Prop Firm Scaling Plans Compared: FTMO, FundedNext, The5ers

Adrian Caldwell Founder & Head Trader, ITAfx

What a prop firm scaling plan actually is (and what it is not)

A scaling plan is a conditional promise with a clock attached. The firm agrees to raise your simulated account balance if, and only if, you satisfy a set of conditions inside a defined window of time. It is not a bonus, and it is not automatic. For the broader mechanics of how a funded account works before scaling ever enters the picture, see funded account rules explained for beginners.

The four variables that decide whether you ever scale

Strip the marketing off any plan and four variables remain:

1. Profit threshold. How much cumulative profit, or cumulative disbursed reward, you must produce.
2. Review cycle. The unit of time or events over which the threshold is measured: active months, consecutive months, reward cycles, or profit milestones.
3. Balance increase. The percentage by which the simulated balance rises when you qualify.
4. Hard cap. The maximum account size the plan will ever take you to.

Change any one of the four and the plan behaves differently, even if the headline percentage stays identical.

Why the review clock matters more than the headline percentage

Two firms can both advertise a growth event and be nothing alike, because the clock differs. FTMO measures a minimum of 4 months as an FTMO Trader (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). FundedNext's standard Scale-Up measures four consecutive months (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). FundedNext Pro measures per Performance Reward cycle (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). The5ers measures per profit milestone, with no month count at all (The5ers, retrieved 2026-07-30).

A month you sit out is not the same thing under an "active months" rule as it is under a "consecutive months" rule. That single difference can be the reason a plan you thought you were three months into resets. This is the same clock-versus-window confusion that trips traders up around how the consistency rule works in funded account payouts.

Simulated capital: what "your account grew" means here

At every firm in this comparison, and at ITAfx, scaling raises the balance of a simulated evaluation account. Nobody wires money into a brokerage account in your name. The profit figures are simulated profits, and the payout is a share of those simulated profits paid under the firm's own reward terms. Read "the account doubled" as "the simulated balance you trade against doubled."

FTMO's Scaling Plan: 25% every 4 months, capped at $2,000,000

The conditions behind the 25%

FTMO's own Scaling Plan increases an FTMO Account's balance by 25% every 4 months, and the page lists four requirements: a minimum of 4 months as an FTMO Trader, at least 10% of the initial (or scaled) capital in total net simulated profit, at least 2 processed rewards, and a positive account balance at the time of scale-up, with the FTMO Account scaling up to $2,000,000 (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Note how many conditions sit behind the number a comparison table usually reduces to "25%". Four separate tests must all pass: the time window, the profit threshold, the reward count, and the balance state on the day of the review.

What "4 months as an FTMO Trader" and "processed reward" mean in practice

Two of those four conditions are definitional, and they are where readers slip.

The time condition is stated as a minimum of 4 months as an FTMO Trader, which makes the 4-month figure a floor on elapsed time, never a ceiling, and it starts counting from when you became an FTMO Trader rather than from any calendar boundary (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30).

A processed reward is a reward that has completed processing, not one you have requested. Because the plan requires at least 2 processed rewards, your payout behaviour is part of your scaling eligibility (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). A trader who compounds and never withdraws can hit the profit threshold and still fail the reward condition; see funded account profit withdrawal process for how disbursement itself works.

The 90% reward share and which accounts it applies to

FTMO's Scaling Plan also raises a trader's reward share to 90% of simulated profits, valid for FTMO's 2-Step accounts (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). Read the qualifier: the share improvement is tied to a specific account type, not granted to every FTMO account that scales. For the mechanics of how that share is calculated in the first place, see how profit split works in forex prop firms.

FundedNext: two different scale-up programs, and a rule change dated January 12, 2026

FundedNext is the firm where "the scaling plan" is not one thing. There are separate programs for separate products, and one of them changed on a dated deadline.

Standard Scale-Up: 40% after four consecutive qualifying months

FundedNext's standard Scale-Up plan requires a minimum accumulated disbursed-amount growth of 10% across four consecutive months, at least two Performance Rewards in that window, and the last trading cycle ending in profit; qualifying accounts get a 40% balance increase (a $100,000 account becomes $140,000), up to a maximum of $4 million (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

The threshold is worth reading twice. It is not measured on account profit percentage but on accumulated disbursed amount, meaning money actually paid out to you, relative to the balance. Profit sitting in the account unwithdrawn does not move that number.

Pro Scale-Up: 25% per qualifying cycle, measured in reward cycles

FundedNext Pro's Scale-Up program requires a minimum of 4% growth within each qualifying Performance Reward cycle, 4 Performance Rewards received to trigger the first scaling event, and an active presence of at least 2 months; the page's own illustration takes a $100,000 Stellar 2-Step account to $125,000 after four qualifying cycles, a 25% increase, with the ceiling expanding up to $4 million (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

The mechanic is structurally different from the standard plan. There is no four-month window here. The unit is the reward cycle, with a 2-month minimum presence as a separate floor, and the first scaling event needs 4 rewards behind it.

Stellar Instant: the new post-Tier-10 program and the purchase/reset date that decides which rules apply

FundedNext's own help center states that Stellar Instant Accounts purchased or reset on or after January 12, 2026 follow a new Scale-Up program, replacing the prior scale-up criteria for the post-Tier-10 progression; the plan requires cumulative 10% growth in the current tier (measured as total disbursed withdrawal amount divided by the current tier's starting balance) plus at least one withdrawal in that tier, growing the account up to 10x the initial balance before continuing to a $2 million cap (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

The mechanic to internalise is the trigger: purchase or reset date. Two traders can hold Stellar Instant accounts of the same size, trade identically, and be governed by different rulebooks, because one bought or reset before 12 January 2026 and the other on or after it (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). A reset is not a neutral administrative act under a dated rule change. It can move your account onto a different plan. For a side-by-side of FundedNext against ITAfx's own instant model, see FundedNext vs ITAfx: detailed comparison for prop firm traders.

Why a dated rule change breaks every review-site table written before it

This is the practical lesson of the whole article. A scaling plan is a document with a version, and firms date their versions. Any third-party table that lists FundedNext's Stellar Instant scaling criteria without naming the 12 January 2026 effective date is either describing the old program or blending two programs into one row (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Check the firm's own domain, and check for a date. If neither is present, you are reading a summary of a summary.

The5ers: doubling at 10% (Hyper Growth) versus 5% milestones (Bootcamp)

Hyper Growth: milestone-based doubling and the payout ladder

The5ers' own Hyper Growth program page states the account doubles on every milestone, with a 10% profit target at each stage, growth up to $4,000,000, up to 100% profit share, and unlimited time to pass (The5ers, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Two things separate this from the FTMO and FundedNext plans. First, the increase is a doubling, not a percentage step. Second, the trigger is a profit target, not a calendar period, so the clock is entirely in the trader's hands. There is no month count to wait out and none to lose either.

Bootcamp: 5% steps that move balance and split together

The5ers' own Bootcamp plan page states that for every 5% profit generated on a funded account, the account balance and profit split grow, with the profit split starting at 50% and scaling to 100% (The5ers, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Here the balance and the split move together on the same 5% milestone, which is a different design again: the reward for scaling is not only a bigger simulated balance but a rising share of the simulated profit.

Two products, two rulebooks: which one you actually bought

Hyper Growth and Bootcamp are distinct products with distinct mechanics (The5ers, retrieved 2026-07-30). A 10% doubling rule and a 5% stepped rule cannot both govern the same account. Before you plan around either, confirm from your own account dashboard which program you purchased.

Side-by-side: the one table (threshold, review cycle, increase, cap)

Footnote on the review-cycle column: FTMO's "minimum of 4 months as an FTMO Trader" and FundedNext's "four consecutive months" are not the same condition and must not be read as comparable durations. FTMO's four months is a floor that can span more time; four consecutive months cannot be interrupted. All rows describe documentation retrieved on 30 July 2026 and should be re-checked against the firm's own page before you rely on them.

How to read the review-cycle column without conflating conditions

Read the unit before the number. "4" means a minimum of four months as an FTMO Trader, four unbroken calendar months at FundedNext standard, and nothing at all at The5ers, where the unit is a profit target. A table that puts "4 months" in all three cells has destroyed the only information that mattered.

What the caps mean once you model the number of cycles required

A cap is a promise about the ceiling, not about the route. A $4,000,000 cap reached in 25% steps and a $4,000,000 cap reached by doubling are the same destination on completely different timelines. The next section does that arithmetic.

What the numbers mean for the time it actually takes

Everything below is arithmetic on the firms' own published increase percentages. It is not a forecast, not an average outcome, and not a return you should expect. It also assumes every single cycle qualifies, which is the assumption most traders never state out loud.

Cycles to cap, computed from each firm's published increase

FundedNext's standard plan compounds at 40% per qualifying event, from $100,000 toward the $4,000,000 cap (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). Each event multiplies the balance by 1.4: $100,000, $140,000, $196,000, $274,400, $384,160, $537,824, $752,954, $1,054,135, $1,475,789, $2,066,105, $2,892,547, $4,049,565. That is 11 qualifying events to pass $4,000,000. At four consecutive qualifying months per event, 11 events is 44 consecutive qualifying months, roughly three years and eight months with no failed window.

FTMO's plan compounds at 25% per qualifying event, from $100,000 toward the $2,000,000 cap (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). Each event multiplies by 1.25. Thirteen events take $100,000 to about $1,819,000; fourteen take it past $2,000,000. At 4 months per event, 14 events is 56 months, over four and a half years of qualifying periods at minimum.

The5ers Hyper Growth doubles the account on every milestone, with a 10% target at each stage (The5ers, retrieved 2026-07-30). Each event multiplies by 2. From $100,000: $200,000, $400,000, $800,000, $1,600,000, $3,200,000. Five doublings put the account above $3,000,000, and a sixth passes the $4,000,000 ceiling. Far fewer events, but each one requires a fresh 10% target on a balance that has just doubled.

FundedNext Pro's Scale-Up compounds at 25% per qualifying cycle (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). The step size matches FTMO's, but the unit is a reward cycle rather than a fixed four-month window, and the first event alone requires 4 Performance Rewards plus a 2-month minimum active presence. The number of events to the $4,000,000 cap from $100,000 is 17 at 1.25 per event; the elapsed time depends entirely on your reward-cycle cadence, which the published rules do not fix.

The assumption that quietly does the work: every cycle qualifies

Every figure above assumes an unbroken run of qualifying periods. Miss the profit threshold in one window, take one payout too few, or end the last cycle flat instead of in profit, and the count restarts or pauses depending on the firm's wording. The published conditions tell you the best case. They say nothing about your probability of reaching it, and no firm's page claims to. That gap between best-case arithmetic and what actually happens under drawdown pressure is covered in prop firm drawdown rules: the complete 2026 guide.

Before you choose: the questions to ask any firm's own documentation

Five questions the firm's own docs must answer

1. Is the plan documented on the firm's own domain? If your only source is a review site, you have no source.
2. Is there an effective date? FundedNext dates its Stellar Instant Scale-Up program to 12 January 2026 (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). Absence of a date does not mean absence of change.
3. Does the rulebook depend on purchase or reset date? For Stellar Instant accounts it does (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). Ask before you reset anything.
4. Is the cap stated as a number? "Unlimited growth" without a figure is not a cap you can plan against.
5. Is the review unit defined? Active months, consecutive months, reward cycles and profit milestones are four different clocks. If you are still deciding between firms before any of this applies to you, how to choose the right prop firm for forex trading covers the earlier-stage questions.

Where ITAfx's own terms live (one link, not a restated table)

ITAfx runs an instant-funding model with no evaluation time limit, on simulated capital. For account sizes, profit split and payout timing, read ITAfx's own pricing and rules page rather than any restated table, including this one; that page is the canonical owner of those numbers and the place they are kept current.

Adrian Caldwell

Adrian Caldwell is the founder and head trader at ITAfx (Institutional Trading Academy). He writes on prop-firm trading, funded-account strategy, technical analysis and trading psychology.