Prop firm or your own money
Prop Firm vs Own Account Calculator
A challenge fee buys you a bigger account to trade, not a profit. This calculator puts your fee, your edge and your own estimate of passing against an own account at the same risk per trade, and says plainly when the challenge does not pay.
1. Pick a plan
What you pay to start.
Bootcamp charges one.
0 if the plan shows none.
Example. Replace it with the plan’s figure.
2. Your trading
Applied to both accounts.
Average result per trade. Example only.
Your own estimate. Leave empty until you have one.
3. Your own account
Optional.
Optional.
01The plans, as The5ers shows them
We read these from the plan selector on The5ers’s own site on October 20, 2026 (MetaTrader, prices in USD). The High Stakes 100K option was labelled “Summer Plan”, and the 20K plans were labelled “20 N”, so treat the prices as what we saw that day, not a standing list. Prices and rules can change or differ by platform and country, and we are not The5ers.
| Plan | Fee | Profit target | Max loss | Daily loss | Leverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Stakes, Classic on 2-step, 100K “Summer Plan” | $179 | 8% then 5% | $10,000 | 3% | 1:100 |
| High Stakes, Classic off 2-step, 100K “Summer Plan” | $149 | 10% then 5% | $10,000 | 3% | 1:100 |
| Pro Growth 1-step, 20K | $189 | 10% | $1,200 | 3% | 1:30 |
| Hyper Growth 1-step, 20K, profit split 50% | $850 | 10% | $1,200 | 3% daily pause | 1:30 |
| Bootcamp 3-step, 25K, 50K, 75K, then 100K funded | $95 + $205 funded fee | 6% each step, 5% funded | $1,250, $2,500, $3,750, then $4,000 | Not shown | 1:30 |
High Stakes also showed a funded-phase consistency rule of 50%, a withdraw target of $250 and a withdraw cap of $2,000. Only Hyper Growth showed a profit split (50%). For the other plans we did not see one, so the calculator starts at an example 80% that you must replace with the figure on The5ers’s page. Bootcamp showed $95 and a $205 funded fee “once you pass”, which the calculator treats as paid only after a pass.
02What the numbers do
- Same risk per trade, in percent. The challenge account is sized at the plan’s balance and your own account at the balance you enter, so the dollars differ and the percentage does not. That is the honest comparison, because with the same dollars an own account always keeps all of the profit.
- Funded months. Evaluation months earn nothing. Funded months are the period minus the months you take to pass.
- Your share. Gross profit a month is trades × expectancy × risk × account size, and you keep the split.
- Expected profit of one attempt. Pass chance × (your share over the funded months − any fee after passing) − the fee.
- Break-even pass chance. The fee divided by what a pass is worth. It needs no estimate from you.
- Breach chance. Optional, per month. It shortens the expected funded months using a simple geometric model.
The model is linear: no compounding, no scaling plan, no costs, no taxes, and a funded account that never breaches unless you enter a chance. It also treats expectancy as known. Real expectancy is an estimate from a sample, so it is the weakest input, and you can test it with the expectancy calculator.
03How much passing has to be worth
Break-even pass chance for each plan, with fixed assumptions: 0.5% risk per trade, 20 trades a month, 2 months to pass, a 12-month period, no breach chance and an assumed 80% split (50% for Hyper Growth, where The5ers showed it). Change any of them above.
| Plan | Fees | At 0.02R | At 0.05R | At 0.10R |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Stakes Classic, 100K | $179 | 11% | 4.5% | 2.2% |
| High Stakes, 100K | $149 | 9.3% | 3.7% | 1.9% |
| Pro Growth, 20K | $189 | 59% | 24% | 12% |
| Hyper Growth, 20K | $850 | Over 100% | Over 100% | 85% |
| Bootcamp, 100K funded | $95 + $205 | 6.8% | 2.5% | 1.2% |
Read it from the right: a small edge makes the break-even pass chance climb fast, and the $850 plan needs the edge to be much larger than the $95 one. A low break-even chance is not a high pass chance, since it says nothing about how likely you are to pass.
04Reading the result
When the challenge can make sense
Your edge is real and measured, your own balance is small next to the plan size, and you can stay inside the daily and max loss limits. The fee is the most you lose of your own money.
When it usually does not
Expectancy is near zero, you rely on a streak of wins to hit the target, or you only trade bigger because the account is bigger. Then the fee is a cost and the limits do the rest.
Before you buy any plan, size your trades against its limits with the The5ers position size calculator, check how much room is left with the The5ers drawdown calculator, and see what a drawdown takes to recover with the drawdown recovery calculator.
If you choose your own account instead, see what your broker charges in the trading cost calculator and how little you can start with in the minimum capital calculator.
05Questions
Is a prop firm worth it?
It depends on your edge, the fee, your pass chance and what you would otherwise trade with. This calculator shows the pass chance at which one attempt breaks even, so you can judge whether your own estimate clears it.
What pass chance should I enter?
Your own estimate, from your own history on rules like the plan’s. We do not publish pass rates and we do not supply a default, because any number we picked would mislead you.
Why not compare with the same dollar risk?
At the same dollars, an own account keeps all the profit, so it would always win on paper. The real choice is between a large account with a split and a small account with all of the profit, so we hold the percentage risk equal.
Does the fee come back?
Refund and reset rules are set by the firm and change. Read The5ers’s terms before you pay. The calculator treats the fee as spent.
Do you earn from the buttons?
Yes. The5ers and the brokers shown after you enter a pass chance are affiliate links and we may be paid, at no extra cost to you. Only one set is shown, depending on your result. See the affiliate disclosure.