Topstep $3K Challenge Review: Was It Worth It?

Topstep’s third Labs experiment, the $3K Challenge, has now ended after a limited release.

For a $49 one-time fee, traders had the chance to earn a fixed $3,000 payout. There were no consistency rules, daily loss limits or minimum trading days.

However, you have to make $3,000 twice before losing $1,000.

Although the challenge is no longer available to buy, traders who purchased one can still be working towards a payout.

In this article, I’ll explain exactly how the Topstep $3K Challenge works, how difficult it is, and whether it offered good value.

How The Topstep $3K Challenge Works

The $3K Challenge cost $49 one-time, with no subscription or reset fees.

It has two stages:

In the first Challenge Round, you need to make $3,000 without hitting the $1,000 maximum loss limit.

Pass this and you move onto the Payout Round, where the account resets and you have to do exactly the same thing again.

Make another $3,000 and Topstep pays you a fixed $3,000 payout. There is no 90/10 profit split, so you keep the entire amount.

After receiving the payout, the account is closed.

This is important because the $3K Challenge isn’t really a traditional funded account.

You were effectively paying $49 for the opportunity to complete two trading challenges and receive a $3,000 prize at the end.

How Difficult Is The $3K Challenge?

The rules look extremely simple, but the challenge itself is quite difficult.

You have only a $1,000 maximum drawdown with a $3,000 profit target, giving a drawdown-to-profit-target ratio of 1:3.

For comparison, Topstep’s normal $50K Trading Combine has a $2,000 maximum drawdown and $3,000 profit target, giving a ratio of 1:1.5.

So based purely on the initial profit target versus maximum loss, the $3K Challenge gives you half as much room.

And you have to pass it twice.

There are some major advantages though.

The $1,000 drawdown is static, meaning it doesn’t trail your profits. If you make $1,000, for example, you now effectively have $2,000 of room before failing.

There’s also no consistency rule, so unlike the normal Topstep Combine, one big profitable day won’t increase your target.

For aggressive traders, this makes the challenge much more flexible despite the small initial drawdown. In particular, a single high risk-to-reward trade could be enough to pass either phase outright.

Was The Topstep $3K Challenge Worth It?

For $49, I think this was an interesting offering.

Passing gives you a $3,000 payout, which is more than 60 times the original challenge fee.

There are also no activation fees after the first round, no subscription payments and no payout profit split.

But don’t confuse this with getting funded.

Topstep’s standard $50K Combine currently starts at $49 per month, or $85 with no activation fee. Passing it gives you an Express Funded Account and the potential to continue earning payouts rather than closing after one $3,000 withdrawal.

So the better option depends on what you’re looking for.

If your goal is to build a long-term funded account, I would still choose the normal Topstep Trading Combine.

However, if you bought the $3K Challenge and are confident you can trade within a tight $1,000 static drawdown, the potential reward is excellent.

The chance to earn a payout worth more than 60x the evaluation fee in as little as two trades understandably made the challenge popular on social media.

But remember, for every trader posting big wins on this challenge, there are many more with failed accounts!

Other Rules

The challenge expires 90 days after purchase, while accounts with no trades for 30 days are closed.

There was no limit on how many Challenges you could purchase, although you can only have five accounts in the Payout Round at the same time.

There are also some product and CPI trading restrictions, so make sure you check these before trading.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked the idea behind the Topstep $3K Challenge.

The $49 price and $3,000 fixed payout offered extremely high potential value, while removing many of the annoying consistency and payout rules found at futures prop firms.

However, making $3,000 before losing $1,000 twice is not easy. The static drawdown makes the challenge more forgiving than the 1:3 drawdown-to-profit-target ratio initially suggests, but I would still consider it high difficulty.

As a result, the payout rate will likely be low, although traders who do reach a payout are rewarded well.

A useful way to look at the value is to compare it with trading the same $49 in a personal account. Replicating the equivalent 1,500% compounded return would turn $49 into just $784, or $735 in profit.

With Topstep, completing the two phases pays out $3,000, giving you access to significantly more upside than you could generate from the evaluation fee alone.

Unfortunately, the $3K Challenge is no longer available to purchase.

For traders who managed to get one, though, it remains one of the more interesting Topstep Labs experiments so far. And if Topstep brings the concept back in the future, I think it would be worth looking at again.