One $1,000 order at two exchanges
Which side of the book you land on decides the bill. On November 8, 2026, exchange Kraken’s Kraken Pro fee page put its first spot tier, for accounts with $0 or more of 30-day volume in US dollars, at 0.40% for makers and 0.80% for takers. Exchange Gemini’s ActiveTrader fee schedule charged 0.60% for makers and 1.20% for takers at its lowest tier that same day.
Take a new account with no trading history buying $1,000 of bitcoin against the dollar.
| Exchange, lowest spot tier | Fee if the order rests (maker) | Fee if it fills at once (taker) |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken Pro, 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker | $4.00 | $8.00 |
| Gemini ActiveTrader, 0.60% maker / 1.20% taker | $6.00 | $12.00 |
A resting order at Kraken costs a third of a taker order at Gemini. That is a threefold gap. Both exchanges cut these rates as 30-day volume or account balance grows, and Gemini says it charges the fee in the second currency of the pair, so a BTC/USD fee is paid in dollars.
Where the rates show up
Exchange fee pages print them as a tier table, one column for makers and one for takers. Gemini recalculates each customer’s tier every day at about 2am UTC, its schedule says. Exchange Coinbase is the odd one out.
The help center for Coinbase Advanced, its trading platform, explains maker and taker orders but sends you to a fee page that needs a signed-in account, and it says fees “will always be displayed on the order preview page.”
Not every button on an exchange uses this model. Kraken’s general fee schedule charges a 1% trading fee on instant and recurring trades, and the price shown there also includes a spread.
The limit order mistake
Does a limit order always earn the maker rate? No. What matters is whether it fills at once. Coinbase lists an “immediately fulfilled limit order” among taker orders, and Gemini’s schedule says that when an order is partly matched, the part that fills at once pays the taker fee while the rest pays the maker fee only when someone later fills it.
A buy limit priced at or above the cheapest offer on the book fills straight away, so it is charged as a taker, and a large one can fill across several price levels up to its limit, the order-book form of slippage.
Gemini adds that canceling a resting order costs nothing. Before counting on the lower rate, check that a buy limit sits below the best offer, or a sell limit above the best bid, at the moment you send it.