Topstep Trading Combine: rules, costs and the drawdown that ends most accounts

Topstep's Trading Combine is a monthly subscription evaluation with one hard rule: never let your balance touch the Maximum Loss Limit, which trails your end-of-day balance and locks at your starting balance. Hit the profit target with your best day under 55% of it and you move to an Express Funded Account.

By FundedSim Desk · updated October 20, 2026

The numbers

Numbers checked: Topstep help center: pricing and payment (2026-10-20) · Topstep help center: Trading Combine parameters (2026-10-20) · Topstep help center: Maximum Loss Limit (2026-10-20) · Topstep help center: Consistency at Topstep (2026-10-20)

Prices are Topstep's Standard path. There's also a No Activation Fee path that costs more per month ($95, $149 and $229) and skips the $149 activation when you pass. Topstep doesn't let you switch paths after you buy.

The one rule that matters: the Maximum Loss Limit

Topstep's Maximum Loss Limit (MLL) trails your end-of-day balance. Make $500 on day one of a 50K Combine and the floor moves from $48,000 to $48,500. Lose $500 the next day and the floor stays at $48,500. It never comes back down.

Two details catch people out:

• It's enforced on open P&L. The floor only moves at the end of the day, but if an open trade drags your balance to it at any moment, the account is liquidated. A position that would have recovered by the close doesn't save you.
• It stops at your starting balance. Once the MLL reaches $50,000 on a 50K Combine, it locks there. From that point you have a fixed floor, which is the best position to be in.

The math worth doing before you buy: on a 50K Combine the MLL is $2,000. If your normal losing day is $600, you have three bad days of room before you start, and every green day you bank moves that room up with you.

The 55% consistency target

Your single best day has to stay at or under 55% of the profit target. Go over and you haven't failed, but the target grows. On the 50K that's a best day under $1,650. The trap is the big Monday: a $2,000 day feels like a head start and turns your $3,000 target into a moving one.

The simulator doesn't raise the target after a big day yet, so if you practice Topstep here, track your best day yourself.

What a few failed Combines cost

The Combine is a subscription, so the cost is time as much as attempts. Three months on a 50K Standard path is $147, plus a reset each time you blow it inside a month ($49 on the 50K). Two blown Combines in one month plus the next month's rebill already puts you around $147 before the $149 activation.

After you pass: the Express Funded Account

The XFA starts at a $0 balance and its MLL starts $2,000 below zero on a 50K. You pick a payout path when you activate:

• Standard: five winning days of $150 or more, then request up to 50% of the balance, capped at $2,000 per request on the 50K.
• Consistency: three trading days and your biggest day at or under 40% of total profit, capped at $3,000 on the 50K.

The split is 90/10 and the minimum payout is $125. After each payout your MLL resets to $0 for good, so every payout also removes your cushion. That's the part to plan for.

Practice it before you pay

The simulator runs the Topstep 50K, 100K and 150K Combines with the real MLL behavior: a floor that trails your end-of-day balance, locks at your starting balance and checks open trades at the worst price you log. Log a few weeks of your normal trading against it and see whether you'd still be alive, then decide whether the subscription is worth it.