Trader Notion

Free Retries, Reset Fees, and Refund Policies: Prop Firm Fine Print Decoded

TLDR: The challenge fee you pay upfront is rarely the full cost of getting funded. Most traders need two to four attempts before they pass an evaluation, and the difference between a firm that offers free retries and one that charges $100+ per reset can add up to hundreds of dollars before you ever see a funded account. FTMO offers a free retry if you finish the challenge in profit but miss the target — one of the most generous second-chance policies in the industry. Alpha Capital gives unlimited free retries as long as you end above breakeven. FundedNext and Blue Guardian charge reset fees but refund the original challenge fee once you reach funded status. The5ers refunds on the first payout. Understanding which firms refund fees, which offer free retries, and which charge reset fees at every failure is the difference between a $300 path to funding and a $1,200 one.

The headline price of a prop firm challenge tells you almost nothing about what you will actually spend to get funded. A $299 evaluation looks affordable until you fail by 0.5%, pay $149 to reset, fail again, buy a new challenge at full price, and realize you have spent $747 chasing the same $100K account.

This is where the fine print matters more than the marketing. Free retries, reset fees, and refund policies are the hidden variables that determine your true cost of entry into funded trading. Some firms let you try again for free under specific conditions. Others charge a discounted reset fee. Others make you buy an entirely new challenge. And a handful refund your entire fee once you pass — effectively making the evaluation free in retrospect.

We broke down the retry, reset, and refund structures at five major prop firms heading into Q4 2026 so you can calculate the real price tag before you commit.

What Free Retries, Resets, and Refunds Actually Mean
Firm-by-Firm Breakdown: Retry and Reset Policies
Side-by-Side Comparison Table
Reset Fee vs. Buying a New Challenge: The Real Math
Practical Tips: Minimizing Your Cost to Get Funded
Common Mistakes Traders Make with Retries and Resets
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Articles

What Free Retries, Resets, and Refunds Actually Mean

Before comparing firms, it helps to understand the three distinct mechanisms that affect your cost after a failed or partially successful challenge.

Free retry means the firm gives you another attempt at the same evaluation without charging an additional fee. The conditions vary. Some firms grant a free retry only if you finished the challenge period in profit but did not reach the profit target. Others offer it if you respected all risk management rules regardless of whether you ended in profit. The key distinction is that a free retry costs you nothing — your original payment covers the next attempt.

Reset fee is a discounted charge to restart your evaluation from scratch after you fail or breach a rule. Reset fees are typically 10% to 40% of the original challenge price. Your account balance resets to the starting amount, your trading days reset to zero, and you begin a fresh evaluation cycle. Reset fees exist as a middle ground between a full repurchase and a free retry — they are cheaper than buying a new challenge but still cost real money.

Fee refund on passing means the firm returns your original challenge fee after you successfully complete the evaluation and reach funded status. Some firms refund with your first profit split payout. Others make you wait until your second, third, or fourth payout. A few firms do not refund the fee at all. When a firm refunds on the first payout, the net cost of the evaluation is effectively zero for successful traders — you get your money back as soon as you start earning.

These three mechanisms interact with each other. A firm that charges $500 upfront but refunds on the first payout and offers free retries could end up cheaper than a firm that charges $200 upfront but never refunds and charges $100 per reset. The total cost depends on how many attempts you need and how quickly you start earning once funded.

Firm-by-Firm Breakdown: Retry and Reset Policies

FTMO

FTMO offers one of the most trader-friendly retry policies in the industry. If you complete the challenge period in profit — meaning your account is above the starting balance — but you did not hit the required profit target, FTMO grants a free retry. You do not pay anything additional. Your account resets and you start the evaluation again under the same conditions.

The conditions for the free retry are straightforward: you must not have violated any trading rules (daily loss limit, maximum loss limit), and your account must be in profit at the end of the challenge period. If you blew the account or breached a drawdown rule, you do not qualify for a free retry and must purchase a new challenge.

For fee refunds, FTMO's policy depends on the challenge type. On the 2-Step challenge, the firm refunds the full evaluation fee with your first profit split payout once you reach funded status. On the 1-Step challenge, the entry fee is not refunded after passing [UNVERIFIED]. This is a meaningful distinction — if you plan on the 1-Step, factor that fee as a permanent cost.

FTMO does not offer a discounted reset option. If you fail without qualifying for a free retry, you buy a new challenge at the standard price. For a $100K account, that is approximately €540 (~$590 USD) each time.

For full rules and trader feedback, see our FTMO review.

FundedNext

FundedNext does not offer free retries. If you fail a challenge — whether by breaching a drawdown rule or simply not reaching the profit target — you need to either reset or purchase a new challenge.

The firm does offer a reset option at a discounted price, though the specific reset fee varies by account size and challenge type. For the Stellar 1-Step at $100K, the original price is approximately $299, and the reset is available at a discount (typically around 10% off a new purchase) [UNVERIFIED]. FundedNext Futures reset fees are strictly non-refundable under all circumstances. Once you reset, you cannot get that fee back even if you later pass.

On the refund side, FundedNext is generous with successful traders. The full challenge fee is refunded as a Reward Bonus with your first profit split payout. Additionally, FundedNext pays a 15% profit share during the challenge phase itself — if you hit your target on a Stellar 1-Step, you earn 15% of the simulated profits before reaching funded status. Between the fee refund and the challenge-phase profit share, successful traders can recoup more than their original investment on the first payout cycle.

One important caveat: once you have traded on the account or initiated a reset, you are no longer eligible for a standard refund of the original purchase price. The refund only applies upon successfully completing the evaluation and reaching funded status. If you request a refund after 7 days from purchase, you are also ineligible.

For full rules and trader feedback, see our FundedNext review.

The5ers

The5ers refunds 100% of the challenge fee once you complete the evaluation and receive your first payout. The entry-level plan starts at $39, and this refund applies across all challenge tiers. When completing Step 2 of the High Stakes challenge, the refund is credited directly to your trading account. The amount refunded reflects only the amount you paid, excluding any discounts applied at the time of purchase.

For failed challenges, The5ers does not advertise a formal free retry program tied to profitability conditions the way FTMO does [UNVERIFIED]. If you fail, you typically need to purchase a new challenge. However, The5ers frequently runs promotions and discount codes that can reduce the cost of subsequent attempts. The firm has also historically offered extensions and flexible timeframes on its evaluation programs, which can reduce the likelihood of needing a retry in the first place.

The5ers' evaluation structure is designed around longer timeframes and lower leverage, which tends to produce fewer catastrophic failures compared to firms with tighter drawdown limits. The Hyper Growth program, for example, allows traders to take their time building a track record rather than racing to hit a target within 30 days.

For full rules and trader feedback, see our The5ers review.

Alpha Capital Group

Alpha Capital Group has one of the most aggressive free retry policies in the prop firm space. If you complete the evaluation period and your account is in profit — even if you did not hit the required profit target — you receive a free retry. There is no limit on the number of free retries available, as long as you end each attempt above breakeven with all trading rules intact.

For traders who breach a rule or finish in the red, Alpha Capital charges a flat $50 reset fee regardless of account size [UNVERIFIED]. This is significantly cheaper than most competitors, where reset fees often scale with account size and can reach $150 to $350. The $50 flat fee means that even a worst-case scenario — multiple failures with rule breaches — keeps costs relatively contained.

On the refund side, Alpha Capital refunds the challenge fee upon successful completion and reaching funded status. The exact payout at which the refund is credited varies by program tier [UNVERIFIED].

The combination of unlimited free retries (when profitable) and a $50 flat reset fee (when not) makes Alpha Capital one of the cheapest firms to attempt multiple evaluations with. A trader who needs four attempts, finishing in profit twice and breaching rules twice, would spend the original challenge fee plus $100 in resets — compared to $1,200+ at a firm with no retries and full-price repurchases.

For full rules and trader feedback, see our Alpha Capital Group review.

Blue Guardian

Blue Guardian takes a different approach to the retry problem: instead of offering free retries, the firm imposes no time limit on its evaluation phases. You can take as long as you need to hit the profit target, which eliminates the most common reason traders need a retry in the first place — running out of time while still in profit.

If you do breach a trading rule (daily loss limit, maximum drawdown), Blue Guardian charges a reset fee between $70 and $346, depending on the account size. Your balance and trading days reset to zero, and you begin a fresh evaluation. These reset fees are non-refundable.

For fee refunds on passing, Blue Guardian refunds the original evaluation fee with your fourth successful payout. This is a longer wait than firms like FTMO (first payout on 2-Step) or FundedNext (first payout), but the refund is still 100% of the original amount. If you breach your funded account before reaching your fourth payout, the fee is not refundable.

The no-time-limit structure means that patient traders who manage risk properly may never need a reset at all. If your strategy requires six months to compound to the profit target, Blue Guardian accommodates that. The tradeoff is that reset fees are on the higher end if you do blow the account, and the fee refund takes four payout cycles to arrive.

For full rules and trader feedback, see our Blue Guardian review.

Side-by-Side Comparison Table

Feature	FTMO	FundedNext	The5ers	Alpha Capital	Blue Guardian
Free retry available?	Yes (if profitable, rules intact)	No	No [UNVERIFIED]	Yes (unlimited, if profitable)	No (no time limit instead)
Reset fee	N/A (buy new challenge)	Discounted (~10% off) [UNVERIFIED]	Buy new challenge	$50 flat fee	$70–$346
Fee refund on passing?	Yes (2-Step: 1st payout; 1-Step: No) [UNVERIFIED]	Yes (1st payout)	Yes (1st payout)	Yes [UNVERIFIED]	Yes (4th payout)
Challenge price ($100K)	~€540 (~$590 USD)	~$299 (1-Step) / ~$549 (2-Step)	~$495–$595	~$497 [UNVERIFIED]	~$499 [UNVERIFIED]
Cost of 3 failed attempts ($100K)	$590 + 1 free retry = ~$1,180	~$299 + ~$269 + ~$299 = ~$867	~$595 × 3 = ~$1,785 [UNVERIFIED]	~$497 + $50 + $50 = ~$597	~$499 + $175 + $175 = ~$849 [UNVERIFIED]
Time limit on challenge	30 days (Phase 1), 60 days (Phase 2)	No time limit	Varies by program	30 days [UNVERIFIED]	No time limit
Retry discount available?	No (free retry or full price)	~10% off new challenge	Promotional codes	N/A (retries are free or $50)	No

Reset Fee vs. Buying a New Challenge: The Real Math

The distinction between a reset fee and buying a new challenge is not just about the dollar amount — it affects your psychology, your preparation, and your long-term spending.

Reset fees encourage rapid reattempts. When a reset costs $50 to $150, the mental barrier to trying again is low. This can be positive if you genuinely learned from the previous attempt and have a concrete plan for the next one. It becomes negative when traders treat cheap resets as an excuse to skip preparation. Six resets at $80 each adds up to $480 — more than the cost of two full challenges at many firms. The convenience of a quick reset can mask the reality that you are spending more in total than if you had taken a week off, reviewed your journal, and approached a fresh challenge with a refined strategy.

Buying a new challenge forces a pause. When the only option after failure is a full-price repurchase, the financial friction creates a natural cooling-off period. You are more likely to analyze what went wrong, adjust your risk parameters, and only re-enter when you are genuinely ready. The downside is that the cost per attempt is higher, and traders with limited capital may not be able to afford multiple full-price purchases.

Here is a practical cost comparison for a trader who needs four attempts to pass a $100K evaluation:

Scenario	FTMO	FundedNext (1-Step)	Alpha Capital
Attempt 1 (fail, in profit)	$590 (free retry earned)	$299	$497 (free retry earned) [UNVERIFIED]
Attempt 2 (fail, breached rule)	$0 (free retry used)	~$269 (reset)	$0 (free retry used)
Attempt 3 (fail, in profit)	$590 (new challenge, free retry earned)	$299 (new challenge)	$50 (reset, free retry earned)
Attempt 4 (pass)	$0 (free retry used)	~$269 (reset)	$0 (free retry used)
Total spent	$1,180	~$1,136	~$547
Fee refund after passing?	$590 back (2-Step)	$299 back (1st payout)	Yes [UNVERIFIED]
Net cost after refund	~$590	~$837	~$50–$100 [UNVERIFIED]

Alpha Capital's combination of unlimited free retries and a $50 flat reset fee produces the lowest total cost in almost every multi-attempt scenario. FTMO's free retry offsets its higher challenge price but only for attempts where you finish in profit. FundedNext's discounted resets keep costs moderate, and the first-payout refund helps recover the final successful attempt's cost quickly.

For a deeper understanding of what you are getting into with these evaluations, read our guide on how prop firm evaluations actually work.

Practical Tips: Minimizing Your Cost to Get Funded

1. Prioritize firms with free retry policies if you are still developing your strategy. If you are not yet consistently profitable on a demo account, choose a firm like FTMO or Alpha Capital that rewards you for being close. Finishing a challenge in profit but short of the target is a common outcome for improving traders, and a free retry turns that near-miss into another shot at no cost.

2. Calculate your expected total cost, not just the first attempt. Assume you will need two to four attempts. Multiply the challenge fee by three, add any reset fees, and subtract the refund you would receive on passing. That number is your realistic budget for getting funded. If it exceeds what you can comfortably afford, consider a smaller account size first.

3. Use no-time-limit firms if your strategy needs room to breathe. Blue Guardian and FundedNext both offer evaluations with no time limit. If your strategy produces 3% to 5% per month rather than 10% in four weeks, a no-time-limit evaluation eliminates the need for retries caused by running out of time while still managing risk properly.

4. Do not confuse cheap resets with good value. A $50 reset fee sounds attractive, but six failed attempts at $50 each adds $300 to your total cost. If you are resetting more than twice, stop. Go back to demo trading, identify the pattern causing your failures, and return when you have a documented fix. The reset is a tool, not a subscription.

5. Stack discounts and promotions before purchasing. Most firms offer discount codes through affiliate partners, seasonal promotions, or loyalty programs. A 10% to 20% discount on the initial challenge reduces both your upfront cost and the effective cost of future full-price repurchases. Check for active codes before every purchase.

6. Read the refund policy before you trade a single lot. At FundedNext, starting to trade on the account makes the purchase non-refundable. If you buy a challenge and realize within 48 hours that you are not ready, you can request a refund only if you have not executed any trades and are within the refund window. Once you place that first position, the fee is locked in. For tips on risk management that reduce your chances of needing a retry in the first place, BabyPips' risk management guide is a solid starting point.

Common Mistakes Traders Make with Retries and Resets

Resetting immediately after a failure without reviewing what went wrong. The reset button is not a strategy. If you breached the daily loss limit, a reset without a journal review and a concrete adjustment to your position sizing or stop-loss placement will produce the same result. Take at least 48 hours between a failure and a reset to document the specific trades that caused the breach.

Choosing a firm based only on the challenge fee without checking the retry structure. A $199 challenge with no free retries and a $100 reset fee costs $499 after two failures. A $350 challenge with a free retry on profitable attempts costs $350 for the same two-failure scenario if you finish in profit on the first try. The sticker price is misleading without the full retry and reset context.

Ignoring the fee refund timeline. A firm that refunds on the first payout puts money back in your pocket within weeks of getting funded. A firm that refunds on the fourth payout may take three to six months, depending on payout frequency and your profitability. If cash flow matters to you, the refund timeline is a meaningful variable.

Assuming all free retries have the same conditions. FTMO requires you to finish in profit with all rules intact. Alpha Capital requires you to finish above breakeven. Some firms that advertise free retries only apply them to specific challenge types or account sizes. Always read the exact eligibility criteria before counting on a free retry as part of your budget plan.

Stacking resets instead of downsizing. If you have failed a $100K evaluation three times, consider whether a $50K or $25K account would let you pass with less pressure. Passing a smaller challenge on the first attempt is almost always cheaper than failing a larger one multiple times, and most firms offer scaling programs to grow your allocation after you are funded. For broader context on how the prop trading industry has evolved in recent years, see Investopedia's overview of proprietary trading firms.

For more rules that traders commonly overlook, see our guide on common prop firm rules that traders overlook.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a prop firm free retry, and which firms offer one?

A free retry is an additional evaluation attempt at no extra charge, typically granted when you finish the challenge period in profit but do not reach the profit target. FTMO offers a free retry if you end in profit with all rules intact. Alpha Capital Group offers unlimited free retries under the same conditions. Most other major firms — including FundedNext, The5ers, and Blue Guardian — do not offer a formal free retry program, though Blue Guardian compensates with no time limit on its evaluations.

How much do prop firm reset fees cost in 2026?

Reset fees vary widely. Alpha Capital Group charges a flat $50 regardless of account size [UNVERIFIED]. Blue Guardian charges between $70 and $346 depending on the account tier. FundedNext offers discounted resets at roughly 10% off the full challenge price [UNVERIFIED]. FTMO does not offer a reset option — you either qualify for a free retry or purchase a new challenge at full price. Always check the exact reset fee for your specific account size before committing to a firm.

Do prop firms refund the challenge fee if I pass?

Most reputable firms refund the evaluation fee upon passing, but the timing varies. FundedNext and The5ers refund with your first profit split payout, making the challenge effectively free once you are funded and earning. FTMO refunds on the first payout for the 2-Step challenge but does not refund for the 1-Step [UNVERIFIED]. Blue Guardian refunds on the fourth payout. The refund timing matters for your cash flow — a first-payout refund returns your money within weeks, while a fourth-payout refund can take months.

Is it cheaper to reset or buy a new challenge?

It depends on the firm. At Alpha Capital, a $50 reset is always cheaper than a new $497 challenge. At FundedNext, a discounted reset saves roughly 10% versus a new purchase. At FTMO, there is no reset option — a free retry saves you the full cost if you qualify, but otherwise you pay full price. As a rule of thumb, if the reset fee is less than 30% of the full challenge price and you have identified a specific fix for your previous failure, the reset is the better financial choice. If the reset fee is higher or you do not have a clear plan, the forced pause of buying a new challenge later may produce a better outcome.

What happens to my challenge fee if I fail and do not reset?

The fee is not refunded. Prop firm challenge fees are paid for access to the evaluation, not for a guaranteed outcome. If you fail and choose not to reset or retry, the fee is a sunk cost. This is true across all firms covered in this guide. Some firms offer a refund window (typically 7 to 14 days from purchase) if you have not started trading, but once you execute your first trade, the fee is locked in regardless of the outcome.

Can I get a refund if I change my mind before trading?

Most firms offer a limited refund window before you start trading. FundedNext allows refunds within 7 days of purchase if no trades have been placed. FTMO has a similar policy. Once trading begins, the fee becomes non-refundable at virtually every firm. Platform fees (such as FundedNext's $25 cTrader or Match-Trader fee) are typically non-refundable under any circumstances, as they are paid directly to the platform provider. Always review the refund terms before placing your first trade if you are unsure about committing.