Gera Tools

Crypto Arbitrage Profit Calculator

Calculate arbitrage profit between two exchanges after fees and slippage

Enter an asset's price on exchange A and B, your trade size, the taker fees on each venue, and estimated slippage to compute the gross spread, total fee drag, net profit in USD, and the minimum spread you need to break even on a spot arbitrage. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

Last updated Source: Gera Tools

How is arbitrage profit calculated?

You buy on the cheaper exchange and sell on the dearer one. Gross profit is (sell price − buy price) ÷ buy price × trade size. From that you subtract the buy-side fee, the sell-side fee, and the slippage cost to get net profit. If the spread is smaller than total costs, the trade loses money.

The Crypto Arbitrage Profit Calculator tells you whether a price gap between two exchanges is actually worth trading once fees and slippage are accounted for. It computes the gross spread, the total cost drag, your net profit, and the minimum spread you need to break even.

How it works

Arbitrage means buying an asset where it is cheap (exchange A) and selling it where it is dear (exchange B). The economics are:

gross spread %   = (priceB − priceA) / priceA × 100
gross profit     = gross spread % × tradeSize
buy fee          = tradeSize × feeA%
sell fee         = tradeSize × feeB%
slippage cost    = tradeSize × slippage% × 2   (both legs)
net profit       = gross profit − buy fee − sell fee − slippage cost

The break-even spread is the spread at which net profit is exactly zero:

break-even % = feeA% + feeB% + slippage% × 2

Any real spread larger than this leaves a profit; anything smaller is a loss.

Worked example

Buy ETH at $3,000 on exchange A and sell at $3,012 on exchange B — a 0.40% gross spread. On a $5,000 trade:

  • Gross profit: $5,000 × 0.40% = $20
  • Buy fee (0.10%): $5.00
  • Sell fee (0.10%): $5.00
  • Slippage per leg (0.05%) × 2: $5.00
  • Net profit: $5.00

The break-even spread for this fee/slippage setup is 0.30%. The 0.40% spread leaves a small but real profit. Widen the trade to $50,000 and net profit scales to $50 for the same spread — but slippage cost also grows, and at scale the order book depth on each venue determines whether you can actually fill at the quoted prices.

Why slippage is the hidden killer

The gross spread on a crypto arbitrage is often just 0.1–0.5%. Slippage of even 0.05% per leg consumes 0.10% of the spread, which on a small spread represents a large fraction of the potential profit. Slippage grows non-linearly with trade size: small orders fill near the quoted price, but larger orders walk up the order book, increasing the average fill price on the buy leg and reducing it on the sell. This is why professional arbitrage operations study order-book depth before sizing a trade, not just the spot price differential.

What this model does not cover

This calculator models same-asset spot arbitrage where you already hold funds on both exchanges. Real cross-exchange arbitrage also involves:

  • Withdrawal fees — sending assets between exchanges costs a fixed network fee that does not scale with trade size.
  • Transfer time — on-chain transfers take minutes to hours; the spread can close or reverse before the assets arrive.
  • KYC and withdrawal limits — large trades may require identity verification or hit daily limits on one or both venues.

For cross-exchange trades, add your withdrawal fee as a fixed cost and model the probability that the spread survives the transfer window.