The5ers High Stakes Gets Cheaper, But the $50K/$100K Buckets Shrank | The Refund Is Now "70% Cash + 30% Non-Withdrawable Credit" [September 2026]

※ This article is based on a direct browser check of The5ers' official plan page (/high-stakes/), the hub checkout (hub.the5ers.com), and the official FAQs (Payout Policy and Hub Credit and General Rules, both updated September 14, 2026), performed on September 15, 2026. Prop firm rules and pricing change frequently, so always re-verify with the official source before purchasing.

📢 Advertising / affiliate disclosure: This article contains prop-memo.com's The5ers affiliate link (🎁).

TL;DR

• $100K Classic went from $545 to $455, and $100K New from $491 to $405. But only the $50K and $100K sizes got cheaper — $2.5K through $25K stayed the same
• Only the two discounted sizes had max loss shrink from 10% to 8%, and daily loss from 5% to 4%. In other words, it isn't cheaper — the bucket was made smaller to make it cheaper
• Measured per $1,000 of loss allowance, this is effectively a price increase. $100K Classic went from $54.5 to $56.9; $50K Classic from $61.8 to $69.8. The ratio of combined target to max loss went from 1.30 to 1.63 — 25% heavier
• A withdrawal cap was introduced for $50K/$100K. $50K is capped at $3,000 per cycle, $100K at $4,000. Minimum profit to withdraw was also raised from $150 to $300/$500
• What used to be a full fee refund is now split into 70% cash plus 30% non-withdrawable Hub credit. And if you spend that credit on your next purchase, it shrinks the base your next 70% cash refund is calculated on
• Some things did improve. You can now request a withdrawal after 3 profitable days (no need to hit the 10% target), a Funded account's inactivity timeout was extended to 60 days, the platform choices expanded from MT5-only to include TradingView and cTrader, and the hub got a Japanese-language UI
• The official site shows conflicting numbers in four places. The plan page's table, the Risk Management text on that same page, the FAQ, and the checkout all show different figures for max loss and daily loss. The only way to be sure is to check the actual numbers under "Show details" at checkout

What happened

The5ers' official FAQs, "Payout Policy and Hub Credit in the High Stakes Program" and "What are the general rules for the High Stakes Program?", both now show a last-updated date of September 14, 2026. The plan page's URL also changed from /high-stakes-challenge/ to /high-stakes/, and the old URL now returns a 404. The whole site's design has been refreshed too.

There are four big changes:

1. Pricing revision ($50K and $100K only)
2. Drawdown reduction on $50K and $100K
3. New withdrawal cap and minimum profit requirement on $50K and $100K
4. A rebuilt fee-refund structure (introduction of the Hub credit system)

Let's go through them in order.

1. The new price table

High Stakes has two variants that differ in the Phase 1 profit target. Classic is 8%, New is 10%, and Phase 2 is 5% for both.

Looking at the discount alone, $100K Classic's −16.5% looks quite large. In fact, the official FAQ's refund calculation example still says "a 100K account which costs $545" — the old price — even though the page itself was updated on September 14.

But here's the thing: the sizes that got a discount and the sizes that got the drawdown cut described next are exactly the same sizes.

2. Only $50K/$100K had their drawdown shrunk

This is the most important change here.

On $100K, what used to allow a loss of up to $10,000 is now $8,000. Daily loss went from $5,000 to $4,000 too.

* $100K Classic is the one case where the official site's own numbers disagree. The plan page's table shows 8%/4%, while checkout's detail view shows "evaluation stage $10,000 (10%), Funded stage $8,000 (8%), daily 5%." The $50K variants and $100K New both matched at 8%/4% across the plan page and checkout. See the section on the conflicting numbers below for details. The calculations that follow use the plan page's published spec (8%/4%).

Is the bucket big enough for the target?

The real difficulty of a prop account is measured not by price but by "target ÷ max loss." An account where you need to make 10% but can only lose 10% is a completely different beast from one where you can only lose 8%.

Classic went from 1.30 to 1.63 — 25% heavier. New went from 1.50 to 1.88, also a 25% increase. The trade being offered is: the fee got 16.5% cheaper, and the bucket got 20% narrower.

Note that since this is a two-phase account, the balance resets between phases. Looked at per-phase, Classic is 8% ÷ 8% = 1.00 and 5% ÷ 8% = 0.63, so it isn't as harsh as the combined 1.63 makes it look. Even so, needing to make 8% while only being allowed to lose 8% in Phase 1 is clearly tighter than the old rule, where you could lose 10% while trying to make 8%.

Measured per dollar of loss allowance, it's a price increase

What you're really buying on a prop account is a "loss allowance." Measured as dollars paid per $1,000 of loss allowance, here's how it shakes out:

In every case, the per-dollar price went up. The starkest is $50K Classic: the fee dropped 9.7% while the bucket was cut 20%, for a net 12.9% price increase per dollar. And since $50K Classic and $100K New both had their 8% figure confirmed on both the plan page and checkout, there's no ambiguity for these two.

As for $100K Classic, if checkout's "10% at evaluation" figure turns out to be the correct one, the bucket stays at $10,000, and the per-dollar price becomes $45.5 — a 16.5% decrease from the old $54.5. The same product could be either a "4.4% price increase" or a "16.5% price decrease," which is exactly why you need to confirm the real numbers before buying.

Sizes left unchanged remain a poor deal on a per-dollar basis. Every Classic size from $5K to $25K sits at $78.0 per $1,000 of allowance, and $2.5K is $88.0 — a 1.4–1.5x gap versus $100K's $56.9. High Stakes still gets better value at larger sizes — that structure hasn't changed. It's just that the gap has narrowed.

3. New withdrawal cap and minimum profit requirement

Two new restrictions were added to Funded $50K and $100K accounts that didn't exist before.

With a 14-day withdrawal cycle, that means a maximum of $4,000 every two weeks on $100K. Working backward at an 80% split, that means any total profit beyond $5,000 (5% of the account) can't be withdrawn in that cycle.

Given that the scaling target is 10% ($10,000), if you grow the account exactly to that target, the payout share would be $8,000 — double the cap. Half of it has to stay in the account. The official position is that leaving profit in the account isn't a confiscation, since it increases the dollar amount of the max drawdown allowance — but the pace of cashing out is now clearly capped.

Minimum profit has also risen from a flat $150 to $300/$500. The official documentation is inconsistent here too: further down the same FAQ page, the old line "The minimum for a withdrawal is $150" is still present.

4. The refund is now "70% cash + 30% non-withdrawable credit"

High Stakes used to be a plan where "pass, and your fee comes back." That's now split three ways.

Adding these up gets you to 100%, so the official position is that "the refund amount hasn't changed — it's just been redesigned to reward you earlier" (original quote: "This update is designed to reward traders earlier in their journey rather than only at the end.").

However, Hub credit cannot be withdrawn. It can only be used for one thing: buying a new challenge in the dashboard. In effect, this is a change where 30% of the refund was replaced with a discount voucher for your next purchase.

Paying with credit shrinks your next refund

This is the easy part to miss. The official FAQ states:

The 70% refund applies only to payments made with external funds, not Hub Credit.

The 70% cash refund only applies to the portion you paid with your own money. If you pay part of a purchase with Hub credit, the 70% is calculated only on the non-credit portion.

Here's a concrete example. On a $100K Classic ($455), passing Step 1 and Step 2 earns 10% + 20% = $136.5 in credit. Apply that to your next $455 challenge, and your out-of-pocket cost is $318.5. If you reach Funded on that account, the 70% refund isn't $455 × 0.7 = $318.5 — it's $318.5 × 0.7 = $223.

• 1st purchase: $455 out of pocket → $318.5 comes back in cash
• 2nd purchase (using credit): $318.5 out of pocket → $223 comes back in cash

The more credit you use, the lower the cash-back ratio gets. Reading this as "effectively still a full refund" is a mistake.

Also note that the refund base is your actual amount paid, not list price. The official documentation explicitly states, "The amount refunded will reflect only the amount paid by the user, excluding discounts" — so a purchase made with a discount coupon is also refunded based on the discounted amount.

What got better

It's not all bad news. Four things clearly improved with this revision.

Easier withdrawal conditions. Withdrawals, which used to be effectively tied to the scaling target, are now explicitly available once you hit 3 profitable days, regardless of the 10% growth target (original quote: "Traders can request payouts once they reach 3 profitable days, regardless of the 10% growth target"). This makes a strategy of small consistent wins with frequent withdrawals easier to run.

Funded account inactivity timeout extended to 60 days. Evaluation accounts remain at 30 days, but Funded accounts now get 60.

Three platform choices. The plan page still says "Platform: Mt5 Hedge," but at actual checkout you can now choose from TradingView / cTrader (+$10) / MetaTrader. Only cTrader carries an extra fee.

The hub got a Japanese UI. hub.the5ers.com now has a Japanese-language interface. Checkout also shows Japanese labels like "プランを選択" (choose a plan), "一括払い" (pay in full), and "資金提供段階" (funded stage). However, the main official site (the5ers.com) and the FAQs remain English-only — this isn't full Japanese-language support.

The cap on simultaneous accounts has also loosened for the New variant.

Both can also be combined with 3 Bootcamp accounts and 4 Instant Funding accounts, according to the official documentation.

The official site's numbers conflict in four places

This is the trickiest part in practice. The same product's max loss and daily loss figures are different in four different official places.

The top and bottom of the same page contradict each other with 4% vs. 5%, the FAQ that was supposedly updated on September 14 still shows the old 10%/5% rule, and checkout shows a third behavior — "8% at evaluation, shrinking to 8% at Funded" — that isn't documented anywhere else.

For $50K, the plan page and checkout agreed on 8%/4% (confirmed for both Classic $279 and New $249). $100K New ($405) also matched at 8%/4% across the plan page and checkout. Only $100K Classic disagrees, and this held true across two separate re-checks.

Speculating won't help, so here's the fact: the number shown behind the "Show details" toggle at checkout is currently the primary source closest to the actual product. The plan page's table and the FAQ have both fallen behind on updates.

What to do before you buy: at hub.the5ers.com's checkout, select your size and variant (the Classic toggle), turn on "Show details," and check the max loss, daily loss, withdrawal cap, and withdrawal target with your own eyes. Note that switching sizes resets the Classic toggle back off (i.e., to New), so re-check it along with the price every time.

Scaling and profit split

Scaling happens in 10% increments, and the official table goes up to $500,000.

It's also explicitly stated that "the 14-day withdrawal cycle resets every time the account scales up." Right after scaling up, you're back to waiting 14 days. Growing versus withdrawing is a genuine trade-off.

Conclusion: who's better off, and who's worse off

Better off: people using $2.5K–$25K. Both pricing and rules stayed the same, and you only gain from the 3-profitable-day withdrawal rule, extra platforms, and the Japanese hub. In particular, the $19 $2.5K New has no withdrawal cap and keeps the $150 minimum profit — as the cheapest entry point to test out The5ers, it's actually improved.

Worse off: people aiming for $50K or $100K. The headline price dropped, but the per-dollar loss-allowance price went up, a withdrawal cap and higher minimum profit were introduced, and 30% of the refund became non-withdrawable credit. Judging by "$545 became $455" alone will make you miss all three of these downgrades.

We removed The5ers' yellow-card flag on September 25, 2026, on the back of two straight payouts from the site owner's own account going through without an interview. That said, this particular revision itself is a change that tightens the withdrawal pace and swaps 30% of the refund for an internal currency — in other words, a move to slow down cash-out. If you're choosing $50K or $100K, weigh that in.

FAQ

Q. Is the current price a limited-time sale?

No. Checkout shows no double pricing or discount label — $455 is displayed as the list price. There's a separate limited-time product called the "Summer Plan" ($149 for $100K, etc. — 1-step, with a 50% consistency rule) running in parallel, but this is a different program from High Stakes.

Q. Do the rules change on an existing $100K account I already own?

There's no official statement either way. Neither the FAQ nor the plan page mentions anything about how this applies to existing accounts or an effective date. If you have an account already running, the surest way to check is to look at your account's max-loss dollar amount directly in the hub dashboard.

Q. Can Hub credit be cashed out?

No. The official documentation explicitly states, "Note that hub credits are non-withdrawable." It can only be used to buy a new challenge at checkout.

Q. Should I buy Classic or New?

For $50K/$100K, both now match at 8% max loss / 4% daily loss, so the decision comes down to "is Phase 1's target 8% or 10%" plus the price difference. For $100K, that's Classic at $455 (8% target) versus New at $405 (10% target) — a $50 difference for two extra points of target. The target-to-bucket ratio is 1.00 for Classic and 1.25 for New (Phase 1), so Classic is the rational pick for a first attempt. This article compares expected value under the old rules, but since DD dropped from 10% to 8%, the conclusion favoring Classic is now even stronger.

Q. Can I use an EA?

Yes, with conditions. The list of prohibited practices (updated July 28, 2026) explicitly bans "use of an EA whose source code you don't own," "third-party EAs where the same trades enter as other traders," "EAs that scalp around rollover," and "EAs that generate excessive server requests." Running an off-the-shelf EA as-is is against the terms. For more detail, see Prop firm EA rules comparison.

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👉 If you buy through The5ers' affiliate link 🎁 and enter coupon JZWLR (5% off), you'll get Hosono P's semi-discretionary EA "ELDRA" as a gift. The5ers' prohibited practices list bans "using an EA whose source code you don't own," but ELDRA is a semi-discretionary EA where you make the entry decisions yourself and set your own parameters, and we've confirmed with The5ers' Japan representative that this doesn't run afoul of that rule.

References

• The5ers High Stakes plan page
• Official FAQ: Payout Policy and Hub Credit in the High Stakes Program (updated September 14, 2026)
• Official FAQ: What are the general rules for the High Stakes Program? (updated September 14, 2026)
• Official FAQ: Prohibited Trading Practices (updated July 28, 2026)
• The5ers full guide