Kraken Fee Tiers for a Trading Bot in 2026: What $5k, $20k and $100k a Month Actually Pays (vs Crypto.com and Alpaca)

A trading bot on Kraken pays Kraken's normal spot schedule, and the schedule is a ladder, not a number. At the published tiers read on November 3, 2026, a bot that enters and exits with market orders pays about $30 a month at $5,000 of monthly volume, $76 at $20,000 and $250 at $100,000. The same bot pays $25, $80 and $250 on the Crypto.com Exchange and $12.50, $50 and $220 on Alpaca. The 0.80% figure that every comparison quotes for Kraken applies only until an account's trailing 30-day volume passes $2,500, which a $500-a-trade bot does in its first five fills. This page prices the whole ladder, shows why a fresh account's first month costs about a third more than the steady-state number, and marks the exact volume bands where Kraken is the cheaper of the three, because there are some.

Kraken's spot fee schedule, every tier

From Kraken's fee schedule, the Spot Crypto tiers by 30-day volume in USD, maker then taker. Kraken moved to this schedule in July 2026 and explained the change on its blog.

• Tier 1, $0 and up: 0.40% maker, 0.80% taker.
• Tier 2, $2,500 and up: 0.30% maker, 0.60% taker.
• Tier 3, $10,000 and up (or $20,000 of assets on the platform): 0.22% maker, 0.38% taker.
• Tier 4, $25,000 (or $50,000 of assets): 0.20% maker, 0.35% taker.
• Tier 5, $50,000 (or $100,000 of assets): 0.15% maker, 0.30% taker.
• Tier 6, $100,000 (or $200,000 of assets): 0.12% maker, 0.25% taker.
• Tier 7, $250,000: 0.10% maker, 0.22% taker. Tier 8, $500,000: 0.08% and 0.20%. Tier 9, $1 million: 0.06% and 0.18%. The ladder continues to 0% maker and 0.10% taker at $10 million, and a Pro schedule above that reaches 0.05% taker at $500 million.

Four rules on the same page decide what a bot actually pays. The tier is the best of your 30-day spot volume or your assets on the platform, so holding $20,000 of coins on Kraken puts an account at tier 3 pricing before it has traded a dollar. Tiers are assessed after every trade, not once a day. Volume from Kraken's Instant Buy feature does not count toward the tiers. And stablecoin and FX pairs run on a separate schedule (0.20% maker and taker at the entry level) whose volume does not count toward the crypto tiers either, so a bot that parks in USDT between trades is not climbing the ladder while it does.

What a bot pays at $5,000, $20,000 and $100,000 a month

Volume means every fill, buys and sells, so a $500 round trip is $1,000 of volume. A rules-based bot that enters at market and exits on a stop or target that crosses the book pays the taker rate on both legs; that is the honest case for most automation, including ours, and it is the case priced here. The steady-state bill assumes the account's trailing 30-day volume already equals the month's turnover, which is what a bot that runs every month settles into.

• $5,000 a month. Kraken sits at tier 2 (0.60% taker): $30. Crypto.com Exchange at its entry level (0.50%): $25. Alpaca (0.25%): $12.50.
• $20,000 a month. Kraken reaches tier 3 (0.38%): $76. Crypto.com reaches its second level (0.40%): $80. Alpaca, still on its first tier: $50.
• $100,000 a month. Kraken at tier 6 (0.25%): $250. Crypto.com at its third level (0.25%): $250. Alpaca steps to 0.22%: $220.

Limit entries change the bill. A bot that enters with a resting limit order and exits with a market order pays the maker rate going in and the taker rate coming out, which at $20,000 a month is $60 on Kraken, $60 on Crypto.com and $40 on Alpaca. A bot that could rest both legs would pay the maker rate twice, but a stop-loss that fires is a taker order on every exchange, so the maker-both-ways column on a fee page is one that a bot with stops never gets.

The first month costs more: the tier ladder on a fresh account

The steady-state numbers above assume the account arrived with volume. A new account arrives at tier 1 and climbs as it trades, and because Kraken reassesses the tier after every fill, the first month is a staircase. We simulated it: a fresh Kraken account, $500 fills, $20,000 of volume. The first five fills pay 0.80%, the next fourteen pay 0.60% until trailing volume passes $10,000, and the rest pay 0.38%. Total: $103 against the $76 steady-state bill, 36% more. At $100,000 with $2,000 fills the first month costs $363 against $250, because the account spends its first $50,000 of volume climbing through five tiers. At $5,000 the difference is small, $35 against $30, because the account only clears one step.

Crypto.com's levels update once a day at 04:00 UTC rather than after every fill, so its first-month climb is similar in shape and a day slower: about $90 against $80 at $20,000 and $335 against $250 at $100,000. Alpaca has one tier until $100,000 of volume, so a new Alpaca account pays the same in month one as in month twelve, which is the one genuinely flat schedule of the three.

The assets-on-platform column is the shortcut. An account holding $20,000 of crypto on Kraken starts at tier 3, so its $20,000 bot month costs $76 from the first fill instead of $103. At $100,000 of assets it starts at tier 5, and the first-month premium at $100,000 of volume shrinks from $113 to about $26. Kraken is the only one of the three that prices on holdings as well as turnover, and for a bot that trades a slice of a larger stack that is the most valuable line on the page.

Where Kraken is cheaper, and where it is not

Our head-to-head comparison said Crypto.com is the cheaper exchange to trade on, and at the entry tiers it is. The full ladders tell a more useful story, by trailing 30-day volume, taker rate on both legs:

• Under $2,500: Crypto.com 0.50% beats Kraken 0.80%. Alpaca 0.25% beats both.
• $2,500 to $10,000: Crypto.com 0.50% beats Kraken 0.60%. Alpaca 0.25%.
• $10,000 to $25,000: Kraken 0.38% beats Crypto.com 0.40%. Alpaca 0.25%.
• $25,000 to $50,000: Kraken 0.35% beats Crypto.com 0.40%. Alpaca 0.25%.
• $50,000 to $100,000: Crypto.com 0.25% beats Kraken 0.30% and ties Alpaca.
• $100,000 to $250,000: Kraken and Crypto.com tie at 0.25%; Alpaca 0.22%.
• $250,000 and up: Crypto.com 0.20% beats Kraken 0.22%, then 0.18% against 0.20% from $500,000; Alpaca 0.22% to $500,000, then 0.20%.

So the line that Kraken is the expensive exchange is true for an account turning over less than $10,000 a month and false between $10,000 and $50,000, where Kraken's faster step-downs make it the cheaper of the two exchanges. Alpaca is the cheapest venue until $50,000 of monthly volume and never worse than a tie after that, with the caveat from our spread measurements that its quoted spreads on smaller pairs were wider than the exchanges', which matters more than a few hundredths of a percent of fee once you trade outside Bitcoin and Ether.

What this looks like from our side

JorgAI runs rules-based trading in members' own Kraken, Crypto.com Exchange and Alpaca accounts, and the fee facts above are the ones our own fills confirm. Our October test fills on a fresh Kraken account paid 0.80% each way, exactly tier 1. The Kraken adapter sends dollar-sized market buys, which are taker orders, and places exits as limit sells at the quoted price, which usually cross and fill as taker orders; a protective exit that does not fill within seconds is cancelled and resent at market. In other words a rules bot with stops lives in the taker column, and we price it that way rather than quoting the maker rate.

The other first-hand number is how little a cautious system trades. Over the last 30 days our crypto analysis step looked at 1,059 setups across the three venues and returned a hold on 857 of them, with 78 buy calls. Fewer round trips is the cheapest fee tier there is, and a bot that acts on a small fraction of what it looks at keeps a $20,000 account well under the $20,000-a-month turnover that these bills assume. JorgAI charges no trading fees of its own; the subscription is flat and the exchange's schedule is the whole cost, which is why it belongs on a page like this one.

Paying less on Kraken without leaving Kraken

None of these is advice about what to trade. They are the levers the fee page itself exposes.

• Consolidate volume on one account. Tiers are per account. Two accounts each turning over $10,000 pay 0.60% on both; one account turning over $20,000 pays 0.38%.
• Keep assets on the platform. $20,000 of holdings buys tier 3 pricing, $50,000 buys tier 4, $100,000 buys tier 5, with no trading required.
• Rest the entry where the strategy allows. A limit entry that fills pays 0.22% instead of 0.38% at tier 3. The exit still crosses the book when a stop fires.
• Skip Instant Buy and stablecoin pairs if you are climbing. Neither counts toward the crypto tier volume, and Instant Buy carries its own pricing.
• Give a bot a key with only the permissions it needs. Unrelated to fees, but the same settings page: which Kraken API key toggles a bot needs and which to leave off.

Quick answers

What are Kraken's fee tiers in 2026?

Spot crypto: 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker under $2,500 of 30-day volume, 0.30% and 0.60% from $2,500, 0.22% and 0.38% from $10,000, 0.20% and 0.35% from $25,000, 0.15% and 0.30% from $50,000, 0.12% and 0.25% from $100,000, stepping down to 0% maker and 0.10% taker at $10 million. Assets held on the platform can qualify an account for tier 3 and above without the volume.

How much does a Kraken trading bot pay in fees per month?

At the published tiers, a bot entering and exiting at market pays about $30 on $5,000 of monthly volume, $76 on $20,000 and $250 on $100,000, once the account has that volume behind it. A fresh account pays more in its first month ($35, $103 and $363) while it climbs the tiers.

Does Kraken charge bots a different fee?

No. A bot trading through the API pays the same spot schedule as a person clicking in Kraken Pro, and its fills count toward the same 30-day volume.

Is Kraken or Crypto.com cheaper for an automated trader?

Crypto.com under $10,000 of monthly volume (0.50% against 0.60% to 0.80%), Kraken between $10,000 and $50,000 (0.38% and 0.35% against 0.40%), Crypto.com again from $50,000 (0.25% against 0.30%), and a tie from $100,000 to $250,000. Alpaca is cheaper than both until $50,000.

Do buys and sells both count toward Kraken's 30-day volume?

Yes. Every executed spot crypto trade counts, so a $1,000 round trip adds $2,000 of volume. Instant Buy and stablecoin or FX pair volume do not count.

Data: Kraken, Crypto.com Exchange and Alpaca fee pages read on November 3, 2026; the monthly bills are the published rate times the volume at the tier that volume qualifies for, and the first-month figures are a fill-by-fill simulation of a new account at $500 fills ($2,000 at $100,000). Adapter behaviour and the 30-day analysis counts are JorgAI's own. Fees change; the exchange's page is the authority on the day you trade, and none of this is a claim about returns.

To price your own trade size and order style on all three venues, the crypto fee and spread calculator applies the same tiers. If you keep your crypto on Kraken, how to connect it takes about five minutes with the key permissions above, and the setup guide walks through the rules a bot runs on. Start a free trial and the exchange's fee, not ours, is the only trading cost.