Tools

Challenge real-cost calculator

How much will you spend on average to get a funded account, then a first payout? Enter your own assumptions: pass rates, fees, payout chance.

Your assumptions, not statistics

This site provides no pass rate, fee or payout statistic. Every figure comes from you, and the result is only as reliable as your inputs. Nothing here is a prediction or advice. Read the risk warning

Load an example

Example values loaded: illustrative example, not a statistic. Change them, then calculate.

Fees

Same currency everywhere; no symbol needed.

Challenge fee

Price of one attempt at the challenge. 0 is allowed.

After a failed attempt

What you pay for every attempt after the first.

Buy a new challenge (same fee) Reset the attempt (reset fee)

Reset fee (optional)

Price of each retry when you choose "Reset". Required with that choice.

Challenge phases

One pass rate per phase, in percent. Leave phases 2 and 3 empty if the challenge has fewer phases.

Phase 1 pass rate (%)

Share of attempts that pass this phase, from 0 to 100.

Phase 2 pass rate (%) (optional)

Share of attempts that pass phase 2, once phase 1 is passed. Empty: no phase 2.

Phase 3 pass rate (%) (optional)

Same for phase 3. Empty: no phase 3. Fill in phase 2 first.

Funded account

Everything after the challenge. Without the payout chance (q), the payout outputs are not shown.

Activation fee (optional)

Paid once, when the funded account is opened. Empty counts as 0.

Fee refund at the first payout

Refunded once, only if the funded account reaches a first payout.

Refund value (optional)

Percent of the challenge fee, or an amount, depending on the choice on the left.

Chance of a first payout, q (%) (optional)

Share of funded accounts that reach a first payout. Empty: payout outputs are not computed.

Average gross profit before that payout, G (optional)

Profit a funded account makes on average before its first payout, before your share.

Your profit share, s (%) (optional)

Part of the profit that goes to you, from 0 to 100.

Budget

Optional: how far a fixed budget goes.

Budget for attempts (optional)

Total you can spend on challenge attempts. Empty: budget outputs are not shown.

Clear the form

How it is calculated

The model is deliberately simple. Every input is your assumption; the formulas only combine them.

Symbols

P: chance that one attempt ends in a funded account (product of the pass rates of the phases you filled in)
F: challenge fee; R = reset fee, and R′ = R if you choose "Reset", otherwise R′ = F
A: activation fee of the funded account, paid once
q: chance that a funded account reaches a first payout
G: average gross profit before that first payout
s: your profit share
R_f: fee refund at the first payout: a percentage of F, or a fixed amount
B: budget for attempts

Formulas

Success per attempt

P = p₁ × p₂ × p₃

One rate per phase, as a fraction (40 % = 0.4). Only the phases you filled in count.
Attempts to a funded account

E[N] = 1 / P

Independent attempts with the same P: the number of attempts to the first success follows a geometric law, whose mean is 1 / P.
Cost to a funded account

C = F + (1 / P − 1) × R′ + A

The first attempt costs F, each further attempt R′; without a reset fee this is F / P + A.
Cost to a first payout

C_p = C / q

Each cycle, from a new challenge to a funded account, ends in a payout with chance q; the number of cycles is geometric with mean 1 / q.
Expected gain and net gain

gain = q × G × s net = q × G × s + q × R_f − C

The refund is paid at the first payout only, so it counts with chance q. The net gain is per funded account obtained; on a first-payout basis it is the same amount divided by q, with the same sign.
Break-even

q* = C / (G × s + R_f) G* = (C / q − R_f) / s

Value of q, or of G, that cancels the net gain while the other values stay constant.
Budget

N = 1 + ⌊(B − F) / R′⌋ P(at least one) = 1 − (1 − P)^N

N = 0 if B < F. If retries are free, the number of attempts is unlimited.
Attempts for a given chance c

n = ⌈ ln(1 − c) / ln(1 − P) ⌉

Shown for 50 %, 90 % and 95 %. The maximum spend after n attempts is F + (n − 1) × R′.

Special cases

P = 0: no funded account is possible, the expectations are infinite and no figure is divided by zero.
P = 100 %: one attempt is enough; the expected cost is F + A.
Zero fees give zero costs; the probabilities are unchanged.
q missing: the outputs that depend on q are not shown.
Displayed numbers are rounded to 2 decimals; the calculations keep full precision.

Limits of the model

Every value is your own assumption. This site publishes no pass rate, fee or payout statistic.
Attempts are independent and the probabilities are constant: no learning effect, no change of approach between attempts.
No firm-specific rules: drawdown, time limits, minimum trading days, consistency rules, payout caps, scaling.
No monthly fees, data or platform costs, taxes, currency conversion or payment fees.
The gain is a profit share before tax, computed from a single average G; the refund is counted once.
An expected value is an average over many tries. A single person can spend several times more, or less, than the average.