What trading fees do Bitstamp and KuCoin charge?

Published base-tier fees: Bitstamp 0.30% maker / 0.40% taker; KuCoin 0.10% maker / 0.10% taker. The published fee is only part of the real cost — execution spread comes on top and is measured live on this page.

Why can an exchange with 0% fees still be expensive?

Because the fee is not the price. Orders fill against the exchange’s order book, and the distance between the reference mid-price and your actual fill — the hidden spread — is a real cost that never appears on a fee page. Skontro measures it by walking the live order book for the exact order size.

How reliable are Bitstamp and KuCoin?

Skontro's sourced Reliability Score currently rates Bitstamp 75/100 and KuCoin 73/100, based on documented withdrawal reliability, proof-of-reserves, regulatory standing, security history, support and maturity. Every negative data point is dated and sourced; the score never influences the cost ranking.

Head to head · measured, not quoted

Bitstamp vs KuCoin.

On reliability: Bitstamp scores 75 (updated 2026-08-10), KuCoin scores 73 (updated 2026-08-10). Bitstamp scores higher — cheapest and safest need not be the same exchange.

Published fees are the brochure. Below is what a $1,000 Bitcoin buy actually costs on each exchange — trading fee plus the hidden spread from the live orderbook, withdrawal included where the exchange publishes one — measured 2026-08-10 16:52 UTC.

Bitstamp

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.30% / 0.40%
Reliability Score: 75 / 100
Measured cost · $1,000 BTC buy: $3.85
You get: 0.01559303 BTC
Of which hidden spread: -$0.15
BTC withdrawal: not published — excluded

Open Bitstamp ↗neutral link

KuCoin

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.10% / 0.10%
Reliability Score: 73 / 100

Open KuCoin ↗neutral link

Reading this matchup

Bitstamp publishes 0.30% maker / 0.40% taker on its base tier; KuCoin publishes 0.10% maker / 0.10% taker on its base tier. On the brochure, KuCoin looks cheaper. But the published fee is only one part of what a trade costs: the other part is the spread your order actually crosses in the book — and that number exists nowhere on a fee page. That is why this page shows a measured trade above, not a fee table: fee plus live order-book spread, plus the withdrawal where the exchange publishes one, timestamped.

Cost is one axis; getting your money out is the other — the Reliability Score above, dated to the day it was last written, is a sourced record of withdrawal reliability, proof-of-reserves, regulatory standing and security history. The score never moves the cost ranking; it stands beside it, because the cheapest fill and the safest custodian are not always the same exchange.

Numbers on this page refresh continuously (each carries its measurement time), the ranking is by what you actually receive, and both outbound links here are neutral — no referral relationship influences any number. For your own trade size and asset, the live comparison recomputes everything in real time.

Share thisPost on X ↗

Method, in one paragraph

We walk each exchange’s live public orderbook for the exact order size, add the published base-tier fee and the exchange’s published withdrawal fee, and rank by the one number that can’t lie: what you actually receive. Exchanges without fresh data are omitted, never faked. Each exchange’s Reliability Score sits beside the cost — sourced and dated, and never part of the cost ranking. Ranking is never influenced by affiliate commissions. Full methodology.

More comparisons