The FTMO profit split decides how much of your simulated trading profit actually lands in your pocket. Get the split wrong in your head and you either overestimate your payout or miss a faster route to keeping more of what you earn.
This guide walks through how the FTMO 80/20 split works from your very first reward, how the Scaling Plan pushes that number to 90/10 over time, what the newer 1-Step FTMO Challenge changes about the starting split, and how all of this compares to what other prop firms are currently offering.
Ready to Trade Under FTMO’s Reward Structure?
Once you understand how the split and the Scaling Plan work together, the next step is choosing which FTMO route fits your trading style. Both options below lead to a funded FTMO Account, just with different starting splits and a different evaluation path to get there.
Most traders judge a prop firm on the pass rate or the entry fee first, because those are the numbers standing between them and a funded account. The profit split usually gets a quick glance and not much more, which is understandable, but over a full year of funded trading it is often the number that moves the most money.
That is especially true now that FTMO runs two different paths into a funded account, each with a different starting split, plus a Scaling Plan and a Premium Programme sitting on top of both. It is easy to read one blog post that mentions “80%” and another that mentions “90%” and walk away confused about which one applies to you. This guide untangles all of it, with the actual numbers pulled straight from FTMO’s own rules pages, so you know exactly where you stand before you buy a challenge.
Table of Contents
- Why the FTMO Profit Split Matters
- How the FTMO Profit Split Works
- The Rules That Sit Behind Every Payout
- The FTMO Scaling Plan: Reaching 90/10
- A Trader’s First Year: The Split in Practice
- The 1-Step FTMO Challenge: 90% from Day One
- Premium Programme vs Scaling Plan
- What Changed with FTMO’s Split in 2026
- How FTMO’s Split Compares to Other Prop Firms
- Real Numbers: 80% vs 90% Across a Year
- Tips to Reach 90% Faster
- Related Content
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Resources
Why the FTMO Profit Split Matters
A profit split sounds like a small detail sitting next to profit targets and drawdown limits, but it compounds in a way those other rules do not. A drawdown rule either lets you keep trading or it does not. A profit split, on the other hand, quietly shapes every single payout you ever collect from that account, for as long as you trade it.
Ten percentage points on a consistently profitable account adds up to real money every payout cycle, not just once. Run that gap across twelve months of trading and it starts to look less like a rounding error and more like the difference between a side income and a proper second income. That is why the split deserves the same attention traders usually reserve for pass rates and pricing.
It also shapes how people plan their trading year. A trader chasing a 90% split from day one through the 1-Step Challenge is making a different bet than one who is happy to start at 80% and scale up over several months. Neither approach is wrong on its own. What matters is picking the one that actually fits how you trade, rather than the one that sounds best in a headline.
How the FTMO Profit Split Works
The default FTMO reward structure gives traders 80% of simulated profits, with FTMO keeping the remaining 20%. That 80/20 split applies the moment you pass evaluation and open a funded FTMO Account, and it stays there on its own. Nothing about it improves automatically just because time passes or your account grows. You either work it up through the Scaling Plan and Premium Programme, or you choose the 1-Step Challenge, which starts higher and skips the climb entirely.
Every FTMO Trader also gets their initial challenge fee refunded in full with their first reward withdrawal, provided the trading rules were followed throughout. That refund is easy to overlook when comparing splits across firms side by side, but it changes the real math on your first payout more than most traders expect. A $99 fee refunded alongside a $4,000 reward effectively pushes your first-payout take well past the headline 80% figure.
There is also a rollover option worth knowing about early. Instead of withdrawing every reward, you can leave it on the account to build a larger balance and a bigger drawdown buffer. Traders working toward the Scaling Plan’s requirements sometimes use this deliberately, since a thicker equity cushion makes it easier to keep trading through a rough week without breaching the daily loss limit.
| Challenge Type | Starting Split | Path To 90% | Worth Knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO Challenge: 2-Step | 80% to the trader (80/20) | Scaling Plan or Premium Programme | Classic FTMO route, evaluation fee refunded on first reward. |
| FTMO Challenge: 1-Step | 90% to the trader (90/10) | Already included from the first reward | Single-phase evaluation with tighter daily loss limits than the 2-Step model. |
The Rules That Sit Behind Every Payout
The split itself is only half the story. FTMO also runs a set of trading objective rules that decide whether a reward gets approved in the first place, and one of them affects the split’s real-world value more than people expect: the Best Day Rule.
The Best Day Rule requires that your single most profitable day does not represent more than 50% of your total positive-days profit. In plain terms, if you made most of your money on one lucky trade or one volatile session, FTMO wants to see that spread out with additional profitable trading before approving the reward. Exceeding it is not treated as a rule breach, but it does mean continuing to trade until the ratio balances out, which can delay a payout you were otherwise expecting.
This matters for the profit split conversation because a 90% split on a reward that gets held up is worth less, in practical terms, than an 80% split on a reward that clears on schedule. Consistency, not just raw profit, is what turns a good split into an actual bank transfer.
A single outsized winning day feels great in the moment, but it can push you into Best Day Rule territory. Traders scaling toward 90% specifically benefit from spreading gains across more trading days rather than swinging for one big session.
The FTMO Scaling Plan: Reaching 90/10
The Scaling Plan is FTMO’s built-in reward for consistency, and it is what moves a 2-Step Challenge trader from the default 80% split up to 90%, while also growing the account balance itself, up to a maximum of 2,000,000 dollars across all FTMO Accounts under the same order.
According to FTMO’s own Scaling Plan page, the requirements are checked on a rolling four-month window rather than a one-time milestone, which means you need to keep performing consistently rather than hit one strong month and coast.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Minimum trading period | 4 months as an FTMO Trader, or since your last scale-up, under the same order |
| Net simulated profit | At least 10% above your starting balance, generated within that 4-month window |
| Processed rewards | At least 2 rewards paid out within the same 4-month period |
| Account balance | Must be positive at the moment of scale-up |
Meeting the Scaling Plan requirements gives you a 25% boost to your FTMO Account balance and moves your reward split up to 90%, with the process repeating every 4 months until you reach the 2,000,000 dollar cap.
Because the window resets every 4 months rather than locking in permanently, the Scaling Plan effectively asks for repeated proof of consistency, not a single good stretch. That is part of why some traders prefer the 1-Step Challenge instead, which is covered a little further down.
A Trader’s First Year: The Split in Practice
Numbers on a rules page are one thing. Seeing how they play out over a real trading year makes the split easier to plan around. Here is a simplified walkthrough for a trader who passes the FTMO Challenge: 2-Step on a $100,000 account and trades it consistently rather than aggressively.
| Timeline | What Happens | Split In Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | First reward requested and paid after the 14-day minimum, evaluation fee refunded alongside it | 80% |
| Months 2 to 4 | Second reward processed, account stays consistently profitable, no Best Day Rule issues | 80% |
| End of Month 4 | Scaling Plan requirements met: 10%+ net profit, 2 rewards processed, positive balance | Scales to 90% |
| Months 5 to 8 | Account balance boosted 25%, trader continues at the higher split on a larger account | 90% |
| End of Month 8 | Second scaling milestone met, account balance boosted again | 90%, larger balance |
Not every trader will match this pace exactly. A rough month resets the clock on the 4-month window without ending the account, since the requirement looks at rolling performance rather than punishing a single bad stretch outright. The broader point still holds: the 80% split is not a ceiling, it is a starting point for anyone willing to trade consistently for a few months.
The 1-Step FTMO Challenge: 90% from Day One
The 1-Step FTMO Challenge is one of the more significant additions to FTMO’s line-up in recent time, and it changes the calculation above considerably. Instead of gradually scaling into a 90% split, traders who pass the single-phase evaluation start their FTMO Account with a 90% simulated profit split straight away, on every reward from the very first one onward.
It also removes the second evaluation phase entirely, so the journey from challenge purchase to funded account is shorter than the 2-Step route. In exchange, the daily loss limit is tighter than on the 2-Step model, which means the trading style needs to lean more conservative from the start rather than something you can ease into over time.
Put simply, the 1-Step Challenge trades one kind of patience for another. You skip the months of scaling toward 90%, but you accept a stricter daily risk ceiling in exchange. Whether that trade is worth it depends heavily on how your strategy actually behaves day to day, not just on the appeal of the higher headline number.
A higher starting split is not automatically the better choice. If your strategy relies on wider intraday swings, the stricter daily loss limit on the 1-Step Challenge may matter more to you than the extra 10% on the split.
Premium Programme vs Scaling Plan
Once traders realize there are two ways to reach 90%, the natural next question is whether they overlap or compete. They do not. The Premium Programme is a separate reward tier from the Scaling Plan, and the two are not mutually exclusive. FTMO Traders who qualify through either the 1-Step or 2-Step Challenge can take part in both programmes at the same time, according to FTMO’s own Premium Programme page.
The main difference is timing rather than eligibility. Traders who reach a funded account through the 1-Step Challenge already start with a 90% split, so entering the Premium Programme does not change their reward ratio any further, it mainly affects other account benefits. Traders coming from the 2-Step Challenge can use the Premium Programme alongside the Scaling Plan to build their track record while working toward 90%, effectively stacking two consistency-based programmes rather than choosing between them.
What Changed with FTMO’s Split in 2026
FTMO’s core reward numbers, 80% by default and up to 90% through scaling, have stayed consistent for years and remain the baseline heading into 2026. What actually changed is not the percentages themselves but the number of ways traders can reach the higher one, and how the wider FTMO ecosystem is structured around it.
| Change | What It Means For Traders |
|---|---|
| 1-Step Challenge introduced | Gives traders a route to a 90% split immediately, without waiting on the Scaling Plan’s 4-month cycles. |
| Premium Programme runs alongside Scaling Plan | Traders can stack track record benefits from both programmes instead of choosing one over the other. |
| FTMO US via OANDA | Extends the same FTMO-style reward structure to a US-facing audience through OANDA’s platform. |
None of this makes the 2-Step Challenge obsolete. It simply means the split you end up with now depends on a genuine choice at signup, not just how long you have been trading. That choice is worth making deliberately rather than defaulting to whichever challenge happens to be advertised first.
How FTMO’s Split Compares to Other Prop Firms
FTMO’s 80/20 default is not the highest starting split in the industry, and it is worth being upfront about that. Several newer firms lead with a higher headline number to stand out. The table below lines up FTMO against two firms traders commonly compare it to, based on each firm’s own published rules.
| Firm | Starting Split | Top Split Available | How You Get There |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO | 80% (2-Step) or 90% (1-Step) | 90% | Scaling Plan, Premium Programme, or 1-Step Challenge from day one |
| FundedNext | 75% to 80% depending on account type | Up to 95% | Scale-Up milestones and account performance |
| The5ers | 50% on some programs | Up to 100% on qualifying programs | Program-specific scaling tied to account growth |
A higher ceiling on paper does not automatically mean more money in practice. FTMO’s advantage has never really been the size of the split, it is the consistency of actually collecting it: a long payout history, a 99.8% on-time rate by the firm’s own reporting, and rules like the Best Day Rule that keep the reward process predictable rather than a source of last-minute disputes. A 100% split you rarely reach is worth less than a 90% split you clear on schedule every cycle.
Real Numbers: 80% vs 90% Across a Year
Percentages are easier to compare once they turn into dollars. Here is what the difference looks like on the same amount of simulated profit, before accounting for the refunded evaluation fee on your first payout.
| Simulated Profit | At 80% Split | At 90% Split | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $4,000 | $4,500 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $8,000 | $9,000 | $1,000 |
| $20,000 | $16,000 | $18,000 | $2,000 |
Now stretch that across a full year instead of one payout cycle. A trader generating $5,000 in simulated profit every month at an 80% split takes home $48,000 across twelve months. The same trader at a 90% split takes home $54,000, a $6,000 gap purely from the reward ratio, without changing a single thing about the trading itself.
That gap is exactly why so many traders make reaching 90% an active priority rather than a background hope. It is not a marginal improvement once you look at it over a full year rather than a single payout.
Tips to Reach 90% Faster
Getting to 90% is less about finding a shortcut and more about trading in a way that naturally satisfies FTMO’s consistency requirements. A few habits make the climb noticeably smoother.
| Habit | Why It Helps |
|---|---|
| Space out your profitable days | Avoids Best Day Rule delays and shows the steady performance the Scaling Plan is actually measuring. |
| Request at least 2 rewards within each 4-month window | This is a hard requirement for scaling, not just a nice habit, so plan your withdrawal schedule around it. |
| Consider a partial rollover | Keeping some reward on the account builds a bigger equity buffer, making it easier to stay within daily loss limits. |
| Decide between 1-Step and 2-Step upfront | Switching your strategy to fit a tighter daily loss limit after the fact is harder than choosing the right challenge from the start. |
Related Content
If you are setting up your MT5 terminal for FTMO trading, these guides walk through the technical side of getting your platform ready before you focus on the split and the payout schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is FTMO’s Default Profit Split?
The default FTMO profit split is 80% to the trader and 20% retained by FTMO. This applies to traders who pass the FTMO Challenge: 2-Step and open a funded FTMO Account.
How Do I Reach a 90% FTMO Reward Split?
You reach 90% either through the Scaling Plan, which requires 4 months of trading, at least 10% net profit in that window, and 2 processed rewards, or by passing the FTMO Challenge: 1-Step, which starts at 90% from your first reward.
What Is the Best Day Rule and Does It Affect My Split?
The Best Day Rule requires that your single most profitable day does not represent more than 50% of your total positive-days profit. It does not change your split percentage, but breaching it can delay a reward until your profit is spread across more trading days.
What Is New About the 1-Step FTMO Challenge?
The 1-Step FTMO Challenge is a single-phase evaluation that gives traders a 90% simulated profit split immediately after funding, instead of building toward it through the Scaling Plan. It carries a tighter daily loss limit than the 2-Step model.
Can I Use the Scaling Plan and Premium Programme Together?
Yes. FTMO treats the Scaling Plan and Premium Programme as separate, independent programmes, and traders can participate in both at the same time regardless of which challenge type they passed.
Do I Get My FTMO Challenge Fee Back?
Yes. FTMO refunds your initial challenge fee in full with your first reward withdrawal, provided you followed the trading rules throughout the evaluation and funded account stages.
Does the Profit Split Change by Account Size?
No. The 80/20 default and the 90/10 scaled split apply the same way across FTMO Account sizes. What changes with account size is the dollar value of each percentage point, not the split itself.
How Does FTMO’s Split Compare to Firms Advertising 90% or 100%?
Some firms advertise higher ceilings, but those splits are usually tied to their own scaling milestones and account programs, similar to how FTMO’s Scaling Plan works. A high split you rarely reach is worth less than a slightly lower split with a strong track record of actually paying out on time.
Resources
Disclosure
This page may contain affiliate links. That means The Payout Report may earn a commission if you choose FTMO through one of the links above. Profit split figures for other firms are based on each firm’s own published rules and can change, so always review current challenge rules, profit split terms, and eligibility details on the official site before purchasing any challenge or account.
