By Chang XuLast updated Oct 23, 2026zero feezero-fee exchangemaker takerfee rebateexchange comparison

Zero-Fee Crypto Exchanges 2026: Which Pairs Are Really Free

Checked 2026-10-22: Bitfinex, Ourbit spot, MEXC USDC spot and 123 perps, and OKX stablecoin pairs charge 0%. Conditions, a spread test, and cost vs a rebate.

As of 22 October 2026, only a few places charge 0% on both the maker and the taker side: all trading on Bitfinex (since 17 December 2025), every spot pair on Ourbit, MEXC's 224 USDC spot pairs and 123 of its perpetual contracts, and five stablecoin spot pairs on OKX. "Maker-only free" is more common: every MEXC spot pair has a 0% maker fee, while BTCUSDT takers pay 0.05%. On the official fee schedules of Binance, Bybit, Gate, Bitget, KuCoin and BingX, regular users had no standing zero-fee pairs that day (official fee pages and public APIs, checked 2026-10-22).

A zero fee is not a zero cost. Spread, slippage, funding and withdrawal fees never appear on a fee schedule, and they can cost more than the fee itself. Below: where trading is actually free, the conditions attached, one trade priced from that day's order book, and a comparison with paying a fee and getting part of it back as a rebate.

Quick answer

0% on both sides: Bitfinex (spot, margin, derivatives), Ourbit spot, MEXC USDC spot and some MEXC perpetuals, OKX stablecoin pairs such as USDC-USDT.
0% maker only: every MEXC spot pair; 479 MEXC perpetuals charge 0% maker and 0.02% taker.
Large exchanges: Binance, Bybit, Gate, Bitget, KuCoin and BingX charge regular users 0.1% on spot and 0.05% to 0.06% taker on perpetuals, with no standing zero-fee pairs.
No fee means no rebate: a rebate is a share of the fee actually charged, so a zero-fee trade earns nothing back.
Hidden cost: that day, buying 10,000 USDC of BTC on MEXC's zero-fee BTCUSDC pair cost about 8.46 USDC in price impact. The same buy on BTCUSDT, with a 0.05% fee, cost about 5.06 USDT in total.

Which exchanges and pairs had zero fees on 2026-10-22

Exchange	What is free	Everything else (regular user)	Source
Bitfinex	Maker and taker on spot, margin, derivatives, securities and OTC	Nothing else	Fee page, 2025-12-17 announcement
Ourbit	All 882 spot pairs, maker and taker	All 759 perpetuals at 0.02% / 0.04%	Official public API
MEXC spot	224 USDC pairs, 16 EUR pairs and a few USDT pairs (such as USDCUSDT and XRPUSDT) on both sides; maker 0% on every other pair	USDT pairs taker: 0.05% (184 pairs, incl. BTCUSDT), 0.08% (1,082), 0.2% (204)	Official public API
MEXC perpetuals	123 contracts free on both sides (LINK, AVAX, ADA, LTC and others); 479 at 0% maker, 0.02% taker (incl. BTC_USDT)	584 contracts at 0.01% / 0.04%	Official public API
OKX	Spot DAI-USDT, PYUSD-USDT, USDC-USDT, USDG-USDT and USDT-USD on both sides	Spot 0.08% / 0.1%, futures 0.02% / 0.05%; no zero-fee futures group	Global fee framework
Binance	The fee page showed no zero-fee pairs that day	Spot 0.1% / 0.1% (0.075% paying with BNB), USDⓈ-M futures 0.02% / 0.05%	Fee page, futures fee FAQ
Bybit	No zero-fee group for VIP 0	Spot 0.1% / 0.1%, perpetuals 0.02% / 0.055%	Trading fee structure (updated 2026-09-02)
Gate	The fee page lists only "Convert & Auto-Invest: 0 Fees"	Spot taker 0.1%, perpetuals 0.02% / 0.05%	Fee page, help center, futures fee notice
Bitget	The official FAQ lists no zero-fee pairs	Spot 0.1% / 0.1%, futures 0.02% / 0.06%	Trading fees FAQ, futures API
KuCoin	All 969 spot pairs have a fee coefficient of 1 (none discounted to zero)	All 708 perpetuals at 0.02% / 0.06%	Official public API
BingX	None of 1,280 perpetuals is zero-fee	Perpetuals 0.02% / 0.05%	Official public API

Checked 2026-10-22 (UTC+8). Sources: Bitfinex fees, Bitfinex zero-fee announcement, Ourbit spot API, Ourbit futures API, MEXC spot API, MEXC futures API, OKX global fee framework (effective 2025-11-25), Binance fee schedule, Binance futures fee FAQ, Bybit trading fee structure, Gate fee page, Gate spot fee guide, Gate futures fee notice, Bitget fees FAQ, KuCoin spot API, KuCoin futures API, BingX futures API. API figures are each pair's default rate; your own rate is the one on the order form and in your trade history.

Gate's fee page shows no spot maker rate to logged-out visitors, and its help center example gives only the VIP 0 taker rate of 0.1%. Binance's futures fee page loaded no data that day, so USDC-margined rates are left out.

Conditions attached to zero fees

Maker only

MEXC charges makers 0% on every spot pair, but a market order, or a limit order that fills at once, is a taker order, and BTCUSDT takers still pay 0.05%. To get the zero rate, place a limit order that rests on the book, ideally with Post-Only ticked. How maker and taker are decided: maker vs taker fees. What maker-only trading costs you: how much maker-only orders save.

Specific pairs only

MEXC's zero rates sit on USDC-quoted spot and part of its perpetual list; the same coin quoted in USDT may carry a taker fee. OKX's zero-fee list is five stablecoin pairs, which are for swapping stablecoins, not for trading BTC. Check the rate on the pair page or the order confirmation before you trade.

Promotion periods

Zero fees are often limited-time offers that revert when the campaign ends; announcements say "until further notice" or give an end date. The MEXC and Ourbit APIs show the current rate only and say nothing about how long it lasts. This article lists what applied on the day it was checked.

Region and account type

Bybit's fee table says actual rates may vary by region and points to the My Fee Rate page after identity verification. Bitfinex's terms exclude residents of the US, Canada and some other places, with extra exclusions for derivatives; details in Bitfinex invite code.

Costs that remain at zero fees

Spread and slippage: one trade from the live book

At 23:01 (UTC+8) on 2026-10-22 we read MEXC's public order books and simulated a market buy of 10,000 units of the quote currency in BTC, measured against the mid price:

Pair	Best bid/ask spread	Price impact on 10,000	Fee	Total
BTCUSDC (zero fee)	about 0.0099%	about 0.0846%, 8.46 USDC	0	about 8.46 USDC
BTCUSDT (taker 0.05%)	about 0.00001%	about 0.0006%, 0.06 USDT	5 USDT	about 5.06 USDT
BTCUSDT + MEXC 60% rebate (manual orders)	same	0.06 USDT	5 − 3 = 2 USDT	about 2.06 USDT

Source: MEXC BTCUSDC order book, MEXC BTCUSDT order book, a single read; books change every second.

Zero-fee pairs usually trade less and have thinner books, so a market order can lose more to price than it saves in fees. At the same moment a resting limit order on BTCUSDT paid the 0% maker rate with almost no spread, which beat taking liquidity on BTCUSDC.

Convert and "0 fee" quotes

Gate's fee page describes Convert and Auto-Invest as "0 Fees" with no slippage. Convert gives you a quoted price, and your cost is the gap between that quote and the market. Compare the quote with the spot order book before you swap. Stablecoins work the same way: OKX's USDC-USDT pair was fee-free that day, but its best bid was about 1.00075, not 1.

Funding

A zero-fee perpetual still pays or receives funding while the position is open. Binance explains that funding equals the position's notional value times the funding rate, that it passes directly between longs and shorts, and that Binance charges no fee on it (Binance funding rate FAQ, updated 2026-03-06). On MEXC's zero-fee LINK_USDT, a 10,000 USDT position held for three days at 0.01% per 8 hours pays 9 USDT across nine settlements. Funding can be positive or negative and changes daily; more in the real cost of funding rate arbitrage.

Withdrawal fees

Withdrawal fees are flat amounts, so they weigh most on small withdrawals. Official APIs on 2026-10-22 showed USDT on TRC20 at 1.5 USDT on Bitget, 1.99 USDT on KuCoin and 0.5 USDT on HTX; on BEP20, 0.01 on Bitget, 0.01 on HTX and 1 USDT on KuCoin. Swap 100 USDT on a zero-fee pair and withdraw it from KuCoin over TRC20, and the withdrawal alone costs 1.99% (Bitget, KuCoin, HTX currency APIs). Network-by-network comparison: USDT withdrawal fee comparison.

Zero fees vs paying a fee with a rebate

A rebate returns a fixed share of the fee you actually paid, so the effective rate is the listed rate × (1 − rebate). A zero-fee trade has no fee and therefore no rebate. Regular-user rates on 2026-10-22 with Fee Otter rebates:

Market	Exchange and pair	Listed maker / taker	Rebate	Effective maker / taker
Spot	Ourbit spot	0% / 0%	Nothing to rebate	0% / 0%
Spot	MEXC BTCUSDT	0% / 0.05%	60% (20% automatic + 40% extra)	0% / 0.02%
Spot	Binance	0.1% / 0.1%	40% (20% automatic + 20% extra)	0.06% / 0.06%
Spot	Gate	0.1% / 0.1%	65%	0.035% / 0.035%
Perpetual	MEXC LINK_USDT and 122 others	0% / 0%	Nothing to rebate	0% / 0%
Perpetual	MEXC BTC_USDT	0% / 0.02%	60% (20% automatic + 40% extra)	0% / 0.008%
Perpetual	Ourbit	0.02% / 0.04%	70% (50% automatic + 20% extra)	0.006% / 0.012%
Perpetual	Gate	0.02% / 0.05%	70% (20% automatic + 50% extra)	0.006% / 0.015%
Perpetual	KuCoin	0.02% / 0.06%	60% (all automatic)	0.008% / 0.024%
Perpetual	BingX	0.02% / 0.05%	45% (all paid automatically by BingX)	0.011% / 0.0275%
Perpetual	Binance	0.02% / 0.05%	40% (20% automatic + 20% extra)	0.012% / 0.03%
Perpetual	Bybit	0.02% / 0.055%	40% (all paid by Fee Otter)	0.012% / 0.033%
Perpetual	OKX	0.02% / 0.05%	20% automatic rebate + exclusive rewards	0.016% / 0.04%

Once the effective taker rate is 0.015% or lower, the gap to zero fees is small: a 10,000 USDT taker fill costs 1.5 USDT on Gate perpetuals and 0.8 USDT on MEXC BTC_USDT. At that point spread, slippage and funding make up most of the cost. The full net-fee ranking is in lowest fee crypto exchange 2026.

Three rebate limits to know: MEXC's affiliate FAQ says API orders earn no rebate (see MEXC API trading setup); KuCoin's September 2025 affiliate program announcement says zero-fee trades earn no commission (see KuCoin VIP fee tiers); and since Bitfinex dropped trading fees, affiliate earnings tied to trading fees no longer apply there, so Fee Otter's Bitfinex code returns 6% of lending platform fees instead.

Rebate rate by exchange

Exchange	Auto-rebate	Extra rebate	Total
Binance	20%	20%	40%
OKX	20%		20%
Bybit	—	40%	40%
Gate	20%	50%	70%
Bitget	20%	30%	50%
MEXC	20%	40%	60%
BingX	45%	0%	45%
Pionex	15%	35%	50%
KuCoin	60%	0%	60%
Bitfinex	6%	0%	6%
WEEX	60%	10%	70%
XT.COM	60%	10%	70%
HTX	30%	20%	50%
CoinW	60%	0%	60%
Ourbit	50%	20%	70%

Every rate here is fee paid straight back to you. It excludes VIP fee tiers and platform-token discounts such as BNB or GT; those stack on top and only save you more.

Data sources & methodology →

How to check that your pair is really fee-free

Pair page
most exchanges show the maker and taker rate in the order panel or pair details, and mark promotional pairs.
Order confirmation
the confirmation window shows the estimated fee before you submit; market orders are always taker.
Trade history
every fill lists its fee and a maker or taker tag, which is the most reliable record.
Order books
put the zero-fee pair next to the same coin's USDT pair and compare best bid and ask. The wider book is not always the cheaper one.
Withdrawal
if you plan to move the coins out, check the withdrawal page for networks and fees before choosing where to swap.

Service regions

Every exchange restricts some countries or regions. Futures may be closed in some countries or offered only through a local entity, and rates may differ from the global site. Bybit says rates can vary by region; Bitfinex does not serve US or Canadian residents. Read the user agreement and restricted-region list before signing up; country overview in crypto exchange licenses by country.

Risks

A zero fee covers only part of the cost. Market orders on thin books pay away spread, zero-fee promotions can end at any time, and leveraged futures can wipe out margin quickly. Exchanges set their own rates; the order form and your trade history are the final word. Trade only with money you can afford to lose.

FAQ

Which crypto exchange charges no trading fees at all?

On 2026-10-22, Bitfinex charged 0% maker and taker on spot, margin and derivatives. Ourbit charged 0% on every spot pair, but its perpetuals cost 0.02% / 0.04%.

Is MEXC zero fee?

Partly. Every MEXC spot pair has a 0% maker fee, and USDC spot pairs plus 123 perpetuals are free on both sides. BTCUSDT spot takers pay 0.05% and BTC_USDT perpetual takers pay 0.02%.

Does Binance have zero-fee pairs?

Binance's fee page showed none on 2026-10-22. Regular users pay 0.1% on spot (0.075% with BNB) and 0.02% maker / 0.05% taker on USDⓈ-M futures.

Do zero-fee trades earn a rebate?

No. Rebates are a share of the fee charged, and a zero fee leaves nothing to share. KuCoin's affiliate rules also exclude zero-fee trades from commission in writing.

Is a zero-fee pair always cheaper?

No. That day on MEXC, a 10,000 market buy of BTC cost about 8.46 USDC in price impact on zero-fee BTCUSDC, against about 5.06 USDT on BTCUSDT with its 0.05% fee, or about 2.06 USDT after a 60% rebate.

Which OKX pairs are zero fee?

Spot DAI-USDT, PYUSD-USDT, USDC-USDT, USDG-USDT and USDT-USD, maker and taker. OKX has no zero-fee futures group; regular users pay 0.02% / 0.05%.

Getting started

If you mostly trade zero-fee pairs, keep using them. For BTC and ETH futures or mainstream spot, a rebate does more. Sign up with the referral code and link your UID on the Fee Otter rebate platform (on BingX, signing up with code FEEOTTER gives 45%, all paid automatically by BingX, with no UID to link). Automatic rebates go straight back to your exchange account. Fee Otter's extra rebate is settled daily after the 16:00 (UTC+8) refresh and paid on request as on-chain USDT on BEP20, minimum 1 USDT per request, with the 0.015 USDT network fee paid by you. The formulas behind all this: how crypto trading fees are calculated.

15 exchanges — extra rebate the moment you bind

Rates come live from the rebate page.

See every rebate →Work out what comes back →

Need help? Contact support

For any binding or rebate question, or to learn about our exclusive OKX rewards and promotions, reach our support through the channels below.

If you trade at high volume or hold exchange VIP status and need more from your rebate, message support directly and we will talk it through.

Telegram · @feeotter

Rates are regular-user rates read from each exchange's official pages and public APIs on 2026-10-22; the order-book figures come from a single read. Calculations are estimates; actual rates and rebates are those shown by the exchange and the Fee Otter platform. This article is information, not investment advice.

ⓘ Rebate rates are for futures; spot: Gate 65%, Bitget 45%, HTX 45%, WEEX 45%, XT.COM 45%.

Risk and interest disclosure

Referral relationship: This article contains referral codes and links. If you sign up through them, Fee Otter receives a referral share from the exchange; your fees do not go up. Under our site rules and each exchange’s rebate policy, Fee Otter passes most of that share back to you as a rebate, and every payment is recorded on the rebate dashboard.
Rules change: Exchange fees, rebate policies and code-backfill or rebind conditions can change. Check the official pages before acting. Figures in this article carry a verification date; official announcements and our live figures prevail.
New-user rewards: Any new-user task or signup reward mentioned is the official maximum. The form it is paid in (for example interest-bearing credit, trial funds or vouchers) and the conditions follow the promotion page at the time.
Investment risk: Crypto prices are volatile, and futures or leveraged trading can lose your entire margin in a short time. This article is for information only and is not investment advice; you are responsible for your own decisions and results.
Exchange risk: Keeping assets on an exchange exposes you to the exchange’s own business risk. When FTX collapsed in 2022, withdrawals were frozen and users could not recover their assets for a long time. Before choosing an exchange, fully assess its track record, proof of reserves, and regulatory and compliance status where it operates, and avoid keeping all your assets on a single exchange.
Regional restrictions: Some exchanges, products or features may be unavailable or restricted where you live. Check local regulations and the platform’s terms first.
Account security: Fee Otter never holds your assets and will never ask for your password, verification codes or withdrawal permissions. Binding for rebates only needs your UID.
Rebate withdrawals: Rebates are based on the share the exchange actually pays. If an exchange changes its policy, or treats trades as violating its terms (for example wash trading), the related fees may not count toward rebates.
Tax: You are responsible for reporting rebates and trading gains or losses under the tax rules where you live.