Copy Trading Fees Explained
The full cost of a mirrored trade, platform, network, priority and slippage.
A mirrored copy trade costs the same as any trade: a platform fee (0.5% per trade, 0.4% for referred users, $0.95 USD minimum), plus Solana network and priority fees, plus slippage on the fill. Copy trading adds no extra fee, but it trades on your behalf, so a wallet that trades often multiplies these costs across every buy and every mirrored sell.
Key takeaways
- The platform fee is 0.5% per trade (0.4% referred), with a $0.95 USD minimum that dominates on small trades.
- Solana network and priority fees are separate and small per trade, but they add up at high frequency.
- Slippage is a real cost, not a fee, on thin memecoins it can dwarf the platform fee.
- Every mirrored buy AND every mirrored sell is charged, so frequency is the main cost driver.
- The wallet’s reported PnL ignores the fees you pay, so your net result is always lower than the headline.
What a mirrored trade actually costs
A copy trade is just a normal trade the system places for you when the wallet you follow trades. So its cost is the same three-part stack as any memecoin trade: a platform fee, Solana network and priority fees, and slippage on the fill. There is no separate “copy trading fee.”
What changes with copy trading is how many of these you pay. You’re not choosing each trade, you inherit the wallet’s frequency, on both buys and mirrored sells. So the honest way to think about cost is per trade first, then multiplied by how active the wallet is. For the general breakdown, see memecoin trading fees explained.
The platform fee
Cheetah’s platform fee is 0.5% of the trade value, or 0.4% for referred users, with a minimum of $0.95 USD per trade. It applies to the buy and again to the sell.
- On a $200 trade, the standard fee is $1.00; for referred users the $0.95 USD minimum is higher than the $0.80 percentage fee.
- On small trades the $0.95 USD minimum governs and can exceed 0.5% or 0.4% of a tiny buy.
- Because it hits both entry and exit, a full round trip pays the fee twice.
The minimum matters for copy trading specifically: if your buy amount per trade is small, the flat minimum can be a meaningful share of each trade. See Cheetah’s fees page for the authoritative breakdown.
Network and priority fees
On top of the platform fee, every trade pays Solana’s own costs: a small base network fee and an optional priority fee that helps your transaction land during congestion. These go to the network, not to Cheetah.
- The base network fee is a tiny fraction of a cent per transaction.
- Priority fees rise when the network is busy, paying more improves the odds your buy or sell lands in fast markets.
- On memecoins, skipping priority fees can mean failed transactions; on Solana a failed attempt can still cost a small network fee.
Individually these are small, but copy trading mirrors every trade the wallet makes, so at high frequency they accumulate. For how priority fees work, see the Solana docs.
Slippage and price impact
Slippage is not a fee anyone charges, it’s the difference between the price you expected and the price your order actually got. It comes from the market moving between submission and fill, and from your own order pushing the price on thin liquidity.
On liquid tokens slippage might be a fraction of a percent. On brand-new, thin-liquidity memecoins it can be several percent or more, often larger than the platform fee. In copy trading it compounds a second way: your trade lands a moment after the wallet’s, so price has already moved, and your fill is usually worse than theirs. That’s why your realized numbers trail the wallet you copy even on identical trades, see copy trading risks.
Worked example: a $200 mirrored trade
Say the wallet you copy buys a token and your buy amount is $200 (about 1.25 SOL at $160/SOL). A round trip, buy then sell, costs roughly:
- Platform fee on the buy: ~$2.00 at 0.5% (~$1.60 referred).
- Platform fee on the sell: another ~$2.00 at 0.5% (~$1.60 referred) on the exit value.
- Solana network + priority fees: a few cents total across both transactions in normal conditions, more when congested.
- Slippage: variable, perhaps ~1% ($2) on a liquid token, but 5%+ ($10+) on a thin memecoin, on each side.
So on a liquid token a full round trip might cost roughly $4 in platform fees plus a couple of dollars of slippage, a few percent of the trade. On a thin memecoin, slippage alone can double or triple that. Multiply by how many round trips the wallet makes and you have the true drag on your copy-trading results. Your buy amount and slippage settings, see copy trading settings, directly change these numbers.
Why frequency is the real cost
Because every mirrored buy and every mirrored sell is charged, the biggest driver of your total cost isn’t the fee rate, it’s how often the wallet trades. A wallet that makes two round trips a week costs a fraction of one that makes twenty a day.
This is why a copied wallet’s headline PnL flatters the reality: it typically ignores the fees and slippage you pay on every one of its trades. A high win rate on a hyperactive wallet can still net out poorly for a copier once cumulative fees and worse fills are subtracted. When you evaluate a wallet to copy, weigh its trade frequency as a cost, not just its returns.
Copy-trading costs on Cheetah
On Cheetah, a mirrored trade carries the same 0.5% platform fee (0.4% for referred users, $0.95 USD minimum) as any trade, with Solana network and priority fees separate and slippage on top. Copy trading adds no extra fee, but it trades on your behalf, so your fixed buy amount and slippage tolerance are the levers that keep per-trade cost in check. Cheetah never promises profit or calls trading safe; fees and slippage always reduce your net result. See the fees page and the copy trading feature.
Frequently asked questions
Does copy trading cost more than trading yourself?
No, a mirrored trade is charged like any other trade. The platform fee is 0.5% (0.4% for referred users, $0.95 USD minimum), plus Solana network and priority fees and slippage. Copy trading adds no separate fee; the difference is that it can trade far more often than you would.
What does one mirrored copy trade cost?
On a $200 buy, the standard platform fee is $1.00. The referred percentage would be $0.80, so the $0.95 USD minimum applies instead. Solana network and priority fees plus slippage are separate.
Is slippage a fee?
Not exactly, slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price you got, caused by the market moving and your order’s own price impact. It is not charged by the platform, but it is a real cost that reduces your result, and on thin-liquidity memecoins it can be larger than the platform fee.
Why is my copy-trading result lower than the wallet’s?
The wallet’s reported PnL usually ignores the fees and slippage you pay. Every mirrored buy and sell carries a platform fee plus network and priority fees, and your fills differ from theirs. A frequently-trading wallet multiplies that drag, so your net result sits below the headline number.