The True Cost of Getting Funded
A practical way to measure evaluation fees, resets, activation costs, failed attempts, and the payout required to break even.
The price on the checkout page is not your cost. Your cost is the average cash required to produce one funded account and reach a withdrawal.
Start with the question the sales page avoids
A $49 evaluation is only a $49 funded account if you pass on the first attempt, pay no activation fee, and survive long enough to withdraw. That can happen, but it is not a useful planning assumption.
Why this matters
Treat each evaluation as one production attempt. Some attempts fail during evaluation. Some pass and fail before payout. A smaller number convert into cash. The useful number is not the cheapest advertised fee; it is the average cost of a successful payout path.
Build the cost in layers
PropMinMax separates the path because each layer answers a different question. Evaluation economics tell you what it costs to create a funded account. Funded-path economics tell you what it costs to create an account that actually pays.
A clean expected-cost formula
If every evaluation attempt has roughly the same chance of passing, the expected number of attempts is one divided by your pass rate. Multiply that by the evaluation cost, then add activation and recurring costs.
At $80 per attempt and a measured 25% pass rate, the expected evaluation spend is $320. Add a $149 activation fee and the expected funded cost becomes $469 before platform fees or funded-account failures.
Passing is not the finish line
Now apply the same logic to the funded phase. If half of your newly funded accounts reach a first payout, your expected cost per first-payout account is approximately twice your expected funded cost. Using the example above, that is about $938 before ongoing fees.
Why this matters
This does not predict what your next account will cost. Expected value describes the average of many comparable attempts. Small samples can be much better or much worse, which is why bankroll and stop conditions matter.
Use your own evidence
Do not borrow a pass rate from a creator, a firm, or a Discord poll. Use a consistent window from your own records. Separate account types when the rules are materially different, and do not count abandoned attempts as if they never happened.
Why this matters
A useful tracker records purchase date, evaluation fee, reset fees, result, activation fee, funded result, payout amount, and days elapsed. After ten or more comparable attempts, the numbers become more informative. They are still not a guarantee, but they are yours.
The decision rule
Before buying another evaluation, know the payout needed to recover the expected cost of the path—not merely today’s coupon. A strategy with frequent passes can still lose money if funded accounts rarely pay. A lower pass rate can still work if losses are controlled and the payout path is durable.
Why this matters
PropMinMax uses attempt controls to show how repeat attempts change comparative cost. Use that as a scenario tool, then compare it with the real cost-per-funded number in your tracker.
