Topstep has released its fourth Labs experiment, the $1.5K Challenge, following the extremely popular $3K Challenge from August.
The basic concept is almost identical. Pay a one-time fee, make the profit target twice without exceeding a static drawdown, then receive a fixed payout.
However, the new challenge costs $39 for a $1,500 payout, while introducing much lower contract limits.
Compared with the previous $3K Challenge, I think this is a significant downgrade.
In this article, I’ll explain how the new Topstep $1.5K Challenge works and why the previous offer provided considerably better value.
How The Topstep $1.5K Challenge Works
The $1.5K Challenge costs $39 one-time, with no subscription, activation or reset fees.
Like the previous $3K Challenge, there are two stages:
| Challenge Round | Payout Round | |
|---|---|---|
| Profit Target | $1,500 | $1,500 |
| Maximum Loss | $500 Static | $500 Static |
| Daily Loss Limit | None | None |
| Consistency Rule | None | None |
| Maximum Contracts | 2 Micros | 2 Micros |
| Minimum Days | None | None |
| Payout | None | $1,500 Fixed |
You first need to make $1,500 without hitting the $500 maximum loss limit.
Pass this and your account resets for the Payout Round, where you have to make another $1,500 under exactly the same risk limits.
Complete both rounds and Topstep pays you a fixed $1,500 payout, with no 90/10 profit split. The account then closes.
So once again, this isn’t really a traditional funded account. You’re paying for the opportunity to complete two challenges and receive a one-off payout at the end.
$1.5K Challenge vs $3K Challenge
The problem is that the new offer looks considerably worse when compared directly with the previous Labs drop.
| $1.5K Challenge | $3K Challenge | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 | $49 |
| Profit Target | $1,500 x2 | $3,000 x2 |
| Maximum Loss | $500 | $1,000 |
| Drawdown : Target | 1:3 | 1:3 |
| Maximum Contracts | 2 Micros | 10 Micros / 1 Mini |
| Fixed Payout | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Payout vs Fee | 38.5x | 61.2x |
The fee has only fallen from $49 to $39, a reduction of around 20%.
But the potential payout has been cut by 50%, from $3,000 to $1,500.
That means the previous challenge offered a payout worth more than 61x the entry fee, while the new version offers around 38x.
The difficulty hasn’t really improved either. Both challenges use the same 1:3 drawdown-to-profit-target ratio, and you still need to complete it twice.
So you’re paying only $10 less for half the payout.
The Contract Limit Is Much Worse
The biggest complaint I’m seeing from the community is the maximum position size.
The $3K Challenge allowed traders to use 10 micros or 1 mini contract.
The new $1.5K Challenge allows only 2 micro contracts, with no minis.
That’s an 80% reduction in the maximum number of micro contracts, despite the profit target and drawdown only being cut in half.
This matters because the original $3K Challenge could suit aggressive traders particularly well.
With no consistency rule or daily loss limit, you could take a high risk-to-reward trade and potentially complete each phase very quickly.
The $1.5K Challenge technically has the same flexibility, but the two-micro limit significantly reduces your ability to generate the required $1,500 profit quickly.
You Can Only Buy Five
Another important difference is the purchase limit.
With the previous $3K Challenge, there was no limit on how many Challenge Round accounts you could buy, although you could only hold five active Payout Round accounts at once.
For the new $1.5K Challenge, traders can purchase a maximum of five accounts in total.
Once you’ve purchased five, you can’t buy another even if the previous accounts have already failed or closed. This makes it a much more limited experiment than the previous release.
Conclusion
Overall, I think the Topstep $1.5K Challenge is a big downgrade from the $3K Challenge.
For $39, it’s still an interesting challenge in isolation. You have no consistency rule, no daily loss limit, a static drawdown and the potential to receive a $1,500 payout without a profit split.
But it’s difficult to look at the account in isolation when Topstep offered something significantly better only two weeks ago. The old challenge cost just $10 more, doubled your maximum drawdown, doubled the potential payout and allowed up to five times as many micro contracts.
The 1:3 drawdown-to-profit-target ratio also remains exactly the same, so the new account isn’t meaningfully easier from a risk perspective. It’s still very difficult to pass, but the lower payout vs fee makes trying your luck less rewarding.
