Compare Crypto Exchange Fees in 2026

Introduction

Choosing a cryptocurrency exchange based on fees alone is a mistake — but ignoring fees is an equally expensive one. The difference between the cheapest and most expensive major exchange can cost you £50-500 per year depending on your trading volume, deposit method, and withdrawal frequency. This comparison breaks down every fee category across five major exchanges so you can make an informed choice based on how you actually use the platform.

This comparison covers five exchanges: Binance, OKX, Kraken, Bybit, and Coinbase. Coinbase's payment-method table lists Faster Payments and Easy Bank Transfer for UK customers (read 1 November 2026). For any platform, verify the named legal entity's FCA Register entry and current account-eligibility terms before registering. We compare spot trading fees (maker and taker at the base tier), deposit fees (bank transfer and card), withdrawal fees (BTC, ETH, USDT across different blockchain networks), and hidden costs (spread, convert markup, inactivity fees) that you might not see on the headline fee page.

If you want a deeper explanation of how each fee type works and four tactics to reduce your costs, read our exchange fees minimisation guide. If you are completely new to exchanges, start with our first 30 days guide.

Fees quoted below are base (non-VIP) tier rates and may differ from each exchange's current schedule. Rates change — you should verify the current fee schedule on each exchange before making your final decision. Kraken Pro's schedule includes spot-volume, futures-volume and assets-on-platform eligibility routes, and Coinbase Exchange bases its fee tier on trailing 30-day USD volume excluding Stable Pairs (sources read 1 November 2026).

Beyond trading fees, this comparison also covers the costs you encounter when using earn products (staking yield and APY on savings), when withdrawing cryptocurrency to your own private key wallet, and when using simplified Convert features instead of the full spot trading order book. Understanding all these costs together helps you pick the exchange that is cheapest for your specific usage pattern — not just the one with the lowest headline rate.

Trading Fees Comparison

Spot Trading: Maker and Taker Rates

Trading fees are the cost you pay every time you buy or sell cryptocurrency on the spot market. The fee is calculated as a percentage of your trade value. Maker fees apply when your limit order adds liquidity to the order book. Taker fees apply when your market order (or aggressive limit order) removes liquidity. You should always use limit orders to pay the lower maker rate.

Here is what each exchange charges you at the base tier. You should pay close attention to the maker rate, as that is what you pay when you use limit orders for your regular purchases:

What This Costs You Per Year

How much do these differences actually cost you per year? Here is the annual trading fee for a UK investor making £500/month in purchases using limit orders at the maker rate on each exchange:

• Binance (with BNB) — £500 × 12 × 0.075% = £4.50/year
• OKX — £500 × 12 × 0.08% = £4.80/year
• Binance (without BNB) / Bybit — £500 × 12 × 0.10% = £6.00/year
• Kraken — £500 × 12 × 0.40% = £24.00/year
• Coinbase standard — where Coinbase's disclosed 1% simple-limit execution fee applies, £500 × 12 × 1% is at least £60.00/year before any additional charge (as of 1 November 2026)

At Kraken Pro's 0.40% entry-tier maker rate, £6,000 of annual purchases costs £24; where Coinbase's disclosed 1% simple-limit execution fee applies, the same purchases cost at least £60 on Coinbase standard (as of 1 November 2026). The Coinbase Exchange schedule read on 1 November 2026 bases its tier on trailing 30-day USD trading volume, excluding Stable Pairs, and applies the tier in effect when each order is placed. Does this mean you should always pick the cheapest exchange? Not necessarily. For casual investors, the fee difference is under a takeaway coffee per month. For active traders doing £5,000+/month, you should optimise aggressively because the savings compound over your trading career.

The numbers above assume a clean limit-order workflow with no market-order slippage and no taker fees. An order matched immediately pays the taker rate; a resting portion pays the maker rate, and the difference depends on the venue and tier. Coinbase Exchange's fee page read on 1 November 2026 says a partly matched order pays the taker fee on the matched portion, and the remainder pays the maker fee when another order fills it from the book. Kraken Pro's entry-tier maker and taker rates were 0.40% and 0.80% on 1 November 2026; assuming equal maker and taker turnover gives a 0.60% blended trading rate. The lesson is that the fee schedule comparison only delivers its full advantage when you also commit to using limit orders consistently, and the choice of exchange compounds with the choice of order type rather than substituting for it.

Deposit Fees Comparison

Bank Transfer (Faster Payments)

Coinbase's UK payment-method table lists the following options (read 1 November 2026).

• Coinbase: Faster Payments supports adding cash and cashing out, with a listed settlement time of 1–3 business days (payment-method table read 1 November 2026).
• Coinbase: Easy Bank Transfer supports buying and adding cash, but not cashing out, with a listed settlement time of up to two hours (payment-method table read 1 November 2026).
• Coinbase: The payment-method page requires account verification before adding a method and says the payment-method name must match the Coinbase account name (read 1 November 2026).

Coinbase's pricing disclosure says that adding cash can carry a fee depending on the payment method (read 1 November 2026). Check the fee displayed for your account rather than treating support for Faster Payments as a promise of a free deposit.

Card Deposits (Visa/Mastercard)

Card deposits are instant but expensive. Should you ever use them? Only in a genuine emergency when you need to buy crypto immediately and cannot wait for a bank transfer. Here is what each exchange charges you:

• Binance — 1.8% per card deposit. A £1,000 deposit costs you £18.
• OKX — 1.5-3.5% depending on the card provider and payment processor.
• Kraken — 3.75% per card deposit.
• Bybit — 2-3% depending on the provider. Rates vary by region.
• Coinbase — 3.99% per card deposit on the standard interface.

On a £200/month DCA funded by card, each deposit carries the card-payment fee shown before confirmation. Coinbase's disclosure read on 1 November 2026 says adding cash may carry a fee that depends on the payment method, and tells you to review it before completing the transaction. Compare the complete charge shown for each supported payment method before confirming. If your bank blocks Faster Payments to crypto exchanges, you should try a different bank account before resorting to card deposits.

Withdrawal Fees Comparison

Crypto Withdrawals by Network

Withdrawal fees depend on the blockchain network you choose, not just the exchange. The same USDT can cost you £0.20 on Arbitrum or £10 on Ethereum mainnet — a 50x difference for the identical token. You should always check the network options before confirming any withdrawal. Here is a comparison across the most common scenarios:

BTC (Bitcoin mainnet):

• Binance — dynamic, ~0.0002 BTC (approximately £10 at ~£48,000/BTC, June 2026)
• OKX — 0.0001-0.0003 BTC (approximately £5-15)
• Kraken — 0.00015 BTC (approximately £7.50)
• Bybit — 0.0002 BTC (approximately £10)
• Coinbase — dynamic, typically 0.0001-0.0005 BTC

USDT (TRC-20):

• Binance — 1 USDT (approximately £0.80)
• OKX — 0.1-1 USDT (approximately £0.08-0.80)
• Kraken — not available on TRC-20 (use Arbitrum instead)
• Bybit — 1 USDT
• Coinbase — not available on TRC-20 (use Polygon or Arbitrum)

ETH (Arbitrum):

• Binance — 0.0001 ETH (approximately £0.25)
• OKX — 0.0001 ETH (approximately £0.25)
• Kraken — 0.00025 ETH (approximately £0.60)
• Bybit — 0.0001 ETH (approximately £0.25)
• Coinbase — 0.0001 ETH (approximately £0.25)

GBP Fiat Withdrawals

Coinbase's UK payment-method table lists Faster Payments for cashing out, with a settlement time of 1–3 business days, and warns about bank currency support (read 1 November 2026). Its pricing disclosure says cashing out may carry a fee depending on the selected payment method, so review the fee before completing the transaction (read 1 November 2026).

Coinbase's payment-method page warns that a bank may reject a withdrawal or convert it to a supported currency at the bank's rate, and a returned amount may be reduced by bank wire fees (read 1 November 2026). Check the receiving bank's currency support and the quoted cash-out charge before sending funds.

Staking and Earn Product Fee Comparison

Staking Commission Rates

When you stake proof-of-stake tokens like ETH or SOL through your exchange, the platform takes a commission from your staking rewards before passing the remainder to you. This commission is the exchange's fee for running validator nodes, managing the consensus infrastructure, and handling the technical complexity of blockchain staking on your behalf. Note that Bitcoin uses proof-of-work mining rather than staking, so BTC cannot be staked natively — yield on BTC comes from savings or lending products, or from protocols such as Babylon, which Kraken offers as BTC staking paid in BABY tokens (as of 1 November 2026). Here is what each exchange charges you for staking:

• Binance — approximately 10% commission on ETH staking rewards. Your net APY: approximately 2.7% (from a base protocol yield of ~3%).
• OKX — approximately 2-5% commission. Your net APY: approximately 2.9%. OKX's On-Chain Earn feature lets you bypass the commission entirely by staking through DeFi protocols like Lido directly.
• Kraken — approximately 25% commission. Your net APY: approximately 2.25%.
• Bybit — approximately 20% commission. Your net APY: approximately 2.5-3.0%.
• Coinbase — approximately 35% standard commission on ETH staking (as of 1 November 2026).

Flexible Savings APY Comparison

Flexible savings products lend your tokens to margin traders and generate yield from borrower interest. Your rate fluctuates with market demand. Approximate current rates for USDT flexible savings:

• Binance — 1.5-3% APY
• OKX — 1-3% APY
• Kraken — 1-2.5% APY
• Bybit — 1-3% APY
• Coinbase — 2-4.5% APY (higher rates partly reflect the Coinbase premium pricing model)

For staking and earn products, the fee differences matter more than you might think. Assuming 3–5% gross annual rewards purely for illustration, a ten-percentage-point commission gap on a £1,000 stake changes annual rewards by £3–5. On a £10,000 position, the gap is £30-50/year. Should you switch exchanges just for better staking rates? Not if you are happy with your trading experience — but you should compare your actual net yield (not the advertised headline) across platforms before committing large amounts to any single exchange's earn product.

Hidden Costs Comparison

Spread on Trading Pairs

The Binance BTCUSDT snapshot read on 1 November 2026 had a bid of 78,150.14 USDT and an ask of 78,150.15 USDT, a 0.01-USDT gap. On less liquid pairs — particularly GBP pairs and small-cap altcoin tokens — the spread varies. Kraken has wider spreads on altcoins where slippage can cost you 0.2-0.5% on larger orders. Coinbase's fee disclosure says its preview shows spread and fees and that this information is also available in completed-transaction history (read 1 November 2026).

Convert/Swap Feature Markup

Coinbase's pricing disclosure says its simple buy and sell orders include a spread in the quoted price, and that converting one cryptocurrency to another also includes a spread in the exchange rate (read 1 November 2026). The same disclosure says the spread is visible in the order preview and can vary for similar transactions (read 1 November 2026). Check the complete quote for the intended product before confirming a conversion.

• Binance Convert — 0.1-0.3% markup. Competitive for small trades under £100.
• OKX Convert — 0.1-0.5% markup. Similar to Binance.
• Kraken — has an instant buy, sell and convert function on Kraken.com and in the Kraken app, with a 1% fee plus a spread in the price (as of 1 November 2026).
• Bybit Convert — 0.1-0.3% markup.
• Coinbase standard — includes a spread in its quoted conversion rate (as of 1 November 2026).

How can you avoid this markup? Always compare the Convert rate against the spot mid-market price before using it. On an order book, only the portion that rests earns maker treatment; immediately matched portions pay taker fees. Coinbase's standard-interface simple limit orders have a separate disclosed execution fee where that schedule applies, so compare the complete preview before choosing an order or funding method.

Inactivity and Other Fees

None of the five exchanges currently charge inactivity fees. You can hold a balance indefinitely without penalty. However, you should check the terms periodically — fee policies can change, and smaller exchanges outside this comparison do charge £5-25/month after 6-12 months of no activity.

Gas Fee Pass-Through on DeFi Features

Some exchanges offer DeFi-integrated features (OKX On-Chain Earn, Binance Web3 Wallet) that interact with smart contract protocols like Aave or Lido on your behalf, including dApp integrations and NFT marketplace access. When you use these features, the exchange may pass through the blockchain gas fee to you — or absorb it into the product markup. On OKX On-Chain Earn, gas fees are typically included in the transaction and not charged separately. On Binance Web3, you pay the gas fee directly from your wallet balance. Liquidity provision to AMM pools also exposes you to impermanent loss, a cost the exchange does not advertise. If you use DeFi features through your exchange rather than directly, compare the total cost (including any gas fee pass-through and the underlying token tokenomics of any reward tokens) against the standalone DeFi protocol rate.

Security and Custody Considerations

Exchange security is not a "fee" in the traditional sense, but a security breach that results in lost funds is the most expensive cost you can face. Coinbase's help page describes address allowlisting, requires two-step verification to use it, and says a new allowlisted address becomes available for sends after 48 hours (read 1 November 2026). No breach of Kraken's customer-fund custody has been reported since its 2013 launch — though in June 2024 a security researcher exploited a deposit-crediting bug to extract roughly $3M from Kraken's treasury (no customer funds were affected; the funds were returned). Binance experienced a $40M hack in 2019 but covered all losses from its SAFU fund. Coinbase is publicly listed (NASDAQ) with audited financials.

You should evaluate each exchange's security track record and governance as part of your total cost assessment — the cheapest exchange is worthless if it loses your funds. For holdings above £2,000, you should consider whether your private key wallet offers you better security than any exchange's custody.

Promotional Periods, Sign-Up Bonuses, and Fee Holidays

Coinbase's US user agreement allows it to offer subscription free trials or promotions at its discretion (read 1 November 2026). Those US subscription terms also say the subscription renews automatically unless cancelled before the trial or promotion ends (read 1 November 2026). Check the campaign dates, account eligibility, covered product and complete fee preview before relying on a temporary rate.

Zero-Fee Trading Periods

Binance has historically run zero-fee promotions on selected BTC pairs (BTC/TUSD, BTC/FDUSD, BTC/USDC at various points) where both maker and taker fees drop to 0% for a defined window — sometimes a quarter, sometimes longer. These promotions are real: a £1,000 buy that would normally cost £1 in fees costs nothing during the promo period. The catch is that you must trade against the specific stablecoin pair the promotion targets, which means converting your USDT or GBP to that stablecoin first if you do not already hold it. The conversion cost is usually under 0.05% on a major stablecoin pair, so the net saving is still meaningful for active traders.

OKX runs occasional fee-back promotions where you receive a percentage of paid fees back as USDT after a defined period, effectively reducing your taker rate from 0.10% to around 0.07% during the promo window. Kraken does this less often but has run "first 30 days fee-free" promos for new institutional customers. Bybit runs regular weekly trading competitions with rebates for top-volume participants, which is irrelevant for casual retail users but is worth knowing about if your trading activity grows substantially over the course of a year and you find yourself in the upper volume cohort on any single venue for several consecutive months.

New-User Sign-Up Bonuses

Before registering, check the platform's current eligibility, fees and campaign terms; a headline promotion is not a substitute for those checks.

The honest summary on bonuses: take them when they require nothing extra, but never let a sign-up bonus drive your choice of exchange. The decision should be based on long-run fee structure, GBP banking quality, security history, customer support responsiveness, and regulatory standing in your jurisdiction. A £20 sign-up bonus on a worse exchange is dwarfed within a few months by the cost of a worse ongoing fee schedule, a slower or more invasive KYC process, less reliable banking integration when you need to deposit at short notice, or a customer support queue that takes days rather than hours to respond when something genuinely goes wrong with your account.

Cheapest Exchange by Use Case

Casual DCA Investor (£200/month)

If you buy £200 of Bitcoin or Ethereum once per month via bank transfer and withdraw to a hardware wallet quarterly, your annual fees look like this. On Binance with BNB discount: £1.80 trading + £0 deposit + £1.00 withdrawals (Arbitrum × 4) = £2.80/year. On OKX: £1.92 trading + £0 deposit + £1.00 withdrawals = £2.92/year. Where Coinbase's disclosed 1% simple-limit execution fee applies, trading alone on Coinbase standard with limit orders costs at least £24.00/year (as of 1 November 2026).

At Kraken Pro's entry-tier maker rate of 0.40%, £200 × 12 produces £9.60 in trading fees before withdrawal charges, assuming the rate applies throughout (as of 1 November 2026).

Active Trader (£5,000/month)

If you make 20 trades per month averaging £250 each, with monthly withdrawals to self-custody, your costs scale differently. On Binance with BNB: £45 trading + £0 deposit + £3 withdrawals = £48/year. Kraken Pro's schedule read on 1 November 2026 assigns Level 2 above $2,500 of 30-day spot volume, taking the best of spot volume, futures volume or assets on the platform, and at Level 2's 0.30% maker rate £60,000 of assumed annual trading volume produces £180 in trading fees before deposits or withdrawals. Where Coinbase's disclosed 1% simple-limit execution fee applies, trading alone on Coinbase standard with limit orders costs at least £600/year (as of 1 November 2026).

If you trade actively, the exchange choice matters significantly for your bottom line.

DeFi User (Frequent Withdrawals to Wallet)

If you frequently withdraw crypto to your own wallet for use in DeFi protocols — staking via Lido, lending via Aave, providing liquidity on decentralised exchanges, or restaking via EigenLayer — withdrawal fees and gas fee costs dominate your total spend. The cheapest withdrawal network matters more to you than the trading fee. Check the supported asset/network pair and the quoted withdrawal charge before submitting. Where Coinbase's fee disclosure applies, an off-platform send carries a fee based on estimated network costs and a USDT withdrawal also carries a 0.01% processing fee capped at 20 USDT (read 1 November 2026). Coinbase supports Arbitrum and Optimism but not TRC-20.

If you interact with DeFi protocols regularly, you should prioritise withdrawal network availability over trading fee differences.

Verdict: Which Exchange Should You Choose?

Check each exchange's current UK account eligibility and available GBP funding routes before using these fee examples.

OKX. The interface is clean and the OKX Web3 wallet integration makes it easy for you to bridge to DeFi protocols when you are ready to graduate from centralised exchange earn.

Kraken. Kraken Pro's entry tier is 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker (as of 1 November 2026). Its schedule read on 1 November 2026 starts reducing rates above $2,500 of 30-day spot volume and also lists futures-volume and assets-on-platform eligibility routes.

Avoid for beginners: Coinbase standard. Coinbase standard charges a fee per trade that varies by payment method, and includes a spread in the quoted price (as of 1 November 2026). Its disclosure read on 1 November 2026 also lists a separate 1% execution fee on simple limit orders and warns that its fees do not apply in every region. Coinbase says no spread is included in Coinbase Advanced because users interact directly with the order book (as of 1 November 2026). If you choose Coinbase, you must switch to Coinbase Advanced immediately to avoid overpaying on every single trade you make.

How should you make your final decision? Consider your total annual cost across all fee categories — trading, deposit, withdrawal, staking commission, and hidden costs — not just the headline trading rate. If you trade £500/month, deposit via bank transfer, withdraw quarterly to a hardware wallet, and stake your ETH, your total annual cost on Binance is approximately £8-12. On OKX it is £9-13. On Kraken it is £20-30. Where Coinbase's disclosed 1% simple-limit execution fee applies, trading alone on Coinbase standard with limit orders costs at least £60 (as of 1 November 2026). Your savings from choosing the right exchange compound every year you stay on the platform.

Should You Switch Exchanges to Save on Fees?

If you are already using one exchange and considering switching to another purely for lower fees, here is how to think about it. Calculate your total annual cost on your current exchange across all categories: trading fees, deposit fees, withdrawal fees, staking commission, and any hidden costs. Then calculate the same total on the exchange you are considering. If the annual saving is under £20, switching is probably not worth your time — the effort of setting up a new account, completing KYC, and transferring your assets outweighs the saving.

If the saving exceeds £50/year, you should seriously consider switching. You can run both exchanges in parallel during the transition: set up your new account, make a small test deposit, execute a few trades to verify you are comfortable with the interface, then gradually move your DCA and earn subscriptions to the new platform. You do not need to transfer your existing holdings — you can leave them on the old exchange and simply direct all new purchases to the cheaper one.

What if you want the best of both? You can split your activity: trade on one exchange and withdraw to self-custody via another. You can use multiple exchanges strategically, choosing each one for the feature where it excels. This adds complexity but can save you money if your volume justifies the effort.

UK Regulatory Standing as a Tiebreaker

FCA guidance says the UK cryptoasset financial-promotions regime applies to firms marketing qualifying cryptoassets to UK consumers, including overseas firms (read 1 November 2026). The same guidance distinguishes communication by an authorised person, approval by an authorised person, communication by a cryptoasset business registered under the Money Laundering Regulations using the specified exemption, and other applicable exemptions (read 1 November 2026). Check the named legal entity and the specific activity rather than treating an exchange's brand name as a statement of permission.

Check current account eligibility and GBP funding routes directly with each platform. This guide does not confirm Binance's or Bybit's current UK availability; do not infer account access or a bank-transfer route from a historical marketing arrangement.

Before you switch primarily for fee optimisation reasons, check the current FCA register entry for the destination platform and verify that your specific bank does not block transfers to its deposit addresses — a £20 to £50 per year fee saving is not worth a frozen deposit when you actually need to fund a position quickly during a market move that will not wait for you.

Conclusion

The fee difference between exchanges matters most at two extremes: if you use Coinbase standard or if you trade actively at £5,000+/month (where small percentage differences compound into real money). For everyone in between — a casual DCA investor doing £200–500/month — calculate costs for your own trade size, order type and withdrawal route; a single annual-gap figure does not describe every amount in this range. At that level, you should choose your exchange based on features, interface preference, earn products, and regulatory trust rather than optimising for the lowest possible fee.

Three checks before you trade: first, compare the complete preview for each funding method before you deposit, and check that the route is available for your account. Second, remember that on an order book only the portion that rests earns maker treatment, while immediately matched portions pay taker fees. Coinbase's standard-interface simple limit orders also carry a separate disclosed execution fee where that schedule applies (as of 1 November 2026). Third, check the supported asset/network pair and the quoted withdrawal charge before submitting a withdrawal.

For the full explanation of each fee type and all four cost-reduction tactics, read our exchange fees minimisation guide. For the complete beginner roadmap, return to our first 30 days on a crypto exchange hub.

Sources and References

• Binance Fee Schedule
• OKX Trading Fees
• Kraken Fee Schedule
• Bybit Fee Structure
• Coinbase Exchange Fees

Frequently Asked Questions

Which crypto exchange has the lowest trading fees?

Kraken Pro's entry tier is 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker, and Coinbase Exchange's is 0.40% / 0.60% (as of 1 November 2026). Compare the current published schedules for your account and order type; the dated examples on this page concern specific products rather than establishing a market-wide lowest fee.

Which exchange is cheapest for GBP deposits?

Coinbase's UK payment-method table lists Faster Payments for adding cash, but its pricing disclosure says cash deposits may carry a payment-method fee (sources read 1 November 2026). Card deposits are where the costs differ: 1.8% on Binance, 1.5-3.5% on OKX, 3.75% on Kraken, and 3.99% on Coinbase. Check the current quote for your funding method before making the deposit.

Which exchange has the cheapest withdrawal fees?

Withdrawal fees depend on the blockchain network you choose and on each exchange's own fee schedule. Withdrawal networks and fees vary by exchange and asset; check the network list and the quoted charge before withdrawing. Where Coinbase's disclosed USDT processing fee applies, it is 0.01% of the amount withdrawn, capped at 20 USDT, with a separate network fee (disclosure read 1 November 2026).

Is it worth switching exchanges purely to save on fees?

Calculate your total annual cost across trading, deposit, withdrawal, and staking commission on both platforms before you commit. If the saving is under £20/year, the operational overhead of a fresh KYC process and asset transfer is rarely worth your time. If the saving exceeds £50/year, it usually is. UK regulatory standing and your bank's willingness to send Faster Payments to the destination address matter more than headline fees — verify both before switching, because a £30 annual saving disappears the first time your bank blocks a transfer to an unfamiliar exchange.

Do exchange staking commissions affect my real APY?

Yes, significantly. Commissions vary by platform; Coinbase keeps 35% of ETH staking rewards at its standard rate (as of 1 November 2026). On a £10,000 ETH stake at ~3% gross APR, the gap between a 2–5% commission and Coinbase's 35% standard rate (as of 1 November 2026) is roughly £90–100/year. That sounds modest in year one but compounds noticeably over multiple years of staking on the same platform — and the commission is the single biggest variable to optimise around if exchange staking yield is the main reason you hold ETH on a centralised venue.

Financial Disclaimer

This content is not financial advice. All information provided is for educational purposes only. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant investment risk, and past performance does not guarantee future results. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.