Pay Once, Get Billed Monthly: Can Futures Props Survive the CME Data Meter without Subscriptions?

Apex Trader Funding, Tradeify, Bulenox and My Funded Futures all moved from monthly subscriptions to one-time fees in 2026. Despite this shift, firms using CME data continue to be billed monthly per active user, creating a potential mismatch in business models.

Apex Trader Funding made the change on 1 March, grandfathering older accounts while moving new purchases to one-time fees. Tradeify followed in the spring, while Bulenox stopped using monthly subscriptions for new purchases from 17 August. My Funded Futures moved new challenge purchases to a one-time fee on 25 August.

Subscription Model Evolution

The monthly subscription model emerged to cover CME data license costs. "This is why, in the early days of futures prop firms, evaluation fees were structured as monthly subscriptions," said Gil Ben Hur, founder of The5ers, tracing the model back to Topstep, the first prop firm in futures.

Around 2023, CFD firms entered the market with one-off fees, increasing competition and producing discounts and bundled challenges. "Traders either pass or fail accounts much faster than before," claims Ruben Abitbol of RUBIK, "which reduces the attractiveness of a recurring subscription model."

CME Data Billing Challenge

The CME bills monthly per active user, regardless of how much they trade. "All official CME licence models are billed monthly," Ben Hur said. "The prop firm pays for each active user for each month, regardless of how much the user trades within that month."

The real-time annual licensee group fee is $29,280 per exchange like CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. "CME licenses data by use, not by the type of firm using it," said Shervin Arian, Founder and CEO at OmegaRatio Advisors. For young firms, "the data bill is a fixed cost that arrives before the first evaluation fee does."

Not all firms have abandoned monthly subscriptions. Topstep and Take Profit Trader still bill monthly during evaluation, while FTMO opened its futures beta on 31 August with monthly pricing from $119 to $229.