Liquidation price calculator
Enter the position as you would open it. The output is the modelled price at which an isolated-margin position gets closed out, and the percentage move that gets you there. It is an estimate for one isolated position, not a live read of your account.
Position
isolated marginWhere this number comes from, and what it leaves out
What formula is this using?
For an isolated-margin position it solves liquidation price = entry × (1 − 1/leverage) ÷ (1 − MMR) for a long, and entry × (1 + 1/leverage) ÷ (1 + MMR) for a short — the same two expressions derived step by step in the liquidation math write-up.
The logic behind it is simpler than the notation suggests. Your initial margin is 1/leverage of the position value, so at 20× you have put up 5%. A move against you of that same 5% consumes all of it. But the exchange does not wait until the margin hits exactly zero, because at that point there is nothing left to cover the cost of closing the position. It steps in earlier, at the point where what is left of your margin has fallen to the maintenance requirement.
The division is the part that gets dropped in shortcut versions of this formula. Maintenance margin is charged on the value of the position at the liquidation price, not on its value at entry, so the requirement itself shrinks as a long falls and grows as a short rises. Setting margin equal to requirement and solving for price is what puts MMR in the denominator. Subtracting it from the numerator instead — the common 1 − 1/L + MMR shortcut — is close but not equal: at 60,000 entry, 20× and 0.4% it lands on 57,240 where the solved figure is 57,228.92. This page uses the solved figure.
What the two expressions still assume is that the position is the only thing in its own margin bucket, that maintenance is a flat rate rather than a rate plus a maintenance amount deduction, and that no fees or funding have been charged yet. Those assumptions are listed again under “where this breaks” below, because they matter more than the arithmetic does.
Where do I find the maintenance margin rate?
In the exchange’s futures margin bracket table, where it is listed against position notional — it rises as the position gets larger.
It is not a single number. Exchanges tier it: a small position on a major pair sits in the lowest bracket, and as notional grows the rate steps up, because a large position is harder to unwind without moving the market. This calculator takes it as an input rather than guessing, because guessing it is exactly the kind of thing that produces a confidently wrong answer.
If you leave the default of 0.4% in place you will get a reasonable approximation for a small position on a liquid pair. For anything you actually have money in, look up your bracket.
Does this work for cross margin?
No, and it would be misleading to pretend otherwise.
In cross margin your entire wallet balance backs the position, along with the unrealised profit and loss of every other position you hold. The liquidation price is therefore not a property of one position — it moves whenever anything else in the account moves. A calculator that takes four inputs cannot describe that, so this one does not try. The longer piece on liquidation math works through the difference.
Which price triggers the liquidation?
The mark price, not the last traded price on the order book.
Mark price is derived from an index across several venues and is deliberately smoothed, so that a brief wick on one exchange does not liquidate positions everywhere. This is protective on balance. It also means that the number you compute here should be compared against the mark price shown on the trading screen, and that a candle low which appears to pierce your liquidation price without liquidating you is not a bug.
On an isolated position that is fully closed out, expect to lose most or all of the margin behind it, plus the liquidation fee. Some venues run partial or tiered liquidation first, closing part of the position to bring the remainder back inside its requirement, so a full wipe is the worst case rather than a certainty — the rules for your own account and contract are in the exchange’s liquidation documentation. At 50× or above, the move that triggers it is one a major pair can make inside an hour. Most retail accounts trading leveraged crypto lose money over time, and a calculator does not change that.
This is an estimate, not the exchange’s own figure. The arithmetic is exact for the model it uses; the model is the simplification. It ignores unrealised profit and loss on other positions, fees already deducted, funding accrued while the position is open, any margin you add after opening, and the maintenance-amount deduction some venues pair with each margin bracket. The number on your trading screen is the one that governs. Treat this as a way to reason about leverage before you commit, not as a live risk display.
How should I read the result?
Look at the “move from entry” line rather than the price, because that is the number that tells you whether the position is survivable.
At 3×, roughly a third of the way against you. At 10×, around a tenth. At 50×, about 2%. Major pairs move 2% in an afternoon regularly and in a minute occasionally. Putting the leverage figure next to the honest question — does this asset move that much on a normal day? — is the entire value of this calculator.
Leverage does not change your exposure to being wrong. It changes how quickly being wrong becomes final. Nothing here is a recommendation to open a leveraged position; most retail accounts trading leveraged crypto lose money, and this tool exists to make that arithmetic visible rather than to encourage it.