• A retry normally means another evaluation under specified eligibility rules; a reset usually restarts the account for a fee; an extension adds time; and a new evaluation creates a separate purchase.
• A “free retry” is not automatically valuable: eligibility may depend on positive or breakeven performance, no rule breach, completed minimum trading days, and a request made before expiry.
• Compare the reset’s all-in price—not its advertised discount—with the current price of an equivalent new challenge, including platform charges and add-ons.
• Risk limits materially affect expected retry costs. FTMO’s daily drawdown is 5% and total drawdown is 10%.
• A firm with a cheaper reset can still cost more per successful funded account if its rules produce more failures or reset purchases.
• Save the applicable terms, order receipt, checkout selections, and support confirmations because promotional retry conditions can change.

These labels are not standardized. A firm may call a paid restart a “retry,” while another reserves “retry” for an eligible no-cost attempt. Read the operative trading rules, contractual terms, FAQ, and checkout disclosure rather than relying on the button label.

A retry generally gives the trader another opportunity to complete an evaluation phase. It may be free, discounted, or full-price. The critical distinction is whether the trader receives a newly initialized account and whether phase progress, trading days, add-ons, and the original contract remain in force.

A reset normally restores starting balance and loss limits while erasing profit, loss, and completed objectives. Some resets are available before a hard breach; others appear only after failure. Determine whether resetting Phase 2 returns you to Phase 2 or sends you back to Phase 1. That one detail can substantially alter the effective cost and time to funding.

An extension preserves the account but moves its deadline. Extensions matter only where a maximum duration exists. Many current programs advertise no maximum time, making extension eligibility irrelevant while inactivity and minimum-day requirements remain important. Consult the firm’s definition of maximum trading days rather than assuming “unlimited time” means an account can remain dormant indefinitely.

A new evaluation is a new transaction. It can be preferable when a reset discount is calculated from an old list price, while a sale makes a new challenge cheaper. A new order may also permit a different platform, account size, or rule set. Conversely, it may abandon grandfathered terms.

Which failure outcomes qualify

A hard breach and an unsuccessful expiry are not equivalent. Breaching max daily drawdown, max total drawdown, or a prohibited-strategy clause commonly terminates eligibility that might otherwise exist for a non-breached account. Check whether floating equity, commissions, swaps, and closed profit enter the calculation.

“Breakeven” also needs a definition. It may refer to ending balance, equity, net profit after trading costs, or a non-negative result. If the terms do not say which measure controls, ask support in writing before treating a prop challenge free retry rule as part of the product’s value.

Step 1: Match the exact product and version

Record the firm, program, number of phases, account size, platform, purchase date, and every add-on. Do not combine rules from a firm’s one-step, two-step, and instant-funding products. FTMO, The5ers, Funding Pips, Maven Trading, and FXIFY may each operate multiple programs whose terms differ.

Use the firm’s legal terms first, then the product rules and checkout. Third-party profiles such as FTMO, The5ers, Funding Pips, Maven Trading, and FXIFY are useful comparison aids, but the purchased contract controls.

Step 2: Separate expiry, breach, and voluntary reset

Create different matrix rows for:

This prevents a broad statement such as “resets available” from being mistaken for a universal recovery right.

Step 3: Capture every eligibility condition

Record required profit status, minimum trading days, open-position restrictions, request deadlines, phase treatment, maximum retry count, and excluded violations. The5ers states that its High Stakes evaluation has unlimited time and identifies 5% daily drawdown and 10% maximum loss in its official program material; with no evaluation deadline, a time-expiry retry is less important than breach treatment and inactivity provisions.

Also identify whether a firm can withdraw the offer or whether eligibility is automatic. Save exact wording for “may,” “at our discretion,” and “is entitled to.” Those formulations carry different certainty.

Step 4: Normalize the economic terms

Enter the reset price in currency and as a percentage of the equivalent challenge’s current checkout price:

Then add taxes, currency-conversion charges, platform fees, and recurring data costs. The relevant challenge fee is what the trader must pay now—not an undated list price.

Step 5: Record what transfers

Finally, date every entry. The sitemap can help locate related profiles and comparisons, while the blog provides policy-change context; neither replaces the firm’s contemporaneous terms.

A paid challenge reset comparison should begin with two prices: the reset checkout total and the current total for a like-for-like new evaluation. The challenge cost comparison tool and low-cost firm directory can establish a shortlist, but manually confirm live checkout amounts.

Suppose an equivalent new evaluation costs N, a reset costs R, and add-ons that must be repurchased cost A. The immediate comparison is:

If the result is negative, the reset already costs more. If positive, next compare the rules. A cheaper reset that restarts Phase 1 is not economically equivalent to a new offer that starts under easier rules or provides more usable drawdown.

For a prop firm retake cost calculator, estimate:

A simple probability model is:

If a trader estimates a 25% probability of completing the applicable process per independent attempt, expected attempts equal four. That is an illustrative calculation, not a published pass rate. Use personal journal data or the site’s pass-rate research, and reduce confidence where the sample is small.

Risk limits change the cost calculation

The supplied baseline shows meaningful differences among two-phase products:

FTMO’s daily drawdown is 5% and maximum loss is 10%. The5ers’ High Stakes daily drawdown is 5% and maximum loss is 10%. FXIFY describes maximum daily and overall loss as product-specific trading objectives, so traders must verify the selected evaluation rather than extrapolate from another FXIFY program.

For the remaining supplied figures, verify the live product page before publication or purchase; they are not evidence that every current program uses those limits. Useful rule-focused comparisons include FTMO vs Maven Trading, Funding Pips vs FXIFY, and FXIFY vs The5ers.

A narrower drawdown can increase the probability of another paid attempt even if the reset itself is cheap. Model cost under your strategy’s historical daily and peak-to-trough losses. Use the drawdown calculator to test whether the firm’s daily reset time and equity calculation would have breached your past trades.

Retry value must be assessed in the context of the entire product. The most important question is not “Which firm offers a reset?” but “What happens under my likely failure outcome, and what must I pay to regain an equivalent position?”

FTMO and The5ers

FTMO’s official objectives state that the FTMO Challenge has an unlimited trading period, subject to the applicable objectives. Consequently, legacy-style evaluation extensions or breakeven retries tied to a deadline may not be central to the current product. Focus instead on what happens after a rule breach, whether a repeat purchase receives any benefit, and whether the current order’s platform and add-ons can be reproduced.

The5ers likewise advertises unlimited time for its High Stakes program. Compare the firms through FTMO vs The5ers, but verify each program’s current retry language independently. Similar 5% daily and 10% total loss figures do not establish similar reset rights.

Funding Pips, Maven Trading, and FXIFY

For Funding Pips, inspect the legal documents and selected model’s trading rules; its site’s terms emphasize that program conditions and services are governed by the applicable agreement. Ask whether a reset is available after a daily-loss breach, whether it restores the same phase, and whether purchased payout-cycle or profit-split options survive.

Maven’s supplied baseline of 4% daily and 8% total drawdown is tighter than the 5% and 10% baseline supplied for FTMO, The5ers, and Funding Pips. Confirm those values against the current Maven product, then compare Audacity Capital vs Maven Trading or FTMO vs Maven Trading for broader context. A reset discount should receive less weight where the strategy frequently approaches a 4% daily threshold.

FXIFY’s product pages identify varying evaluation options and objectives, while its terms govern platform and account use. Its supplied baseline includes a 4% daily and 10% total drawdown, an 80%–100% split, and monthly payouts; each must be checked against the exact product selected. Compare Alpha Capital Group vs FXIFY and Funding Pips vs FXIFY, then return to FXIFY’s checkout for retry pricing.

Do not rank these firms solely by retry marketing. Where evaluations have no maximum duration, a “free retry at expiry” may have little practical relevance. Breach recovery, inactivity, transferable add-ons, and new-sale pricing become more decisive.

Save evidence before payment, not after a dispute. Capture the full page with a visible URL and date, download the terms as a PDF, and retain the order confirmation. Screenshots should include the product name, account size, phase count, reset price, eligibility wording, exclusions, and expiration date of any promotion.

If support clarifies an ambiguous breakeven challenge retry policy, ask a narrow question: “For product X purchased today, if the account expires with closed balance at or above its starting balance, no open positions, all minimum days complete, and no breach, do I receive a free retry?” Request an answer that states the product and date. A generic “yes, retries are available” is weak evidence.

Use this pre-purchase checklist:

• Is the offer a retry, reset, extension, replacement, or new order?
• Which exact outcomes qualify?
• Is eligibility based on balance, equity, or net profit after costs?
• Must minimum trading days be complete?
• Does Phase 2 restart in Phase 2?
• What is the all-in reset fee today?
• Is a discounted new challenge cheaper?
• Do platform and add-on fees transfer?
• Does the original refundable fee remain refundable?
• Can the firm refuse a retry for prohibited trading?
• Is there a claim deadline or maximum number of retries?
• Have the applicable documents been saved?

Treat verbal sales claims and affiliate summaries as leads, not contractual guarantees. Review the site’s methodology and editorial policy when using comparative research, and always reconcile it with first-party documents.

What is the difference between a prop firm retry and reset

A retry is another attempt that may be free if eligibility conditions are met. A reset is commonly a paid restoration of the evaluation’s starting state. Firms use the labels inconsistently, so check phase treatment, price, and whether the original order remains active.

Can I get a free retry if my challenge ends at breakeven

Only if the exact product terms provide one and define breakeven in a way your account satisfies. Some policies also require minimum trading days, no rule breach, no open positions, and a timely request. Programs with unlimited evaluation time may have no deadline-based retry at all.

Is a reset cheaper than buying a new prop challenge

Not necessarily. Compare the reset’s final checkout amount with the current sale price of an equivalent challenge, including taxes, platform fees, and add-ons. A reset discount versus an old list price can still be more expensive than a new promotional order.

Does a daily drawdown breach qualify for a paid reset

That depends on the firm and program. Some firms permit paid restarts after ordinary loss breaches, while others exclude hard breaches or serious rule violations. Verify daily-loss, maximum-loss, and prohibited-strategy outcomes separately.

Do profit-split add-ons carry into a retry

They carry only if the terms explicitly attach them to the replacement or reset account. Some add-ons belong to the original order, while others must be bought again. Include any repurchase cost in the evaluation reset fee comparison.

Does a Phase 2 reset return me to Phase 1

It can. Some offers restart only the failed phase, while others issue an entirely new two-phase evaluation. This is one of the most important questions because repeating Phase 1 changes both expected cost and time to funding.

How should I calculate the effective cost of a funded account

Add the initial challenge, expected retake spending, non-transferable add-ons, platform charges, and payment costs. Divide or probability-weight those costs using your documented chance of completing the full process. Do not use the reset percentage alone as the measure of value.

When should I switch firms instead of resetting

Consider switching when a new firm offers a lower all-in fee, more compatible drawdown rules, a suitable platform, or clearer breach treatment. Account for the value of familiar rules and any grandfathered conditions before moving. The correct prop account reset decision is based on expected funding cost and rule fit, not sunk cost.