FTMO Review 2026: Euro-Priced, 80% on the 2-Step, 90% on the 1-Step

Verdict

FTMO suits the trader who wants a refundable 80% product with a static 10% loss floor, not the highest headline split.

Quick facts

FTMO at a glance, verified 2026-07-27

Founded	2015 (11 years operating)
Headquarters	Prague, Czech Republic
Evaluation models	2-Step Challenge · 1-Step Challenge
Fee currency	EUR (accounts sized in USD, GBP, EUR, CZK, CAD, AUD or CHF)
Fee range	€89–€1,080 (2-Step, refundable) · €79–€999 (1-Step, non-refundable)
Largest tier sold	$200,000 (higher balances only via FTMO's scaling programme — see caveat below)
Profit split	80% on the 2-Step (to 90% via Scaling Plan or Premium Programme) · 90% on the 1-Step
Drawdown type	2-Step: static 10% max / 5% daily · 1-Step: end-of-day trailing 10% max / 3% daily
Leverage	Up to 1:100 (Standard) · up to 1:30 (Swing)
Platforms	MT4, MT5, cTrader, DXTrade
Instruments	Forex, Indices, Commodities, Crypto, Stocks
Trustpilot	4.8 from 47,019 reviews (verified 2026-07-27)

Challenges available

FTMO sells two evaluation products across the same five USD account tiers. They are not two prices for the same thing: the 2-Step pays 80% and refunds the fee, the 1-Step pays 90% and keeps it. Everything below is read from FTMO's own published pricing payload, captured 2026-07-27.

FTMO Challenge: 2-Step — price and objectives by tier

Account size	Fee (EUR)	Phase 1 target	Phase 2 target	Daily loss	Max loss	Split	Fee refunded?
$200,000	€1,080	10%	5%	5%	10% static	80%	Yes
$100,000	€540	10%	5%	5%	10% static	80%	Yes
$50,000	€345	10%	5%	5%	10% static	80%	Yes
$25,000	€250	10%	5%	5%	10% static	80%	Yes
$10,000	€89	10%	5%	5%	10% static	80%	Yes

FTMO Challenge: 1-Step — price and objectives by tier

Account size	Fee (EUR)	Profit target	Daily loss	Max loss	Best Day rule	Split	Fee refunded?
$200,000	€999	10%	3%	10% EOD trailing	50%	90%	No
$100,000	€499	10%	3%	10% EOD trailing	50%	90%	No
$50,000	€319	10%	3%	10% EOD trailing	50%	90%	No
$25,000	€199	10%	3%	10% EOD trailing	50%	90%	No
$10,000	€79	10%	3%	10% EOD trailing	50%	90%	No

Where these prices come from. FTMO does publish per-tier pricing on stable public URLs — the numbers just don't appear in the rendered page text, because the pricing table is a client-side widget. The full price list ships in the initial HTML of ftmo.com/en/, ftmo.com/en/2-step-challenge/ and ftmo.com/en/1-step-challenge/ as an inline pricing-table-data-js-extra script. All three URLs carried identical price arrays on 2026-07-27. Check the live figures on FTMO's challenge page before you buy.

Why the fees are in euros. The account balance and the fee are denominated separately. You select a $10,000–$200,000 account, but the fee renders with a euro symbol on every ftmo.com locale we checked. FTMO's own promo tooltip on the $100,000 2-Step tier states it outright: "Special Deal! $100,000 FTMO Challenge for €439 – only if you don't already have one active." A dollar account and a euro fee, in one sentence. There is no USD fee published anywhere on ftmo.com, so we quote euros and perform no conversion — an invented exchange rate would make every figure in this review unverifiable.

Two caveats on the exact amount you pay. First, FTMO warns: "Displayed price may has been rounded up. You will be charged the exact non-rounded price. Applies to FTMO Standard accounts only." Treat €345 as a rounded €345, not a to-the-cent quote. Second, the €439 (2-Step) and €449 (1-Step) figures visible on the $100,000 tiers are conditional promotional prices — both tooltips restrict them to buyers who "don't already have one active." The list prices are €540 and €499. Discounts are also locale-specific: the AU storefront carried a 20% cut to €864 on the 2-Step $200,000 tier on the same day the EN storefront showed €1,080.

Account ladders vary by currency. The same fee array applies across all seven denominations, but the balances differ: USD tops out at $200,000, GBP at £140,000, EUR and CHF at 160,000, CAD at $240,000, AUD at $260,000 and CZK at 4,000,000. If you price by balance-per-euro rather than by headline tier, the currency you pick changes the answer.

Scaling. FTMO's 80% 2-Step split "increases to 90% if Scaling Plan or Premium Programme conditions" are met — that much is published on the product page. The frequently repeated specifics (a 25% balance boost every four active months, scaling to $2,000,000) were not confirmed against a page we opened directly during the 2026-07-27 capture, so we flag them as unverified rather than restate them as terms. FTMO also advertises a free trial at ftmo.com/en/ftmo-free-trial/; its conditions are likewise uncaptured.

How the rules actually work

2-Step drawdown is static. FTMO's wording: equity "must never fall below 90% of the initial account balance at any time during the account's duration." On a $100,000 2-Step account the floor sits at $90,000 and never moves — it does not ratchet up behind a winning run. The limit counts open positions as well as closed ones, and includes commissions and swaps. That is materially more forgiving than the trailing drawdown used by Topstep and My Funded Futures, where the line follows your equity high.

1-Step drawdown trails, end-of-day. This is the single biggest structural difference between the two products, and it is easy to miss. FTMO: "The Maximum Loss Limit is a balance-based end-of-day trailing limit. It is calculated at the end of a trading day and sets a limit the account equity cannot reach or fall beneath." The amount is 10% of the initial simulated capital, and the line "can only increase, but never decrease" — it resets when a reward is withdrawn. On a $100,000 1-Step account that starts at $90,000, but after a day closing at $106,000 the floor has moved to $96,000 and stays there. Do not carry a 2-Step risk model into the 1-Step.

Daily loss differs too. The 2-Step allows 5% of the initial balance, computed as "Account balance at midnight CE(S)T minus 5% of the initial account balance" — $5,000 on a $100,000 account, anchored at the day open rather than at your intraday high. The 1-Step tightens this to 3% of the initial simulated capital, recalculated daily at 00:00 CE(S)T: $3,000 on a $100,000 account. The 1-Step's higher split is partly paid for with 40% less daily room.

Best Day (consistency) rule — 1-Step only. On the 1-Step, "Your most profitable trading day ('Best Day') must not account for more than 50% of your Positive Days' Profit." Worked example: if your winning days total $10,000 in closed profit, no single day may contribute more than $5,000; a $7,000 day means you must keep trading until the winning-day total reaches $14,000 so that day falls back to 50%. It is evaluated at 00:00 CE(S)T and applies to reward withdrawals, not just to passing. On the 2-Step this objective is switched off — FTMO's own 2-Step page ships the Best Day objective hidden, and the trading-objectives page lists it under the 1-Step only.

Minimum trading days. The 2-Step requires at least one position opened on 4 separate days, in each phase. FTMO publishes no minimum trading days for the 1-Step — the objective is hidden on that product page — so we record it as unstated rather than assume the 2-Step's 4 days carry across. Neither product has a time limit; the trading period is listed as unlimited for both.

News trading. No restriction during the evaluation process, on either account type. On a funded FTMO Account, the Standard account type prohibits opening or closing any trade — including pending orders such as stop loss or take profit — from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after selected news releases. The Swing account type has no news restriction. This is the rule that most often surprises newly funded traders, because it does not exist during the phase where they built the strategy.

Overnight and weekend holding. Same split: unrestricted during evaluation, and on the funded account the restrictions "apply only to the Standard account type. The Swing account type does not have any restrictions." Swing runs at up to 1:30 leverage against Standard's up to 1:100, so the freedom costs you position size. Choose the variant at purchase if your strategy spans sessions.

EAs and copy trading. Expert Advisors are allowed on both evaluation and funded accounts, subject to platform limits of 200 orders at a time and 2,000 maximum positions per day, and to FTMO's general requirement that trading be "legitimate (in line with proper risk management)" and conform to real market conditions. FTMO warns separately that a third-party EA shared by many traders creates max-capital-allocation risk. On copy trading specifically, our 2026-07-27 capture found no explicit statement on ftmo.com — so this review makes no claim either way. Ask support in writing before you mirror a third-party signal.

True cost to break even

Break-even here means the gross simulated profit you need before your share of it equals the fee you paid: fee ÷ split, the same formula as our true cost of prop firm challenges page. At an 80% profit split that is fee ÷ 0.80; at 90% it is fee ÷ 0.90. Both tables below are euro-denominated, because the fee is. The account column is a USD balance; the two currencies are FTMO's, not ours, and we have not bridged them with an exchange rate.

This also means we omit the usual R-multiple column. R compares break-even profit against the dollar value of the max drawdown — a euro numerator over a dollar denominator needs an FX rate we did not capture, and a ratio built on an invented rate is worse than no ratio.

FTMO 2-Step true cost, euro-denominated, at the 80% base split

Account (USD)	Fee (EUR)	Break-even profit at 80% split (EUR)	Break-even profit at 90% split (EUR)	Fee returned on first reward
USD 200,000	€1,080	€1,350	€1,200	Yes
USD 100,000	€540	€675	€600	Yes
USD 50,000	€345	€431	€383	Yes
USD 25,000	€250	€313	€278	Yes
USD 10,000	€89	€111	€99	Yes

FTMO 1-Step true cost, euro-denominated, at the 90% split

Account (USD)	Fee (EUR)	Break-even profit at 90% split (EUR)	Fee returned on first reward
USD 200,000	€999	€1,110	No
USD 100,000	€499	€554	No
USD 50,000	€319	€354	No
USD 25,000	€199	€221	No
USD 10,000	€79	€88	No

Check the arithmetic. Every row is fee ÷ split, rounded to the nearest euro. €89 ÷ 0.80 = €111. €540 ÷ 0.80 = €675, and the same fee at the scaled 90% rate is €540 ÷ 0.90 = €600. On the 1-Step, €79 ÷ 0.90 = €88 and €999 ÷ 0.90 = €1,110. No other inputs are involved.

The refund column is the point. On the 2-Step, "the paid fee is refunded with your first Reward withdrawal" — so the break-even figure is the worst case, the amount you would have to earn if you never reached a payout at all; a trader who does reach one gets the fee back on top of their 80% share. On the 1-Step, "The fee is a one-time fee and is not refunded after successfully passing" — that €499 on the $100,000 tier is spent permanently, and the €554 of gross profit in the table is the real hurdle. Comparing €540 against €499 as if they were like-for-like is the most common mistake in FTMO pricing comparisons.

What none of this captures is the probability of passing. FTMO publishes no pass rate, and we have not found one traceable to the firm, so build your sizing on the assumption that you may pay the fee more than once — which on the 1-Step means paying it more than once with no refund path.

Payout speed in practice

First reward: day 14. FTMO's rule is "You can request a Reward claim in the Account MetriX on the 14th or any following day after the first placed trade on the specific account. All open positions and pending orders must be closed." The clock starts at your first trade, not at account activation, and after that first claim the cycle is on demand rather than a fixed calendar. Both products use the same day-14 mechanism.

Processing. After you submit the request, FTMO reviews the account and notifies you within 1–2 business days, and "the Reward is typically sent within 1–2 business days after the invoice is approved" — so roughly 2–4 business days end to end when nothing is queried. Payout methods are bank wire, Skrill and crypto; we did not capture per-method fee schedules on 2026-07-27, so budget for your own receiving-bank charges rather than a figure we can't source.

Two product-specific catches. On the 1-Step, "Rewards cannot be left on the account to grow the balance", and the 50% Best Day rule is applied at withdrawal as well as at passing — a lopsided winning day can block a reward request, not just a pass. On the 2-Step, the refunded fee arrives with that first reward withdrawal, so a trader who passes and then never withdraws never sees it. As a third-party sentiment check, FTMO holds 4.8 from 47,019 reviews on Trustpilot (verified 2026-07-27).

Pros

• Per-tier pricing is published and stable. The same price array appeared on three independent ftmo.com URLs on 2026-07-27, with no login, no geo-block and no JavaScript needed to read it. You can verify what you'll be charged before you reach checkout.
• The 2-Step fee comes back. €540 on the $100,000 tier is refunded with your first reward withdrawal, which makes the effective cost of a successful attempt zero and turns the €675 break-even figure into a ceiling rather than a target.
• Static 10% drawdown on the 2-Step. The $90,000 floor on a $100,000 account is fixed for the life of the account and does not tighten after a winning run — unlike the trailing models at Topstep and My Funded Futures.
• No Best Day rule on the 2-Step. The 50% consistency constraint is switched off on that product, so a single outsized winning day cannot block a pass or a withdrawal the way it can on the 1-Step.
• News trading is unrestricted during evaluation on both account types, and remains unrestricted on funded Swing accounts. The ±2-minute window applies only to funded Standard accounts.
• No time limit on either product. The trading period is listed as unlimited for the 2-Step and the 1-Step, so a slow month costs you nothing but time — there is no expiry to trade against.
• 11 years of continuous operation since 2015, with a 4.8 Trustpilot score across 47,019 reviews as of 2026-07-27. A sample of 47,019 is large enough that the aggregate moves slowly, which makes it harder to manipulate in either direction.

Cons

• 80% is the real 2-Step split, not 90%. FTMO markets "up to 90%" on the pricing widget, but the product page states you receive 80%, rising to 90% only under Scaling Plan or Premium Programme conditions. FundedNext starts at 95% and FundingPips scales to 100%.
• The 1-Step fee is never refunded. €79–€999 is a permanent cost even if you pass, which erases most of the apparent advantage of its 10-point-higher split at the smaller tiers.
• The 1-Step's trailing drawdown and 3% daily limit are strictly tighter than the 2-Step's static 10% and 5% daily. The end-of-day limit "can only increase, but never decrease", so profitable days permanently raise your floor.
• Fees are charged in euros against dollar-sized accounts. If you earn and bank in USD, your real cost moves with EUR/USD between purchase and refund, and FTMO publishes no USD price to hedge against.
• Displayed prices are rounded. FTMO's own note: "Displayed price may has been rounded up. You will be charged the exact non-rounded price." The €439 and €449 figures on the $100,000 tiers are conditional promos, not list prices, and discounts vary by locale.
• Funded-account rules diverge from evaluation rules on news, overnight and weekend holding for Standard accounts, so a strategy validated across two phases can breach in its first funded week.
• No regulator oversees the product. FTMO operates as a Czech company; there is no CFTC, NFA, FCA or CySEC supervision of a prop evaluation product, so a payout dispute goes through the firm's own process.

Who should pick FTMO

The 2-Step at the $25,000 or $50,000 tier — €250 or €345, refundable — fits a part-time CFD trader running a small number of setups a day who wants a fixed loss floor to plan against. The static 10% drawdown means your risk model does not change as equity rises, the absence of a Best Day rule means one good day cannot cost you the pass, and 4 trading days per phase is a low bar. Budget €313 or €431 of gross profit as the notional cost of the attempt at the 80% base split, and treat the step to 90% as a later-stage possibility rather than a plan, since the Scaling Plan's specific terms were not verifiable in our 2026-07-27 capture.

Who should avoid FTMO

A trader whose edge concentrates into a few large days should avoid the 1-Step specifically: the 50% Best Day rule plus a 3% daily limit and an end-of-day trailing floor punish exactly that profile, and the €499 fee on the $100,000 tier is gone whether you pass or not. Anyone optimising for headline split should compare FundedNext at 95% or FundingPips at 100% before paying 80% on the 2-Step. Futures-only traders have no product here at all — FTMO sells CFD evaluations, so Topstep or My Funded Futures are the relevant comparisons.

US traders: check before you pay. ftmo.com declares an hreflang="en-US" alternate pointing at ftmo.oanda.com — a different domain and a different entity for the US market — and its region switcher routes "United States" there. We deliberately did not capture pricing or terms from that domain, so nothing in this review — none of the 10 euro prices, neither drawdown model, neither profit split — can be assumed to apply to a US-based trader. Verify on the storefront you are actually routed to.

FAQ

How much does the FTMO Challenge cost?

In euros, not dollars. The 2-Step is €1,080 / €540 / €345 / €250 / €89 for the $200K / $100K / $50K / $25K / $10K accounts; the 1-Step is €999 / €499 / €319 / €199 / €79 for the same balances. Prices captured from ftmo.com on 2026-07-27 and may be rounded up in display.

Is the FTMO profit split 80% or 90%?

Both, depending on the product. The 2-Step pays 80%, which "increases to 90% if Scaling Plan or Premium Programme conditions" are met — the "up to 90%" on the pricing widget refers to that ceiling, not the starting rate. The 1-Step pays 90% from the first reward.

Does FTMO refund the challenge fee?

On the 2-Step, yes: the fee is refunded with your first reward withdrawal on the funded account. On the 1-Step, no — FTMO states the fee "is not refunded after successfully passing", and the pricing widget labels it "One-time fee (non-refundable)".

What is the difference between the FTMO 1-Step and 2-Step Challenge?

Beyond phase count: the 2-Step targets 10% then 5% with a 5% daily limit and a static 10% max loss, pays 80%, requires 4 trading days per phase, and refunds the fee. The 1-Step targets 10% once with a 3% daily limit and an end-of-day trailing 10% max loss, pays 90%, adds the 50% Best Day rule, and keeps the fee.

How does the FTMO Best Day rule work?

On the 1-Step only, your single most profitable day must not exceed 50% of your Positive Days' Profit. If winning days total $10,000, no day may contribute more than $5,000; exceed it and you must keep trading until the ratio falls back under half. It is checked at 00:00 CE(S)T and applies to reward withdrawals as well as to passing. The 2-Step has this objective disabled.

How much profit do I need to break even on the fee?

Fee ÷ split. On the 2-Step $100,000 tier that is €540 ÷ 0.80 = €675 of gross profit, or €600 once you reach the 90% rate — and the fee itself comes back with the first withdrawal. On the 1-Step $100,000 tier it is €499 ÷ 0.90 = €554, with no refund behind it.

When can I take my first payout?

On the 14th day after your first placed trade, or any day after that, with all open positions and pending orders closed. FTMO reviews the request within 1–2 business days and the reward is typically sent 1–2 business days after the invoice is approved.

Can I use an EA or copy trades on FTMO?

EAs are allowed on evaluation and funded accounts, within platform limits of 200 orders at a time and 2,000 maximum positions per day, provided the trading is legitimate and conforms to real market conditions. On third-party copy trading we found no explicit ftmo.com statement in the 2026-07-27 capture, so we make no claim — confirm with support before mirroring another trader's signals.

Is FTMO regulated?

No. FTMO operates as a Czech limited company selling simulated-trading evaluations, and no CFTC, NFA, FCA or CySEC framework covers that product. Its 4.8 Trustpilot score across 47,019 reviews as of 2026-07-27 is reputational evidence, not regulatory protection.