Prop Firms With Refundable Fees, and Which Payout Pays You Back

Key takeaways

We checked 18 prop firms for a refundable challenge fee and ranked 15 products by what you are still out of pocket when the first payout arrives, per $1,000 of loss room.

Read the full summary

We checked 18 prop firms for a refundable challenge fee and ranked 15 products by what you are still out of pocket when the first payout arrives, per $1,000 of loss room. Lux Trading Firm 1-Step refunds £199 at pass after a risk-desk review ($0.00 out of pocket, $43.78 upfront per $1,000); City Traders Imperium 2-Step at +10% funded profit; FundedNext Stellar 2-Step ($299.99, on request), Audacity Ability Challenge, FXIFY Two Phase Standard and FTMO 2-Step refund in full with payout 1. BrightFunded sells the refund as a +10% add-on ($6.67); The5ers pays 70% in cash ($18.68); Hola Prime 25% per payout. Blue Guardian ($127, $25.40 upfront), AquaFunded, AquaFutures, Goat and FundingPips refund only at payout 4, Maven at withdrawal 3, and a breach before then keeps the fee. Alpha Capital Group and FTUK are listed as refundable on page 1 but refund nothing; Hola Prime Futures’ refund is a banner with no terms.

Freshness: refund terms, prices and floors checked October 2, 2026, with each firm’s pages re-read on October 5, 2026. Firms change refund terms without notice, often for accounts bought after a set date; re-check before you buy. Each Trustpilot figure carries the date we read it.

Quick picks among prop firms with refundable fees

• Fee back before any payout: Lux Trading Firm 1-Step $100K, £199 ($262.70), refunded at pass after a risk-desk review; $43.78 upfront per $1,000.
• Whole fee with payout 1, lowest upfront: FundedNext Stellar 2-Step $50K, $299.99 ($60.00 per $1,000). Tick the refund option when you request.
• Earliest payout-1 refund once funded: FXIFY Two Phase Standard $50K, $379, first payout after 5 trading days, on request.
• Cheapest refundable fee: Blue Guardian 2 Step Nano $50K, $127 ($25.40 per $1,000), but only after the fourth payout.
• Refundable futures account: AquaFutures 1 Step Daily $50K, $113, fourth payout, four funded trading days at the earliest.
• Read the terms, not the badge: “100% refundable” on AquaFunded and Goat Funded Trader means the fourth payout, and a breach first keeps the fee.

Why a yes-or-no “refundable” list misleads: the refund is set per product, and one firm can refund one account in full and another never. FTMO refunds its 2-Step and not its 1-Step, FXIFY its Two Phase Standard and not the Classic at the same price, FundedNext its Stellar 2-Step at payout 1 and its Stellar 1-Step at payout 3. Name the product before you trust the badge.

How we ranked prop firms with refundable fees

1. Sources: each firm’s terms, refund policy, help-centre refund articles, product cards and checkout, searched for refund, refundable, reimburse and fee back. Checked October 2, 2026 and re-read on October 5, 2026.
2. The test, per product: the firm’s own current terms must return the fee, or a stated share, after you pass, at a stated point, to someone buying today at list price. A badge alone does not count, and neither does a refund before trading or one paid only when the firm ends the account.
3. The number: what you are still out of pocket at the first payout, per $1,000 of loss room. Ties go to the product that needs fewer payouts for the full refund, then the lower upfront cost per $1,000.
4. One product per firm: its best-scoring refundable product. Products whose overall floor trails equity including open losses are shown as flagged rows, not ranked.
5. Warnings, not ranks: live call-ups, hidden Trustpilot ratings and review patterns are named in the firm’s watch-outs, never used to move it.

Out of pocket at payout 1 per $1,000 of loss room = (list price + published activation fee + any add-on needed for the refund − refund paid on or before payout 1) ÷ overall maximum-loss floor at its smallest stage × 1,000

Worked example, Hola Prime 2-Step Prime: $319 minus the $79.75 quarter paid with payout 1 is $239.25, divided by its $5,000 static floor and multiplied by 1,000, is $47.85. Upfront, before any refund, the same account costs $63.80 per $1,000. A refund at payout 3 or 4 counts $0 at payout 1, because a trader who loses the account before then never sees it. “Up to 100%” and milestone refunds count at their maximum, marked. The floor is the overall maximum loss, never a daily limit. Prices are list prices at $50K (Lux at $100K, its smallest size); codes are shown with their end dates and never set a rank. Full method: how we rank.

Prop firms with refundable fees, ranked by what you pay at the first payout

What the refund badge leaves out at each prop firm

Notes on this ranking: * The firm does not publish an activation fee line, so the figure uses the price alone; we never assume an unpublished fee is $0. † The refund carries a condition we count at its maximum: City Traders Imperium pays at +10% of funded profit, which can come after payout 1; Audacity Capital pays only if the first payout tops the fee; The5ers pays 70% in cash once you have 14 funded days and the minimum profit. ‡ FTMO’s FAQ says the fee “may be refunded” and its terms default to no refund; if the refund were withheld the figure would be $77.45. § The firm’s own pages disagree and we use the conservative reading: The5ers’ $50K tab shows an 8% floor where one FAQ says 10% (on 10% the figure would be $14.94); AquaFutures has no futures refund article, so we apply the AquaFunded policy its futures page links. Lux prices in pounds, and FTMO and BrightFunded in euros, converted at the ECB reference rates of October 2, 2026 (EUR/USD 1.1225, GBP/EUR 0.85033). Order: out of pocket at payout 1 per $1,000, then fewest payouts to a full refund, then upfront per $1,000. Flagged rows are priced for comparison and not ranked.

Refundable means five different deals at prop firms

Page-one directories treat “refundable” as a yes-or-no flag and describe it as money back with the first payout. The 15 products we ranked split into five deals:

• Back at pass: Lux Trading Firm refunds the 1-Step fee when Stage 1 is approved, before any payout.
• Back at a profit level: City Traders Imperium refunds at the first +10% of funded profit, whatever the payout count.
• Back with payout 1: FundedNext Stellar 2-Step, Audacity Ability Challenge, FXIFY Two Phase Standard, FTMO 2-Step, BrightFunded with its add-on, and The5ers High Stakes for 70% in cash.
• Back with a later payout: Maven at withdrawal 3; Blue Guardian, AquaFunded, AquaFutures, Goat Funded Trader and FundingPips at payout 4.
• Back in instalments: Hola Prime pays 25% with each of the first four payouts.

Two more things get called a refund and are not one: money back before you trade (a cooling-off window), and money returned when the firm ends the account. Both have their own sections below. Credit is not cash either: The5ers pays 30% of the fee as Hub credit that only buys challenges, and FTMO’s terms let it offer FTMO Points instead of money.

Which payout refunds your prop firm challenge fee

The payout number decides how long the fee is at risk. Laid out as a ladder, at the earliest the firms publish:

1. At pass: Lux Trading Firm (no minimum days; risk-desk review time not published).
2. At +10% funded profit: City Traders Imperium ($5,000 at $50K).
3. Payout 1: FXIFY after 5 funded trading days; Audacity 14 days after the first live trade; FTMO and The5ers 14 calendar days; FundedNext 21 days; BrightFunded 30 days. Hola Prime pays its first quarter at 14 days.
4. Withdrawal 3: Maven, about 30 business days after the first funded trade.
5. Payout 4: AquaFutures after four funded trading days at the very least; FundingPips 28 days on its weekly 60% cycle; Blue Guardian, AquaFunded, Goat and Hola Prime’s last quarter about 56 days on 14-day cycles.

A later trigger is not always worse. Blue Guardian’s $127 at payout 4 risks less money upfront than FTMO’s $387.26 at payout 1. The question is how long you expect to keep the account: if you rarely reach a fourth payout, the cheaper upfront product is the better bet, refund or not.

What voids a prop firm fee refund

Every refund here has at least one condition that can cancel it. The ones that recur:

• A breach before the trigger: written out by Blue Guardian, AquaFunded and Goat (“If you fail your evaluation before reaching your fourth payout it is not refundable”), implied everywhere else. The later the trigger, the bigger this risk.
• Not asking: FundedNext and FXIFY pay it only on request with payout 1; skip the tick box and the payout goes out without it.
• Resets and re-buys: after a FundedNext reset the refund equals the latest reset fee, not the original price.
• Codes and credit: firms that refund the fee you paid return the discounted amount; The5ers refunds only what you paid with your own money.
• Products excluded by name: FTMO 1-Step, FXIFY Two Phase Classic, FundingPips’ Flex, Pro and Zero models, Hola Prime Direct, Audacity FTP, Lux INSTA and Elite, Blue Guardian Instant Starter, City Traders Imperium giveaway accounts.
• A payout below the fee: Audacity refunds only when the first payout exceeds the fee.
• Discretion: Lux’s risk-desk approval, FTMO’s “may”, and terms at Audacity and City Traders Imperium that let the firm end an account and keep or refund the fee.

Prop firm refund badges versus the terms

Three firms advertise “100% refundable” with no payout number and mean the fourth payout: AquaFunded (“One-time fee • 100% refundable”), its futures arm AquaFutures, and Goat Funded Trader (“ONE-TIME 100% REFUNDABLE FEE”). The5ers’ program table says “Refund” while its FAQ pays 70% in cash. FXIFY’s program page says “1,2 and 3 Phase plans” while its own FAQ excludes the static 2-Phase. Hola Prime Futures advertises a refund in a banner that no term backs up.

The opposite also happens: a firm’s general terms deny all refunds while a help article grants one. Blue Guardian’s Refund Policy page says “no refunds under any circumstances will be accepted”; FundingPips’ terms say every payment is final; Maven’s terms clause 1 calls payments nonrefundable before clause 6 carves the refund out; FTMO’s terms 3.12 default to no refund; Goat’s cancellation policy says all transactions are final. In each case the specific refund article is the firm’s published promise, and we rank on it. Save a copy with the date you bought, because that is the page you will point to.

Paying extra for a refundable prop firm challenge

Refundability is usually free in the sense that no cheaper non-refundable twin exists. Three firms price it, directly or not:

• BrightFunded: the refund is a +10% add-on, €29.70 ($33.34) at $50K. If you reach the first reward you are out of pocket only that amount; if you never do, it is €29.70 more lost on top of the fee.
• FundedNext: the base 2-Step refund is free, and an optional add-on at 10% of the fee ($30.00) raises it to 150%: $449.99 back on $329.99 paid, if you reach the first reward. We rank on the base product.
• FXIFY: Two Phase Standard and Two Phase Classic both cost $379. Standard is refunded and trails its floor until it locks; Classic keeps a static floor and is never refunded. The price of the refund here is the floor type.

FTMO is often described as selling a refundable and a non-refundable version. On its own price list they are different products: the 2-Step at €345 is refunded, the 1-Step at €319 is not and has an end-of-day trailing floor. FundingPips’ 2 Step Standard ($349, refunded) and 2 Step Flex ($299, not refunded) differ in floor too (10% against 12%).

Ranked prop firms with refundable challenge fees

Fifteen products, one per firm, in table order. Each block gives the same facts: when the fee comes back, what voids it, badge versus terms, price and promo, how it is paid, what stands between you and the refund payout, floor, split, the main watch-out and the Trustpilot reading.

Lux Trading Firm 1-Step returns the whole fee at pass, after a risk-desk review

Lux is the only firm in this guide that hands the fee back before you ever request a payout. Its rules page says “At Lux Trading, all evaluation fees are 100% refunded after Stage One.” The condition sits in the next two sentences: “A stage is considered passed once the trader has not only achieved the required profit target but has also complied with all trading and risk management rules.” and “The refund will only be issued once the account has been reviewed and approved by the risk desk.” Lux sells no $50K account, so the smallest, the $100K 1-Step at £199 ($262.70 at the ECB rates of October 2, 2026), is priced here against its $6,000 static floor. Upfront that is $43.78 per $1,000 of loss room, and once the refund lands you are out of pocket $0.00. The catch is the review itself: Lux checks every Stage 1 trade against rules that are stricter than most, such as a stop loss placed before entry and a fixed share of remaining risk capital per trade.

Video: “How to use your RRC in the MTR order window,” Lux Trading Firm official YouTube channel, October 28, 2025. Source type: firm-produced. Why selected: Lux’s own walkthrough of the remaining-risk-capital setting in its order window, the rule the refund review checks most; Lux has no official video on the refund itself.

• When the fee comes back: 100% of the £199 fee after you pass Stage 1 (a 10% target, $10,000), once the risk desk approves the account. No payout is needed.
• What voids it: Any trading or risk rule broken during Stage 1. The Elite package forfeits it: “at the end of stage 1, the client will not receive his registration fee refunded.” INSTA instant accounts get no refund at all.
• Badge versus terms: The card’s “Stage 1 Demo 100% Refund” matches the rules page, which adds the review step the card leaves out.
• Price and promo: £199 one time ($262.70), no code on this product. Lux publishes no activation fee line, so the figure is the price alone.
• How it is paid: Not published. Two 2022 Trustpilot reviewers describe a refund paid through Wise within minutes on the older programme, which refunded the fee in halves.
• Before the refund payout: Pass Stage 1 with no minimum or maximum trading days; funded withdrawals are allowed whenever the account is in profit.
• Floor and daily limit: $6,000 static at both stages; no daily loss limit on the current rules page.
• Split: 80%, with no fixed payout cycle.
• Watch out for: Funded accounts run on an A-book model from the moment you pass, which is set by the rules rather than a discretionary call-up. A stop loss is required before entry, risk per trade is a fixed share of remaining risk capital (5% at most), and no single trade may make more than 5% of the target.
• Trustpilot: 3.9/5 on 635 reviews, read October 5, 2026.

City Traders Imperium 2-Step refunds the fee at a funded profit milestone, not a payout

City Traders Imperium ties its refund to a profit level instead of a payout count: “When you hit your first 10% profit target on your funded account, you’ll get 100% of your sign-up fee refunded.” On the $50K 2-Step that means $5,000 of funded profit before $329 comes back. Our method counts a milestone refund in full, so the out-of-pocket figure is $0.00, marked, because a trader taking small, early withdrawals will be paid several times before the account first reaches +10%. Card buyers get one more wrinkle from the payout article: “If the total reward amount is less than or equal to the total fees paid, the reward will be processed as a refund to the same card(s) used for payment.” So early, small rewards can show up on your card as refunds, which is a payment route, not the fee refund.

Video: City Traders Imperium’s newest official video we found is a 2023 brand introduction with nothing on the refund, so we do not embed it.

• When the fee comes back: 100% of the sign-up fee when the funded account first reaches +10% ($5,000 at $50K), not tied to a payout number.
• What voids it: “Giveaway accounts are not eligible for a refund.” An account breached before the milestone never reaches it. The terms also say the firm “may breach and refund some of your accounts if they do not align with our risk appetite.”
• Badge versus terms: No refund badge on the plan widget; the footer says “All fees are non-refundable except as outlined in our Refund Policy.” and that policy covers only the 7-day untraded refund, so the milestone refund lives in one help article.
• Price and promo: $329 one time; activation fee not published, so the figure is the price alone.
• How it is paid: Not published for the milestone refund; card buyers’ small rewards are paid back to the card.
• Before the refund payout: First withdrawal from 7 days, $100 minimum, each one reviewed by the risk team for up to 2 business days.
• Floor and daily limit: $5,000 static on balance at both stages; 5% daily loss from each day’s starting balance ends the account.
• Split: 80% to start, rising to 100% through its VIP ladder.
• Watch out for: Live call-up first: “Clients who successfully complete the skill assessment programme may, at the Company’s sole discretion, be invited to enter into a separate agreement with a 3rd-party regulated broker.” No decline terms are published. A stop loss is mandatory, and reviewers describe requests for an expert advisor’s source code at payout review.
• Trustpilot: 4.2/5 on 1,628 reviews, read October 5, 2026. City Traders Imperium profile.

FundedNext Stellar 2-Step returns the whole fee with the first reward, if you ask for it

Among products that refund in full with payout 1, the Stellar 2-Step asks the least upfront: $299.99 against a $5,000 static floor, $60.00 per $1,000, falling to $0.00 once the first reward pays. Its 2-Step article says “You may request your Refundable Fee for the subscription/reset fee with your first Performance Reward from the FundedNext Account.” The word to notice is request: “You must manually select the option to include the Refundable Fee when requesting your withdrawal through the dashboard.” The refund is only for the 2-Step; the Stellar 1-Step and Stellar Lite pay it with the third reward, and Stellar Instant has none.

Video: “Reset and Restart Trading On Your FundedNext Challenge Account, FundedNext Explained,” FundedNext official YouTube channel, January 23, 2024. Source type: firm-produced.