Break-Even Calculator

Break-even is the point where your funded trading profits have paid back the evaluation fee you spent to get the account. If you paid $150 for an evaluation, you break even once your share of the payouts reaches $150. Everything after that is pure profit.

Divide the evaluation fee by your average profit per winning trade after the profit split. For example, averaging 10 ticks per trade on ES with 1 contract earns $125 gross per win; at a 90% profit split you keep $112.50, so a $150 fee is recovered in just 2 winning trades. This calculator does the math for any fee, split, instrument, and trade size.

Most futures prop firm evaluations cost between $50 and $700 depending on account size, with $50,000 accounts typically priced around $100-$300 before discounts. Many firms run frequent promotions of 50-90% off, so the effective cost is often much lower than the listed price. Some firms also charge a one-time activation fee when you pass.

Most futures prop firms do not refund evaluation fees, though some forex-style firms refund the fee with your first payout. What matters more in practice is the total cost to reach a funded account — including any resets and activation fees — which is exactly what a break-even calculation accounts for.

Yes, directly. At a 90% split you keep $90 of every $100 in profit, while at 50% you keep only $50 — meaning you need almost twice as many winning trades to recover the same fee. Most futures prop firms offer 80-100% splits, and many give traders 100% of the first several thousand dollars in profits.

Yes. If you failed an evaluation twice at $150 each before passing on the third attempt, your true cost is $450, not $150 — which triples the profit needed to break even. Counting every fee you paid gives you an honest picture of whether a firm is actually profitable for you.