategies in real-time.

This isn’t generic “buy low sell high” content. These are experienced coaches doing live trade breakdowns, answering community questions, and showing you how they’re reading the market.

The production value is insane for what’s essentially included free with your subscription. Other prop firms give you a Discord and call it “education.” Topstep has an entire TV network.

Free Group Coaching

Topstep offers free group coaching sessions with John Hoagland, running Monday through Thursday from 12-1 PM CT on TopstepX TV. It’s live, so you can get real questions answered in the moment. Send questions in advance to groupcoaching@topstep.com if you have something specific.

Discord Community (167K+ Members)

This is one of the largest active trading communities online. Unlike most prop firm Discords that are ghost towns or full of spam, Topstep’s is genuinely active with helpful traders, coaches, and daily discussions.

You can find accountability partners, ask questions, share charts, and learn from others. The community alone is worth the subscription price for newer traders.

Blog, Market Analysis, and Educational Content

Hundreds of articles covering technical analysis, risk management, trading psychology, and futures-specific strategies. The content is solid, not fluff or generic advice.

The Trustpilot Reality Check: 3.4 Stars from 13,690+ Reviews

Let’s dig into what actual users are saying.

What People Love

Educational resources: Traders constantly praise TopstepTV, the coaching, and the community. “This platform taught me how to actually trade” is a recurring theme.

Clear, simple rules: The one-rule evaluation is appreciated. No hidden gotchas or arbitrary disqualifications. “You know exactly what you need to do.”

Fast payouts: Weekly payout processing with funds hitting accounts in 7-10 business days. Much better than monthly payout firms.

Responsive support: Multiple reviews specifically call out support team members (Sorell, Lori, Coach Hoop, Jenna, Basheer) for going above and beyond. The team seems genuinely helpful.

TopstepX platform: Love it or hate it, many traders appreciate the simplicity and commission-free trading.

Legitimate payouts: Lots of reviews from traders showing proof of withdrawals. “They actually pay you” is apparently notable enough to warrant reviews (sad commentary on the industry).

What People Complain About

Platform issues: TopstepX had some growing pains. Reports of trades not executing, dashboard glitches, and connection problems. Topstep seems to be actively fixing these, most recent reviews (2025) mention improvements.

The consistency rule: Some traders hate the 50% rule. “I made $5K in one day and now I need to make $10K total just to pass? Stupid.” Fair criticism, though I’d argue it’s working as designed.

KYC verification problems: Several reviews mention getting asked for passport verification after already being funded and taking payouts. Some had expired passports and Topstep threatened account closure. This seems like a compliance issue that could be handled more gracefully.

Subscription billing confusion: If you fail your Combine, the subscription continues until you manually cancel. Some traders forgot and got billed for months.

AWS outage voided trades: At least one review mentioned Topstep voiding all trades from a day when AWS had an outage. The trader lost profitable trades because of a server issue. Topstep’s reasoning: the data integrity was compromised. Harsh, but understandable from a risk management perspective.

Migration pressure to TopstepX: Some traders feel pushed to migrate from legacy platforms to TopstepX. The new Scaling Plan rules only apply to TopStepX, giving traders an incentive (or forcing them, depending on your perspective) to switch.

The Scam Allegations (And Why They’re Mostly Noise)

Every prop firm has “SCAM!” reviews. Topstep is no exception. The pattern:

“They voided my $70,000 in profits for relocating countries without warning!”

• Topstep operates under US regulations. If you relocate to a sanctioned country or somewhere they can’t legally operate, they have to freeze your account. It sucks, but it’s not theft, it’s legal compliance.

“My stop loss didn’t execute and I lost my account!”

• This is a platform issue, not a Topstep scam. Trading platforms can have bugs. It happens. Topstep uses third-party platforms (NinjaTrader, Quantower, etc.) and can’t control every technical issue.

“They found a reason to disqualify me after I passed!”

• When Topstep provides specifics (which they often do in responses), it’s usually “you were hedging across accounts” or “you exploited sim data feeds” or “you violated terms of service.” Traders rarely admit to the full story.

Look, Topstep has been around since 2012. They’ve funded thousands of traders and paid out millions. If they were a scam, they’d have been exposed and shut down years ago. The reality is most traders who complain broke rules they didn’t understand or tried to game the system.

The Hidden Costs: What You’re Actually Paying

Let’s break down the real all-in cost of getting funded and trading with Topstep.

Evaluation Costs

• Trading Combine: $49-$149/month (depending on account size)
• One-time activation fee: $149 (paid after passing, to activate Express Funded)

Most traders take 1-3 months to pass (if they pass at all). So budget $200-$600 in evaluation costs.

Platform Costs

• TopstepX: Free (commission-free trading, Level 1 data included)

Reset Fees

• Standard Path: 50K $49, 100K $99, 150K $149
• No Activation Fee Path: 50K $109, 100K $159, 150K $209

Pro tip: You get a “free” reset with each monthly subscription rebill. So if you fail on day 28, just wait a few days for your subscription to renew and you’ll get a free reset. Don’t pay the reset fee unless you’re in a hurry.

Live Data Fees (After Moving to Live Funded)

In July 2025, Topstep began covering the monthly data fee for one exchange. By default, it is the CME. It is your choice to change from free CME data to free NYMEX, COMEX or CBOT data in the live funded account.

If you want to subscribe to more than one exchange, you’ll pay $133 per month per additional exchange.

Total Cost to Get Funded

Let’s say you’re doing the $50K Combine in 2 months.

• Month 1: $49
• Month 2: $49
• Pass in Month 2
• Activation fee: $149

All-in cost to funded: $247

Compare that to risking $50K of your own capital. The prop firm model makes complete sense if you have the skill but not the cash.

Who Should Actually Use Topstep?

Let’s be brutally honest about who this is for.

This Is Perfect For:

• Aspiring professional futures traders who want a career in trading
• Traders with a proven strategy who need capital to scale
• People who value education and community (TopstepTV alone is worth the subscription)
• Disciplined traders who can follow rules consistently
• Anyone who wants the “prestige” factor of passing the OG prop firm evaluation

This Is NOT For:

• Complete beginners with less than 6 months of trading experience (you’ll just burn money on failed Combines)
• Scalpers who need maximum position flexibility (the Scaling Plan will frustrate you)
• Traders who can’t handle the 4% max loss limit (it’s tight, especially in volatile markets)
• People looking for “easy money” (the 12.4% pass rate should tell you this isn’t easy)
• Swing traders who want to hold overnight positions (not allowed)
• Anyone who wants to trade forex, stocks, or crypto (futures only)

How Topstep Compares to Other Futures Prop Firms

Let’s put this in competitive context.

Topstep vs Earn2Trade

• Topstep advantage: Better educational content, larger community, 90/10 profit split vs 80/20
• Earn2Trade advantage: Wider trading platform offering (Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, etc.)

Topstep vs Apex Trader Funding

• Topstep advantage: More established, better education, clearer rules
• Apex advantage: Cheaper evaluations, more lenient rules, faster funding

Topstep vs Take Profit Trader

• Topstep advantage: Industry leader with better reputation and resources
• Take Profit advantage: Lower monthly costs, less restrictive rules

The truth is, Topstep isn’t trying to be the cheapest or the easiest. They’re trying to be the best, and for serious futures traders, they probably are.

My Honest Take: Is Topstep Worth It?

After digging through everything, the program structure, the reviews, the statistics, the competitive landscape, here’s my genuine assessment.

Topstep is the real deal. They invented this business model, they’ve been doing it for 13+ years, and they have the track record to back up their claims. Thousands of traders have been funded. Millions in payouts have been processed. This isn’t vaporware.

The 1-step model is a massive improvement. Cutting the old 2-step evaluation down to a single Combine makes this the fastest path to funding in the industry (for legitimate firms, plenty of sketchy operations offer “instant funding” but those are different beasts entirely).

The educational content is unmatched. TopstepTV, group coaching, the Discord community, the blog content, no other prop firm invests this much in trader education. If you’re early in your trading journey, this is invaluable.

TopstepX is a double-edged sword. Commission-free trading is huge. But the platform itself is still maturing, and some traders prefer the depth of NinjaTrader or other advanced platforms. If you’re a platform power-user, factor this into your decision.

The transition from Express to Live is brutal. Only 0.96% make it. If your goal is to trade actual live capital, understand that reaching Express Funded is just the first milestone, getting called up to Live is the real challenge.

The 4% max loss limit is tight. In volatile markets, this can feel restrictive. Some traders prefer firms with 6-8% drawdown limits. But the flipside: tighter risk parameters force better discipline.

My Recommendation

If you’re a futures trader with 6-12 months of experience (not necessarily profitable, but you understand the mechanics and have a strategy), Topstep is one of the best places to prove yourself in 2026.

The free monthly resets, the educational resources, and the 90/10 profit split make this a solid value proposition despite being on the pricier end of evaluation fees.

If you’re newer to trading (less than 6 months), I’d actually recommend spending another few months trading a personal sim account or a micro futures account before paying for a Topstep evaluation. Get your consistency dialed in first. Then come to Topstep and pass in 1-2 months rather than burning 6 months of subscription fees failing repeatedly.

If you’re experienced and confident, go straight for the $100K or $150K Combine. The monthly fee difference is minimal compared to the funding potential, and you’ll unlock higher payouts faster.

Final Verdict: 4.0 out of 5 Stars

What Topstep Does Exceptionally Well:

• Best educational ecosystem in prop trading (TopstepTV, coaching, community)
• Legitimate 14-year track record with documented payouts
• 1-step evaluation (fastest in the industry for legit firms)
• End-of-day MLL calculation (more realistic than intraday stops)
• Multiple Express Funded accounts allowed (up to 5)
• Weekly payouts, not monthly

What Needs Improvement:

• TopstepX ist the only platform available
• 3%-4% max loss limit is tighter than some competitors
• Subscription continues after failure unless manually cancelled
• KYC verification can be handled more gracefully
• Migration pressure from legacy platforms to TopstepX
• The consistency rule (40% limit) frustrates some traders
• Phone support was eliminated (only chat/Discord now)

The Bottom Line: Topstep is the gold standard of futures prop firms. They’re not the cheapest, not the easiest, but they’re the most established and most respected. If you’re serious about building a career in futures trading, not just dabbling, this is where you prove yourself.

For beginners, the educational content alone is worth the subscription price. For experienced traders, the 90/10 profit split and fast (2-day minimum) funding timeline make this a top-tier opportunity.

On the negative side, we have the limitation of withdrawals to 50% of the account balance (even if the 90/10 profit split earned you $100,000, you can only withdraw 50% of it. Iif you withdraw everything, you’ll lose your funded account. Another downside is that the consistency rule was reduced from 50% to 40%, which is a disadvantage (40% means, your biggest winning trade can not account for more than 40% of the overall profits. As long as it does, you did not pass the challenge).

Is it perfect? No. But it’s the closest thing to “industry standard” that exists in prop trading.