Funding fee or trading fee: which one costs you more?

Two costs, two clocks

• Trading fee: notional value × fee rate, charged on every fill — when you open and again when you close (see how futures fees are calculated). Market orders pay the taker rate, resting limit orders the maker rate. At standard rates on loweef's partner exchanges the taker fee is 0.04–0.05% per side.
• Funding: notional value × funding rate, paid or received at each settlement while the position is open. BingX, OKX and MEXC settle perpetual futures at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 by default (BingX quotes Singapore time, OKX and MEXC UTC). OKX runs some contracts every 1, 2 or 4 hours and shortens the interval automatically when the rate hits its cap or floor; MEXC reserves the right to change the cycle in extreme volatility.

A positive rate means longs pay shorts; a negative rate means shorts pay longs. OKX and MEXC both state that if you close before the settlement time you neither pay nor receive that round, and BingX settles perpetual funding only on open positions. More on the mechanism: what a funding fee is.

How to compare them for your holding time

Both costs are a percentage of the same notional value, so position size and leverage cancel out — compare the rates:

• Round-trip trading fee ≈ 2 × your fee rate (2 × taker if you enter and exit with market orders).
• Funding over the hold ≈ the sum of the funding rates at every settlement you held through.

Funding becomes the bigger cost once that sum passes 2 × your fee rate. With a steady rate and three settlements a day:

days until funding matches the round-trip fee ≈ (2 × fee rate) ÷ (3 × funding rate per settlement)

What a "normal" funding rate is differs by exchange. OKX's formula includes a fixed interest component of one basis point (one hundredth of one percent) per interval, and returns exactly that value whenever the average premium stays within a narrow band around it. BingX's fee schedule sets the interest term to zero for its perpetual futures, so its rate follows the premium alone. MEXC describes its rate as non-fixed, driven by the gap between the perpetual and spot prices. Check the live rate on the contract before you hold through a settlement.

Which one dominates, by trading style

• Scalping and intraday, closed before settlement: no funding at all. Every round trip pays the trading fee again, so fees are the cost that grows with activity (see break-even price with fees).
• Swing positions held for days on the paying side: funding is charged three times a day by default and keeps adding up, while the trading fee was paid once at entry and will be paid once at exit. In a crowded, trending market the premium widens and funding can overtake the round-trip fee much sooner than in a calm market.
• Holding the receiving side: funding is income and offsets part of your fees — but the rate can flip at the next settlement.
• Hedge mode with both sides open: each leg pays or receives funding on its own notional value, and each leg pays its own trading fees (see hedge mode fees).

What a fee rebate reduces — and what it doesn't

A fee rebate gives you back a share of the trading fees you pay: on loweef's partner exchanges, 50–65% of each fee comes back to you, accruing daily in USDT. Funding is exchanged between traders, isn't exchange revenue, and no rebate covers it. For a short-term trader the rebate therefore applies to nearly the whole cost; for someone holding through many settlements it applies only to the trading-fee part. Run your own volume in the calculator or the fees-paid estimator.

Check your own split

Exchanges list funding and trading fees as separate entries in the futures ledger, so you can add up each side for any period — see where to see the trading fees you paid.