On an Express Funded Account you can ask for a payout after 5 winning days of $150 or more (Standard path), or after 3 trading days if your best day is no more than 40% of your profit (Consistency path). Each request is capped at 50% of your balance or a dollar cap by size, whichever is lower, and the minimum is $125. You keep 90%. The part people miss: every payout resets your Maximum Loss Limit to $0, so the balance you leave behind is all the cushion you have.
Checked against Topstep's payout policy page on October 14, 2026. Topstep's pages show relative dates, not calendar dates, so check the page before you request.
Cammy Capital explains how Topstep payouts work. It's an independent video and Topstep changes its payout rules often, so the figures below and Topstep's own page come first.
Every Express Funded Account (XFA) is set up on one of two payout paths when you activate it, and the choice is locked after that. They differ in what counts as a qualifying day and in the consistency test.
| Standard | Consistency | |
|---|---|---|
| Days needed | 5 winning days | 3 trading days |
| What counts as a day | Net P&L of $150 or more, locked at 4:00 PM CT | Any trading day with at least one trade |
| Consistency test | None | Best day can't exceed 40% of total net profit |
| Request limit | 50% of balance, up to the cap | 50% of balance, up to the cap |
| Minimum payout | $125 | $125 |
| After a payout | Loss limit resets to $0, day count restarts | Loss limit resets to $0, consistency and day count restart |
Days don't have to be consecutive on either path. If you want a quick feel for which one suits you, look at your last month. One or two big days and a lot of small ones points to Standard, because the 40% test would hurt you. Steady, similar-sized days point to Consistency, which gets you to a request two days sooner.
| Account | Standard cap | Consistency cap |
|---|---|---|
| $50K | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| $100K | $3,000 | $4,000 |
| $150K | $5,000 | $6,000 |
These are per request, and the 50%-of-balance limit applies on top. At a $3,000 balance on a $50K Standard account, 50% is $1,500, which is lower than the $2,000 cap, so $1,500 is your ceiling. Live Funded Accounts have no dollar cap.
Topstep's page also mentions a limited-time offer that doubles these caps for new Trading Combine purchases where a Daily Loss Limit is added at checkout. The page says it started on June 2 and we couldn't confirm an end date or which accounts it covers today, so read the offer terms on Topstep's site before you buy on the strength of it.
Uses the caps, 50% limit, split and fees on Topstep's payout policy page. It ignores the limited-time doubled caps. Topstep's dashboard is the final word.
You keep 90% of each approved payout. Traders who joined the new dashboard before January 12, 2026 keep 100% of their first $10,000 in lifetime profit and move to 90/10 after that. Payouts from the legacy dashboard don't count toward that $10,000.
Then the method takes its cut. Topstep's own example: you request $500 by ACH. The 10% share is $50, the ACH fee is $30, and you receive $420. By Wise, with no Topstep fee, the same request pays $450 before whatever Wise charges.
| Method | Who can use it | Speed after approval | Topstep fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prop-to-Brokerage | US only | Same day if requested by 12 PM CT | None |
| Aeropay | US banks | Instant if your bank supports it, otherwise 1 to 3 business days | None |
| Wise | China, Canada, UK | 1 to 3 business days | None |
| ACH | US banks | 1 to 3 business days | $30 |
| Wire/SWIFT | International | 5 to 10 business days | $30 |
Approval itself can take 1 to 3 business days before any of those clocks start. The money has to go to a bank account in your own name, and you submit a W-9 (US persons) or W-8BEN (everyone else) with the request. Unclaimed Wise transfers are canceled after 7 calendar days, so don't leave one sitting.
Two things change the moment a payout is approved, and the second one catches people out.
Here's what that looks like. You have $4,000 and request $2,000. You now have $2,000 and a loss limit of $0. Two losing trades worth $1,000 each close the account. Had you requested $1,000, it would take $3,000 of losses. The payout amount sets how much room you have to keep trading.
On Standard, a second request also needs you to have earned at least $0.01 since your last payout. The first payout is exempt. Topstep's own walkthrough shows a balance falling back under the level of an earlier request and being ineligible because of it, so don't assume a few winning days is enough if you've given back profit.
One more knock-on: if a payout drops your balance into a lower tier, the maximum contract size under Topstep's Scaling Plan drops with it.
You submit requests in the Topstep Dashboard. They can go in from Sunday 5 PM CT to Friday 5 PM CT, the same hours as CME futures, excluding holidays. Topstep lists the $125 minimum and the 50% limit on the same page as the request steps, so check both before you submit.
The Live Funded Account (LFA) is the stage after the XFA. Its payout rules are looser in some ways and stricter in others.
Each XFA follows the payout policy on its own. A request on one doesn't touch another, and each has its own day count, its own loss limit and its own cap. Topstep's parameters page lets you hold up to five active XFAs.
If you copy the same trades to all of them, they'll reach eligibility at about the same time. They'll also reset to a $0 loss limit at about the same time, and a bad session right after that hits every account when each has the thinnest cushion it will ever have. Staggering the size of requests across accounts, so they don't all drop to the same low balance on the same day, is the sensible defence. That part is our reasoning, not a Topstep rule.
Check Topstep's own terms before you copy at all. The parameters page says a trade copier is allowed up to $750K of buying power, and that hedging across accounts and coordinated trading with other people are prohibited.
Corrections on October 14, 2026. An earlier version of this page gave the $100K Consistency cap as $6,000. Topstep's payout policy page lists $4,000. It also described a Consistency "winning day" as one with a profit; Topstep counts any trading day with at least one trade. The old worked example said the loss limit would sit at a negative figure after a payout, but Topstep says it resets to $0 and the remaining balance acts as the floor. We removed a statistic about how many traders reach the Live stage because we couldn't tie it to a source.