Liquidation Price Calculator for Crypto Futures

How to use the liquidation calculator

1. Enter your entry price and select Long or Short.
2. Set your leverage and position size in USDT.
3. Enter the maintenance margin rate for your exchange (typically 0.5% on Binance perpetuals).
4. Read your liquidation price and the percentage distance from current price.

Liquidation price formula (isolated margin)

For isolated margin, liquidation occurs when remaining equity falls below the maintenance margin:

• Initial margin = positionSize / leverage
• Maintenance margin = positionSize × maintenanceRate
• Liq price (Long) = entryPrice × (1 − 1/leverage + maintenanceRate)
• Liq price (Short) = entryPrice × (1 + 1/leverage − maintenanceRate)

At 10× leverage with 0.5% maintenance margin, a long position liquidates when price drops approximately 9.5% from entry.

Worked example — ETH short at 20× leverage

• Entry price: $3,200 · Side: Short · Leverage: 20× · Size: $10,000 · Maint. margin: 0.5%

• Initial margin = $10,000 / 20 = $500
• Liq price = $3,200 × (1 + 1/20 − 0.005) = $3,200 × 1.045 = $3,344
• Distance = (3,344 − 3,200) / 3,200 = 4.5% above entry

At 20× short, you have only 4.5% buffer before liquidation. Even a moderate short-term rally can wipe out the margin. Consider reducing leverage or adding stop-loss orders above $3,300.

Distance to liquidation: key risk metric

Professional traders track liquidation distance as a percentage. Common risk rules: keep liquidation at least 15–20% away from entry. If your liquidation is within 5–8%, even normal market noise can trigger it. Always check liquidation price before opening a leveraged position — not after.

Cross margin vs isolated margin — liquidation difference

This calculator uses isolated margin, where only the margin allocated to this position is at risk. In cross margin mode, your entire account balance acts as collateral — liquidation happens later but wipes more capital. Key differences:

• Isolated margin: fixed collateral per position. Liquidation price is predictable and doesn't shift unless you add margin manually.
• Cross margin: all free balance protects the position. Liquidation price shifts as your other positions gain or lose. Harder to calculate manually.

Binance perpetuals default to cross margin — check your mode before using this calculator. For isolated positions the formula matches exactly; for cross positions treat this as a worst-case (less capital available) estimate.

Combine with full pre-trade risk check

Liquidation price is one piece of the picture. Get position size, break-even, and funding cost all at once:

Use via API or MCP

Every calculation on this page is available as a deterministic API call. Get exact liquidation prices in your trading bots, risk monitors, or AI agents — the same formula, every time.