Prop Firm Resets and Free Retries Explained

A reset returns a breached or struggling evaluation to its starting balance for a fee, usually for less than a new account, while a free retry gives a second attempt at no extra cost, often with tighter conditions attached. Neither is universal: some firms sell unlimited resets, some cap them and some offer none. Whether either is good value depends on the price, what it restores and what it changes about the account that follows.

How a reset works

A reset wipes the evaluation back to day one. Topstep describes it clearly: a reset returns the Trading Combine to its original starting balance, and the account balance, maximum loss limit, consistency target and trading days all go back to the start. Topstep also sets some limits worth knowing:

• A trader can reset an account at most twice in one day.
• A reset pushes the monthly rebill date out 30 days from the purchase date.
• Each monthly rebill adds one reset credit, which is tied to the account size and type, and credits issued since late 2025 expire a year after they are added.
• Resets only apply to an active Trading Combine. A lost funded account needs Topstep’s separate Back2Funded reactivation instead.

Other firms work differently, so the same word can mean different things. Before buying, check what a reset restores, whether it also resets the day count and consistency rule, and whether it changes your billing date.

What resets cost at named firms

The table shows two patterns. The two monthly billing firms price a reset at or close to one month’s fee, and at Topstep the reset also restarts the billing clock. Funded account options, where prices are published, cost several times more than an evaluation reset, and at Topstep and GOAT Funded Futures they are limited to accounts that have not yet paid out.

How free retries work

A free retry is included in the price of the original challenge. FundedElite offers one on its 1 Step and 2 Step Free Retry challenges. If a trader breaches a challenge phase, a new account starts again from phase 1 at no extra cost. The retry can be used once and does not cover the funded stage. It also comes with conditions:

• The retry account has tighter loss limits. On the 2 Step Free Retry plan, the daily limit falls from 5% to 3%.
• Every payout on an account that used the retry is paid at a 50% split, instead of the 80% default.
• Using the retry removes the fee refund that would otherwise come with the third payout.

Free Retry plans are also priced above FundedElite’s Lite plans, which have no retry. A $100K 2 Step Free Retry lists at $519 against $299 for a $100K 2 Step Lite, although the two plans also differ in their daily limits.

Topstep offers a lighter version of the idea: its monthly rebill adds a reset credit, and it says it sometimes gives away free resets through TopstepTV and its newsletter.

A worked example

The figures below are made up. A trader breaches a $100,000 evaluation that cost $500 and has three options for a second attempt. The default split once funded is 80%.

The free retry is only the cheapest option if the funded account earns little. The gap between the reset and the retry is 30 cents on every dollar of funded profit, so the $300 reset pays for itself once funded profit passes $1,000, because 30% of $1,000 is $300. Below that level the free retry leaves the trader better off. Above it, and especially over a long funded account, the retry’s lower split costs far more than the reset would have.

The same thinking applies to funded account reactivations. On Topstep’s prices, reactivating a lost 50K funded account costs $599, which is more than twelve months of the 50K Trading Combine on its Standard Path. The option mainly makes sense when the trader lost the account to a one off mistake and the reason is fixed.

When a reset tends to make sense

A reset is best value when the breach came from a single, identifiable mistake that has since been fixed, such as holding through a news release by accident, forgetting a forced close time or trading the wrong account. In those cases the strategy is sound and the reset buys another run at it for less than a new account.

It is poor value when the breach was the end of a pattern: several days of rising size, a string of revenge trades or a strategy that has not been tested under the firm’s limits. Paying to restart without changing anything tends to produce the same result, and each reset adds to the total cost that later payouts have to recover. A simple rule of thumb is to write down the cause of the breach and the change that addresses it before paying for the reset. If neither can be written in a sentence, the money is better kept until they can.

For monthly billing firms there is one more factor. If a reset also pushes back the billing date, as it does at Topstep, a reset bought shortly before a rebill largely replaces that month’s charge, while one bought just after a rebill adds close to a full month’s cost. Topstep itself recommends completing resets the day before the billing date.

Common mistakes

• Resetting straight after a breach. Buying a reset in the same session, at the same size and in the same frame of mind, often repeats the breach.
• Treating resets as cheap. Several resets in a month can cost more than the original account.
• Assuming a free retry is free. A lower split, tighter limits and a lost fee refund can cost more than a paid reset.
• Missing a reactivation window. Topstep allows 30 calendar days from closure, after which the option is gone.
• Not checking what the reset restores. Day counts, consistency targets and billing dates may or may not start over.

Checklist

• Find the reset price, limits and what it restores before buying the evaluation.
• Check whether funded accounts can be reset or reactivated, at what price and until when.
• For a free retry, note the new limits, the split that follows and any refund it cancels.
• Work out the funded profit at which a paid reset beats a free retry.
• Take at least one full session off after a breach before resetting.
• Find out why the breach happened before paying to repeat it.

For the reasons accounts get breached in the first place, see why traders fail prop firm challenges, and for the full cost picture, see are prop firms worth it. Pricing across firms is compared in prop firm challenge cost and the cheapest prop firms, and more guides sit under passing the challenge.