Maker order
A maker order is any order that rests in the order book before filling, adding liquidity for other traders. It earns the lower maker fee when it eventually executes.
The defining property of a maker order is that it does not execute the moment it is placed. A limit buy below the current best ask, or a limit sell above the current best bid, has no immediate match — so it joins the order book at its price level and waits. When another trader's order later fills against it, your side of the trade is the "maker" side.
Maker status is about execution, not order type. The same limit order can be maker or taker depending on where its price sits relative to the book at the moment it arrives. Traders who strictly want maker execution use a post-only flag, which cancels the order instead of letting it fill as a taker.
The practical payoff is cost: maker fills are billed at the maker fee, typically around half the taker rate. For high-volume strategies that difference — multiplied across hundreds of fills and then further reduced by a fee rebate — decides whether the strategy is profitable at all.
Maker vs taker fees — full comparison →