How to Pay the Lowest Possible Fees on Binance: Referral Code + BNB Explained
Every trade on Binance costs money. The fee is small on any single transaction, but it compounds across hundreds or thousands of trades over months and years. A trader who pays 0.10% per trade and one who pays 0.06% per trade look identical in their strategy, their timing, and their asset selection. The only difference is the fee rate. Over a full year of active trading, that difference can amount to hundreds of thousands of Korean won.
Binance offers two fee reduction tools that any user can access: a referral code applied at registration and a BNB fee payment discount enabled in account settings. Used together, they reduce the standard spot trading fee from 0.10% to 0.06%. This article explains exactly how each tool works, how to apply them correctly, and what the combined saving looks like at different trading volumes.
How Binance Fees Work: The Baseline You Are Starting From
Binance uses a maker-taker fee model. A maker order is one that adds liquidity to the order book. It sits and waits to be filled. A taker order is one that removes liquidity by filling an existing order immediately. For most users at the default VIP 0 tier, both maker and taker fees are 0.10% per trade.
This means that on every 1,000,000 KRW you trade, you pay 1,000 KRW in fees. On every 10,000,000 KRW, you pay 10,000 KRW. On every 100,000,000 KRW, you pay 100,000 KRW.
These fees apply to both the buy side and the sell side of a round-trip trade. If you buy 5,000,000 KRW worth of Bitcoin and later sell the same amount, you pay 5,000 KRW on the purchase and 5,000 KRW on the sale. Your total fee for the round trip is 10,000 KRW.
The goal is to reduce this baseline as far as possible without changing anything about how you trade. The referral code and BNB discount do exactly that.
The Referral Code Discount: Apply It Before You Register
The referral code discount is the first and most time-sensitive of the two tools. Binance allows new users to enter a referral code during registration. When a valid partner code is entered, Binance applies a permanent 20% discount to the account’s trading fees. The discount applies immediately after registration and remains active for the lifetime of the account.
At the standard VIP 0 tier, the 20% discount reduces the fee from 0.10% to 0.08%. On 10,000,000 KRW in monthly trading volume, this saves 2,000 KRW per month, or 24,000 KRW per year. At 50,000,000 KRW per month, the savings is 10,000 KRW per month, or 120,000 KRW per year.
The critical rule is that the referral code must be entered before registration is complete. Binance does not allow users to add or change a referral code after account creation. If you register without a code, you are locked into the standard 0.10% fee rate permanently. There is no support ticket or account setting that can apply the discount retroactively.
When you complete 바이낸스 가입 through a verified partner referral link, the code is pre-filled on the registration page and the discount is applied automatically at the moment your account is created. After completing KYC, confirm the discount is active by going to Account settings and checking your fee rate. A correctly applied referral code will show a spot trading fee of 0.08% instead of 0.10%.
A real example: Hyunsoo, a 29-year-old trader in Seoul, registered for Binance using a referral link in January 2024. He confirmed the 0.08% fee rate in his account settings on the same day. Over the following 12 months, he traded an average of 40,000,000 KRW per month. His referral discount saved him 8,000 KRW per month, or 96,000 KRW over the year. His colleague Junho registered without a referral code in the same month and paid the full 0.10% rate throughout the year. Junho paid 96,000 KRW more in fees for identical trading activity.
The BNB Fee Discount: Enable It After Registration
The second fee reduction tool is the BNB fee payment discount. BNB is Binance’s native token. When you hold BNB in your spot wallet and enable the BNB fee payment option in your account settings, Binance deducts your trading fees in BNB instead of the traded asset. In exchange, Binance applies an additional 25% discount to your already-reduced fee rate.
This discount can be enabled at any time after registration. It is not time-sensitive in the same way as the referral code. But it requires you to hold BNB in your spot wallet at all times. If your BNB balance reaches zero, Binance switches back to the standard fee deduction method and the 25% discount no longer applies.
Here is how the BNB discount stacks on top of the referral discount:
Starting fee at VIP 0: 0.10% After 20% referral discount: 0.08% After additional 25% BNB discount: 0.06%
The combined effect is a 40% reduction from the standard rate. You pay 0.06% instead of 0.10% on every spot trade.
To enable the BNB discount, go to Account settings, find the Fee section, and toggle on the option to use BNB to pay for fees. Then buy a small amount of BNB and transfer it to your spot wallet. Binance automatically uses BNB for fee payments as long as the balance is sufficient.
How much BNB do you need to hold? The amount depends on your trading volume. A trader who pays 10,000 KRW in fees per month at the 0.06% rate needs enough BNB to cover that amount. At current BNB prices, this is a very small holding. Most active traders keep between 0.01 and 0.1 BNB in their spot wallet as a fee reserve and top it up when the balance drops.
A real example: Mirae, a 33-year-old investor in Incheon, enabled the BNB fee payment option two weeks after registering with a referral code. She bought 0.05 BNB and transferred it to her spot wallet. Her effective fee rate dropped from 0.08% to 0.06%. She trades approximately 60,000,000 KRW per month. At 0.10%, her monthly fee would be 60,000 KRW. At 0.06%, she pays 36,000 KRW. Her combined annual saving from both discounts is 288,000 KRW.
How the Discounts Apply Across VIP Tiers
Binance uses a VIP tier system that reduces fees further as monthly trading volume increases. VIP 0 is the default tier for all new users. Higher tiers require higher monthly trading volume and sometimes a minimum BNB holding.
The referral discount and BNB discount both apply at every VIP tier. They are not replaced by VIP discounts. They stack on top of them.
At VIP 0, the base fee is 0.10%. With both discounts, the effective fee is 0.06%. At VIP 1 (monthly volume above 1,000,000 USDT), the base fee is 0.09%. With both discounts, the effective fee is 0.054%. At VIP 2 (monthly volume above 5,000,000 USDT), the base fee is 0.08%. With both discounts, the effective fee is 0.048%. At VIP 3 (monthly volume above 20,000,000 USDT), the base fee is 0.07%. With both discounts, the effective fee is 0.042%.
High-volume traders benefit from all three layers of discount simultaneously. The referral code applied at registration continues to reduce fees even as the trader advances through VIP tiers. This is why applying the referral code correctly from the start matters for every type of trader, not just beginners.
A real example: Taehoon, a professional trader in Gangnam, reached VIP 2 status in mid-2024 after consistently trading above 5,000,000 USDT per month. He had applied a referral code when he registered two years earlier and had the BNB discount enabled from his first month. His effective fee at VIP 2 is 0.048%. Without the referral code, his VIP 2 fee would be 0.06%. Without both discounts, it would be 0.08%. The referral code he entered at registration continues to save him money at a higher rate than it did when he was a VIP 0 user, because the base fee it applies to has decreased while the percentage saving has remained constant.
What the Combined Saving Looks Like Over One Year
The financial case for using both discounts becomes clearest when viewed over a full year of trading. Here is a comparison of annual fee costs at different monthly trading volumes, across three scenarios: no discounts, referral code only, and referral code plus BNB discount.
For a trader with 10,000,000 KRW in monthly volume, the annual fee without discounts is 120,000 KRW. With the referral code only, it is 96,000 KRW. With both discounts, it is 72,000 KRW. The combined annual saving versus no discounts is 48,000 KRW.
For a trader with 30,000,000 KRW in monthly volume, the annual fee without discounts is 360,000 KRW. With the referral code only, it is 288,000 KRW. With both discounts, it is 216,000 KRW. The combined annual saving is 144,000 KRW.
For a trader with 100,000,000 KRW in monthly volume, the annual fee without discounts is 1,200,000 KRW. With the referral code only, it is 960,000 KRW. With both discounts, it is 720,000 KRW. The combined annual saving is 480,000 KRW.
These savings require no change in trading strategy, no additional risk, and no ongoing management beyond keeping a small BNB balance in the spot wallet. The referral code takes 30 seconds to apply at registration. The BNB discount takes five minutes to enable and fund. The return on those five and a half minutes of effort is paid back on every trade for the lifetime of the account.
The One Mistake That Makes Both Discounts Unavailable
The only way to lose access to the referral discount permanently is to register without a code. Once that decision is made, it cannot be undone on the same account.
The only way to lose access to the BNB discount temporarily is to let the BNB balance in the spot wallet reach zero. This is easily fixed by buying more BNB. But if the balance runs out during active trading, fees revert to the non-BNB rate until the balance is topped up.
Set a reminder to check your BNB balance monthly if you are an active trader. A balance of 0.05 BNB is sufficient for most retail traders. A balance of 0.1 to 0.5 BNB is appropriate for traders with higher monthly volume. The BNB used for fee payments is deducted automatically. You do not need to take any action during trading. You only need to ensure the balance does not reach zero.
The two discounts together represent the simplest and most reliable fee optimization available on Binance. Apply the referral code at registration. Enable the BNB discount in the first week. Check the BNB balance once a month. Everything else takes care of itself.
