Free calculator
Liquidation price calculator
Enter your entry price and leverage to see roughly where a long or short gets liquidated, how far price has to move, and how the same trade looks at other leverage.
Liquidation calculator
Rough estimateThe example is a ten times long on Bitcoin at $60,000. Change any number and the result updates as you type.
Fix the highlighted field to see the result.
The same trade at other leverage
| Leverage | Liquidation | Move |
|---|
An estimate for isolated margin, before fees and funding. Exchanges calculate liquidation differently: maintenance margin rises with position size, and cross margin uses your whole balance. The price your exchange shows is the one that counts. Practise on paper first.
How it works
With isolated margin you post part of the position as margin: one divided by your leverage. At 10x that is 10% of the position. The exchange closes the position when the margin left over falls to the maintenance margin, a small slice it keeps as a buffer.
Example: a 10x long from $60,000 with a 0.5% maintenance margin. One divided by the leverage is 10%, so the long is liquidated at about $60,000 × (1 − 0.10 + 0.005) = $54,300, a 9.5% fall.
More leverage, less room
The move that liquidates you is roughly one divided by the leverage, minus the maintenance margin. With a 0.5% maintenance margin:
| Leverage | Move that liquidates |
|---|---|
| 2x | 49.5% |
| 5x | 19.5% |
| 10x | 9.5% |
| 20x | 4.5% |
| 50x | 1.5% |
| 100x | 0.5% |
Crypto can move a few percent in a day without any news at all, so at high leverage ordinary noise is enough to close the position.
Why your exchange shows a different number
- Maintenance margin rises in tiers as a position gets bigger, so large positions are liquidated sooner.
- Cross margin uses your whole balance as the buffer. The liquidation price sits further away, and a loss can take the whole balance.
- Fees and funding payments come out of your margin over time and pull the liquidation price closer.
- Most exchanges trigger liquidation on a mark price, not the last traded price.
Use this as a quick check before you size a trade. The number your exchange shows is the one that counts.
Common questions
Should my stop sit before my liquidation price?
Always. Your stop is where the idea is proven wrong. Liquidation is where the exchange closes the trade for you, usually at a worse price and with a fee on top. If the liquidation price is closer than your stop, lower the leverage. The position size calculator checks this for you.
Does leverage change how much I can lose?
On a trade with a stop, the stop decides the loss, whatever the leverage. Leverage changes how much margin you post and how close liquidation sits. On isolated margin, the most you can lose on the position is the margin you posted.
What maintenance margin should I use?
0.5% is a common starting rate for Bitcoin and Ether, and it rises for bigger positions and smaller coins. Your exchange lists its margin tiers, so check there for the exact figure.