Apex Trader Funding vs Topstep: The Ultimate Futures Showdown

These are the two biggest names in futures prop trading, and they've taken fundamentally different paths to get here.

Apex Trader Funding is the scale play—up to 20 simultaneous funded accounts, $300K max account size, 100% profit on your first $25,000, aggressive discount campaigns running 80-90% off, and a reported $378 million in total payouts. Topstep is the institutional play—14 years of operational history, commission-free execution on their proprietary TopstepX platform, structured coaching through TopstepTV, and EOD trailing drawdown that's consistently applied across all stages. I've tested both, and here's the uncomfortable truth: Apex gives you more capital and better payout economics, but Topstep gives you a drawdown model that's objectively more survivable. Your choice depends on whether you're optimizing for maximum capital allocation or maximum probability of keeping your funded account alive.

How I compare firms: This comparison is built from actual accounts I've evaluated and traded with each firm—not from reading marketing pages or aggregating reviews. I've run evaluations, tested platforms, analyzed rule differences, and tracked real payout data across both firms.

Topstep pioneered futures prop trading and remains the benchmark every other firm gets measured against. For the full breakdown of their account structure, pricing, rules, and what makes them different from newer futures firms, check out my complete Topstep review. It's based on real evaluation experience and honest analysis—including what works, what doesn't, and where newer competitors have caught up. For the absolute latest, check Topstep's website or their Help Center.

The Drawdown Divide: This Changes Everything

Let me cut straight to the most important difference because everything else flows from it.

Topstep uses end-of-day (EOD) trailing drawdown. Your Maximum Loss Limit only updates based on your closing balance at the end of each trading session. If NQ spikes 80 points after you enter, pushing your unrealized P&L to +$4,000, but you give it all back and close the day flat—your drawdown floor didn't move. This means you can take significant intraday heat, recover, and survive. For volatile instruments like CL, NQ, and even ES during FOMC days, this is enormous.

Apex uses intraday trailing drawdown during evaluation. Your trailing threshold follows your highest unrealized balance in real-time. That same NQ spike pushing your unrealized P&L to +$4,000 immediately moves your drawdown floor up by $4,000. If the trade reverses and you close flat, your drawdown floor is now $4,000 higher than when you started—and your remaining room before liquidation just shrunk by $4,000. This is the number one reason traders fail Apex evaluations, and it's not close.

In Apex's Performance Account (PA/funded stage), the drawdown continues trailing intraday until the threshold reaches starting balance + $100—at which point it locks and becomes static. This locking mechanism is good once achieved, but getting there requires careful management of your intraday equity peaks.

This single difference—EOD versus intraday trailing—makes Topstep objectively easier to keep funded accounts alive on volatile instruments. It's not a small advantage. It's the reason Topstep's funded trader retention rates appear higher despite smaller account sizes and a less generous profit split.

Evaluation Rules: Apex's Flexibility vs Topstep's Simplicity

Both firms use one-step evaluations with no time limits. But the rule sets diverge significantly.

Topstep requires a 6% profit target ($3,000 on 50K) with a 4% trailing EOD drawdown ($2,000 on 50K). No daily loss limit, but a 50% consistency target—your best day can't exceed 50% of total profits. No minimum trading days, though the consistency rule naturally extends evaluations beyond 2-3 days.

Apex offers multiple account sizes from $25K to $300K, each with their own profit targets and drawdown amounts. A 50K evaluation requires a $3,000 profit target with a $2,500 intraday trailing drawdown. No daily drawdown limit during evaluation. No consistency rule during evaluation—this is a major advantage. You can technically pass in 7 trading days (the minimum) by hitting the target however you want.

The no-consistency-during-eval rule at Apex means experienced traders can pass faster. Hit $3,000 in two big trading days, trade 5 more minimum-required days without losing, and you're funded. At Topstep, hitting $3,000 in two big days means each day is 50%+ of total profits—you'd need additional trading days to dilute your best day below the 50% threshold.

But here's the counterweight: Apex's intraday trailing drawdown during evaluation is substantially more punishing than Topstep's EOD. Industry estimates suggest Apex's evaluation pass rate is roughly 15-20% (similar to Topstep's 12-22%), despite the easier eval rules, precisely because the intraday trailing drawdown kills accounts that EOD drawdown wouldn't.

Payout Economics: Apex's Scale Advantage

Apex's 100% profit on the first $25,000 is the most generous threshold in the industry. Topstep's new traders get 90/10 from dollar one. On your first $25K in payouts, you keep $25,000 at Apex versus $22,500 at Topstep. That's $2,500 more in your pocket.

But the payout rules in Apex's funded stage are substantially more complex. The 30% consistency rule means no single day can exceed 30% of total profits when requesting a payout. The 30% Negative P&L rule limits your loss on any single trade to 30% of your profit balance. The 5:1 risk-reward ratio rule requires stop losses within 5x of your profit target. Contract scaling starts at half your max contracts until you reach the safety net. These layered rules create situations where traders are profitable but can't actually extract money—a common frustration in Apex's community.

Topstep's payout rules are simpler. XFA Standard: 5 winning days of $150+, then withdraw up to $5K or 50% of balance. XFA Consistency: 3 days with 40% consistency, payouts up to $6K or 50%. The 50% consistency carries over from evaluation, so you're already managing it. No separate negative P&L rule, no risk-reward ratio requirement, no contract scaling in funded.

My take: Apex puts more money in your pocket on the profit split, but Topstep makes it easier to actually get the payout approved. The best profit split in the world is worthless if layered compliance rules prevent you from withdrawing.

The Scale Play: Why Apex Attracts Serious Capital

Here's where Apex's model genuinely outclasses Topstep. You can run up to 20 funded accounts simultaneously. Twenty. At $300K each, that's a theoretical $6 million in funded capital. Even at more realistic levels—five 100K accounts—that's $500K in combined capital with the ability to copy trade across all of them.

Topstep limits you to 5 accounts at a maximum of 150K each. That's $750K maximum. Meaningful, but less than one-sixth of Apex's ceiling.

For traders who've mastered a strategy and want to maximize capital deployment, Apex's scale is a genuine competitive advantage. Copy your winning strategy across 5-10 accounts, extract profits from each, and the monthly income potential dwarfs what's possible at Topstep.

The catch: managing 20 accounts with intraday trailing drawdown requires precision risk management. One bad day can blow multiple accounts simultaneously. Topstep's 5-account limit with EOD drawdown is actually more sustainable for most traders because you're less likely to lose accounts to intraday volatility.

Pricing: The Discount Game

Apex runs some of the most aggressive promotions in the industry. Standard pricing for a 50K account is around $167/month, but promotional pricing regularly drops to $35-$50/month—sometimes even lower during flash sales. This makes Apex look incredibly cheap, but the activation fee ($130-$160) and funded-stage monthly fees ($85-$105) add up.

Topstep's pricing is more transparent. $49/month for 50K Standard Path, $149 activation fee, no monthly fees once funded on the Express Funded Account. The total first-year cost is more predictable.

Let's run real numbers for a trader who passes in month one:

Apex 50K (promo pricing): $35 eval + $160 activation = $195 first month. Then $85/month ongoing PA fees. Year 1 total: $195 + ($85 × 11) = $1,130. At full price: $167 + $160 + ($85 × 11) = $1,262.

Topstep 50K Standard: $49 eval + $149 activation = $198 first month. No ongoing monthly fees. Year 1 total: $198.

The ongoing monthly PA fees at Apex are a hidden cost that dramatically changes the long-term economics. Over a year, a Topstep trader saves $932 in monthly fees alone. That's significant for traders generating modest monthly profits.

Platform Flexibility: No Contest (Again)

Apex supports 14+ platforms including NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Quantower, Sierra Chart, and more. Topstep requires TopstepX exclusively. If your strategy depends on specific platform tools, Apex wins by default.

TopstepX counters with commission-free execution. On a 50K account trading 20 round trips per day, Apex traders pay roughly $40-$60 daily in commissions. Over a month, that's $800-$1,200 that Topstep traders keep. For high-frequency scalpers, commission-free execution is a material advantage that partially offsets Apex's better profit split.

The Funded-Stage Rule Complexity Problem

This is Apex's biggest weakness and it deserves explicit attention. Apex's Performance Account rules include: 30% consistency rule, 30% negative P&L rule (per trade), 5:1 risk-reward ratio requirement, contract scaling until safety net is reached, safety net balance requirements before payouts, 8 trading days between payout requests, and minimum 5 days with $50+ profit.

Topstep's funded rules: 50% consistency target, 5 winning days of $150+ (XFA Standard), and that's essentially it.

The practical difference: Apex traders regularly report passing evaluation, building profit on their PA, and then having payouts denied because one of the multiple compliance rules wasn't met. The 30% negative P&L rule is particularly frustrating—if you're sitting on $3,000 in profit and one trade goes against you by $900+ before you close it, you've violated the rule even if you end the trade breakeven.

Topstep's rules are simpler, more transparent, and less likely to create situations where profitable traders can't withdraw. Complexity in payout rules doesn't just cost time—it costs real money when legitimate profits get locked behind compliance violations.

Community and Education

Topstep is the clear winner. TopstepTV daily coaching, Training Camp structured curriculum, 72K+ member Discord, Consistency Target Calculator, and The Tilt™ sentiment tool on TopstepX. The educational ecosystem is best-in-class for futures prop trading.

Apex has a Discord community, social media presence, and occasional educational content—but nothing approaching Topstep's depth. Apex's model is built for scale and capital deployment, not trader development.

The Verdict

Choose Apex if you: want maximum capital allocation (up to 20 accounts), prefer 100% profit on first $25K, need platform flexibility, have a proven strategy you want to deploy at scale, can manage intraday trailing drawdown effectively, and don't mind navigating complex funded-stage compliance rules.

Choose Topstep if you: prioritize keeping funded accounts alive (EOD drawdown is more forgiving), want simpler payout rules, prefer commission-free execution, value coaching and community, want lower long-term costs (no monthly funded fees), and trade volatile instruments where intraday drawdown protection matters.

The honest synthesis: Apex is the better firm for profitable traders who want maximum capital and can tolerate complex rules. Topstep is the better firm for developing traders who need survivable drawdown mechanics and straightforward payout processes. Most beginners should start with Topstep, build discipline, and consider Apex once they have a proven strategy they want to scale.

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