How Axiom fees work: base fee, SOL cashback and tiers

Axiom charges a flat 1% fee on every spot trade, buys and sells alike. Part of that comes back as SOL cashback, so the effective fee runs from 0.95% at the entry tier to 0.75% at the top tier, and a referral link takes another 10% off. Network costs (priority fees and MEV tips) are paid on top. Figures below are as of September 2026.

How much does Axiom charge?

There’s no maker/taker split and no spread markup on spot trades. Axiom takes a percentage of the trade value, whether you use a market order, a limit order or a migration snipe.

The gross fee is 1%. According to Axiom’s fee page, every trade then earns SOL cashback at a rate set by your “multiplier” tier:

Tier	Multiplier	Cashback	Net fee
Wood	1x	0.05%	0.95%
Bronze	2x	0.10%	0.90%
Silver	2.5x	0.125%	0.875%
Gold	3x	0.15%	0.85%
Platinum	3.5x	0.175%	0.825%
Diamond	4x	0.20%	0.80%
Champion	5x	0.25%	0.75%

Each “x” of multiplier is worth 5% of the fee back. Wood returns 5% of the 1% fee (0.05% of the trade), Champion returns 25% (0.25%).

How do you move up a tier?

Your multiplier rises with your total trading volume on Axiom. That’s all the docs say: Axiom doesn’t publish the volume thresholds for each tier. Third-party guides that list exact numbers are guessing or quoting older snapshots, so check the rewards section of your own account for your current tier and progress.

In practice this means the lower net fees are for heavy traders. Someone doing a few thousand dollars a month should plan around the Wood or Bronze rate.

How the referral discount fits in

Accounts created through a referral link get 10% off Axiom’s trading fee, according to Axiom’s referral program page. On the 1% base that means roughly 0.9% before cashback.

Axiom describes the referral discount and the cashback as separate benefits, so you get both. What it doesn’t document is the exact order they’re applied in. If cashback is calculated on the already-discounted fee, a Wood-tier user with a referral pays about 0.855% net; if it’s calculated on the undiscounted 1%, about 0.85%. The gap is tiny, but it’s why we round to “about” below. Your trade history shows the fee actually charged.

The discount only applies if you sign up through the link. Our Axiom referral code page covers the steps and what happens if you already have an account.

Worked example: a $1,000 trade

Say you buy $1,000 of a Solana token and later sell it for $1,000 (flat, to keep the maths clean). That’s $2,000 of volume and two fee events.

Scenario	Fee on buy	Fee on sell	Cashback	Net Axiom fees
Wood, no referral	$10.00	$10.00	$1.00	$19.00
Wood, with referral	about $9.00	about $9.00	about $0.90	about $17.10
Gold, no referral	$10.00	$10.00	$3.00	$17.00
Champion, no referral	$10.00	$10.00	$5.00	$15.00

Now add network costs. Axiom’s defaults are a 0.001 SOL priority fee and a 0.001 SOL bribe (the tip that buys MEV-protected routing), per the Solana fees page. That’s about 0.002 SOL per transaction, or 0.004 SOL for the round trip. At an assumed SOL price of $125, that’s $0.50. During busy launches people raise these a lot, and Axiom’s “recommended” setting adjusts them automatically.

So the realistic all-in cost of a $1,000 round trip at the entry tier with a referral is around $17.60 before slippage. That’s 1.8% of your position gone before the token has to do anything.

Small trades are proportionally worse

The 1% fee scales with size, but network tips don’t. A $20 buy costs $0.20 in Axiom fees and still around 0.002 SOL in priority fee and tip. At small sizes the fixed part can exceed the percentage fee, which is one reason tiny “lottery” buys lose money even when the token goes up a little.

Other costs you may see

Launchpad and pool fees. Tokens still trading on a launchpad bonding curve (Pump.fun and similar) carry that launchpad’s own trading fee, and DEX pools charge their own swap fee. These aren’t Axiom’s, and they vary by venue.

MEV protection. Axiom offers three modes: Off, Reduced and Secure. Secure waits for a whitelisted validator, so it can be slower, and you need a bribe at or above the current minimum shown in the header for protection to work. The bribe is the cost of protection.

Perpetuals. Axiom’s perps tab trades on Hyperliquid. Axiom’s deposit page says it charges 0.01% per transaction, and leverage goes up to 50x. You also pay Hyperliquid’s own fee, which at the base volume tier is 0.045% taker and 0.015% maker according to Hyperliquid’s fee schedule. A $10,000 notional market order (for example $1,000 margin at 10x) costs about $4.50 to Hyperliquid plus $1 to Axiom, so $5.50 per side. Funding payments come on top. Our Hyperliquid fees guide explains the tiers and staking discounts in full.

Converting SOL to USDC for perps. Moving funds between Solana and Hyperliquid happens through Axiom’s SOL/USDC convert button. Axiom’s withdrawal guide says the return trip takes about five minutes. It doesn’t list a separate fee for this step, but the swap is subject to normal pricing and network costs.

Staking. If you park idle SOL with Axiom, staking directly to the Axiom validator has 0% commission, while the axiSOL liquid staking token takes 5% of earnings and a 0.1% fee on withdrawals, per Axiom’s staking docs.

How Axiom’s fees compare

Platform	Base spot fee	Best case
Axiom	1%	0.75% at Champion tier, plus 10% referral discount
GMGN	1%	Referral discounts advertised, no published cashback tiers
Fomo	0.50% (flat or 2% bands under 190 USDC on Solana)	0.45% with a referral

Axiom and GMGN sit at the same 1% headline rate, so the choice between them usually comes down to tools. Fomo is roughly half the cost on trades above 190 USDC, and more expensive than it looks on small Solana orders, but it is a simpler, mobile-first app. We compare all three, including custody and chains, in Axiom vs GMGN vs Fomo.

How to pay less on Axiom

1. Sign up with a referral link. It’s the only discount you can get on day one. If you don’t have an account yet, you can create one on Axiom with the discount.
2. Trade less often, in larger size. Fees are proportional, but tips are fixed per transaction, and every extra round trip costs you about 2% at base rates.
3. Tune priority fees and tips. The defaults are sensible. Raising them only helps when you’re racing other buyers, which is exactly when entries are worst.
4. Keep slippage tight and use Secure MEV mode. Losing 5% to a sandwich wipes out years of cashback.
5. Don’t chase tiers. Moving from Wood to Gold saves 0.1% per trade. Trading more to get there costs far more than it saves.

For a wider look at the platform, including custody and the 2026 insider-data allegations, see our Axiom review.