Topstep made eight significant rule and product changes between November 25, 2025 and April 28, 2026 — more than in any comparable five-month window in the firm’s history. The freshest change is the April 28, 2026 payout cap reduction on new $50K and $100K No Activation Fee Trading Combines, where new accounts now have $2,000 (Standard) or $3,000 (Consistency) per-payout caps instead of the previous $5,000/$6,000. Existing accounts keep their original caps. The other seven changes: the November 25 launch of No Activation Fee Combines, the December 30 two-rule payout structure, the January 12 90/10 split for new sign-ups, the February 5 split of the Express Funded Account into Standard and Consistency paths, the February 10 Live Funded Account restructure, the April 1 acquisition of The Futures Desk, and the ongoing TopstepX platform requirement for new sign-ups. This page is the dated, sourced timeline.
If you read a Topstep guide written before November 2025, large parts of it are now wrong. Topstep restructured its pricing, payout policy, profit split, Express Funded Account paths, and Live Funded Account framework across an unusually short window. This is not a strategy page or an opinion piece. It is a chronological timeline of every meaningful rule and product change between November 25, 2025 and April 28, 2026, with the source for each.
If you are a current Topstep trader checking what changed since you last reviewed your account, scroll the timeline below and look for the fresh-marked items. If you are deciding between firms in 2026, this page tells you exactly which Topstep rules are current. If you are running a trade copier across multiple Topstep accounts, the platform-requirement and Express Funded Account changes are the ones that affect your setup most.
The April 28, 2026 changes affect new Trading Combines only. If your current Combine was purchased before April 28, your payout caps are unchanged on rebill and on Reset Credit. If you are about to buy a fresh $50K or $100K No Activation Fee Combine, you are buying it under the new pricing and the new (lower) payout caps. Plan accordingly.
Eight events, in chronological order, with the source for each.
Walkthrough of the most impactful 2026 Topstep changes for funded traders.
This is the biggest 2026 change for new traders by financial impact, so it gets the most detail. On April 28, 2026 Topstep reduced the monthly subscription price on the $50K and $100K No Activation Fee Trading Combines, which traders welcomed. In the same announcement, Topstep also reduced the per-payout cap on Express Funded Accounts created from those new Combines. Many traders missed the second part because the headline framing led with the price cut.
Here is what changed, explicitly, on the $50K No Activation Fee path. New accounts opened on or after April 28, 2026 carry the following caps once activated as Express Funded Accounts:
| Path | Per-payout cap (before April 28) | Per-payout cap (April 28 onward, new accounts) |
|---|---|---|
| $50K No Activation Fee — Standard | $5,000 first / $6,000 thereafter | $2,000 per payout |
| $50K No Activation Fee — Consistency | $5,000 first / $6,000 thereafter | $3,000 per payout |
The change applies to new No Activation Fee accounts opened from April 28 onward. Topstep’s Help Center is explicit on the grandfathering: existing accounts retain their original payout caps, including on rebill and on Reset Credit (with the caveat that a Reset done after April 28 will be billed at the new price while keeping the old cap). If you use a Reset Credit from an existing pre-April-28 account to open a new Combine after April 28, the new Combine and the resulting Express Funded Account fall under the new pricing and the new caps.
You pay less per month during the Combine. You also collect less per payout once funded. Whether the deal favours you depends on how many payout cycles you expect to run and how aggressively you withdraw. A trader who plans 1–2 payouts before failing comes out ahead. A trader who plans to run multiple payout cycles trades the upfront discount for a lower withdrawal velocity. Run the math for your expected behaviour before picking a path.
The Standard Path Combine pricing did not change on April 28. If lower per-payout caps concern you, the Standard Path remains available with its $5,000 first-payout cap on $50K and $6,000 cap thereafter. The Standard Path costs $49/month with a $149 activation fee on $50K. The trade-off direction is reversed: pay more upfront, withdraw more per cycle.
This is the rule change most traders ask about because the naming is confusing. Topstep already had a 50 percent consistency rule on the Trading Combine before February 5. The new Consistency Path on the Express Funded Account is something different. It refers to a separate set of payout-eligibility requirements applied at the Express Funded Account stage. Both paths use the same trading rules and the same 50 percent best-day-versus-cycle calculation when computing payout eligibility.
| Eligibility component | Standard Path | Consistency Path |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum winning days for first payout | 5 days at $150 net or more | 3 days at $150 net or more |
| Cumulative profit floor (first payout) | $5,000+ | $6,000+ |
| 50% concentration rule | Applies | Applies |
| Repeat-payout requirement | Two-rule (winning days + profitability since last payout) | Two-rule (winning days + profitability since last payout) |
| 90/10 split (post-Jan-12 traders) | Applies | Applies |
The path is selected per Express Funded Account at activation. Once chosen, you cannot switch mid-cycle. If you fail a Consistency Path account and start a fresh Combine, you can choose Standard on the new account.
The strategic difference: Standard rewards predictable, paced trading across more sessions; Consistency Path rewards traders who can hit a higher daily P&L for fewer days while still respecting the 50 percent concentration rule. On a $50K Consistency Path with the $6,000 floor, three winning days averaging $2,000 each is the profile, and your largest single day cannot exceed $3,000 (50 percent of $6,000). The math is unforgiving on three-day cycles. For details on the strategy, see how to pass a Topstep Combine in 2026.
This is the most quoted rule change because it sits at the centre of every Topstep payout calculation. From January 12, 2026 onward, all new traders receive a flat 90 percent split applied from the first dollar of profit. Topstep keeps 10 percent. There is no introductory 100 percent retention tier on new accounts.
Pre-January-12 traders are grandfathered. They keep 100 percent of the first $10,000 in lifetime profits per trader, with the 90/10 split applying afterward. The grandfather status attaches to the trader, not to a specific account number. Opening a new account does not reset the threshold for a grandfathered trader, and a grandfathered trader who passes a new Combine and gets a new Express Funded Account still gets 100 percent on the first $10K of profit on that new account because the threshold is per account on the lifetime side and per trader on the grandfather side.
A note on legacy material: any guide claiming Topstep splits 50/50 on the first $5,000 of profit before switching to 90/10 is out of date. That structure has not been the rule since at least early 2025. Topstep’s own Help Center confirms the current 90/10 framework with the grandfather carve-out.
Before December 30, 2025, the Express Funded Account operated on a one-condition payout model: meet the path’s winning-days requirement, request a payout. After December 30, every payout after the first requires two conditions:
The first payout still requires only the path’s winning-days requirement. The two-condition rule kicks in starting with the second payout request. The stated purpose of the change was to encourage smoother equity curves and discourage traders from withdrawing immediately after a single profitable streak only to give back the gains in the next cycle. From a trader perspective, the practical effect is that you cannot withdraw faster than you can keep your account net profitable across the gap between payouts.
The first major change in this five-month window. Topstep introduced a second pricing path on the Trading Combine. Two paths now run in parallel:
The break-even between the two paths depends entirely on how many months you expect to take to pass. A trader confident of passing in one or two months minimises total cost on the No Activation Fee Path because the higher monthly cost is less than the $149 activation fee they would otherwise pay. A trader who expects multiple resets or a longer attempt window minimises total cost on the Standard Path because the lower monthly cost compounds over more billing cycles. Topstep frames this as “choice based on your trading style.” In practice, it is a cost optimization based on your honest expectation of how many attempts you will need.
Announced via GlobeNewswire on April 1, 2026, Topstep acquired The Futures Desk (TFD), a smaller futures prop firm known for coaching-first trader development. TFD’s technology is being integrated into TopstepX. TFD co-founders Josh Schwartzberg and Brian Ford joined the Topstep team. The acquisition does not currently change Topstep’s rule framework, but it signals continued platform development and likely further policy refinements as TFD’s coaching-oriented tools land inside TopstepX.
For traders, the immediate practical implication is minor — existing TFD traders are continuing under the Topstep umbrella, and Topstep traders are not directly affected by the change. Watch the Topstep blog and the Help Center for any payout-mechanics updates that follow as the integration plays out.
Topstep’s Live Funded Account is the tier that 99 percent of paying customers never reach. It sits beyond the Express Funded Account and represents a structural step into real-money trading with Topstep’s capital. From February 10, 2026 onward, all Live Funded Accounts created on or after that date follow a new framework:
Existing Live Funded Accounts created before February 10, 2026 continue under their original framework. The change is forward-looking only.
The cumulative effect of these eight changes is that Topstep in May 2026 is meaningfully different from Topstep in October 2025. The headline takeaways for traders:
For the underlying mechanics of every Topstep rule (trailing MLL, daily loss limit, consistency, scaling, max position size), see the complete Topstep Combine rules reference. For strategy specifically aimed at passing under the current 2026 rules, see the how to pass a Topstep Combine guide. For the payout side, see the 2026 Topstep payout rules guide.
Every change on this page was verified against at least one of the following primary sources:
“If your last serious read of the Topstep rule set was in 2024, three quarters of what you remember is now subtly wrong. Verify, then trade.”