Topstep in 2026: TopstepX, Express Funded Paths, Payout Caps and the 90/10 Split
Topstep rebuilt most of its program between 2025 and 2026. The Trading Combine, the Standard and Consistency paths on the Express Funded Account, payout caps by size, the Live Funded reserve, the platform and news rules, and a dated list of what changed and when.
Topstep has three stages: the Trading Combine, an evaluation on a simulated account; the Express Funded Account (XFA), a simulated funded account that pays out; and the Live Funded Account, where the trader is moved to real capital at Topstep's invitation. Each stage has its own rules, and most of them changed between July 2025 and mid-2026. This is the rulebook as Topstep's help center describes it on October 30, 2026; anything here can change, and the dates below show how often it has. How evaluations work in general is in prop firm evaluations explained.
Trading Combine
| 50K | 100K | 150K | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price, Standard path | $49 | $99 | $199 |
| Monthly price, No Activation Fee path | $95 | $149 | $229 |
| Profit target | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 |
| Maximum Loss Limit (MLL) | $2,000 | $3,000 | $4,500 |
| Maximum position | 5 minis / 50 micros | 10 / 100 | 15 / 150 |
| Optional Daily Loss Limit | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
The Maximum Loss Limit trails the end-of-day balance upward and stops once it reaches the starting balance, but it's monitored in real time, so an intraday dip through it ends the Combine even if price recovers. The Daily Loss Limit is optional and chosen at checkout; hitting it isn't a violation, it flattens positions and pauses trading until 5:00 PM CT. Adding it lowers the No Activation Fee price by $10, $20 or $30. The Standard path costs less per month and charges a one-time $149 activation fee when the XFA opens; the No Activation Fee path charges $0 then.
The Combine has a 55% consistency target: your best day divided by total profit. Going over it doesn't fail the Combine; it raises the target to the best day divided by 0.55, so a $1,800 best day on a 50K makes the target $3,273. There's no time limit, the subscription rebills every 30 days, and positions must be flat by 3:10 PM CT. How this compares with other firms' rules is in the prop firm consistency rule.
Express Funded Account: two paths
Passing traders choose a path when they activate the XFA.
| Standard | Consistency | |
|---|---|---|
| Payout eligibility | 5 winning days of $150+ net, not necessarily in a row | 3 trading days, best day no more than 40% of net profit |
| Cap per request, 50K | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Cap per request, 100K | $3,000 | $4,000 |
| Cap per request, 150K | $5,000 | $6,000 |
Each request is also limited to 50% of the account balance, with a $125 minimum. For a limited time, Combines bought with a Daily Loss Limit at checkout from June 2, 2026 get double these caps, according to the help center; Topstep hasn't published an end date. The split is 90/10 from the first dollar for traders who joined from January 12, 2026; earlier traders keep 100% of their first $10,000 in lifetime payouts, then 90/10. The broader picture of how caps limit what a funded account can pay is in prop firm payout caps.
The XFA starts at a $0 balance with the Maximum Loss Limit at −$2,000 on a 50K. It trails the end-of-day balance and locks at $0 once the balance reaches $2,000, and after the first payout it's set to $0 regardless. Size starts below the Combine's and grows with the balance under a scaling plan. A trader can hold up to five XFAs at once, and an XFA with no trading for more than 30 days may be closed.
Live Funded Account
Topstep's risk team decides who moves to Live; there are no published criteria. On the move all XFAs close, and the Live account starts with 20% of the balance tradable, at least $10,000, while the other 80% sits in a reserve that unlocks in four steps of 25% as the trader makes $3,000, $6,000 or $9,000 of net profit per step, by size. Payouts need 5 winning days of $150 or more. Before 30 winning days each request is capped at 50% with no dollar limit; after 30, payouts can be requested daily. Automated trading isn't allowed in Live.
Platform and news rules
New Combines have been available only on TopstepX, Topstep's own platform, since July 2025. When the switch was announced, Topstep said accounts already active on other platforms could keep trading there, but resets have been TopstepX-only since August 1, 2025, so a legacy account that hits its limit can only be restarted on TopstepX. Quantower works with a TopstepX login for the Combine and XFA; TradingView doesn't connect. Round-turn costs on TopstepX are $3.78 for NQ and $1.22 for MNQ, all in. Which firms still run on NinjaTrader is covered in prop firms that support NinjaTrader 8.
On the Combine and the XFA, around Tier 1 releases (CPI, the jobs report, PPI, and the FOMC decision and press conference), there's a window from 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after: for CPI that's 7:25 to 7:35 AM CT, or 8:25 to 8:35 AM ET, which is 14:25 to 14:35 in Central Europe for most of the year. No new positions in minis such as NQ can be opened in it, micros like MNQ can be opened up to a cap (3 on a 50K Combine), and positions opened before the window can be held through it.
What changed, in order
- July 7, 2025: new Combines only on TopstepX; from August 1, resets only on TopstepX.
- January 12, 2026: 90/10 split from the first dollar for new traders.
- Late April 2026: the current per-request caps on the XFA, by path and size, according to third-party trackers; Topstep's pages show the caps without a change date.
- May 29, 2026: the window to reactivate a closed XFA through Back2Funded extended from 7 to 30 days.
- June 2, 2026: double payout caps, for a limited time, on Combines bought with a Daily Loss Limit.
- June to October 2026: new products under Topstep Labs, including a 50K Combine with a static drawdown in October.
Rules that change this often are the reason to read the current help center before buying, and how firms roll changes out to existing accounts is covered in when a prop firm changes its rules. I don't hold a Topstep account, so this is a reading of the rulebook rather than a review.
Educational content, not investment advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss. Examples are for illustration only. Read the full Risk Disclosure.