The Vest Markets evaluation is the cheap door to a funded account. Instead of paying full price for your risk budget, you pay less and pass an exam, and the exam is a configurator: you pick the target, the daily loss limit and the split, and the price moves with every choice (docs.vestmarkets.com, checked 2026-10-15).
Two formats exist. The 1-Step is fully configurable with 36 combinations from $25 to $450. The 2-Step is fixed and dirt cheap at $15, $35 or $90. Both land you in the same place, a live funded account with claim-anytime payouts.
Configurable 1-Step from $25, fixed 2-Step from $15. Every evaluation carries a static 6% max drawdown that never trails. Pass and the funded account of the same size opens instantly, no manual review.
Key Takeaways
- 1-Step is built from four choices: tier ($5K/$10K/$25K), profit target (10% or 20%), daily loss limit (3%, 4% or none) and split (80/20 or 90/10). 36 combinations, $25 to $450 one-time.
- 2-Step is one fixed spec per tier: 10% then 5% targets, 3% daily loss, 80/20 split, at $15/$35/$90.
- Max drawdown is fixed at 6% of capital on every evaluation: $300, $600 and $1,500 floors on the three tiers.
- No time limit and no minimum trading days on either format. Pass and the funded account opens instantly with claim-anytime payouts (docs.vestmarkets.com, checked 2026-10-15).
The 1-Step Configurator
Most firms sell you three fixed challenge flavors. Vest sells you a pricing matrix, and reading the matrix tells you what the firm expects. Harder exams cost less, because the fee is earned off the traders who quit.
| Target | Daily loss | Split | Silver $5K | Gold $10K | Platinum $25K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 3% | 80/20 | $40 | $80 | $210 |
| 10% | none | 80/20 | $75 | $150 | $375 |
| 20% | 3% | 80/20 | $25 | $50 | $130 |
| 20% | none | 90/10 | $60 | $114 | $300 |
Those are four of the twelve rows in the docs. Upgrading the split from 80/20 to 90/10 costs a flat 20% more on every row. Dropping the daily loss limit entirely is the most expensive option, because you are buying freedom from the rule that kills most challenges.
My read on the popular pick: the 10% target with a 3% daily loss at 80/20 is the honest mid-point, $40 for Silver. The 20% target rows are for traders with a documented edge who want the cheapest ticket and accept a coin flip.
The 2-Step Budget Door
The 2-Step is one fixed configuration per tier and the cheapest real ticket to funded capital I have seen anywhere. $15 for $5,000, $35 for $10,000, $90 for $25,000, all one-time. The trade is patience instead of fees, and a fixed 80% split for the ride.
The spec is identical across tiers: clear 10% of capital, then a further 5%, inside a 3% daily loss limit and the same static 6% max drawdown, at an 80/20 split. The split is the trade-off. The 1-Step can be configured to 90/10 and the instant account pays 95%, while the 2-Step is locked at 80/20 in exchange for the entry price.
The One Rule That Ends Evaluations
If you bought a daily loss limit, it recalculates at 20:00 ET from a reset balance that includes reserved collateral and excludes unrealized PnL. Your daily floor is 97% of that reset balance at 3%, or 96% at 4%.
The trap is the mismatch. Your equity includes unrealized PnL and the floor does not, so an open position down $700 on a $25K account can breach a floor computed from a balance that never marked it. Falling below either floor closes the account immediately and permanently.
Size for the worst mark, not the close. The daily loss limit calculator turns this into dollars before you buy.
Everything else about the evaluation is generous. No time limit means the exam waits for your setup instead of the reverse. No minimum trading days means one perfect day can pass a 1-Step. And the drawdown never trails, so a good start cannot repossess the account the way trailing floors do at other firms. That mechanic is worth understanding properly, and the drawdown breakdown does the dollar math for every tier.
What Happens the Moment You Pass
Pass and the funded account of the same size opens instantly, no manual review, and the claim-anytime payout rules apply from that moment. Your split is whatever you configured at purchase, and it does not change when the account goes live (docs.vestmarkets.com, checked 2026-10-15).
The complete picture, including how the evaluation compares against paying full price for an instant account, is in the Vest Markets review. If you would rather skip the exam entirely, instant accounts start at $10.
Pick Your Evaluation Configuration
Sources: docs.vestmarkets.com account tiers, loss limits, read 2026-10-15.
