Crypto liquidation price calculator
Enter your entry price, size and leverage to see where a leveraged position would be liquidated, and how far the price has to move to get there.
Read this first. Leveraged crypto products can lose your entire margin, and many regulators restrict or ban them for retail clients. This page is arithmetic on the numbers you enter, not advice or a signal.
Educational arithmetic from the numbers you enter. It is not investment advice or a signal, and it does not model exchange tiers, funding, partial liquidation or auto-deleveraging. Your exchange's position panel is the binding figure. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you type is sent or stored.
How it works
On an isolated-margin position the exchange closes you out when the margin you put in no longer covers the maintenance margin. Write E for the entry price, Q for the quantity, N = E × Q for the position value, L for leverage, m for the maintenance margin rate, c for the maintenance amount that some exchanges add, and X for margin you added yourself. The liquidation price is then:
Long: (N − N ÷ L − X − c) ÷ (Q × (1 − m))
Short: (N + N ÷ L + X + c) ÷ (Q × (1 + m))
On cross margin the whole account balance W backs the position, less the unrealised loss O on your other positions, so N ÷ L + X is replaced by W − O. The bankruptcy price is where the margin is gone completely: E × (1 − 1 ÷ L) for a long and E × (1 + 1 ÷ L) for a short. Liquidation comes before bankruptcy because the exchange needs room to close the position and pay its costs.
A popular shortcut, E × (1 − 1 ÷ L + m) for a long, gets close but ignores any margin you add and the (1 − m) divisor. The calculator prints the gap so you can see how much it matters.
Worked example
The page opens with 0.1 BTC bought at 60,000 with 10x leverage and a 0.5% maintenance margin rate. The position is worth 6,000, so the margin is 600. A long is liquidated at (6,000 − 600) ÷ (0.1 × 0.995) = 54,271.36, which is 9.55% below the entry. A short with the same numbers is liquidated at (6,000 + 600) ÷ (0.1 × 1.005) = 65,671.64, which is 9.45% above it.
Liquidation distance by leverage
| Leverage | Long liquidated at | Below entry | Short liquidated at | Above entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | 30,150.75 | 49.75% | 89,552.24 | 49.25% |
| 3x | 40,201.01 | 33.00% | 79,601.99 | 32.67% |
| 5x | 48,241.21 | 19.60% | 71,641.79 | 19.40% |
| 10x | 54,271.36 | 9.55% | 65,671.64 | 9.45% |
| 20x | 57,286.43 | 4.52% | 62,686.57 | 4.48% |
| 50x | 59,095.48 | 1.51% | 60,895.52 | 1.49% |
| 100x | 59,698.49 | 0.50% | 60,298.51 | 0.50% |
The distance shrinks roughly in proportion to leverage. At 100x the price only has to move about half a percent against you, a distance ordinary price noise can cover. For the reasoning behind these numbers see what a liquidation price is and how it is set, and isolated versus cross margin for what changes when the whole account backs a position.
Questions
Why does my exchange show a different liquidation price?
Exchanges compare the mark price, not the last traded price, with your liquidation level. Many use maintenance rates that rise with position size, include funding paid so far and open orders, and add a fee for closing. Some subtract a maintenance amount, which you can enter above. Use this page to check the order of magnitude and read the binding figure in your exchange's position panel.
Does adding margin move the liquidation price?
Yes, on isolated margin. Each unit you add moves the liquidation price further from the entry. The price is a risk trade-off, not a free fix: more of your money is then exposed to one position.
What is the maintenance margin rate?
It is the smallest share of the position value that must be left as margin. Below it the exchange liquidates the position. It is usually a fraction of a percent for large coins at small sizes and rises in steps as the position grows.
What happens after a liquidation?
The exchange closes the position at or near the bankruptcy price, and the margin in that position is lost. If the market moves too fast to close it, insurance funds or auto-deleveraging can step in. This calculator does not model those.