Chase edge, not tiers
Fee tiers help only if you already trade the volume; manufacturing volume to reach one is a losing trade in disguise. This tool shows the real monthly and yearly saving so you can judge honestly. Compare maker vs taker routing on the maker/taker savings calculator.
When is chasing the next fee tier worth it?
Exchange VIP tiers cut fees with 30-day volume thresholds. The trap: trading extra volume just to reach a tier costs fees now for a discount later. This calculator finds the crossover — the future volume at which the tier's savings repay the volume you forced.
Worked example: you're at 0.055% taker; the next tier at $5M monthly volume offers 0.045%. You organically trade $3M. Forcing $2M of extra round trips costs ~$2,200 in fees to save 0.01% on future volume — needing $22M of next-month volume to break even. For most traders, that math never closes; the tier is a byproduct of size, not a goal worth buying.
What does change the math: maker-heavy strategies (rebate tiers can flip fees negative, repaying quickly at high frequency), exchange-token fee discounts stacking with tiers, and genuinely borderline cases — organically at $4.7M, the last $300k of harmless volume is cheap. The rule: tiers reward the volume you already do; buying volume to earn discounts on future volume is a treadmill with a subscription fee.