Crypto Exchange Fees: Maker–Taker Rates, Spread and Send-Out Costs

One order can carry four separate charges

A single crypto purchase can involve four costs, charged by three different parties at three different moments. The exchange's order-book fee arrives as a maker or taker deduction from the fill. The spread sits inside the quoted price before you click. The app may add a flat or percentage service fee. And when the coins leave the platform, the network charges again.

Coinbase states the order-book model plainly: "Coinbase Exchange uses a maker-taker fee model for determining its trading fees. Orders that provide liquidity (maker orders) are charged different fees than orders that take liquidity (taker orders)."[1] For simple app trades it warns that fees "can be influenced by factors such as your chosen payment method, order size, market conditions, jurisdictional location, asset, and other costs we incur to facilitate your transaction."[2]

So a single headline percentage never describes your bill. A reconciliation needs all four lines, and each line has its own disclosure screen.

Maker, taker, and the tier you actually land in

A maker order rests on the book and is matched later; a taker order consumes an existing order and fills immediately. On Coinbase Exchange the published schedule says a market order that fills immediately pays "a fee between 0.04% and 0.60%", while an order not immediately matched pays "a fee between 0.00% and 0.40%".[1] The entry tier ($0 - $10K of trailing 30-day volume) is listed at 0.60% taker and 0.40% maker.[1]

Two details matter for cost forecasting. First, the tier is set by "total USD trading volume over the trailing 30 day period", and fees are "calculated based on the current pricing tier you are in when the order is placed, and not on the tier you would be in after a trade is completed."[1] A month-end burst of volume therefore reprices your next order, not the one that created it. Second, a partially matched order is split: "you pay a taker fee for that portion" that filled immediately, and a maker fee on the remainder.[1]

Venues differ sharply. Binance.US announced that from April 22, 2026 "spot trading fees on Binance.US are 0% maker and 0.02% taker or lower on all Advanced (Spot) Trading pairs", one rate for every user.[3] Choosing where to trade is itself a fee decision.

The spread: a cost that is never itemised

The SEC's investor education glossary defines the mechanism generically: 'The difference between the bid price and the ask price is called the "spread."'[6] In crypto retail interfaces that spread is not a separate line — it is inside the number you are shown.

Coinbase's own disclosure says so directly: "When you place simple buy and sell orders, Coinbase includes a spread in the quoted price. The spread is also included in the exchange rate when converting from one cryptocurrency to another." It adds that "Coinbase may retain any excess spread from a transaction" and that "When using Coinbase Advanced, no spread is included because you're interacting directly with the order book."[2]

Hypothetical arithmetic only: if a quoted price embedded a spread of 0.50%, a simple $2,000 buy would carry $10 of spread before any visible fee, and a round trip would carry it twice if the exit quote embeds the same spread. The 0.50% is an assumed input for the arithmetic, not a published Coinbase rate; the real figure is only observable in the preview screen or by comparing the quote with the live order book.

Send-out costs: network fees, estimates and stablecoin processing fees

Moving coins off an exchange is priced by the blockchain, not by the fee table. Coinbase explains: "For transactions on cryptocurrency networks (i.e., transfers of cryptocurrency off the Coinbase platform), Coinbase incurs and pays network transaction fees (e.g., miner's fees). We'll charge a fee based on our estimate of the prevailing network fees for a standalone wallet-to-wallet send. The final fee that Coinbase pays may differ from the estimated fee"[2]

The same page states that "All fees we charge are disclosed at the time of transaction", which makes the confirmation screen the only authoritative quote for that moment.[2] Because the charge is an estimate of a live network price, the number can move between quote and broadcast — a cost line that cannot be inferred from any static schedule.

For a full reconciliation, record four numbers per trade: quantity acquired, all-in cash out, fee and spread deducted, and fee paid on exit. Anything less leaves the round-trip cost unknowable.

Which of these costs matter on a U.S. tax return

The IRS treats digital assets as property, not currency.[5] Its FAQ, in answers added December 15, 2025, ties trading costs to the calculation: your gain or loss is the difference between adjusted basis and "amount realized", and "Your amount realized equals the sum of the amount of cash you received ... reduced by your digital asset transaction costs allocable to the disposition of the transferred digital assets."[4]

The definition is broad: 'The term "digital asset transaction costs" means the amount paid by you in cash or property (including digital assets) for services provided by another to effect the purchase, sale, or disposition of a digital asset. For example, digital asset transaction costs may include transaction and "gas" fees, transfer taxes, and commissions.'[4] The fee, the spread paid inside the price, and a send fee tied to that disposal are therefore not cosmetic — they move the reported figure.

Reporting also changed: "Brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions effected on or after Jan. 1, 2025."[5] Gross proceeds on a broker statement are not the cash you netted after fees, so the preview screens and receipts you keep become the bridge between the two numbers. The FAQ page was last reviewed June 29, 2026.[4]

Before you trade: a four-line checklist

Ask, in order: (1) which fee tier applies to me right now, and does the order fill as maker or taker; (2) what spread is embedded in this quote, and where do I see it on the preview screen; (3) what platform fee or conversion fee is added on top; (4) what will it cost to move the coins out later. Only the first is usually published as a table.[1][2]

Scope and evidence limits: the fee schedules quoted here are vendor pages retrieved on September 24, 2026 and can change without notice; Coinbase's help pages were read through a search backend's page extraction because direct HTTP requests returned 403 on the access date, which is recorded rather than hidden. The Binance.US figure is an announcement dated April 22, 2026 for Binance.US accounts only. The IRS material is U.S. federal guidance, not advice for any other country or for your specific return. No price, spread or yield on this page is a live quote.