What Topstep is
Topstep is a futures-only proprietary trading firm, founded around 2010, that funds traders to trade CME, COMEX, NYMEX and CBOT futures after they pass a simulated evaluation called the Trading Combine. The firm supplies the capital and carries the losses, the trader keeps the bulk of the profits, and the whole model is built around exchange-traded futures rather than over-the-counter forex (Topstep).
I start there because Topstep's reputation rests on two things: it is one of the oldest names in retail prop trading, at roughly 15 years, and it restricts its traders to listed futures, which puts it in a different category from the forex-focused firms that dominate the rest of the market.
The firm reports more than 1.4 billion dollars paid out to traders, a community of more than 174,000 on Discord, and availability in over 140 countries, which makes it one of the largest and most established players in the funded-futures niche (Topstep).
How the evaluation works
The evaluation is called the Trading Combine, and it is a simulated account you pay a monthly subscription to attempt. You choose a buying-power size, trade against a profit target, and must stay above a maximum loss limit to pass and earn an Express Funded Account (Topstep).
The current monthly fees are roughly 49 dollars for the 50K account, 99 dollars for the 100K, and 199 dollars for the 150K, with the smaller tiers sometimes discounted under a responsible-trading setting, and a one-time 149 dollar activation fee charged when you pass. The subscription rebills every month until you either pass the Combine or cancel it, so the cost of an attempt scales with how many months you take (Topstep).
I treat those fees as the price of the attempt rather than a deposit on a guaranteed account, because the subscription is the firm's revenue whether you pass or not, and the firm's own data, which I cover below, shows most attempts do not pass.
The funded account and the profit split
Passing the Combine moves you to an Express Funded Account, a simulated funded account on which you keep 90 percent of your profits, with the firm covering the losses. From there, a small fraction of traders are called up to a Live Funded Account that trades real capital up to a 150,000 dollar starting balance, with daily payouts available after 30 winning live days (Topstep).
The 90 percent split is the headline term, and it is genuinely generous relative to the older 50 or 80 percent splits the industry used to run. The catch is that the split only matters for the traders who reach and keep a funded account, and the firm's data shows how narrow that group is.
I separate the split from the likelihood of earning it because a review that quotes 90 percent without the pass rate is selling the upside and hiding the filter. The split is real, and so is the filter, and a trader should price both.
The drawdown rules, which decide whether you keep the account
The drawdown rule is the single most important term on a Topstep account, and it is an end-of-day high-water mark rather than an intraday trail. The limit ratchets up as your closing balance grows and never moves back down, so a profitable trader can still breach it on a normal pullback from a peak (Topstep).
| Account size | Maximum loss limit |
|---|---|
| 50K | 2,000 dollars |
| 100K | 3,000 dollars |
| 150K | 4,500 dollars |
Hitting the maximum loss limit permanently closes the account, which is the harshest part of the rule. A trader can build a winning week, give a chunk of it back, and still lose the account because the end-of-day benchmark ratcheted up and never came down to meet them.
The payout rules
Topstep advertises instant payouts and reports more than 7,000 traders paid every week, and the mechanics on an Express Funded Account run along two paths. The standard path requires five winning days of 150 dollars or more and lets you withdraw up to 50 percent of your balance to a cap of 5,000 dollars per payout, while the consistency path requires three days and a 40 percent consistency target for a 6,000 dollar cap, both on the 90 percent split (Topstep).
Express payouts can land in as little as three days, and the Live Funded Account opens daily payouts after 30 winning live days of 150 dollars or more. The conditions are real and the payouts are documented, but every one of them sits behind the funded status that the pass-rate data shows is hard to reach and hold.
I read the payout terms as a reason to be disciplined rather than a reason to be greedy. The fastest way to a payout is the consistent, controlled trading that passes the Combine in the first place, and the traders who relax once funded are the ones who hit the drawdown limit before they withdraw.
The pass rate most reviews skip
The most honest part of a Topstep review is the firm's own disclosed performance, and the numbers are starker than the marketing implies. Topstep reports that in 2025, 16.8 percent of Trading Combines initiated were successfully completed, 51.8 percent of participants who entered one or more Combines advanced to funded level, and 33.3 percent of funded-level individuals received a payout (Topstep).
The sharpest figure is the last step: only 0.71 percent of Express Funded Account traders were called up to a Live Funded Account. That is the firm's own number, not a critic's, and it means the path from paying for a Combine to trading real capital is narrow by design.
I lead with these figures because they reframe the offer. Topstep is a legitimate, established, transparently ruled firm, and the data it publishes itself shows that the funded account is a real but uncommon outcome, which is the single most useful thing a prospective trader can know before they pay a subscription.
What you can trade, and on what
Topstep is futures-only, and the allowed markets are the CME, COMEX, NYMEX and CBOT listed contracts, which covers equity index futures, energy, metals, grains and rates. Stocks, options, spot forex, spot crypto and contracts for difference are prohibited, so the firm is for futures traders specifically rather than general retail (Topstep).
The proprietary platform is called TopstepX, and the firm supports other futures platforms as well, though accounts trading on those non-TopstepX platforms are subject to an additional daily loss limit. Positions must be closed by 3:10 PM Central Time or the product's market close, whichever is earlier, and a trader can hold up to five active Express Funded Accounts at once.
The platform and market choice matters because it sets the skill you need. A Henry Hub natural gas future and an equity index future trade on very different volatility, so the trader who passes is the one whose risk sizing fits the specific contracts they run.
The honest verdict on Topstep
Topstep is a legitimate, well-established futures prop firm with transparent rules and a documented payout record, and for a disciplined futures trader it is one of the cleaner routes to firm capital. The terms are real, the 90 percent split is competitive, and the firm's longevity and disclosed payouts are genuine trust signals.
The honest caveat is the pass rate. The firm's own data shows that the funded account is an uncommon outcome and the live account rarer still, so the subscription fee is best treated as the cost of a structured attempt rather than the price of a job.
My view is that Topstep suits a futures trader who already has a risk-disciplined edge and wants to scale it on firm capital, and does not suit someone who treats the Combine as a way to learn to trade. Verify every current fee and rule on the futures firm comparison and on Topstep's own site before you pay, because both the pricing and the rules change.
Where Topstep fits your trading
A Topstep review sits inside the wider question of whether prop trading is right for you at all, and the foundational guide to prop trading covers that decision. The evaluation and challenge rules walk through the Combine-style model in general terms.
The skill that passes a Combine is the same skill that trades live, which is disciplined risk on a real instrument, and the position size calculator is the tool that keeps a Topstep account on the right side of its drawdown limit.
For live execution and accountability rather than a solo Combine attempt, the futures trading rooms on Whop include desks that run the same CME contracts under real risk, and watching experienced operators manage a drawdown ceiling in real time is one of the fastest ways to build the discipline a funded account rewards.