Perp DEX fees compared: what a $100K trade really costs
Short answer: As of 14 Nov 2026, Lighter (Standard accounts), Paradex (retail) and Variational charge zero trading fees, each with a catch: order delays or a quoted spread. Among paid order books, Extended is cheapest at 0.025% taker and Hyperliquid's base tier is priciest at 0.045%. On a $100K BTC market order, fees, not slippage, make up most of your cost on most venues.
Base-tier fees, side by side
| DEX | Model | Maker | Taker | Zero-fee option | Catch | Cost score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | Order book | 0% | 0% | Standard account | 300 ms taker delay (Lighter docs) | 10/10 |
| Paradex | Order book | 0% | 0% | Retail (app) orders | 500 ms order delay (FalconX); API (Pro) traders pay 0.003% maker and 0.045% taker at the base tier (Paradex docs) | 9/10 |
| Variational | RFQ | 0% | 0% | All trades | Cost is inside the quoted spread (Datawallet) | 8/10 |
| Extended | Order book | 0% | 0.025% | Maker rebates 0.002-0.010% | None on fees | 9/10 |
| edgeX | Order book | 0.012% | 0.038% | VIP tiers from $5M volume | Hourly funding | 7/10 |
| Aster | Order book | 0% | 0.04% | None; RWA pairs, including USD1 RWA pairs, are 0.0125% taker (Aster docs) | Paying in ASTER gives 5% off | 8/10 |
| Pacifica | Order book | 0.015% | 0.040% | 0% maker only at VIP (>$100M 14-day volume) | None on fees | 7/10 |
| Hyperliquid | Order book | 0.015% | 0.045% | HIP-3 "growth mode" markets: fees cut by 90%+ | Staking discounts 5-40% | 6/10 |
| GMX | Oracle pool | 0.04-0.06% open/close | 0.04-0.06% open/close | None | Borrow fee + price impact | 6/10 |
| Jupiter Perps | Oracle pool | 0.06% open/close | 0.06% open/close | None | Price impact fee; total up to 0.50% | 5/10 |
Sources: Hyperliquid fees, Lighter fees, Extended fees, Pacifica fees, GMX docs, Jupiter Perps fees, The Block on edgeX, Blockworks on Aster, Aster fees, Paradex fees. All checked 9-14 Nov 2026. Fee schedules change; check the DEX's own page before trading.
What a $100K BTC market buy costs (one way)
Taker fee plus the slippage we measured walking a $100K buy through each public order book (average of our snapshots: 2 days for most venues, 1 day for edgeX and Paradex).
| DEX | Taker fee | Measured slippage | Approx. total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter (Standard) | $0 | ~$5 | ~$5 |
| Extended | $25 | ~$1 | ~$26 |
| Lighter (Premium, no LIT staked) | $28 | ~$5 | ~$33 |
| edgeX | $38 | ~$1 (1 snapshot) | ~$39 |
| Aster | $40 | ~$1 | ~$41 |
| Pacifica (Tier 1) | $40 | ~$3 | ~$43 |
| Hyperliquid (Tier 0) | $45 | ~$8 | ~$53 |
| Paradex (retail, app orders) | $0 | ~$79 (1 snapshot) | ~$79 |
| Jupiter Perps | $60 | price impact fee, varies | $60+ |
| GMX | $40-60 | price impact, varies | $40-60+ |
Read it like this: on majors, the fee schedule decides who's cheap. Slippage on a $100K BTC order was about 1 basis point or less on most books. The exception was Paradex: its book including retail (RPI) orders was thinner at this size in our one snapshot, so zero fees didn't make it the cheapest. One snapshot isn't a pattern, and we'll know more after 7 days.
Slippage preview: $100K market orders
This is the measured price move, before fees, across 4 markets.
| DEX | Days | BTC $100K | ETH $100K | SOL $100K | HYPE $100K | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperliquid | 2 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.9 | API shows top 20 levels only. |
| Lighter | 2 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 2.7 | |
| Aster | 2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.8 | |
| Extended | 2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.8 | |
| edgeX | 1 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 1.3 | 1 snapshot so far (V2 API). |
| Pacifica | 2 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 2.8 | n/a | API shows top 10 levels only. |
| Paradex | 1 | 9.1 | 1.4 | 20.0 | 20.7 | Interactive book incl. retail (RPI) orders. 1 snapshot so far. |
Slippage only, in basis points (1 bp = 0.01%): the average of a $100K market buy and sell walked through the public order book, averaged over snapshot days. Fees not included. Snapshots: 9 Nov 2026 ~12:25 UTC and 14 Nov 2026 ~14:40 UTC. n/a = book too thin in the levels the API shows.
What it shows: - BTC and ETH books are deep on every venue we measured except Paradex. Differences of a fraction of a basis point won't matter to most traders. On Paradex, a $100K BTC buy moved the price about 8 basis points in our one snapshot. - Alts are where books thin out. SOL and HYPE orders of $100K moved prices 1-4 basis points on some venues, and about 19-22 basis points on Paradex. - Paradex has two books. Its plain public API leaves out retail-price-improvement (RPI) orders, so we measure its interactive book, which includes them (Paradex docs). We started on 14 Nov.
This is a preview. The execution factor joins the Perp DEX risk scorecard: 10 DEXs ranked by risk once every DEX has 7 daily snapshots. Oracle-priced venues (GMX, Jupiter Perps) and RFQ (Variational) need a different method, which we're building.
Fees aren't the whole cost
- Funding: paid between longs and shorts, often hourly. It can cost more than fees on a position held for days. edgeX settles funding hourly (edgeX docs).
- Borrow fees: oracle-pool DEXs charge borrow fees that rise with pool utilization. On GMX the side with more open interest pays; on Jupiter Perps every open position pays an hourly rate (GMX docs, Jupiter docs).
- Delays: zero-fee tiers often add latency (300 ms taker on Lighter Standard, 500 ms on Paradex retail). For fast traders that costs more than the fee saved.
- Risk: the cheapest venue isn't automatically the lowest-risk one. Cost is only 5% of the Perp DEX risk scorecard: 10 DEXs ranked by risk. Exit risk is 20%.
How we picked
- Base-tier fees from each DEX's own fee page or docs, checked 9-14 Nov 2026.
- Slippage measured by us from public order-book APIs (no wallet, no trades) on 9 Nov (~12:25 UTC) and 14 Nov 2026 (~14:40 UTC).
- No DEX paid to be on this page. See How Perpd scores perp DEXs.
Related: Best perp DEXs in 2026, ranked by risk, Hyperliquid vs Lighter: risk, fees and exit compared, Best Hyperliquid alternatives, ranked by risk.
Sources
- Fees, Hyperliquid Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
- Trading fees, Lighter Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
- Trading fees and rebates, Extended Docs, checked 9 Nov 2026
- Trading fees, Pacifica Docs, checked 9 Nov 2026
- GMX V2 trading, GMX Docs, checked 9 Nov 2026
- Perps fees, Jupiter Docs, checked 9 Nov 2026
- edgeX research, The Block, Jan 2026
- Aster transparency report, Blockworks, H2 2026
- Paradex DIME, FalconX, 5 Mar 2026
- Variational explained, Datawallet, 28 Sep 2026
- Perpd order-book snapshots via public APIs of Hyperliquid, Lighter, Aster, Extended, edgeX, Pacifica and Paradex, 9 and 14 Nov 2026
- Retail Price Improvement (RPI), Paradex Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
- Fees, Aster Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
- Trading fees, Paradex Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
- Funding fees, edgeX Docs, checked 14 Nov 2026
FAQ
Which perp DEX has the lowest fees?
On base tiers as of 14 Nov 2026, Lighter Standard accounts and Paradex retail pay 0% maker and taker, and Variational charges no fees (its cost sits in the quoted spread). Each comes with trade-offs such as order delays. Extended is the cheapest paid order book at 0.025% taker.
Are Hyperliquid fees high?
Hyperliquid's base tier is 0.045% taker and 0.015% maker, the highest of the order-book DEXs we track. Volume tiers and HYPE staking discounts (5% to 40%) bring it down.
Does slippage matter more than fees?
Not for majors at normal sizes. In our order-book snapshots, a $100K BTC market order moved the price by about 1 basis point or less on most DEXs, while taker fees run 2.5 to 4.5 basis points.
Do zero-fee perp DEXs have a catch?
Usually a speed trade-off. Lighter Standard accounts have a 300 ms taker delay and Paradex retail orders a 500 ms delay. Variational has no fees but prices trades through its quotes.
Related
- Best perp DEXs in 2026, ranked by risk10 perp DEXs ranked by the risks that cost traders money: exits, liquidations, access, token and fees. Every score sourced. Nov 2026.
- Hyperliquid vs Lighter: risk, fees and exit comparedHyperliquid vs Lighter side by side: custody and exit, fees, markets, volume, incidents, HYPE and LIT unlocks and who can use each.
- Best Hyperliquid alternatives, ranked by risk9 Hyperliquid alternatives ranked by risk score, from Jupiter Perps to Aster: what each is, why traders pick it and its main red flag.
- Which perp DEXs block the US, UK, India and Canada?Restricted countries, KYC and legal entity for 10 perp DEXs, taken from each terms page, plus India's FIU-IND and crypto tax rules. Nov 2026.
Scores are never for sale. This page has no affiliate links and no paid placements. Not financial advice: perps are leveraged and you can lose more than you deposit.