# Builder fee

Also written builder fees, builder code, builder codes.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/glossary/builder-fee · next to Crypto Trading Terminals*

**Definition:** A builder fee is an extra charge Hyperliquid adds to a fill and pays to the software that sent the order, on top of the venue's own trading fee. You sign a maximum for each builder address once; the front end then sets the actual rate order by order, up to that ceiling and a protocol cap of 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot. It is how many free terminals and bots get paid.

Two people can send the same order, for the same size, to the same Hyperliquid market at the same
second and pay different amounts for it. The venue's fee is identical. What differs is the
software each of them clicked through, and the builder fee that software attached to the fill.

## How it works

Hyperliquid calls the mechanism a builder code. Its documentation describes the whole of it in a
few sentences, and every one of them changes what a reader should check.

**You approve a ceiling, the front end picks the rate.** Before a builder can charge anything, the
user signs an `ApproveBuilderFee` action naming the builder's address and a maximum — and it has to
be signed by the main wallet, not by an agent or API wallet, which is why terminals that otherwise
trade through an API key still ask for one browser-wallet signature at setup. After that, each
order the front end sends may carry a builder parameter, an address and a fee "in tenths of basis
points", so a value of 10 means one basis point. The rate is set per order, not per account.

**The protocol caps it.** "Builder fees charged can be at most 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot." That
is ten basis points on perps and a hundred on spot, measured against a perps entry-tier
[taker fee](https://cryptomarkets.tools/glossary/taker-fee) of 0.045% on the same venue's own schedule. At the cap, the
builder would take more than twice what the exchange does.

**It is charged where the fee asset is.** Builder codes apply only to fees collected in the quote
or collateral asset, so they apply to both sides of a perp trade and do not apply to the buying
side of a spot trade. A perp round trip pays it twice.

**It lands inside the fill's fee.** On Hyperliquid's own fill records the `fee` field is the total,
builder included, with a separate `builderFee` field only when it is non-zero — which is why a fee
audit built on `fee` alone overstates what the venue charged
([how to pull Hyperliquid fills](https://cryptomarkets.tools/how-to/get-hyperliquid-positions-and-trade-history)).

**The builder collects it like a referral reward**, and must hold at least 100 USDC in perps
account value to be one. Each user can hold ten active approvals at a time and revoke any of them.

## Why it matters here

On a Hyperliquid order, "free" in a terminal's pricing means "paid per fill". That changes the
comparison from a monthly price to a cost that scales with your volume, and the cards record the
rate where the vendor publishes one:

- [Velo](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/velo) and [Insilico Terminal](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/insilico-terminal) state one basis point
  (0.01%). Insilico makes signing the approval a condition of connecting at all.
- [Tealstreet](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tealstreet) says "usually" one basis point, and higher if you signed up
  through an affiliate who sets their own — so the rate is a property of how you arrived, not of
  the product.
- [WunderTrading](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/wundertrading) waives its Premium subscription for Hyperliquid accounts
  and charges 0.035% per trade instead, three and a half times the terminals above.
- [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt) adds one basis point by default on seven venues, Hyperliquid among them,
  and documents the one-line switch that turns it off.
- The [Hyperliquid Python SDK](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/hyperliquid-python-sdk) ships the approval call and an
  example for people building a front end of their own; it attaches no builder of its own.

In money, on 10,000 dollars of perps notional taken at Hyperliquid's tier 0: the venue charges
4.50 dollars. Through a one-basis-point terminal the fill costs 5.50; through a 0.035% one, 8.00;
at the protocol cap, 14.50. On a strategy that trades its account several times a month, that
spread is the difference between a free tool and the most expensive subscription on the site.

So read the builder rate as part of the price, multiply it by the volume you actually trade, and
compare that with the flat subscriptions in [trading terminals](https://cryptomarkets.tools/categories/trading-terminals) and
[trading bots](https://cryptomarkets.tools/categories/trading-bots). A builder fee is the one way a crypto front end gets paid
that comes out of your fill rather than out of the fee you were already paying; the
[guide to who pays for free trading software](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/who-pays-for-your-free-trading-bot) sets it
beside broker codes and referral links, which do not.

## Where you will meet this

- [Velo](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/velo.md)
- [Insilico Terminal](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/insilico-terminal.md)
- [Tealstreet](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tealstreet.md)
- [WunderTrading](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/wundertrading.md)
- [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt.md)
- [Hyperliquid Python SDK](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/hyperliquid-python-sdk.md)
- [Altrady](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/altrady.md)
- [CoinRoutes](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinroutes.md)

## FAQ

### Is the number I signed the fee I pay?

No. The approval is a ceiling for that builder address, not a rate. Each order carries its own fee parameter, in tenths of a basis point, and the approval is only what that parameter may not exceed. A terminal that charges one basis point today can charge more tomorrow up to the maximum you signed, so the ceiling on the wallet prompt is the number worth reading.

### Can I take a builder fee off once I have approved it?

Yes. Hyperliquid's documentation says a user can revoke a builder's permission at any time, and that each account can hold at most ten active builder approvals. Expect a front end whose business model is the fee to stop working for you once you do — Insilico Terminal, for one, makes signing the approval a condition of connecting at all.

## Sources

1. [Hyperliquid documentation — Builder codes](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/builder-codes) — Hyperliquid, read 2026-10-04
2. [Hyperliquid documentation — Fees](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/fees) — Hyperliquid, read 2026-10-04

*Last updated 2026-10-04. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*