The cheapest prop firm challenges in 2026, futures and forex

Every price on this page is the firm’s list price, read from its own website on 18 October 2026. Promo codes change every week, so we leave them out of the ranking and track them on the deals page. The tables below update automatically whenever we update a firm’s data.

Cheapest forex prop firm challenges

Forex firms sell evaluations from about $2,000 up to $200,000 or more. The table shows each firm’s cheapest plan, cheapest first. Because the plans are different sizes, the last column shows the fee for every $1,000 of account, which is the fairer comparison.

FTMO and BrightFunded charge in euros, so their prices are in €. A euro costs more than a dollar, so both are slightly dearer than their place in the list suggests.

What the table shows

• The cheapest sticker isn’t the cheapest per dollar. Maven’s $13 buys a $2,000 account. Alpha Capital’s $27 buys $5,000, which works out cheaper for each $1,000 of account.
• Small accounts cost more per dollar than big ones. FTMO’s 1-Step 10K costs €79 (€7.90 per $1,000). Its 2-Step 100K costs €540 (€5.40 per $1,000). If you’re confident in your rules, a bigger account can be better value. If you’re still learning, the small one caps what a failure costs.
• Three-step plans are cheap for a reason. Maven’s cheapest plan and FXIFY’s Three Phase have an extra stage to pass, and every stage is another chance to hit the drawdown.

Cheapest futures prop firm challenges

Futures firms are compared on the 50K account, the size almost every trader starts with. The cost to get funded is the evaluation fee plus any activation fee you pay once you pass. Monthly evaluations keep billing until you pass, so the true cost rises with every extra month.

The same list, with ratings and filters, is on the cheapest futures prop firms ranking. Every firm is ranked on its list price; a sale that is live on the firm’s own site right now is shown beside it.

Why the cheapest challenge often isn’t the cheapest way to get funded

Most traders need more than one attempt. So the number that matters is what you pay across all your attempts, not the price of one. Here is the same trader, needing three attempts, at two firms:

Firm A looks half the price and ends up a third dearer. Before you buy, check three things on the firm’s page here:

1. Activation fee. Some firms charge nothing to activate a funded account; others charge $120 to $149.
2. Reset price. A reset that costs more than a new evaluation turns a cheap challenge into an expensive one.
3. Billing. A monthly evaluation is cheap if you pass in the first month and expensive if you take three. If you only trade a few hours a week, a one-time fee usually works out cheaper.

What about discount codes?

Most firms run a sale most weeks, often 20% to 50% off and sometimes 80% to 90% at futures firms. A code can make an expensive firm cheaper than this list for a few days, so check the deals page before you buy. Two cautions:

• A discount on the evaluation doesn’t usually apply to the activation fee or to resets.
• A permanent “sale” is close to the real price. We still rank on list prices and only show a sale while the firm’s own site is running it, so check the code at checkout.

Questions

List prices read from each firm’s website on 18 October 2026; sources and dates are on each firm’s page. Prices change often and the firm’s checkout is the final word. Some links may be affiliate links, which never change the order of these tables. Not financial advice.