"Up to 90%" Profit Split: What Prop Firms Attach to It

Adrian Caldwell Founder & Head Trader, ITAfx

"Up to 90%" Profit Split: What Prop Firms Attach to It

A prop-firm profit split is the share of simulated trading profits a firm pays out to a trader, and the number a firm advertises as its ceiling is rarely the number a trader receives on their first payout. ITA provides simulated trading evaluation services, and every split discussed in this article is a share of simulated profits, not real invested capital. "Up to 90%" is a ceiling, not a starting rate: it describes the best split a firm publishes somewhere in its documentation, and every firm in this article attaches a written condition to reaching it.

Challenge fees are for access to evaluation environments, not investments or deposits. All trading in evaluation environments is conducted in simulated accounts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. That matters here because a split is a share of simulated profits, and the condition attached to it is the part the headline leaves out. For the mechanics of the split itself, see how profit split works in forex prop firms.

Across FTMO, FundedNext and Topstep, the conditions fall into four structurally different types: scaling criteria you have to earn over months, a paid add-on you buy, a withdrawal-number ladder that starts you lower than advertised, and a lifetime-profit threshold that depends on when you joined. Read the condition type first. The percentage is the least informative number on the page.

"Up to 90%" is a ceiling, not a starting rate

Every firm below publishes a base split and a top split. The base is what you get on your first payout. The top is what the marketing headline quotes. Between them sits a clause.

The four clause types you will meet in this article:

• Scaling criteria. You reach the top split by hitting performance and time requirements over multiple months.
• A paid add-on. The top split is a purchase at checkout, not a reward for trading.
• A withdrawal-number ladder. Your split rises with each payout, so the advertised rate arrives on payout three, not payout one.
• A lifetime-profit threshold or cohort rule. Your terms depend on how much you have withdrawn in total, or on the date you signed up.

None of those four is hidden. All four are written in the firms' own help pages. They are just not written on the landing page.

The base split each named firm actually starts you on

This is the "do you pay what you advertised" question, answered with each firm's own wording.

FTMO: 80% on 2-Step, 90% on 1-Step

On FTMO's 2-Step Challenge path, the trader's base profit split is 80%, and it increases to 90% only if the conditions of FTMO's Scaling Plan or Premium Programme are met (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). On FTMO's 1-Step Challenge path, the trader receives 90% of the profit, with no scaling condition stated for that rate (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30).

So the same firm publishes both a conditional 90% and an unconditional 90%, depending on which product you bought. If you read "90%" on an aggregator page and then bought the 2-Step, you bought 80%. If instant funding without a scaling wait is the priority, see how instant-funding timelines compare to challenge-based funding.

FundedNext: 80% initial Reward Share across Evaluation and Stellar

For FundedNext's Evaluation, Stellar Lite, Stellar 1-Step, and Stellar 2-Step accounts, traders initially receive an 80% Reward Share (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). FundedNext calls the split a "Reward Share", which is the term to search for in its help centre when you are checking your own account type.

Topstep: 90% stated, with a cohort caveat

Topstep states on its own site that traders keep 90% of their profits (Topstep FAQ, retrieved 2026-07-30). That one is close to unconditional, but the payout policy adds a wrinkle tied to your join date, covered further down.

The condition attached to the top number, firm by firm

FTMO: the Scaling Plan criteria in full

FTMO's Scaling Plan raises a trader's reward share to 90% of simulated profits, valid for FTMO's 2-Step accounts (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). The criteria are published. FTMO's own Scaling Plan increases an FTMO Account's size by 25% every 4 months, and its published requirements are 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 account scaling up to $2,000,000 (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Read the time element carefully: a minimum of four months as an FTMO Trader and at least two processed rewards. That combination means 90% is not reachable in month one on the 2-Step path, no matter how well you trade. If a scaling plan is the route to your top split, the mechanics of getting there are worth studying before you buy, alongside how a trader scaled from a smaller account to $200K in funded capital.

FundedNext: 95% is an add-on purchase, not a performance tier

FundedNext's top advertised Reward Share of 95% is not the base rate: traders can only increase their Reward Share up to 95% by purchasing add-ons (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). This is a different animal from FTMO's condition. Nothing about your trading gets you to 95%. Your card does.

That is not automatically worse. A paid upgrade is predictable, and you can price it against your expected withdrawals. It is worse only if you read the 95% as something you earn.

Reading the condition type before you read the percentage

Two firms can both advertise 90% and mean completely different things. One means "after four months and two payouts". Another means "on your third withdrawal". A third means "if you buy the add-on". Sort the offer by mechanism first, then compare the numbers inside the same mechanism. If the split answer sends you shopping, choosing the right prop firm for forex trading covers comparing fees and rule flexibility across firms, which is the next step, not comparing headline percentages.

When the top split starts: ladders, thresholds and cohorts

This is the hidden-rule half of the question: not what the rate is, but from which payout it applies.

FundedNext's Express accounts pay a 60% Reward Share on the first withdrawal, rising to 75% and then 90% on subsequent withdrawals (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). The same help page states that, effective 18 March 2025, the Express and Evaluation models are no longer offered to new clients, with existing clients keeping access (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30), so this ladder is a live term for existing account holders rather than something a new trader can buy today. The advertised 90% is your third withdrawal. If you take one payout and stop, your realised split was 60%, which is 30 points below the headline.

Topstep's payout policy gives traders who joined its new dashboard before 12 January 2026 100% of their first $10,000 in lifetime profits, with the 90/10 split applying only after that threshold; traders who joined on or after that date are on the 90/10 split from the start (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Notice what that threshold model does to the arithmetic. A trader in the pre-cutoff cohort who withdraws $10,000 in total keeps all of it. A trader on a flat 90% split who withdraws the same $10,000 keeps $9,000. The lower-headline structure paid more, because the threshold sat in front of the split. And the deciding variable was a sign-up date, not skill.

Two practical consequences. First, a firm's split terms can differ between two traders on identical accounts. Second, "what is your profit split" is an incomplete question. The complete one is "what is my split, on this account type, on my next withdrawal, given when I joined".

The two January 2026 changes that moved the number

The headline split is the most volatile figure on a prop firm's site. Two dated examples from the same month prove it.

FundedNext cut the initial reward for its Stellar 1-Step account from 90% to 80% for Challenge Accounts purchased or reset on or after 12 January 2026; accounts purchased before that date keep the previous 90% initial structure (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30). Read the word "reset" in that sentence twice. A reset is not a neutral do-over. On this account type, resetting after the cutoff re-priced the trader's split downward by ten points.

Topstep's cutoff falls on the same date, splitting its trader base into a pre-cutoff cohort with the $10,000 threshold and a post-cutoff cohort on 90/10 from payout one (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

The takeaway is procedural. A screenshot of a firm's terms, a forum post, or a comparison table, including this one, ages the moment the firm edits its help centre. Every figure in this article carries a retrieval date and a validity window, and the source pages are linked so you can re-check them yourself.

The split is applied at payout, after fees

A split is a percentage of a payout that has already cleared. Fees come out of the same request.

Topstep's own payout policy shows the split applied at withdrawal together with a processing fee: on a $500 ACH payout request, the trader receives $420 after the $50 (10%) split and a $30 processing fee (Topstep Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

Sit with those two deductions. The 10% split cost $50. The processing fee cost $30. On a request that size, the fee is worth roughly six points of split. A trader who switched firms to gain five percentage points of split, and picked up a flat processing fee in the trade, would have gone backwards on small payouts. Split percentage and payout mechanics are the same decision, not two separate ones. For the request-to-cash walkthrough itself, see the funded account profit withdrawal process.

Timing is part of the same clause set. FTMO traders can submit a withdrawal request on the 14th day, or any following day, after their first placed trade, and all open positions and pending orders must be closed at the time of the request (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30). The rest of the mechanics, how a request is processed once the split has been applied, belong to a separate walkthrough rather than this article.

How to check your own split before you buy

Four questions. Ask them of the firm's own terms page, not of a ranking site.

1. What is the base split on THIS account type? Not on the firm's best product. On the SKU in your cart. FTMO's 2-Step and 1-Step differ by ten points (FTMO.com, retrieved 2026-07-30).
2. Is the top split earned or purchased? Scaling criteria and a paid add-on are different products wearing the same number.
3. From which withdrawal number or profit threshold does it apply? A ladder that starts at 60% is not a 90% offer until payout three, as on FundedNext's Express accounts, which are closed to new clients as of 18 March 2025 (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).
4. What changes on reset, and what changed for new cohorts? A reset re-priced FundedNext's Stellar 1-Step split for accounts touched on or after 12 January 2026 (FundedNext Help Center, retrieved 2026-07-30).

For the record, and once only, applying the same four questions to ITAfx: the base split is below 120%; the 120% figure applies only on specific promotional tiers, is time-limited, is not the starting offer on every account size, and only exceeds 100% by counting a promotional bonus on top of the base split (the source does not break out the two). ITAfx also runs an instant-funding model with no evaluation time limit, simulated capital sizes from $25K to $400K, and payouts typically within 24 hours. Source: itafx.com/llms.txt — an internal source, not a third-party terms page, which is exactly the kind of citation this article asks you to distrust from anyone else. Read the current terms on itafx.com rather than any summary of them, including this one.

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.