Aster DEX USD1 vs USDT Perp Fee Calculator

All three contract types, side by side

An 8x fee gap between two stablecoins, on the same exchange, for the same trade

Most perp fee structures vary by who you are — your 14/30-day volume tier, whether you hold an exchange token, whether a referral code is applied. Aster DEX is structurally different: its fee varies by which asset margins the contract, and the gap is enormous. USDT-margined perpetuals carry a 0.04% taker fee. USD1-margined perpetuals — USD1 being Aster's own stablecoin — carry a 0.005% taker fee, roughly one-eighth as much. Stock perpetuals sit in between at 0.009%. Maker fees are 0% across all three, so the entire cost difference lands on market-order (taker) flow, and it applies from the very first trade with no volume threshold to clear.

The mechanic is a straightforward incentive: route liquidity and volume into Aster's own stablecoin and pay a fraction of the fee. On top of that, Aster offers an additional 5% discount on whichever fee is charged if you pay it in the ASTER token, and the two discounts compound rather than duplicate — a USD1-perp taker paying in ASTER lands at 0.00475%, versus 0.038% for a USDT-perp taker doing the same in ASTER.

This calculator prices your actual monthly taker volume against all three contract types at once, so the dollar cost of staying on USDT-perps out of habit — versus routing the same trades through USD1-perps — is visible in real numbers, not just a headline percentage.

FAQ

Why does Aster DEX charge different perp trading fees for USDT vs USD1?

Aster runs three separate perpetual contract types with three different fee schedules: USDT-margined perps charge 0% maker / 0.04% taker, USD1-margined perps charge 0% maker / 0.005% taker, and Stock perps charge 0% maker / 0.009% taker. USD1 is Aster's own stablecoin, and pricing its taker fee at roughly 1/8th of the USDT-perp rate is a direct incentive to route volume and liquidity into USD1 rather than USDT. This is not a volume-tier or VIP discount — it is a structural difference tied to which asset margins the position, and it exists on day one for every trader regardless of account size.

How much does trading the same volume on USD1-perps actually save versus USDT-perps?

Because maker fees are 0% on both contract types, the entire fee difference falls on taker (market-order) volume. At 0.005% versus 0.04%, USD1-perps cost 87.5% less in taker fees for identical trading behavior — a trader paying $400 in taker fees per $1,000,000 of USDT-perp taker volume would pay just $50 for the same volume on USD1-perps, a $350 saving. Stock perps sit in between at 0.009%. This calculator runs your monthly taker volume through all three fee schedules side by side so you can see the dollar and percentage saving before choosing which contract type to trade.

Does paying fees in the ASTER token stack with the USD1 fee advantage?

Yes. Aster gives a separate 5% discount on perp trading fees when the fee is paid in the ASTER token, and this discount applies on top of whichever contract type's base rate you are already on. It multiplies rather than adds: a USD1-perp taker fee of 0.005% becomes 0.00475% when paid in ASTER, and a USDT-perp taker fee of 0.04% becomes 0.038%. The two discounts are independent levers, so the largest saving comes from combining USD1-margined perps with paying fees in ASTER, not from either one alone.

What does this calculator not capture about Aster's real trading cost?

This models only the published base maker/taker fee schedule per contract type plus the flat 5% ASTER payment discount; it does not model VIP volume-tier reductions (Aster does not publish a full public VIP tier table the way centralized exchanges do), referral rebate codes that some users layer on top, funding rate payments (which are separate from trading fees and depend on the open-interest imbalance of each market), or execution slippage on Aster's orderbook. Treat the numbers here as the fee-schedule floor for comparing contract types, not a complete cost-of-trading estimate.