Short isolated: Liq Price = Entry × (1 + 1/leverage - MMR)
Lower leverage = farther liquidation. 10× ≈ ±10% move. 50× ≈ ±2% move. 100× ≈ ±1% move.
What is a Liquidation Price in Crypto Futures?
Your liquidation price is the exact price at which the exchange will forcibly close your leveraged position because your losses have eaten through your collateral. When this happens, you don't just lose the trade — you lose your entire margin allocated to that position. There is no second chance, no "stop out" partial close, no margin call warning that gives you time to react. Liquidation is automatic and instant.
Knowing your liquidation price before you enter a trade is the single most important number in leveraged trading. Everything else — entry timing, take profit targets, technical analysis — is secondary to the question of whether your position can survive the normal volatility of the market without hitting your liquidation line.
How Liquidation Price is Calculated
The math is straightforward but the inputs matter. For an isolated margin long position, the formula is:
Where the Initial Margin Rate equals 1 divided by your leverage. So for a long at $50,000 entry, 10× leverage, and 0.5% maintenance margin: Liq Price = 50,000 × (1 − 0.10 + 0.005) = $45,250. The position liquidates if BTC drops 9.5% to that level.
For a short position, flip the signs:
Same example as a short: Liq Price = 50,000 × (1 + 0.10 − 0.005) = $54,750. The short liquidates if BTC rises 9.5%.
Three observations that catch new traders off guard. First, maintenance margin is not zero — exchanges keep a small slice as a buffer, so your liquidation happens slightly before you've technically lost 100% of your isolated margin. Second, higher leverage compresses the distance dramatically: at 100× leverage, a 1% adverse move liquidates you. At 20×, you have 5% of breathing room. Third, this calculator assumes a single position — real cross-margin accounts with multiple positions recalculate liquidations dynamically based on total equity.
Isolated vs Cross Margin: Which to Choose
The margin mode you pick changes everything about how liquidation works:
| Feature | Isolated Margin | Cross Margin |
|---|---|---|
| Collateral | Fixed amount per position | Entire futures account balance |
| Max loss | Only allocated margin | Entire account |
| Liquidation distance | Smaller (predictable) | Larger (uses all equity) |
| Best for | Beginners, high-conviction single trades | Hedged positions, advanced traders |
| Risk | Contained | Cascade across positions |
Isolated margin is what beginners should use 99% of the time. It limits the damage of any single bad trade to exactly what you allocated. If you put $200 of margin on a 10× BTC long and BTC tanks, you lose at most $200. Your other positions and your remaining account balance are untouched.
Cross margin uses the entire balance as a shared liquidation buffer. This sounds safer — and for a single small position with a large balance, it is. But cross margin also means a single catastrophic move can liquidate all your positions at once if they share collateral. During the May 2021 crash and the November 2022 FTX implosion, many traders learned this the hard way: cross margin works fine until it doesn't, and when it fails, it fails completely.
How to Use This Calculator
- Choose direction: Long if you expect price up, Short if you expect price down.
- Choose margin mode: Isolated for predictable risk, Cross if you understand the trade-offs.
- Enter your entry price: The price at which you plan to open the position.
- Set leverage: Use the presets for quick selection, or type a custom value. Lower is safer.
- Enter position size in USD: The total notional value of your trade.
- Set maintenance margin: 0.5% is a safe default for major coins on Bybit/OKX/Binance. Altcoins can be 1-2%.
- Read the result: Your liquidation price, distance, and required margin appear instantly.
Realistic Liquidation Distances by Leverage
Here's a quick reference for how close liquidation sits to entry at different leverages, assuming 0.5% maintenance margin:
| Leverage | Distance to Liq | Realistic for |
|---|---|---|
| 2× | ~49.5% | Long-term swing trades, virtually safe |
| 3× | ~32.8% | Conservative swing trading |
| 5× | ~19.5% | Standard swing trades on BTC/ETH |
| 10× | ~9.5% | Day trading on majors |
| 20× | ~4.5% | Short-term scalping with tight stops |
| 50× | ~1.5% | Aggressive scalping, high blow-up risk |
| 100× | ~0.5% | Gambling territory — one wick liquidates |
Notice how the distance collapses non-linearly. Going from 10× to 20× doesn't just double your risk — it cuts your survival room in half. Going from 20× to 100× cuts it by 5×. This is why veteran traders almost never exceed 10× on directional positions: the marginal "leverage" you gain past that point isn't worth the loss of room to be wrong.
How to Avoid Liquidation
1. Always Set a Stop Loss Above the Liquidation Line
Your stop loss should be at a technical level (support, resistance, swing low/high) that sits comfortably above your liquidation price. If your liquidation is at $45,250 and the nearest technical invalidation is at $48,000, set the stop at $48,000. Letting price ride down to your liquidation guarantees the worst possible outcome: max loss plus exchange fees.
2. Size Positions Based on Risk, Not Leverage
The mistake beginners make: "I'll use 20× because I want bigger gains." The correct frame: "How much am I willing to lose if my stop hits, and what position size makes that loss equal 1-2% of my account?" Once you size by risk, leverage becomes just a tool to access bigger notional without locking up unnecessary collateral. Our Position Size Calculator handles this math.
3. Account for Volatility
BTC routinely moves 3-5% in a single day during normal conditions, and 10-15% during stress events. ETH and altcoins are 1.5-3× more volatile. If your liquidation is within one daily ATR (Average True Range) of entry, your position is unlikely to survive normal market noise. Trade with at least 3× ATR room between entry and liquidation.
4. Watch Funding Rates and Open Interest
When funding rates spike above ±0.05% and open interest is at all-time highs, the market is one-sided and ripe for a liquidation cascade. Reduce leverage during these periods. Our Funding Rate Calculator helps you estimate the cost of holding through these conditions.
5. Never Add to Losing Positions
"Averaging down" on a leveraged losing position moves your liquidation closer to current price, not farther. Adding $500 of margin at a worse entry doesn't reset your liquidation — it just gives the exchange more of your money to seize when liquidation triggers. If you must scale in, do it on winners, not losers.
Liquidation Calculator vs Exchange UI
Most exchanges (Bybit, OKX, Binance, Bitget) show you the liquidation price after you open a position. By then it's too late to negotiate — your only choices are: close the trade and pay fees, add margin, or let it ride. This standalone calculator lets you plan before you commit. You can stress-test different leverages, position sizes, and entries to find the combination that survives volatility while still capturing the move you're targeting.
The math here matches Bybit's USDT Perpetual Isolated Margin documentation and the equivalent OKX/Binance formulas for major pairs. For altcoin perps and tiered margin systems (where maintenance margin scales with position size), enter the maintenance margin rate you see in the exchange's tier table for your size — typically 1% for medium positions and 2-5% for very large positions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pair-specific liquidation calculators: BTCUSDT liquidation calculator · ETHUSDT liquidation calculator
