Lighter fees: Standard vs Premium accounts, what you pay

Lighter charges no maker and no taker fee on a Standard account, which is the default for every new account. The trade-off is speed: Standard taker orders, cancels and edits wait about 300 milliseconds, while a Premium account processes takers in about 140 milliseconds and pays 0.028% taker and 0.004% maker, less with staked LIT. A third tier, Plus, pays 0.005% on both sides for higher API rate limits. This guide lists what each account type costs, who it is for, how to switch, and what an app built on Lighter may add on top.

The three account types

All numbers are from Lighter's fee page and API docs, checked on the date in Sources. The fee is a share of the position's value, not of your margin, so leverage does not change the rate: at 10x, a 0.028% taker fee is 0.28% of the margin you put in.

Lighter's zero fee covers spot markets as well as perps. One exception on Standard accounts: Lighter's API docs say TWAP orders carry a 1 basis point (0.01%) fee.

What "zero fee" costs you

The Standard account is free in fees, not free of cost. Lighter adds a delay of about 300 milliseconds to Standard taker orders, cancels and modifications. Maker orders that rest on the book are not delayed. Lighter describes Standard as "suitable for retail and latency-insensitive traders" and Premium as "suitable for HFT".

For a trader who places a few orders a day, 300 milliseconds rarely changes the fill. For a market maker who needs to pull quotes when the price moves, it does: a cancel that lands 300 milliseconds late can get filled at a stale price. That is who Premium is for, and why it pays fees.

The costs that a Standard account still pays are the usual ones on any perp venue:

• Slippage. A market order fills against whatever is in the book. On a thin market that costs more than any fee would.
• Funding. Paid or received every hour between longs and shorts. Lighter keeps none of it. Current rates are on Funding rates.
• Liquidation fee. If you are liquidated and the liquidation order fills better than Lighter's break-even price, Lighter takes up to 1% of that fill for its insurance fund (the LLP).

Premium fees and LIT staking

Premium fees fall with the amount of LIT staked, counted across the main account and its sub-accounts at the wallet level. Lighter's fee page lists the tiers:

There are steps between 10,000 and 500,000 on Lighter's page. On a Premium account, cancels and post-only orders are never delayed, and taker latency is 140 milliseconds at every stake level. Lighter also runs a volume quota program for Premium accounts; the terms are in its API docs.

Lighter's docs describe LIT as its infrastructure token, used here for fee discounts. We say nothing more about it than that.

How to switch account type

You change tier on Lighter itself, by clicking your account type on the Portfolio page of Lighter's app or by calling the changeAccountTier API endpoint. Lighter allows one change per 24 hours. Sub-accounts cannot be deleted, so think before creating them on a Standard account with its limit of 4.

Switching changes your fees and latency for every market at once. It does not move funds or touch open positions.

What an app can add on top

Lighter lets third-party interfaces attach their own fee to the orders they send, within limits Lighter sets: at most 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot. Two rules protect you:

1. You sign the approval first. An app's fee only applies after you approve its fee configuration with your wallet. The approval can carry an expiry, and you can revoke it at any time.
2. Standard accounts cannot be charged. Lighter only accepts a non-zero integrator fee from Plus and Premium accounts. On a Standard account an app can attach its name to your orders for tracking, with a zero fee, and nothing else.

Prow's fee is 0% until Dec 31, 2026, then 0.025% per trade. On a Standard Lighter account the approval Prow asks for carries a 0% cap: it marks orders as placed through Prow and cannot charge. Lighter charges you nothing, Prow adds nothing. If you later switch to Plus or Premium, Prow's fee follows the same schedule as on Hyperliquid and Aster and the cap you signed is what applies. See Fees and, for the equivalent mechanism on Hyperliquid, Hyperliquid builder fees.

How Lighter compares

Base-tier perp fees on the venues Prow trades:

On a $10,000 order, one side of the trade costs:

Volume tiers, staking and VIP programs lower Hyperliquid's and Aster's rates for large traders, and Lighter's Premium rates fall with staked LIT. For a trader placing market orders at base tier, Lighter's Standard account is the only one of the three with no venue fee at all. The live table with every venue is on Perp DEX fees compared, and the full comparison is in Lighter vs Hyperliquid.

Points

Lighter's docs describe a points program with weekly distributions and say the team may adjust distributions at its discretion. They also note that having a Premium account affects the weight of some metrics. That is all Lighter's docs say, and this guide says no more.

Where you see fees in Prow

Prow trades Lighter alongside Hyperliquid and Aster from one app, with a trading key on your device that cannot withdraw. The ticket shows the venue fee and the Prow fee before you place an order. On Lighter the venue line reads 0% on a Standard account. After a fill, Activity shows the fee breakdown per trade, and Settings, then Venues, shows your Lighter account type as Lighter reports it. Prow reads your tier from Lighter when you connect; see Connect Lighter and How trading keys work.

Frequently asked questions

Is Lighter really free to trade on?

On a Standard account, the default, Lighter charges 0% maker and 0% taker on perps and spot. The one listed exception is a 0.01% fee on TWAP orders. You still pay slippage, funding and, if liquidated, up to a 1% liquidation fee.

What is the catch with Lighter's zero fees?

Latency. Standard taker orders, cancels and edits are delayed about 300 milliseconds, against 140 milliseconds for Premium takers and no delay on Premium cancels. For most manual traders that does not matter. For market makers it does.

How much does a Lighter Premium account cost?

There is no subscription. Premium accounts pay per trade: 0.028% taker and 0.004% maker with no LIT staked, down to 0.0196% and 0.0028% at 500,000 LIT staked. Plus accounts pay 0.005% on both sides.

Can an app charge me fees on Lighter?

Only after you sign an approval of its fee configuration, and only on a Plus or Premium account. Lighter caps integrator fees at 0.1% on perps. On a Standard account an app's approval can only carry a 0% fee.

Sources

Checked October 10, 2026:

• Lighter docs: Trading fees, Account types, Partner attribution, Funding, Liquidations and LLP, Points program
• Hyperliquid docs: Fees
• Aster docs: Fees
• Prow docs: Fees, Connect Lighter, How trading keys work
• Prow data: Perp DEX fees compared, Funding rates