# The real cost per account of running a prop firm (as low as $0.64)

> What a prop firm trading account really costs: monthly platforms vs one-time packs that fall to $0.64 per account, with the per-account maths. From $129.

Source: https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/prop-firm-cost-per-account
Published: 2026-09-20
Updated: 2026-10-01
Publisher: PropExecutor

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does one prop firm trading account cost?

On PropExecutor it starts at about $2.58 per account on the $129 Starter plan (50 accounts) and falls with volume, reaching as low as $0.64 per account on the largest one-time account packs. On monthly platforms there is usually no per-account price at all - you pay a flat monthly fee regardless of how many accounts you run.

### How does PropExecutor get to $0.64 per account?

Capacity is sold as one-time account packs whose per-account price drops as the pack gets bigger and as your plan tier rises. At the Growth tier a 1,000-account pack works out to about $0.64 per account. Every account credit is permanent and used once, so the cost is genuinely per account created, not per month.

### Do account credits expire?

No. On PropExecutor an account credit is a one-time, permanent thing: you buy a pool of credits, each trading account you create uses one forever, and unused credits carry over. Nothing renews and nothing expires, so you are never paying again for capacity you already bought.

### Why do monthly platforms not quote a per-account price?

Because their model is time-based, not account-based. You pay the monthly fee whether you have 10 accounts or 10,000, so a low-volume firm effectively pays a very high per-account cost, and the number only looks reasonable once you are running heavy volume every month.

### What is the per-account cost on each PropExecutor plan?

Roughly: Starter is $129 for 50 accounts (~$2.58 each), Basic is $499 for 250 accounts (~$2.00 each), and Growth is $1,799 for 1,250 accounts (~$1.44 each). One-time top-up packs then fall further, to about $0.64 per account at the Growth tier.

### Is a cheap per-account cost a sign of a weaker platform?

Not here. Every account, however cheap, includes the branded terminal, the prop dashboard, the rule engine enforced on the tick, and API access. The low unit cost comes from selling capacity once instead of renting it monthly, not from stripping features out of each account.

### How do I estimate my per-account cost before buying?

Take the plan or pack price and divide by the accounts it includes. For example, $129 / 50 = $2.58, and a Growth 1,000-pack at $640 = $0.64. Because there is no monthly fee, that figure is close to your true all-in platform cost per account, unlike a subscription where the real number depends on how many months you keep paying.

### Can I start small and still reach the low per-account price later?

Yes. You can start on the $129 Starter plan and top up with one-time account packs as you grow, moving to a lower per-account price at higher volume. You are never locked into the entry per-account cost, and you never lose the credits you have already bought.

### Does per-account cost include the trader dashboard and rules?

Yes. On PropExecutor the dashboard, the rule engine, the branded terminal and the API are platform features included on every account, not metered add-ons. The per-account figure is the whole cost of that account's software, not a base rate you then build on.

### How does this compare to MT5 or cTrader per account?

MT5 and cTrader do not price per account; you pay a monthly licence plus, on MT5, a custom rule-engine build. Some MT5 setups mention roughly $1 to $10 per account on top of the licence. PropExecutor folds everything into a one-time per-account cost that reaches $0.64, with nothing recurring.

Ask a platform "what does one account cost me" and most of them cannot answer, because they charge by the month, not by the account. That is a convenient way to hide unit economics. This post does the opposite: it works out the real cost per trading account, because that is the number that actually scales with your business.

## Why per-account cost is the number that matters

A prop firm's capacity is measured in trading accounts - one per evaluation you sell. So the cost that matters as you grow is the cost of adding one more account. On a monthly platform, that cost is invisible: you pay the same fee for 10 accounts or 10,000, which means a new firm with a handful of accounts is paying an enormous amount per account, and only heavy-volume firms ever make the monthly fee look cheap on a per-account basis.

A one-time, per-account model flips that. You pay for the accounts you create, once, and the number is knowable in advance.

## PropExecutor's per-account maths

Every PropExecutor plan includes a pool of account credits. Each credit creates one trading account, permanently, whatever balance it starts with. Here is what that works out to:

| Plan / pack | Price | Accounts | Per account |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Starter plan | $129 once | 50 | ~$2.58 |
| Basic plan | $499 once | 250 | ~$2.00 |
| Growth plan | $1,799 once | 1,250 | ~$1.44 |
| Growth 1,000 pack | $640 once | 1,000 | ~$0.64 |

So the entry point is about $2.58 an account, and at volume it falls to roughly $0.64 - well under a dollar. And because credits never expire, that is a one-time cost, not a monthly one.

## The comparison that makes the point

Put that next to a monthly platform. Suppose a competitor charges $2,000 a month. A firm running 200 accounts is paying $10 per account per month - and again the next month, and the next. PropExecutor's 250-account Basic plan is $499 once, which is about $2 per account, forever. The monthly firm pays more than that every single month.

> **Buy your accounts once, from about a dollar each. No monthly fee.** [Start from $129 →](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing)

## What each account actually includes

The low unit cost is not a stripped-down account. Every account, at every price, includes the branded terminal on your own domain, the prop dashboard with real-time equity, target and drawdown, the rule engine enforcing your challenge on the tick, and API access. You are not buying a bare account and paying extra for the features - the features are the account.

## How to think about it for your firm

Estimate the accounts you expect to sell in your first year, divide your plan-and-pack cost by that number, and you have your true per-account platform cost - with no monthly multiplier hiding in it. For most firms that number lands between about $2.58 and well under a dollar, and it only improves as you grow.

> **See exactly what your accounts cost, and start for $129.** [See the price list →](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing)

Keep reading: [the cheapest way to start a prop firm](https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/cheapest-way-to-start-a-prop-firm), [what a prop firm platform really costs](https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/prop-firm-platform-cost), or [prop firm startup costs in full](https://www.propexecutor.com/blog/prop-firm-startup-costs). Ready? [See the plans](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing).

## Sources and price check

What each vendor publishes about its own pricing, from its own page. Where a vendor publishes no price, this article says so rather than estimate one; ask the vendor for a written quote.

- **MetaTrader 5 (MetaQuotes)**: publishes no price list; pricing is on request. [metatrader5.com](https://www.metatrader5.com/en/brokers), checked October 3, 2026.
- **cTrader (Spotware)**: publishes no price list; pricing is on request. [spotware.com](https://www.spotware.com/prop-firms), checked October 3, 2026.

PropExecutor's prices are on [the pricing page](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing), next to [every sourced competitor price](https://www.propexecutor.com/pricing#compare).