---
title: "How Do Prop Firms Make Money? The Honest Answer"
description: "Prop firms running simulated evaluations earn from fees and add-ons and pay traders from that revenue. The arithmetic of one payout against one fee."
url: "https://getfundednow.com/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
language: "en"
last_modified: "2026-09-22"
publisher: "Get Funded Now (getfundednow.com)"
translations:
  es: "https://getfundednow.com/es/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
  pt-BR: "https://getfundednow.com/pt-br/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
  fr: "https://getfundednow.com/fr/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
  it: "https://getfundednow.com/it/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
  de: "https://getfundednow.com/de/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money"
disclosure: "All trading at Get Funded Now is simulated. 'Funded' means a simulated or virtual account; GFN is not a broker and does not hold client funds."
---

Prop trading, explained

# How prop firms actually make money.

A prop firm that runs simulated evaluations earns from evaluation fees and paid add-ons, and pays successful traders out of that revenue. GFN executes no customer trades in live markets, so every GFN payout is funded by the business, not by market profits from your trades. That makes fees, rules and payout data worth understanding.

By the Get Funded Now team Published September 22, 2026 Last reviewed September 22, 2026 5 min read

## Where does a prop firm's money come from?

From the people buying evaluations. At GFN, every revenue line is something a trader pays for at checkout:

**What GFN charges for**

| Charge | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| Evaluation fee | A one-time fee per account, from $22 to $1,800. No subscription. |
| Profit-share add-on | Raises the virtual profit share from 80% to 90% on the 1 Step and 2 Step. |
| Drawdown add-on | Raises the 1 Step max drawdown from 8% to 10%. |
| Faster payout add-on | A 7-day payout cycle on the 1 Step, instead of the standard 14 days. |

GFN sells no resets and no monthly plan.

## Where do prop firm payouts come from?

This is the question worth asking any firm. Here is GFN's answer, in its own signed wording:

> “All Evaluation and Funded Accounts are simulated or virtual accounts; no customer trades are executed by GFN in live financial markets, and references to “funded” or “funding” refer to simulated or virtual funding.”^[1]

If no trade reaches a live market, a profitable trader's positions earn the firm nothing in the market. So the payout comes from the business itself - in practice, from the fees other traders have paid. GFN is not on the other side of your trades in a live market, because there is no live market trade to be on the other side of.

Some firms describe a different arrangement, in which some traders' positions are copied into a live account and the firm's payouts can be partly covered by that trading. If a firm says it does this, ask how, for which accounts, and what it means for the rules you trade under. The answer tells you what the firm is really selling.

## How many fees does one payout cost?

Here is the arithmetic with GFN's own prices. It is the clearest way to see the model.

One payout on a $100,000 1 Step, against one fee

Illustrative only: it shows the scale of the model, not what a trader should expect to make.

- **Evaluation fee**: $473
- **Simulated profit on the funded account**: $10,000 The same 10% that passing the evaluation required.
- **Payout at the standard 80% share**: $8,000
- **Fees that payout equals**: 16.9 $8,000 ÷ $473
- **If the sale came through an affiliate at 10%**: $425.70 kept $47.30 commission. The payout now equals 18.8 net fees.

One trader paid $8,000 costs the firm the revenue from roughly 17 to 19 of those evaluations, depending on how many came through an affiliate - before payment processing, data, technology and support. A fee-funded firm can keep paying only while the fees it collects cover the payouts it makes and the costs of running it. That is not a scandal. It is the model, and it is worth knowing before you buy.

## Where does the money go?

- **Payouts to traders.** The cost the model exists to pay.
- **Affiliate commission.** GFN's affiliates earn 10% of qualifying sales to start, rising to 12.5% and then 15% with volume.
- **Payment processing and payout processing.** Card fees on the way in, payment rails on the way out.
- **Technology and market data.** The trading environment, price feeds and the dashboard.
- **Verification and support.** Identity checks before payouts, and people answering email.

GFN does not publish its margins or the split between these lines. The list above is what the costs are, not how large each one is.

## Why are prop firm rules written the way they are?

Every hard rule does two jobs at once. It tests whether you can control risk, and it limits how much a single account can cost the firm. Reading the rules with both in mind makes them more predictable.

**What each GFN rule tests, and what it limits**

| Rule | What it tests | What it limits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Daily loss limit | Whether one bad day can be contained | How fast an account can fail |
| Max drawdown | Whether losses stay bounded over time | The total a single account can lose |
| 35% consistency rule (2 Step) | Whether a result came from a strategy or one trade | Payouts on one lucky day |
| Withdrawal cap (Instant) | - | What one cycle can pay: $2,000 on a $100,000 account |
| 2-minute minimum hold | That trades are real positions | Strategies that exploit the simulated environment |

The Instant cap is the clearest example. Skipping the evaluation means the firm has seen nothing of your trading, so what each cycle can pay is capped at 2% of the account. That is the price of no target, and GFN states it on the [Instant page](https://getfundednow.com/challenges/instant) rather than in a footnote.

## How can you tell whether a prop firm can keep paying?

- **Does it publish payout data?** Cumulative payouts and, more usefully, the share of funded accounts that reach a payout.
- **Does it publish pass rates?** A low published pass rate is more credible than none.
- **Are the rules stable?** An account should be judged on the rules it was sold under, not ones added later.
- **Is the company identifiable?** A registered entity you can look up.
- **Does it say where payouts come from?** Fees, live trading, or both.

Where GFN stands on that list today

GFN answers the last three: the company is on the public register, the rules on an account are the ones it was bought under, and payouts are funded by the business. **GFN does not yet publish payout or pass-rate data** - the [payouts page](https://getfundednow.com/payouts) says so, and says what it will publish when it can.

## What this means for you

Treat the fee as the price of an attempt, not an investment. A fee-funded firm does not take the other side of your trades in the market, but every payout it makes is a cost to it, and it can only make them because many more fees come in than payouts go out. Buy an evaluation you can afford to lose, on rules you have read, from a firm that tells you where its payouts come from. The [2 Step](https://getfundednow.com/challenges/2-step) is GFN's lowest-cost attempt.

## Questions

A fee-funded firm needs the fees it collects to exceed the payouts it makes, so it needs far more attempts than payouts. It also needs some traders to pass and be paid, or nobody would buy. The rules are where that balance is set, which is why they are worth reading closely.

At a firm that executes no customer trades in live markets, yes: payouts come from the business's revenue, which is mainly fees. GFN states that no customer trades are executed by GFN in live financial markets.

## Sources

1. [Disclaimer and footer statement](https://getfundednow.com/disclaimer) - Get Funded Now (Bradbury Capital Ltd). Primary source. Retrieved Sep 22, 2026.Used for: GFN's own signed wording on simulated accounts, payouts and regulatory status.

GFN figures on this page are generated from the published pricing and rules data, not restated by hand.

## Related reading

- [What is a prop firm? →](https://getfundednow.com/guides/what-is-a-prop-firm)
- [How GFN payouts work →](https://getfundednow.com/payouts)
- [Reviews and company details →](https://getfundednow.com/reviews)
- [Profit split calculator →](https://getfundednow.com/tools/profit-split-calculator)
- [Is there a free funded account challenge? →](https://getfundednow.com/guides/free-funded-account-challenge)

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Source: https://getfundednow.com/guides/how-prop-firms-make-money
Facts about Get Funded Now in one file: https://getfundednow.com/llms.txt