How to reduce fees on a crypto exchange: 9 things that actually make a difference

Most people look at an exchange's headline trading fee, something like 0.1%, and assume that's what they pay. It rarely is. The real cost of buying crypto is usually spread across four or five places: the spread, the trading fee, the deposit method, currency conversion and the withdrawal fee. Some of these are visible on a fee page. Others are baked into the price you see and never show up as a "fee" at all.

Here's where the money goes and what you can do about each part.

First, know what you're paying

The numbers in the last column are rough ranges to give you a sense of scale, not the rates of any particular exchange. Always check your exchange's own fee page, because these differ a lot between platforms and change over time.

1. Stop using the "buy crypto" button

This is the single biggest saving for most people. Exchanges usually have two ways to buy: a simple screen ("Buy", "Convert", "Instant buy") and a trading screen ("Spot", "Trade"). The simple screen often has no visible fee, but the price you get includes a spread that can easily be several times higher than the trading fee.

On the trading screen you see the order book and pay the published trading fee. It looks more complicated the first time, but placing a basic order takes about the same number of taps. If you're buying more than a few tens of euros at a time, it's worth learning.

2. Use limit orders, not market orders

On the trading screen, most exchanges charge two different rates:

• Taker fee: you take an existing order from the book, for example with a market order that fills immediately.
• Maker fee: you place a limit order that waits in the book until someone else trades against it.

Maker fees are almost always lower, sometimes much lower. If you're not in a hurry, place a limit order slightly below the current price when buying (or slightly above when selling) and let it fill. You also avoid slippage, which is the extra cost when a large market order eats through several price levels.

3. Sign up with a referral code that cuts your fees

A good referral code is one of the few discounts that applies to every trade you make, not just the first one. There are two common versions:

• Fee discount: the fee is reduced at the moment you trade.
• Fee rebate: you pay the normal fee and part of it comes back to you later, often daily or weekly.

The catch is that a code can usually only be used when you open the account. If you already have an account, this option is gone for that exchange. We list current codes and what they give EU users, with the conditions, on our comparison page. For example, the OKX referral code gives back 20% of the trading fees you pay.

4. Fund your account by bank transfer

Card deposits are convenient and expensive. Many exchanges charge a percentage for card top-ups, and your card issuer may add its own fee if the payment counts as a cash advance. A SEPA bank transfer in euros is usually free or close to it, and in most EU countries an instant SEPA transfer arrives within seconds.

If your account and your bank are in different currencies, check who does the conversion. Converting at your bank and sending euros is sometimes cheaper than letting the exchange convert, and sometimes the other way round. A quick comparison on a small amount tells you which.

5. Check whether you qualify for a lower fee tier

Most exchanges lower trading fees as your 30-day trading volume grows, or if you hold a certain amount of assets with them. For casual users, the first tier is often out of reach. But if you trade regularly, look at how close you are to the next tier. Concentrating your trading on one exchange instead of spreading it across three can be enough to drop a level.

6. Look at paying fees with the exchange's own token

Several exchanges give a discount if you pay trading fees with their own token. It can be a real saving, but think it through: you have to buy and hold that token, and its price can move far more than the discount is worth. It makes sense for active traders who would hold a small balance anyway. For someone buying bitcoin once a month, it usually doesn't.

7. Withdraw less often and pick the right network

Withdrawal fees are usually a fixed amount per withdrawal, so moving €50 at a time costs proportionally far more than moving €500 once. If you move your crypto to your own wallet, and many people should, batch it.

Also check which network you're sending on. The same coin can often be withdrawn over several networks with very different fees. Just make sure the receiving wallet supports the network you choose; sending on the wrong network is one of the most common ways people lose crypto.

8. Don't trade more than you need to

This sounds obvious, but it's where active traders lose the most. Every round trip, buying and then selling, pays the fee twice plus the spread. If you're investing for the long term, a simple plan like buying a fixed amount every month on the trading screen with a limit order will cost a fraction of frequent trading.

9. Read the fee page once a year

Exchanges change fees, add new tiers and run promotions on specific pairs. Fifteen minutes on your exchange's fee schedule once a year, or whenever you move a larger amount, is usually enough to catch anything that has changed.

How much does a fee discount actually save?

It depends almost entirely on how much you trade. Here's the maths:

1. Standard fee = trading volume × fee rate ÷ 100
2. Fee after discount = standard fee × (1 − discount ÷ 100)
3. Saving = standard fee − fee after discount

A worked example with made-up numbers, not any exchange's real rates: you trade €5,000 over a year, the fee rate is 0.10% and your referral code gives a 20% discount.

• Standard fee: €5,000 × 0.10 ÷ 100 = €5.00
• After the discount: €5.00 × 0.8 = €4.00
• Saving: €1.00

For an occasional buyer, that's not much, and avoiding a 1.5% spread on an instant buy would save fifteen times more. For someone trading €50,000 a year, the same discount saves €10, and it stacks with everything else on this list. Try your own numbers:

Use the fee rate shown on your own account's fee page. The calculator only covers trading fees, not spreads, deposits or withdrawals.

A realistic order of priorities

If you only do three things:

1. Buy on the trading screen instead of the instant-buy screen.
2. Fund your account by SEPA transfer, not by card.
3. When you open a new account, use a referral code that gives a fee discount or rebate.

Everything else on this list is fine-tuning.