Why does a subscription count every month?

On monthly billing the fee keeps running until you pass or cancel. If you need three months, you pay three months. Set the months as you realistically expect them.

Is the break-even a target I will reach?

No. It only says from which simulated profit a payout would cover your costs. Most participants do not pass the evaluation; the source for that is in the risk box.

Calculator

Challenge cost & break-even

What the challenge costs you before a first payout would be possible – and how much simulated profit earns it back.

Discount headlines show the purchase price. This adds everything else: subscription months, activation, resets, data feed.

Search firm, programme or account size

876 matching challenges.

Use a challenge's figures

Fills the fields with the firm's figures. Every field stays editable.

Currency

Account size (simulated)

Challenge price

Billing

Evaluation billing months

Your assumption. On a subscription you pay every month until you pass or cancel.

Activation fee after passing

Planned resets or re-purchases

How many extra attempts you budget for. 0 is fine.

Price per reset or re-purchase

Data/platform months until first request

Data feed or platform per month

Your profit split

Deduction before the split (e.g. conversion)

Firm refunds the fee with the first payout

Only if the firm says so. The refund only comes if a payout actually happens.

What the challenge costs you

US$500.00

before a first payout would be possible. Without a payout this money is gone.

Purchase or subscription: US$500.00
Activation: US$0.00
Resets / re-purchases: US$0.00
Data feed: US$0.00
Total: US$500.00

Break-even: simulated profit needed

US$625.00

This much simulated profit on the "funded" account, so that one payout (plus refund) covers your costs. That is 0.63 % of the account size.

Note: A calculation aid using your own assumptions. Not investment advice and not a forecast of success: simulated profits are not income, and most challenges are not passed. The firm's rules that actually apply to your account govern.

Risk: know this before you buy

Prop challenges are paid evaluation programmes, mostly on simulated accounts. Most participants do not pass: in an analysis by FPFX Tech covering about 100,000 traders at 10 firms, about 14% of traders passed and about 7% received a payout (Finance Magnates, 18 Sep 2024; methodology not disclosed, FPFX sells software to prop firms).

The firms are generally not supervised by FINMA, BaFin, the FMA or the FCA. There is no investor or deposit protection and no ombudsman. The Financial Commission is a private dispute-resolution body, not a regulator.

Firms can change their rules unilaterally and are often the counterparty themselves. Austria's FMA compares paid challenges to the relationship between a player and a casino.

For readers in Austria: the FMA raises the question of a licensable activity for participants themselves too (FMA, "Was ist Prop Trading?", 8 May 2026).

Finance Magnates on FPFX (18 Sep 2024)FMA: Was ist Prop Trading? (German)

How this is calculated

What is added up

The purchase price (on a subscription, times the months you plan for), the activation fee after passing, every planned reset or re-purchase, and monthly data or platform fees. That is what you pay before a payout is even possible – and what you lose if it never comes.

Refunds only with a payout

Some firms refund the evaluation fee with the first payout. The calculator therefore only deducts it in the "net after refund" line. Resets and activation fees are generally not refunded.

Break-even

The simulated profit needed is the smallest profit at which one payout, after your split and any deduction (for example for currency conversion), plus the refund covers your costs. Formula: (cost − refund) ÷ (split × (1 − deduction)). Firm rules such as minimum trading days, consistency rules or minimum amounts apply on top in practice.