How to pay lower fees on Hyperliquid: five levers, ranked
Verified against Hyperliquid docs: Fees and Hyperliquid docs: Referrals · by Hyperliquid Academy
The ranking
Sorted by money saved per unit of effort, for a trader who is not running a professional operation.
1. Trade as a maker, not a taker
The single largest lever, and it is free.
At the entry tier the maker rate is roughly a third of the taker rate, and from the $500M tier it is zero. Beyond that, high-volume makers are paid a rebate.
The change in practice is small: place a limit order at or inside the spread and wait, rather than crossing the book with a market order. Use post-only if you want to guarantee you never accidentally take. The cost is patience and the occasional missed entry. On any account that trades regularly, this beats every discount on the rest of this page combined.
2. Apply a referral code before your first trade
4% off, no capital required, no volume history, effective immediately, and it multiplies with everything else.
It has exactly one condition: it must be applied before your first ever trade on that wallet. This is why it sits second on a list ranked by effort, and first on any list ranked by urgency. The precise terms are here, including the volume cap and the vault exclusion.
3. Stake HYPE, if the numbers justify holding it
5% to 40% off, depending on the tier, and the stake must be linked to the trading account.
| Staking tier | HYPE staked | Fee discount | Taker rate | With referral | Total saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | — | — | 0.045% | 0.0432% | 4% |
| Wood | Over 10 | 5% | 0.04275% | 0.04104% | 8.8% |
| Bronze | Over 100 | 10% | 0.0405% | 0.03888% | 13.6% |
| Silver | Over 1,000 | 15% | 0.03825% | 0.03672% | 18.4% |
| Gold | Over 10,000 | 20% | 0.036% | 0.03456% | 23.2% |
| Platinum | Over 100,000 | 30% | 0.0315% | 0.03024% | 32.8% |
| Diamond | Over 500,000 | 40% | 0.027% | 0.02592% | 42.4% |
Do the arithmetic before committing. The saving is your volume times the base rate times the discount, and at low volume that is a small number relative to holding a volatile token. The full reasoning is here.
4. Let volume move you down the tier table
| Tier | 14-day volume | Taker | Maker | Taker with referral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Under $5M | 0.045% | 0.015% | 0.0432% |
| 1 | Over $5M | 0.04% | 0.012% | 0.0384% |
| 2 | Over $25M | 0.035% | 0.008% | 0.0336% |
| 3 | Over $100M | 0.03% | 0.004% | 0.0288% |
| 4 | Over $500M | 0.028% | 0% | 0.0269% |
| 5 | Over $2B | 0.026% | 0% | 0.025% |
| 6 | Over $7B | 0.024% | 0% | 0.023% |
Thresholds start at $5M of fourteen-day volume. If your strategy generates that, the tier arrives on its own. If it does not, manufacturing volume to reach a tier costs more in fees than the tier saves. Spot volume counting double is the one free efficiency here: route volume you were going to generate anyway through spot when you are near a threshold.
5. Choose markets with cheaper fee treatment
Less known, and occasionally significant.
Builder-deployed markets running in growth mode carry a reduction of at least 90% on all-in fees while it is active. Spot pairs between two quote assets are substantially cheaper on the taker side. Aligned quote assets carry lower taker fees and better maker rebates.
The caveat matters: a builder-deployed market’s oracle, collateral and parameters were chosen by its deployer, not by the core protocol. Cheaper is not automatically better, and thin liquidity costs more in spread than the fee schedule saves.
The combined effect
Cost of a $10,000 taker order as each discount is added
- Base rate, no discounts $4.50 0.045% Tier 0, nothing staked
- With referral code $4.32 0.0432% 4% off, applies from trade one
- Referral + Silver staking $3.67 0.03672% Over 1,000 HYPE staked and linked
- Referral + Diamond staking $2.59 0.02592% Over 500,000 HYPE staked
- Everything, at the top volume tier $1.38 0.01382% Over $7B of 14-day volume as well
What does not reduce your fees
Lower leverage. Fees are charged on notional, so leverage changes your exposure per dollar of collateral, not your rate.
Smaller trades. The rate is a percentage. Smaller trades pay proportionally the same.
Sub-accounts and vaults. These are separate accounts in the clearinghouse, so they do not inherit a referral discount, and they do not pool volume for tier purposes.
Work out your own number
The fee calculator takes your monthly volume, your maker-taker split, your staked HYPE and whether a code is applied, then returns the effective rate and the annual difference. It is the fastest way to see which of the five levers is worth your attention.
Frequently asked questions
Which lever saves the most?
Trading as a maker rather than a taker, by a wide margin, because the maker rate is roughly a third of the taker rate at the entry tier and reaches zero at higher tiers. The referral discount is second because it is free and instant.
Is staking worth it for a small trader?
Rarely, for the fee discount alone. The saving is a percentage of a percentage of your volume, and holding the token carries price risk that dwarfs it at small size.
Do the discounts add up or multiply?
They multiply. Forty percent off followed by four percent off leaves you paying 57.6% of the base rate.
Does using less leverage reduce my fees?
No. Fees are charged on notional position value, so leverage changes how much notional your collateral controls but not the rate. Lower leverage reduces risk, not cost per dollar traded.
Sources
- Hyperliquid docs: Feeshyperliquid.gitbook.io
- Hyperliquid docs: Referralshyperliquid.gitbook.io
- Hyperliquid docs: Order typeshyperliquid.gitbook.io
We link the primary source for every number on this page. If a figure here disagrees with the official documentation, the documentation is right and we want to know.