TradeDay Billing and Subscriptions 2026: Renewals, Refunds, Cancellations

# TradeDay Billing and Subscriptions 2026: Renewals, Refunds, Cancellations

TradeDay charges for evaluation accounts on a monthly subscription model — the same price renews every 30 days from your purchase date until you either pass to funded or cancel through the dashboard. That single sentence covers most of what traders need to know, but the corner cases (what happens when you pass mid-cycle, how refunds work, what failed payments trigger, how cancellation timing interacts with renewal dates) are where billing questions actually surface and where most TradeDay support tickets land.

I started trading TradeDay in December 2024 across multiple account configurations. Around $14,000 in cumulative payouts, currently no active account. Across that span I've cancelled subscriptions, dealt with mid-cycle pass-and-graduate timing, and seen the cancellation flow on multiple accounts — so the mechanics below come from the dashboard and renewal emails rather than from a support page summary. The TL;DR: the subscription model is genuinely flexible compared to one-off challenge-fee firms, but the sunk-cost behavior on mid-cycle pass and the no-refund stance after first-day access are worth internalizing before you buy.

This guide consolidates everything in one place: monthly billing mechanics, the refund policy and its exceptions, cancellation procedure and timing, what happens when you pass on a billed day, the failed-payment grace window, the dashboard subscription view, billing information updates, and multi-account consolidation. Every section ties to the actual operational behavior you'll see in your account.

How Does the Monthly Subscription Model Work?

TradeDay uses a recurring monthly subscription rather than a one-off challenge fee. When you buy an evaluation account, you're not paying for a single attempt — you're paying for ongoing access to a subscription that runs continuously until cancelled or passed. The subscription has these properties:

• Monthly cadence. The fee charges every 30 days from the original purchase date, anchored to your specific account's purchase day rather than to the calendar month.
• Locked pricing. The amount stays the same across renewals as long as the subscription is continuous. If you bought during a sale period at $87/month, your renewals stay at $87/month even after the sale ends.
• Indefinite duration. As long as you keep paying and don't break the maximum drawdown, the evaluation account remains active. There's no maximum subscription length.
• One subscription per account. Each evaluation account is a separate subscription with its own renewal date. Multi-account traders see separate line items in the dashboard.

The model differs from competitors in a few important ways. Apex Trader Funding, Topstep, and Lucid Trading use one-off evaluation fees with separate reset fees if you fail. The TradeDay subscription replaces that two-fee structure — your monthly subscription fee covers continued access whether you've failed-and-reset or are still on the original attempt. The reset option exists in TradeDay too (size-tiered reset fees: $80, $124, $149) but it's a separate optional purchase rather than a required fee for continuing.

The billing model creates a different cost equation across long evaluations. A trader who needs five months to pass at $98/month with SAVE30 applied pays $490 across the evaluation. Compare that to a competitor charging $200 upfront plus three resets at $124 each — that competitor's trader pays $572 for the same evaluation length. The TradeDay subscription wins economically over long evaluations and loses economically on short evaluations where one-off fees would have been cheaper.

The full pricing comparison and per-SKU subscription rate is in TradeDay pricing 2026. The discount-code mechanic that locks in lower monthly rates is in TradeDay discount codes 2026.

When Does the Subscription Renew?

Renewals fire on the 30-day anniversary of your original purchase. If you bought on April 5, your renewals hit on May 5, June 5, July 5, and so on. The renewal is automatic and uses the payment method you saved at signup. A few mechanics worth knowing:

• Time of day. Renewals typically process in the early morning UTC. The exact charge time isn't published, but it's consistent for a given account.
• Pre-renewal notification. TradeDay typically sends a renewal-pending email 1-3 days before the charge hits. Whether you get the email depends on your notification settings; the renewal happens whether you receive the email or not.
• Failed renewal handling. If the charge fails (expired card, insufficient funds, network error), the account enters a grace state and you receive a payment-failed notification. Details on the grace window are below.
• Successful renewal confirmation. After a successful charge, you typically receive a renewal-confirmed email with an invoice attached. The invoice is also downloadable from the dashboard.

The renewal date does not adjust based on how active your trading was during the prior cycle. Whether you traded one day or 25 days, the renewal still fires on the 30-day anniversary. This is the source of most surprise charges — traders who bought an account, traded a few days, took a multi-week break, and forgot the subscription was still active find a renewal hit they didn't anticipate.

The 5-day minimum trading rule (recently changed from 7 days for subscriptions purchased after September 13, 2025) is detailed in TradeDay rules 2026 — but it's an evaluation requirement, not a billing requirement. Subscription billing fires regardless of whether you've cleared the 5-day minimum.

What Is TradeDay's Refund Policy?

TradeDay's refund policy is restrictive, in line with most futures-prop firms. The published stance:

• Same-day, no-trading-activity refunds — typically accommodated if requested within hours of purchase before any trading activity has occurred. Customer support has discretion here.
• First 24 hours after purchase — discretionary refunds for first-time buyer mistakes (wrong account size, misunderstood rules). Not policy you can rely on.
• Beyond first day of access — refunds typically unavailable. Once you've had access to the evaluation system, the firm's stance is that the product has been delivered.
• Failed evaluations — no refund. Failing doesn't unlock a refund mechanism for prior monthly subscription fees.
• Passed evaluations on a billed day — no pro-rated refund for the unused portion of the cycle.
• Cancellations mid-cycle — no pro-rated refund. Access continues to the end of the cycle and the cycle's fee is non-refundable.
• Account closures for rule violations — no refund. Profits are confiscated per the prohibited-practices policy.
• Country-restriction rejections — discretionary refunds if you signed up before realizing you're in a restricted country. Discretion based on whether trading occurred before the rejection.

The framing TradeDay uses internally is around "access provided" rather than "activity completed." If the system has been made available to you for trading, the subscription fee is considered earned, regardless of whether you actually placed trades. This is consistent with how most futures-prop firms structure refunds.

The full prohibited-practices list that triggers no-refund termination is in TradeDay prohibited practices. The reset-as-alternative-to-refund mechanic is detailed in TradeDay reset policy.

How Do You Cancel a TradeDay Subscription?

Cancellation is self-service from the dashboard. The procedure:

1. Log in to the TradeDay member dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Subscriptions or Billing section.
3. Identify the evaluation account you want to cancel. Multi-account traders see one line per account.
4. Click cancel on that subscription line.
5. Confirm the cancellation in the prompt. The system asks once to confirm.
6. Receive cancellation confirmation email. This documents the end-of-cycle date when access ends.

Cancellation timing is the key mechanic to internalize. The cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle, not immediately. If you cancel on day 5 of a 30-day cycle, you keep access for the remaining 25 days and the account closes on day 30. You aren't charged a renewal fee for the next cycle, but you also don't get any portion of the current cycle's fee back.

The cancellation can be reversed within the same cycle. If you cancel on day 5 and change your mind on day 10, you can typically re-enable the subscription from the same dashboard area before the cycle ends. Once the cycle expires and the account closes, reactivation is no longer possible — you'd need to buy a fresh evaluation.

A few cancellation behaviors worth knowing:

• No cancellation fee. TradeDay does not charge a cancellation fee or impose a minimum subscription length.
• No customer service required. The cancellation is dashboard-driven; you don't need to email or call support to initiate it.
• Days traded reset on close. When the account closes at end of cycle, the days you traded toward the 5-day minimum and any profit accumulated toward target are lost.
• Email confirmation is the receipt. Save the cancellation confirmation email in case there's any billing dispute later.

What Happens If I Pass on a Billed Day?

The pass-on-billed-day scenario is one of the most common billing questions. The mechanic:

• You pass the evaluation (clear all three objectives: 5-day minimum, profit target, 30% consistency).
• Your account graduates from evaluation to Funded Sim.
• The evaluation subscription stops automatically — you don't need to manually cancel.
• The current cycle's fee, already paid at the start of the 30-day window, is not refunded for the unused portion.
• Future renewals don't process.

The unused-portion-of-cycle behavior is the source of the most "feels wrong" billing complaint. If your renewal hit on day 1 of a cycle and you pass on day 2, you've paid for 28 unused days. TradeDay's policy is that the subscription fee covers access to the evaluation system; once you've passed, you no longer need that access (you're funded), and the fee for the cycle in which the pass occurred is sunk.

The strategic implication: if you're close to passing and your renewal date is approaching, the timing of the pass matters financially. Passing on day 27 vs day 33 (after a renewal) is the difference between $0 of additional cost and a full month's fee. There's no way to manipulate this directly, but if you're within striking distance of passing and your renewal is days away, prioritizing the final push to clear before the renewal can save a month's fee.

The pass mechanics — what counts as passing, when graduation processes, the funded-account starting state — are in TradeDay rules 2026. The funded account's withdrawal eligibility (which is the practical benefit of having passed) is in TradeDay payout policy.

What Happens If My Payment Fails?

Failed payments trigger a defined sequence rather than immediate account closure. The flow:

1. Renewal charge fails. Reasons include expired card, insufficient funds on the linked account, declined transaction, or network error.
2. Notification sent. TradeDay emails you that the payment failed. Some users also see a banner in the dashboard.
3. Grace window starts. A several-day grace period during which the account remains in a payment-pending state. Trading access may be restricted but typically isn't immediately suspended.
4. Reminder notifications. TradeDay typically retries the charge once or twice during the grace window in case the original failure was transient.
5. Suspension if grace expires. If the payment hasn't been resolved by end of grace, the account is suspended. Trading access is removed; dashboard access remains.
6. Reactivation window. Suspended accounts can be reactivated by paying the missed renewal plus updating the payment method, generally within 30 days of suspension.
7. Final closure. If suspension exceeds 30 days without payment, the account is closed. All progress lost.

The published grace window length varies and TradeDay doesn't always commit to a specific number of days. The practical observation: the firm errs on the side of giving traders time to resolve payment issues rather than immediately closing accounts. This is consistent with the subscription model — recurring revenue benefits from forgiveness on payment hiccups.

To resolve a failed payment, the typical path is to log in, navigate to the payment method section, update the card or switch to crypto, and then either wait for the next retry or manually trigger the renewal. Once the payment goes through, the account returns to active status and trading resumes.

Where Do I See My Subscription Details?

The TradeDay member dashboard has a Subscriptions or Billing section that shows:

• Active subscriptions. One line per evaluation account, labeled by account size and drawdown variant.
• Monthly price. The amount you're being charged at each renewal.
• Next renewal date. The 30-day anniversary date of your purchase.
• Payment method. The card or crypto wallet on file.
• Cancel option. A button to initiate cancellation on each line.
• Invoice history. Downloadable invoices for each renewal you've paid.

For multi-account traders running several evaluation accounts, each shows as a separate subscription line. The dashboard does not consolidate these into a single bill — you see and manage each account independently. Some traders synchronize purchase dates so all renewals hit on the same day, simplifying mental tracking, but this is a manual workaround rather than a feature.

The dashboard also shows funded account status separately. Once you pass an evaluation, that subscription line closes and a funded account line replaces it. Funded accounts have different mechanics (no monthly subscription fee, payout requests, lifetime profit-split tier) covered in the TradeDay funded account rules guide.

How Do I Update My Billing Information?

Billing information updates are dashboard-driven. The flow:

1. Navigate to the payment method section under Subscriptions or Billing.
2. Select update payment method.
3. Enter the new card details or switch to a different payment type (crypto, where supported).
4. Save. The new method becomes the default for future renewals.

A few mechanical notes:

• Updates apply to next renewal. Changing the payment method does not trigger an immediate re-charge or shift the renewal date. The next scheduled renewal uses the new method.
• Multiple methods supported. You can have one primary method and (in some configurations) a backup. The backup is used if the primary fails.
• Address updates. The billing address can be updated independently of the payment method, which matters for international cards where address verification is part of the checkout flow.
• Tax/VAT updates. If your billing country changes and that affects tax handling, you may need to contact support to ensure invoices reflect the change correctly.

For traders who experience a card-on-file expiration mid-evaluation, the update needs to happen before the renewal date to avoid entering payment-failed grace status. TradeDay sometimes pre-warns about expiring cards in renewal notifications, but the update is the trader's responsibility either way.

What Payment Methods Does TradeDay Accept?

TradeDay supports two main payment categories:

• Credit and debit cards. Major brands (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) supported across most regions. Some restrictions apply for cards issued in specific countries that match the broader country-restriction list.
• Cryptocurrency. Layer 1 chains (Bitcoin, Ethereum, with their associated network fees) and Layer 2 networks (typically free) supported on subscription billing.

Card payments are the most common path. Crypto support is useful for traders in regions where card payments to US-based futures-prop firms are problematic, and for traders who prefer crypto for privacy or convenience reasons. The crypto rails on subscription billing align with what's used on the payout side, which makes the round-trip economics consistent.

A few mechanical points on crypto:

• Network fees apply on Layer 1 charges. A monthly Bitcoin or Ethereum subscription payment incurs network fees on top of the subscription amount. Layer 2 networks (Polygon, Arbitrum, etc., where supported) are free.
• Volatility risk. If crypto prices move significantly between renewals, the dollar-equivalent amount transferred can vary. TradeDay typically pegs the subscription amount to the dollar figure and converts at the time of charge.
• Crypto refunds. The narrow refund cases that TradeDay does honor are typically refunded in the same payment method used at purchase. Crypto refunds carry their own network-fee considerations.

For a fuller treatment of crypto rails across deposits and payouts, TradeDay payout policy covers the withdrawal-side mechanics.

Are There Annual Subscription Discounts?

TradeDay does not currently advertise an annual prepay option that beats the monthly recurring rate on a per-month basis. The pricing structure is:

• Monthly subscription. Sale-period pricing on the SKU you bought, applied each 30 days.
• SAVE30 promotional code. 30% off the monthly subscription plus activation fee waiver, applied at signup and persistent across renewals.
• Holiday-period codes. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, year-end, occasional event codes that sometimes beat SAVE30 for a one-time discount.

What's missing from the structure is an annual prepay discount. Some prop firms offer "pay 12 months upfront and get 2 months free" or similar structures; TradeDay doesn't currently. The closest approximation is buying during a deeper sale period and budgeting your subscription forward, but each renewal is still charged monthly at the price you locked in.

The economic implication: if you're confident you'll pass within 1-3 months, the monthly model works well — you minimize total subscription spend by keeping the cycle short. If you expect a longer evaluation period (5-12 months), you'd potentially benefit from an annual prepay discount that doesn't exist in TradeDay's current pricing. The full discount-code mechanics that maximize per-month savings are in TradeDay discount codes 2026.

Can I Pause or Freeze a Subscription?

TradeDay does not publicly advertise a pause/freeze option for evaluation subscriptions. The active states for a subscription are:

• Running (account accessible, trading available, renewals processing).
• Cancelled (will close at end of current cycle, no future renewals).
• Suspended (failed payment, grace or post-grace; trading access removed but reactivation possible).

If you need to step away from active trading temporarily — vacation, life event, market conditions you're avoiding — the practical options are:

• Continue paying. The subscription keeps running and your account stays active. No trades required during the period; you can resume when ready.
• Cancel and re-buy later. End the current subscription at cycle close, accept that progress (days traded, profits) is lost, and buy a fresh evaluation when you return.

The first option keeps you on the same evaluation if you're close to passing and don't want to lose progress. The second option saves money during a long break but resets your evaluation state. There's no middle option that preserves progress without continuing to pay.

Funded accounts have separate inactivity rules — a Funded Sim account that goes inactive too long may eventually be offboarded, but the trigger and timing differ from evaluation subscription mechanics. The full funded-side rules are in TradeDay funded account rules.

How Does Multi-Account Subscription Work?

TradeDay launched multi-account support in early 2026. Up to 6 simultaneous accounts (max 3 Funded Sim + 1 Funded Live; the other slots evaluation-stage), all on a single platform. Each account is its own subscription line:

• Separate billing per account. Each evaluation account renews independently on its own purchase-date anniversary.
• No bundle pricing. Three $100K Intraday accounts cost 3 × $98 with SAVE30 = $294/month combined, the same as buying them individually.
• No volume discount. TradeDay doesn't currently offer a multi-account percentage off based on the number of subscriptions.
• Independent renewal dates. Unless you bought them on the same day, the three accounts have three different renewal dates.
• Independent failed-payment handling. A payment failure on one account doesn't affect the other accounts; each is suspended/grace-handled independently.
• Independent cancellation. Cancelling one account doesn't cancel the others.

The multi-account configuration is meaningfully more expensive in subscription terms than running a single larger account, but it provides risk diversification (one breach doesn't end all accounts), strategy diversification (different drawdown variants on different accounts), and parallel evaluation paths. The full strategic case is in TradeDay multiple accounts policy.

For traders running multi-account, the dashboard subscription view is the single source of truth for what's renewing when. Some traders create a manual calendar of renewal dates to budget for; others sync purchase dates to one anchor day to simplify. There's no built-in tooling for either approach.

What's the Annual Cost Across a Realistic Trader Path?

A practical projection for a TradeDay trader's first year on a $100K Intraday account:

• Months 1-3: Active evaluation. 3 × $98/month with SAVE30 = $294. One reset during this period: $124. Subtotal: $418.
• Month 3 end: Pass evaluation. Subscription closes; activation fee waived (was bundled into SAVE30 at signup).
• Months 4-12: Funded Sim, then potentially Funded Live. No monthly subscription fee on funded accounts. Withdrawal fees per payout: $15 international wire, $0 US wire, $2.50+gas Layer 1 crypto, $0 Layer 2.

Year-1 evaluation cost: $418 (subscription + reset).

Compare to a hypothetical without SAVE30 and with two resets:

• 3 × $140/month = $420 (no SAVE30) + 2 × $124 resets = $668.

Year-1 cost difference SAVE30 vs no code: roughly $250 saved.

For multi-account traders running three $100K Intraday accounts in parallel:

• 3 × $98/month × 4 months (taking longer to pass on average) = $1,176.
• Resets: 4 × $124 across the three accounts = $496.
• Subtotal: $1,672 in evaluation cost across year 1.

The economics scale with how many accounts you run and how long they take to pass. Funded-side costs are separate and covered in TradeDay payout policy.

The bottom line

TradeDay's monthly subscription model is more flexible than one-off evaluation fees but creates billing scenarios that traders new to the format don't always anticipate. The renewal cadence is automatic on the 30-day anniversary; refunds are restrictive after first-day access; cancellation is dashboard-driven and effective at end of cycle; failed payments trigger a grace window before suspension; passing on a billed day forfeits the unused portion of the cycle. None of these mechanics is unusual relative to other futures-prop firms, but the monthly subscription framing means they show up more frequently than they would in a one-off challenge-fee structure.

The billing dashboard is where everything happens — subscription view, payment method update, cancellation, invoice history. There's no email-required customer service flow for routine billing tasks. The exceptions are refund requests (always email-based and discretionary) and edge cases like multi-account billing alignment (no built-in tool).

For traders running TradeDay long-term, the main optimization levers are: applying SAVE30 at every new evaluation purchase to lock in the 30% discount on renewals; timing pass dates to land before mid-cycle renewals where possible; consolidating multi-account purchase dates to a single renewal day; and using the dashboard subscription view weekly to spot renewal dates and forecast the next month's billing. The rest is the standard rhythm of a monthly subscription business.

For pricing at the subscription level, TradeDay pricing 2026 walks every SKU. For the discount mechanics that reduce the per-month cost, TradeDay discount codes 2026 covers SAVE30 and holiday promos. For the rules that determine whether you'll pass in cycle 1 versus cycle 5, TradeDay rules 2026 is the master rulebook reference. And for what happens after the evaluation subscription ends and the funded account begins, TradeDay funded account rules and TradeDay payout policy cover the post-pass economics.

Frequently Asked Questions