KuCoin Fees Simplified & Explained (2024) (2024)

Crypto exchanges are notorious for complicated fee structures and KuCoin is no exception.

The Seychelles-based crypto exchange offers low fees and considers multiple trading-related factors to come up with the fee you pay per transaction, but wrapping your mind around how it will affect your profits can be a real head scratcher - that's why we wrote this guide.

In this KuCoin fees guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at each of these factors and see how they combine to determine your trading fee. If you need a full review of the KuCoin platform and exchange, you should read our review here.

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KuCoin Fees - Everything you need to know

KuCoin maintains one of the lowest trading fee structures among crypto exchanges.

To determine how much you’ll be charged on every transaction, the exchange uses a combination of a two factors:

• Maker/taker fee model
• Trading fee levels

A market maker is the party that provides liquidity to the trade order while a market taker takes liquidity from the trade order. In a trade order, the market maker fee is usually lower than that of the taker.

KuCoin’s trading fee levels are determined by two factors: the amount of KCS token you hold OR your trading volumes (spot or futures) all in the last 30 days.

As a new account owner, you automatically start at trading level 0. This means you’ll get charged a flat 0.1% transaction fee for spot trading as a market maker or taker. And for futures, you pay a 0.02% fee as a market maker and 0.06% as a market taker.

When you accumulate more KCS tokens or increase your spot/futures trading volume, your level progresses and you pay lesser fees.

Let’s dive in deeper and see how each trading fee level works.

What Are KuCoin Trading Fee Levels?

KuCoin trading fee levels were created to reward high-volume traders or holders of the native KCS token with low fees as they trade on the exchange.

What is KCS Token? Why its used?

KuCoin Token (KCS) is made by KuCoin itself. It enables a profit-sharing model between the exchange and its users. 200 Million KCS token were initiated by the exchange and they will burn until 100 Million KCS tokens are left.

KuCoin user earn a part of daily-profit by staking KCS from the exchange. These profits show the success of the exchange in terms of trade volume and transaction. When there are more people trading, more fees is collected and therefore its users earn more from stacking KCS.

You can use KCS to pay fees and get 20% off. Read more

Buy KCS Token Now

There are 13 trading fee levels (0 - 12) and your level is determined by a minimum KCS holding OR spot/futures volume (BTC).

Here’s a breakdown of how it works and the requirement(s) for each trading level:

Trading Fee Level 0

This is the base trading level. Every new account on KuCoin with less than 1000 KCS and a 30-day average trading volume of less than 50BTC is automatically on this level. At this level, you are charged a 0.1% market/taker fee for every transaction.

Trading Fee Level 1

This level requires a minimum of 1000 KCS tokens or a 30-day minimum spot trading volume of 50BTC or a 30-day minimum futures trading volume of 200BTC. Meeting this requirement, you’ll be charged a 0.09% fee as a market maker and 0.1% as a market taker per transaction.

Trading Fee Level 2

To be on this level, you’ll need to have a minimum of 10000 KCS tokens or a 30-day minimum spot trading volume of 200BTC or a 30-day minimum futures volume of 400BTC.

Trading Fee Level 3

For the third level, you need to be holding a minimum of 20000 KCS tokens or a 30-day minimum spot trading volume of 500 BTC or a 30-day minimum futures volume of 1000 BTC.

KuCoin Spot Trading Fees

KuCoin charges fees for spot trading according to three categories: Class A, Class B, and Class C.

Each category holds a specific set of crypto assets based on popularity. For instance, you’ll find BTC, ALGO, and DOGE in Class A; XTM, XDC, and CARD in Class B; and COMB, FR and PLY in Class C.

Each class has a different spot trading fee structure.

Class A Fees

This category holds a set of popular assets such as BTC and ETH.

For accounts that are in trading level 0, KuCoin charges a flat fee of 0.1% as a maker or taker. This means, if you were to trade $1000 worth of BTC, your fee would be $1 worth of BTC.

Now, let’s assume you meet the requirements and progress to trading level 5. Trading fees would be 0% as a maker and 0.07% as a taker. So if you were to trade $1000 (BTC) at this level, you’ll only pay a fee of $0.7 (BTC) as a taker.

Remember that your fee is charged based on the base currency of trading pairs and you’ll receive a 20% fee discount when you pay with KCS tokens.

Also, as your trading level progresses, your fee gets smaller.

Class B Fees

For this category, you’ll be charged a flat 0.2% fee per transaction as a maker or taker. This is assuming your KuCoin account is in trading level 0. So if you trade $1000 worth of a Class B asset, your fee would be $2.

If you meet the requirements and progress to trading level 5, your trading fee becomes 0% as a maker and 0.14% as a taker. Trading crypto assets equivalent to $1000 would only attract a taker fee equivalent to $1.4 at this level.

Remember that you can receive a 20% fee discount when you pay with KCS tokens.

Class C Fees

Assuming you’re in trading level 0, you’ll be charged a flat 0.3% fee per transaction in this category (either as a market maker or taker). So if you trade $1000 worth of a Class C asset, your fee would be $3.

Let’s say you meet the requirements and progress to trading level 5, your trading fee becomes 0% as a maker and 0.21% as a taker.

Now, when you trade Class C crypto assets equivalent to $1000, your fee as a taker is equivalent to $2.1.

You can see a full breakdown of the KuCoin fee structure for spot trading here.

KuCoin Futures Fees

On the KuCoin platform, the trading fees for futures also vary depending on your trading level and maker/taker status.

For new accounts and users in tracing level 0, your fee will be 0.02% as a maker and 0.06% as a taker. Therefore, funding a futures contract with $1000 would attract a maker fee of $0.2 and a taker fee of $0.6.

If you progress to trading level 5 after meeting the requirements, your fee rate becomes 0% as a maker and 0.04% as a taker.

As you go higher in trading level, your fee rate as a maker/taker reduces.

Compared to industry averages and standards, the charges are relatively low and nothing to worry about.

You can take a look at the full list of fee rates for futures trading in KuCoin.

KuCoin Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

KuCoin maintains a fee-free crypto deposit route while charging a little network fee when you want to get your assets out of the centralized exchange.

KuCoin Withdrawal Fees

When you’re withdrawing your crypto asset from KuCoin to another wallet, you’ll pay withdrawal fees.

The fees vary by asset and could change depending on the market and network conditions of the particular asset. However, you can withdraw both NEO and GAS for free.

You can take a look at the fee rate and minimum withdrawable amount for any coin on the KuCoin fee page.

KuCoin Deposit Fees

As mentioned, KuCoin doesn’t charge any deposit fees when you’re sending crypto assets into the platform.

But if you’re looking to buy crypto using fiat currencies, KuCoin provides a bunch of options to do so including Fast Trade, P2P, and third-party payment services.

Each of these purchase routes has its transaction charge which varies from 3% up to 7%.

How Do KuCoin Fees Compare To Other Exchanges?

Comparing trading fees at various crypto exchanges could be complicated since they all don’t follow the same fee structure.

But it’s a great idea to see whether or not you’re better off staying with KuCoin for the long term.

Binance

When we compared KuCoin vs Binance we found that they both have a similar fee structure. For new and regular users, they charge between 0.0125% or 0.10% maker/taker fee for spot trading and offer a 25% discount when you use their native token (BNB) to offset the fees. Binance also has a VIP tier system that rewards you with lesser fees for holding more BNB.

Visit Binance

Gate.io

Compared to KuCoin, Gate.io has a slightly higher trading fee of 0.15% for both spot and futures on VIP tier 0. You pay lesser fees on a higher VIP tier by holding GT tokens or increasing your 30-day trading volume.

Visit Gate.io

Bybit

Bybit maintains a similar cost-effective fee structure that’s friendly to traders. The exchange charges the same 0.10% maker/taker fee rate for spot trading. And for derivatives, you’ll pay 0.01% as a maker and 0.06% as a taker. With Bybit’s newly launched VIP program, you’ll get access to lower trading fees as part of the benefits.

Visit Bybit

Coinbase

Coinbase uses a maker/taker fee model and charges you based on the pricing tier you’re in when an order is placed. At the base pricing tier of $0 - $10K, you’re charged a 0.40% maker fee and 0.60% as a taker. As your pricing tier increases, your trading fees get reduced.

FAQs About KuCoin

KuCoin is an awesome cryptocurrency exchange with low fees for spot and futures trading.

At first glance, Its fee structure may seem somewhat complicated but it’s open, affordable and straightforward as this guide has shown.

For regular customers (at level 0), you’re charged the base fee rate of 0.01% per transaction as a maker/taker. With an increase in KCS holding or trading volume, you can eventually reduce the fee rate.

You also enjoy fee-free crypto deposits and get charged a reasonable, network-dependent fee for withdrawing your assets.

Taking all into consideration, KuCoin maintains a well reasonable fee structure and is a great exchange for your crypto journey.

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