Liquidation Price Calculator
See where your position dies before you open it
Your inputs
How liquidation price is calculated
Liquidation happens when your losses have eaten through the margin backing the position, leaving only the exchange's maintenance requirement. Solving for the price where that happens gives:
long: liq price = entry × (1 − 1 ÷ leverage) ÷ (1 − maintenance %)
short: liq price = entry × (1 + 1 ÷ leverage) ÷ (1 + maintenance %)With maintenance margin left at zero this reduces to the familiar shortcut: entry × (1 − 1 ÷ leverage) for a long. That is the conservative number — real liquidation sits slightly further away, because maintenance margin is smaller than initial margin. This page defaults to zero so it always agrees with the full position calculator; enter your venue's actual maintenance rate to tighten the estimate.
The leverage ladder
The relationship is not linear, and this is the part that catches people out. Every doubling of leverage halves your breathing room:
- 2x — liquidation 50% away. Effectively unreachable intraday.
- 5x — 20% away. Survives most ordinary drawdowns.
- 10x — 10% away. A normal daily range on a mid-cap.
- 25x — 4% away. One news headline.
- 50x — 2% away. Ordinary noise will find it.
- 100x — 1% away. A single wick, and slippage may fill you worse.
Above roughly 20x you are no longer trading a thesis, you are betting that random short-term volatility does not touch a very nearby price. That is a different game with much worse odds, and it is why most liquidations happen on trades whose direction was eventually correct.
Three things that move your liquidation price after you open
Funding. Every payment you make reduces margin, dragging liquidation toward current price. On a crowded pair held for days this is significant — check the funding cost before assuming your buffer holds. Added margin. Topping up an isolated position pushes liquidation away without touching position size; that is what the optional field above models. Cross-margin positions. In cross mode every position shares one margin pool, so an unrelated losing trade pulls this one closer to liquidation too.
Frequently asked questions
How is liquidation price calculated?
For a long, liquidation price ≈ entry × (1 − 1 / leverage). For a short, entry × (1 + 1 / leverage). At 10x leverage a long is liquidated roughly 10% below entry; at 25x, roughly 4% below. The exact price sits slightly further out because maintenance margin is smaller than initial margin, so treat this as the conservative estimate.
Why is my real liquidation price different?
Three reasons. Maintenance margin requirements push the true liquidation slightly further from entry than the simple formula. Unrealised PnL from other open positions changes your available margin in cross-margin mode. And accrued funding payments slowly eat margin, dragging the liquidation price toward you the longer you hold.
Does adding margin move my liquidation price?
Yes. Adding margin to an isolated position pushes liquidation further away without changing your position size. It is the only way to improve liquidation distance without closing part of the trade. In cross margin, every other position and your free balance all feed the same margin pool.
What is a safe distance from liquidation?
Your stop loss should always trigger well before liquidation — if liquidation is closer than your stop, the exchange decides your exit instead of you, and you pay a liquidation fee for the privilege. As a rough guide, keep liquidation at least twice your stop distance away.