Kraken is a well-established centralized crypto exchange that uses a volume-based maker-taker fee model. The exchange is known for its transparent fee schedule and security track record.
Kraken Spot Trading Fees
For spot trading, Kraken starts at a 0.16% maker fee and a 0.26% taker fee at the lowest volume tier (under $50,000 in 30-day volume). These rates decline as your monthly volume increases. At the highest tier, maker fees reach near zero for institutional-level trading volumes.
How Taker Fees Are Triggered
On Kraken, a taker fee is charged whenever a trade order immediately matches against an existing order already in the order book. All market orders incur the taker fee. Limit orders that are priced to match immediately — meaning the price is already at or beyond the best available counterpart — also incur taker fees, even though they were submitted as limit orders.
Using the Post Limit Order option on Kraken ensures your limit order is placed as a maker order, or cancelled if it would execute immediately as a taker.
Post Limit Order Option
Kraken offers a Post Limit Order option that guarantees maker status. When enabled, if your limit order would execute immediately (making you a taker), the order is cancelled instead. This is useful for traders who want to always pay the lower maker rate and are willing to let the order cancel rather than pay taker fees.
Futures Fees on Kraken
Kraken's futures platform has a separate fee structure. Maker fees on futures are typically very low, with taker fees somewhat higher. The same principle applies — limit orders that rest in the book earn the maker rate, while aggressive market orders pay the taker rate.
Very useful explanation. I switched to Post Only mode on Binance after reading something similar and my monthly fee spend dropped noticeably.
Great breakdown of how maker and taker fees work. Using limit orders has definitely helped me reduce costs.
This is the clearest explanation of the maker-taker model I have come across. The table comparing order types is especially helpful.
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