Every exchange we track — fees, leverage, identity rules and who it suits, in one table
| Venue | Type | Spot fee maker / taker | Perpetuals fee maker / taker | Max leverage | Demo | Identity check | US · EEA · UK | Known for | Read |
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Regular-tier rates (Binance Regular User, OKX Lv1, Bybit VIP 0, Kraken Tier 1, Gemini under $10,000, and so on) — the rates a new account pays before volume discounts or token holdings. A dash means the venue does not publish that number where we could read it without signing in; we do not fill the gap from other sites. “Check” in the region column means the venue’s own pages did not settle it for that region. Hover or tap a fee for the date and source.
How to read this table without being misled by it
Three things a fee table cannot show. Depth. A 0.05% taker fee on a book where your $25,000 order walks through four price levels costs more than a 0.10% fee on a book where it clears at one; the slippage calculator measures the part the table leaves out. The order type. On almost every venue here the gap between a market order and a limit order — $6 per $10,000 perpetual round trip — is larger than the gap between any two venues; the fee calculator shows it for your own size. Region. A venue that does not serve where you live has a fee of infinity. Filter by region first, then by anything else.
And one thing it shows too well: headline fees. MEXC’s 0% maker and Gemini’s 1.20% taker are both real, and neither tells you what a round trip will cost you after spread. The rows with a full review are the ones where we have opened the screens, read the withdrawal and security pages, and written down who should not use the venue; those reviews are where the numbers become a decision.
The venues we have actually used
Binance CEX
Deepest spot order book on major pairs
OKX CEX
Cleanest derivatives screen; lowest spot maker fee of the majors
Bybit CEX
Best demo account; readable derivatives
Hyperliquid DEX
On-chain perpetuals L1; leverage checked only when the position opens; max 3–40x by asset
Aster DEX
Self-custody perpetuals with hidden orders; advertises up to 1001x
pump.fun DEX
Memecoin launchpad; nobody screens anything
FOMO DEX
Social memecoin trading app with leaderboards
Head to head: Binance vs Bybit · OKX vs Bybit · Binance vs OKX · DEX vs CEX. Not sure which one? Five questions, one pick.
Which exchange should we review next?
We review a venue by opening it — verification, withdrawals, security switches, the order form — and writing down what would cost a beginner money. That takes days per venue, so we pick by demand. Name the one you want and, if you like, why.
Requests are read weekly. We store the text you type and nothing else — no email needed.
How the numbers were verified
Every fee on this page was read on the venue’s own fee schedule or help centre on the date in the cell, without logging in, and the source is linked from the cell. Where a schedule sits behind a login (Coinbase Advanced, HTX spot), the cell is empty rather than borrowed from another site. Founding years and headquarters are public record; regional availability is taken from the venue’s own restricted-jurisdiction notices and from the geo rules our referral links enforce. When a venue changes a schedule, the cell changes and the date with it — the data file behind this table is the same one that feeds our reviews and the fee calculator, so the three cannot disagree.
FAQ
Which crypto exchange has the lowest fees?
On the published regular-tier numbers, MEXC (0% maker / 0.05% taker spot; 0% / 0.02% perpetuals) and OKX (0.08% / 0.10% spot) are lowest among the centralised venues here, and Gemini ActiveTrader (0.60% / 1.20% under $10,000 of volume) is highest. But the fee is the visible half of the cost: on a thin order book, spread and slippage on a single market order can exceed a year of the fee difference between two venues. Sort the table by fee, then read the venue’s depth.
Why do some rows say “see venue” instead of a number?
Because we could not read that number on the venue’s own public pages on the date shown. Coinbase Advanced shows its full schedule only inside a signed-in account; HTX shows its spot base rate the same way. We do not copy numbers from other review sites, so those cells stay empty until the venue publishes them where we can read them.
Is this a ranking?
No. We do not rank exchanges or give stars, because a ranking hides the question that actually matters — which venue fits what you trade, where you live, and how much you know. The rows with a full review are the venues we have used and opened screen by screen; the rest are facts read from official pages, and nothing more.
Which exchanges can I use in the US?
Of the venues here: Kraken, Coinbase Advanced, Gemini and Bitstamp serve US residents; the offshore venues (Binance, OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Bitget, MEXC, Gate, HTX, BingX, Deribit) do not, and the perpetual DEXs we cover exclude US persons at the front end. pump.fun and FOMO are open. Use the US filter on the table.
How often are these numbers checked?
Each cell carries the date it was read (4 Sep 2026 for this version) and a link to the page it came from. Exchanges change fees without notice — three of the schedules on this page were updated within the week before we read them — so treat the date as part of the fact, and check your own fee page inside the account before it matters.
Why are there DEX venues without fee numbers?
Decentralised venues charge on-chain, often with network costs on top, and their schedules move with governance votes. We quote a DEX number only when we have verified it on the venue’s own documentation (dYdX Tier I, for example). The DEX rows are here for the structural facts — custody, identity, availability — which do not change with the fee tier.