Last verified: August 26, 2026. Apex Trader Funding replaced its entire product line on March 1, 2026. The subscription-based monthly evaluations, resets, and the old 90/10 split are gone from new sales (they survive only for existing legacy holders). What you buy today is a one-time-fee evaluation with no rebill, no resets, and a 30 calendar-day expiry, sold in two drawdown flavors — Intraday Trail and EOD Trail — each available in a Standard or a No-Activation-Fee variant, in four sizes only: 25K, 50K, 100K, and 150K. Pass it and you get a simulated-funded Performance Account (PA) with a 100% payout split.
Apex suits an active, discretionary futures trader who wants cheap entry (near-constant coupons routinely cut eval prices ~90%), a genuine 100% split, and the ability to run up to 20 accounts at once. The single biggest catch is structural: each Performance Account closes permanently after 6 payouts, and every payout is capped by a schedule that depends on account size — so a PA is a finite vehicle, not a salary. The second catch is the intraday trailing drawdown, which follows your unrealized peak tick-by-tick and, on Tradovate evaluations, never stops trailing. The standout: one-time fees, no monthly billing, and a 50% consistency rule that only blocks a payout rather than failing the account.
Any-size evals up to 90% off with code SAVENOW (ends 8 September 2026).
Start with Apex →Evaluations at a glance
| Size | Starting capital | Profit target | Max drawdown | Eval contracts | EOD daily loss limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $25,000 | $1,500 | $1,000 | 4 mini / 40 micro | $500 |
| 50K | $50,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 | 6 mini / 60 micro | $1,000 |
| 100K | $100,000 | $6,000 | $3,000 | 8 mini / 80 micro | $1,500 |
| 150K | $150,000 | $9,000 | $4,000 | 12 mini / 120 micro | $2,000 |
Pricing (one-time fees)
| Size | Intraday Standard (reg / coupon) | EOD Standard (reg / coupon) | PA activation fee (Intraday / EOD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $167 / $16.70 | $390 / $39 | $59 / $119 |
| 50K | $249 / $24.90 | $490 / $49 | $79 / $119 |
| 100K | $399 / $39.90 | $790 / $79 | $99 / $139 |
| 150K | $599 / $59.90 | $1,490 / $149 | $129 / $159 |
What a “$25 account” actually costs and yields
Take the 25K Intraday Standard plan during a typical coupon window. Your eval costs $19.90. Passing it (hit $1,500 profit without touching the $1,000 trailing threshold) unlocks a 7-day window to activate the PA for a one-time $69 fee — so ~$85.70 all-in to reach funded status. From there the money math is bounded on three sides:
- Safety net: you can only withdraw profit above $26,100 (drawdown limit + $100), and because the minimum payout is $500, your balance must reach $26,600 before you can request the first one.
- Per-payout cap: on a 25K Intraday PA every one of the six payouts is capped at $1,000.
- Lifetime ceiling: after the 6th payout the PA closes. So a 25K Intraday PA yields at most 6 × $1,000 = $6,000 before you must pass a new eval to continue.
Larger sizes lift both the caps and the ceiling. The per-payout schedules on Intraday PAs are: 50K → $1,500 / $2,000 / $2,500 / $2,500 / $3,000 / $3,000 ($14,500 lifetime); 100K → $2,000 / $2,500 / $3,000 / $3,000 / $4,000 / $4,000 ($18,500 lifetime); 150K → $2,500 / $3,000 / $3,000 / $4,000 / $4,000 / $5,000 ($21,500 lifetime). Because it is a 100% split, those payout figures are what you actually receive — but they are also the hard cap on what a single account can ever return.
How the trailing drawdown works
This is the mechanic that fails most Apex accounts, so read it twice. Both drawdown types set a threshold that trails your peak upward and never moves back down — the difference is when the peak is measured.
Intraday Trail uses your highest intraday balance, and per Apex’s own wording it is “enforced in real time, including unrealized PnL.” If a trade goes $600 in your favor and you give it back, the threshold has already ratcheted up by that $600 — unrealized gains count. Touch the threshold at any tick and every position is liquidated instantly; the eval fails or the PA closes. EOD Trail instead recalculates the threshold once per day at 4:59:59 PM ET off the closing balance, so intraday spikes you don’t hold into the close never move it. The EOD threshold is still enforced in real time, but it climbs far more slowly — the trade-off is a higher price and a daily loss limit.
The platform gotcha: where the trailing stops depends on the platform you chose. On Rithmic and WealthCharts evaluations the threshold freezes once it reaches the profit-target balance (a 50K eval fixes its threshold at $53,000 once your peak hits $55,000). On Tradovate evaluations the drawdown trails indefinitely and never stops. Since platforms can’t be converted after purchase and there are no refunds for picking the wrong plan, choose deliberately. In a Performance Account, both stop once the threshold reaches Starting Balance + $100 (for a 50K PA, $50,100, reached when your peak hits $52,100).
Funded phase and payout rules
The PA is a simulated-funded (Sim Funded) account; top performers may be invited to the Apex Live program. Payouts are available as often as weekly — the earliest is after 5 qualifying trading days (they don’t have to be consecutive), each day meeting the minimum daily profit for your size. The minimum payout is $500. Two rules govern eligibility:
| Size | Min daily profit (Intraday / EOD) | Safety-net balance | Min balance to request payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $100 / $100 | $26,100 | $26,600 |
| 50K | $200 / $250 | $52,100 | $52,600 |
| 100K | $250 / $300 | $103,100 | $103,600 |
| 150K | $300 / $350 | $154,100 | $154,600 |
The 50% consistency rule states that no single profitable day may account for 50% or more of your total profit since your last approved payout; fail it and the payout button is simply hidden until you trade the balance back into line — it does not fail the account. Apex advertises “No Payout Denials, no payout reviews, no video reviews,” with automatic denial only if your balance falls below the required minimum after a request. Remember the ceiling: a PA is closed after its 6th payout, and a PA is also closed for inactivity if it goes 30 consecutive days with fewer than two $50+ net-profit days.
Who Apex suits, and who should look elsewhere
Good fit: discretionary futures traders who want a low-cost, high-volume approach — buy cheap evals during a coupon window, run several PAs in parallel (up to 20), take the full 100% split, and treat each account as a capped-return vehicle you cycle through. Poor fit: anyone who relies on automation — AI, bots, algorithms, and HFT are strictly prohibited and trigger immediate closure and forfeiture. It’s also a poor fit if you want a single long-term account to compound indefinitely: the 6-payout lifetime cap means the model is built around passing evals repeatedly, not holding one account forever. If you scalp aggressively and let winners run unrealized, the tick-by-tick intraday trail (especially on Tradovate) will punish you — the EOD variant is worth its premium.
Key trading rules
- Automation: strictly prohibited on all account types (AI, autobots, algorithms, fully automated systems, HFT).
- Hedging: none of any kind — directional trading only; no simultaneous long/short on the same or correlated instruments, and no cross-account hedging to pass evals.
- Accounts: up to 20 PAs active at once, combined across Legacy, EOD, and Intraday types.
- News: allowed for your normal strategy; “chase-the-market” both-sides gambling around news is not.
- Platforms: Rithmic, Tradovate, and WealthCharts. They are separate account setups with no conversion between them after purchase. Level 1 data is included; Depth of Market is optional at extra cost.
- Other: you must trade with stop losses, flatten before the close, and never use the full trailing threshold as your stop. Account sharing, VPN identity-masking, and payouts to accounts not in your own name are prohibited.
Official sources: apextraderfunding.com, the Intraday drawdown explainer, the EOD drawdown explainer, and the prohibited-activities list.
Is Apex Trader Funding legit? What we verified — and what we didn’t
Apex Trader Funding is a real, operating prop firm, and the terms it advertises matched its own official documentation when we last checked (14 August 2026). But “is Apex Trader Funding legit” usually bundles two different questions: does the firm operate as advertised, and does it actually pay? The first is verifiable from primary sources, and we verify it on a fixed cadence. The second cannot be promised by any comparison site — including this one. Here is exactly where that line sits.
What we verified ourselves
- Its current promotion and pricing were read directly from Apex’s own checkout configurator in a live browser session on 14 August 2026 (SAVENOW, up to 90% off; a 25K Intraday evaluation at $167, or $16.70 with the code).
- Its activation fees were read the same way on 8 August 2026: $69–$129 by size on Intraday Trail, $99–$159 on EOD Trail.
- Its headline terms are documented: a 100% profit split, a $500 minimum payout, and no resets on current products.
- Its March 2026 product overhaul is real and material — we tracked it in detail while many comparison sites still described the retired lineup.
What we have not verified
The gaps matter as much as the figures, so we list them:
- We have not personally taken a payout from Apex.
- Apex’s site blocks automated checks (Cloudflare), so our figures come from manual browser verification rather than a scripted check. Between those manual passes a promotion can change without us catching it immediately.
- The 100% split and the rule that an account closes after six payouts are corroborated by third-party sources; we prefer primary documentation and flag where we are relying on secondary sourcing.
How to check Apex Trader Funding’s reputation yourself
Our data tells you what Apex Trader Funding promises. Trader reports tell you how those promises land in practice — so read both, and read the reports properly:
- Sort by recent, not by rating. Prop-firm terms change fast; a glowing review of a rule set that no longer exists tells you nothing about today.
- Read specific complaints, not the star average. A report naming an account size, a date and a payout amount carries far more information than a one-line rating — in either direction.
- Weight payout-delay reports heaviest. Delays and denials at withdrawal time are the failure mode that actually costs traders money.
- Discount both extremes. Prop firms run incentives for positive reviews, and affiliates of competing firms amplify negative ones. The specific, boring, mid-range reports are usually the honest ones.
- Useful places to look: Trustpilot for volume, and trading communities on Reddit and Discord for detail. We deliberately do not aggregate those into a score of our own — that would just be a number we cannot verify.
Quick answers
Is Apex Trader Funding legit?
Apex Trader Funding is a real, operating prop firm: Apex is an established US futures firm whose pricing we verify directly in its own checkout, most recently on 14 August 2026. We have not tested a payout ourselves, and our profile states plainly which figures we could not verify.
Does Apex Trader Funding really pay?
Apex documents a 100% profit split with a $500 minimum payout, and a rule that an account closes after six payouts. We verified its pricing and promotions directly in Apex’s own checkout on 14 August 2026. We have not tested a withdrawal ourselves, and we flag that the split and payout-cap rules rest on secondary corroboration because Apex blocks automated checks of its help center.
Is Apex Trader Funding available to traders in the USA?
Yes. Apex accepts US traders — it is a US futures firm and a common choice for US residents.
Did Apex change its rules in 2026?
Yes. On March 1, 2026, Apex replaced its entire product line. New accounts are one-time-fee evaluations with no rebill, no resets, and a 30-day expiry, sold in two drawdown types (Intraday Trail and EOD Trail) and four sizes (25K, 50K, 100K, 150K). The old subscription-based evals, resets, and 90/10 split remain only for existing legacy holders; in August 2026 Apex reinstated its Legacy evaluation accounts as a limited-time promotion (six balance tiers, three platforms).
How does Apex’s trailing drawdown work?
The threshold trails your peak balance upward at a fixed dollar distance and never moves down. On Intraday Trail it follows your highest intraday balance in real time, including unrealized PnL, so open-trade gains raise it even if you give them back. On EOD Trail it is recalculated once daily at 4:59:59 PM ET from the closing balance. Touching the threshold liquidates all positions and ends the account. On Rithmic and WealthCharts evals the trailing stops at the profit-target balance; on Tradovate evals it trails indefinitely.
What is Apex’s profit split, and is there a payout limit?
The split is 100% — you receive the full approved payout amount, with no split in the Sim Funded account. However, each Performance Account is capped at 6 payouts and then closes permanently, and every payout is capped by a size-based schedule. A 25K Intraday PA, for example, caps each of its six payouts at $1,000, for a $6,000 lifetime maximum before you must pass a new evaluation.
How much does an Apex evaluation actually cost?
Regular one-time eval prices run from $199 (25K Intraday Standard) to $1,490 (150K EOD Standard), but Apex runs near-constant coupons of up to about 90% off. During a coupon window the 25K Intraday eval was $19.90. Standard-variant plans then charge a one-time PA activation fee (a flat $59 for Intraday, $119–$159 for EOD by size); No-Activation variants charge $0 to activate but cost more up front. There are no resets, so a failed or expired eval means buying a new one.
Is automation allowed on Apex accounts?
No. AI, autobots, algorithms, fully automated systems, and HFT are strictly prohibited on all account types, and violations result in immediate account closure and forfeiture. Hedging is also banned — trading is directional only, with no simultaneous long/short on the same or correlated instruments and no cross-account hedging. Apex does allow news trading for your normal strategy.
Full payout detail: Safety Net balances, minimum daily profit by size, per-request caps by payout number and the 6-payout closure rule are on our Apex payout rules page.