Maker and Taker Fees: How Your Order Choices Affect Costs

Every trade you place on Bybit is classified as either a maker or a taker order, and that classification decides which side of the fee schedule applies to you. The distinction is not about how large your order is or how often you trade; it is about whether your order adds liquidity to the order book or removes it. A limit order that rests in the book and waits to be filled is normally treated as a maker order. An order that executes immediately against an existing resting order, such as a market order or an aggressive limit order, is normally treated as a taker order. Because the two roles can carry different rates, the same trade idea can cost noticeably more or less depending on how you choose to enter and exit. This guide walks through how the roles are determined, how to read your own order history to see which role you actually got, and what habits help you align order choices with your strategy instead of paying for convenience you did not need. It is written for readers anywhere who want a repeatable way to check costs before committing funds, and it points you to the official fee page and help centre rather than quoting rates that change.

What maker and taker actually mean

The order book is a queue of resting buy and sell orders. When you place an order that sits in that queue and is later matched by someone else, you have provided liquidity, and Bybit classifies that fill as a maker fill. When you place an order that matches against an order already in the queue, you have taken liquidity out of the book, and that fill is classified as a taker fill. The label applies per fill, not per account and not per day, so a single strategy can produce both maker and taker fills within the same session.

This matters because the fee schedule lists separate rates for each role, and those rates can also differ by product. Spot, derivatives and other product lines each have their own table, and the row that applies to you may depend on your trading volume tier or on whether you hold a particular account status. Never assume the rate you saw for one product carries over to another. Open the official trading fee page, find the table for the exact product and order type you intend to use, and note the maker and taker columns before you size a position.

How your order type decides the role

A market order is the clearest taker case: it has to cross the spread to execute, so it removes liquidity and is normally charged the taker rate. A limit order placed away from the current price usually rests in the book, and if it is later filled by another participant it is normally a maker fill. The complication appears when a limit order is priced through the current market, because it can execute immediately and be treated as a taker fill even though you technically submitted a limit order. The order type label on your screen does not guarantee the fee role; the execution behaviour does.

Post-only and similar order flags exist to prevent that surprise. A post-only order is rejected or repriced if it would execute immediately, which keeps it in the maker role. If your reason for using a limit order is the maker rate, a post-only setting is the more reliable tool than a limit order alone. Before you rely on it, confirm in the help centre how the flag behaves on the product you trade, including what happens when the market moves through your price while the order is resting.

Timing also changes the outcome. Placing a resting order during a quiet period and cancelling it before it fills produces no fill and therefore no trading fee, but it does consume your attention and may leave you exposed to a price move you did not intend. Decide in advance how long you are willing to leave an order working, and what price movement would make you cancel it rather than chase it.

Checking which role you actually got

Do not infer your fee role from the order ticket. Open your order history or trade history in the Bybit interface and look at the fee column for each fill. If the interface labels the role, record it next to the order type you used. If it does not, compare the charged amount against the maker and taker rows on the official fee page for that product and volume tier, and note which row matches. Building a short log of order type, role and charged fee over a week of normal activity tells you more about your real cost profile than any general rule.

Watch for partial fills. A single limit order can fill in several pieces, and those pieces can be classified differently if part of the order rests and part executes immediately against incoming flow. Check the individual fills rather than the order summary, because a summary can hide a mix of maker and taker fees. If you see a pattern you cannot explain, the help centre is the place to look for how the exchange assigns roles on that product, and the fee page is where the corresponding rates are listed.

Also record the product and the timestamp for each entry. Fee schedules are revised from time to time, and a rate you confirmed last month may not match the current table. Re-checking the official page before a large trade is a cheap habit; reconstructing a disputed charge afterwards is not.

Aligning order choices with your strategy

If your plan depends on entering and exiting quickly, taker fees are part of the cost of that speed, and the honest approach is to budget for them rather than try to disguise a market order as a limit order. If your plan tolerates waiting, resting limit orders can put you in the maker role, but only if the market actually comes to your price. An order that never fills has no fee and also no position, which is a real outcome you should accept before choosing this route.

For strategies that place many small orders, the role of each fill compounds. A few basis points of difference between maker and taker treatment, repeated across dozens of fills, changes the break-even point of the whole approach. Estimate the number of fills your plan typically produces, multiply by the rates from the official fee page for your product and tier, and write the result down before you start. If the estimate is uncomfortable, the fix is usually fewer, larger orders or a different entry method, not a hope that the classification will work out in your favour.

Keep a stop condition. If you notice that most of your fills are landing in the taker column despite using limit orders, stop and investigate the order flags and pricing before continuing. If you cannot find the reason in the interface or the help centre, reduce order size until you understand the pattern. Treat any change to the fee schedule as a trigger to revisit your estimates, because a plan built on old numbers is a plan built on assumptions you have not verified.

Risk boundary: Bybit App Safety Guide

Digital assets are volatile and derivatives can amplify losses. This website has no login, wallet connection, deposit form or customer-support chat. A referral link only records attribution; it does not guarantee access, pricing, rewards, approval or investment results. Availability can differ by residence, legal entity and product, so no regional access is assumed from language or branding alone.

Scenario checkpoint

• Open the official trading fee page and note the maker and taker rows for the exact product you trade.
• Confirm whether your usual order type tends to rest in the book or execute immediately against it.
• Check your trade history fee column and record the role for each fill, including partial fills.
• Note the product, date and volume tier alongside each fee you record, since schedules are revised.
• Decide in advance how long a resting order stays open and what price move makes you cancel it.
• Re-check the fee page after any schedule change before sizing your next trade.