IC Funded Rules Explained: Drawdown, Targets and Limits
IC Funded now runs three rule sets: the 1-Step Accelerated program (10% target, 3% daily and 6% maximum drawdown, a 45% consistency rule), the 2-Step Professional program (10% then 5% targets, phase-based 4%/8% then 5%/10% drawdowns, no consistency rule), and Instant Funded, which has no evaluation at all and the tightest limits of the three at 3% daily and 5% maximum. The two evaluation programs need a minimum of 3 profitable days per phase, have no time limit, require a Friday flatten, and apply a 3-minute news cool-off once you are funded. The one rule to get straight before you pay is the drawdown, because IC Funded’s own pages and FAQ state it two different ways, and we flag exactly where below. Last verified: September 3, 2026.
Disclosure: fundedverify.com is an independent affiliate site run by Myx, a member of IC Funded’s affiliate program. We are not IC Funded and we are not IC Markets. We earn a commission if you buy a challenge through our links, which is exactly why this guide spends more time on the rules that trip traders up than on the ones that sell challenges.
| Rule | 1-Step Accelerated | 2-Step Professional | Instant Funded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation | One phase | Two phases | None, funded on purchase |
| Profit target | 10% | Step 1: 10%, Step 2: 5% | No target to hit |
| Max daily drawdown | 3% (end-of-day equity) | 4% (Step 1), 5% (Step 2 and Funded) | 3% (end-of-day equity) |
| Max overall drawdown | 6% (static, initial balance) | 8% (Step 1), 10% (Step 2 and Funded) | 5% (static, initial balance) |
| Minimum profitable days | 3 | 3 per phase | Not applicable, there is no phase to pass |
| Time limit | None | None | None |
| Consistency rule | 45% (soft), evaluation only | None | None |
| Profit split | Fixed 80/20 | Fixed 80/20 | Fixed 80/20 |
| Max forex leverage | 1:30 | 1:50 | 1:30 |
| Account sizes | $10K to $100K | $5K to $500K | $5K to $100K |
Instant Funded: the program with no evaluation
IC Funded added Instant Funded in September 2026, and it changes the shape of the decision. There is no challenge, no profit target and no phase to clear: you pay, and a funded simulated account opens. Pricing runs from $109 at $5,000 to $879 at $100,000, above both challenges at every shared size, and the profit split is the same fixed 80/20 as everywhere else.
You pay for the shortcut in risk room. Instant Funded carries a 3% daily drawdown and a 5% maximum drawdown, static on the initial balance, which is tighter than either evaluation program. On a $100,000 Instant Funded account, your equity floor sits at $95,000 for the life of the account, against $94,000 on a 1-Step and $90,000 on a funded 2-Step. Take a normal losing week early and there is very little account left to work with.
IC Funded prints one further line on the Instant Funded card, “Sessions: 5 days of 0.5% of the balance,” and does not define it anywhere else on that page. It reads as the activity bar you have to clear before money moves rather than a target you must hit to keep the account, which would match the 5 profitable days of 0.5% that gate the first payout on the other programs. IC Funded does not say so in as many words, so get it confirmed in writing by support if your plan depends on it.
How IC Funded drawdown actually works
Drawdown is the rule that ends most challenges, so it is worth understanding precisely rather than roughly. IC Funded uses two separate limits, and they are calculated differently.
The maximum overall drawdown is static, and it is measured on your initial balance. It is an equity-based absolute floor fixed on the balance you started with, and it does not trail upward as your profits grow. On a $100,000 2-Step account with an 8% maximum, your equity must never fall below $92,000, and that floor stays at $92,000 even if the account climbs to $110,000. On a $100,000 1-Step account the maximum is 6%, so the floor is $94,000; on a $100,000 Instant Funded account it is 5%, so the floor is $95,000. Both open and closed positions count toward equity, so an unrealized loss on a running trade can breach the floor just as a closed loss can.
The maximum daily drawdown is calculated on your end-of-day equity. IC Funded measures it against the equity your account closed the previous day with, and it resets at 00:00 server time, which is GMT+2 or GMT+3 depending on daylight saving. Because the reference point is the last close rather than a fixed number, a strong day raises the level you have to defend the next day, and a losing day lowers it. Like the overall limit, it counts both open and closed positions.
The practical takeaway: the overall floor is a hard number set once on your opening balance and never moved, while the daily floor moves with you every night. Blow through either one and the account is done.
The IC Funded drawdown conflict, stated honestly
Here is the part most reviews skip. IC Funded’s official site does not agree with itself on the maximum drawdown.
- The pricing page and the rules page describe the 2-Step drawdown as phase-based: Step 1 is 4% daily and 8% maximum, while Step 2 and the Funded stage are 5% daily and 10% maximum.
- The FAQ instead describes it as size-based: accounts below $100,000 get a 10% maximum, and accounts of $100,000 and above get 8%.
These are genuinely different rules on the same website, and we are not going to pretend one of them does not exist. We treat the pricing and rules pages as primary, because they are the documents you agree to at checkout and they match the per-phase metrics IC Funded shows on each challenge card. But a firm that asks you to respect a limit to the decimal should publish one set of numbers, not two. We first documented the conflict on July 18, 2026; it was still there when we re-read both pages on September 3, 2026.
What to do about it: before you buy, email support and ask, in writing, which maximum drawdown applies to your exact account size and program, then keep the reply. It takes five minutes and it removes the single biggest source of “I did not breach anything” disputes we have read about this firm. The conflict is confined to the 2-Step: the 1-Step maximum is a flat 6% on every size, and Instant Funded a flat 5%.
Profit targets, profitable days and time limits
The evaluation targets are straightforward and consistent across the official pages:
- 1-Step Accelerated: a single 10% profit target. Pass it and you move to a funded account.
- 2-Step Professional: 10% in Step 1, then 5% in Step 2. Two phases, then funded.
- Instant Funded: no target, because there is no evaluation to pass.
Read the day requirement carefully, because IC Funded changed the wording. The rules page now says “Minimum profitable days: 3” for each phase, where it previously said minimum trading days. Those are not the same bar. A day on which you opened a trade and closed flat, or closed down, no longer counts toward the three. Three separate days have to finish in net profit before a phase can be validated, however far past the target you already are. IC Funded does not publish a minimum size for a profitable evaluation day, unlike the payout stage, where the 0.5% threshold is explicit. Guides still promising “any three days of trading” are quoting the old page.
Neither evaluation program has a time limit. You can take as long as you need to hit the target and log your three profitable days, which suits swing traders and anyone who does not want a countdown forcing trades.
The 45% consistency rule (1-Step evaluation only)
The 1-Step Accelerated program carries a consistency rule that the 2-Step program does not. No single trading day may account for more than 45% of your total profit. The point is to reward steady trading over a single lucky session.
The detail that matters, and that some third-party guides get wrong, is that this is a soft rule. Breaching it does not automatically fail your account. If one day exceeds 45% of your profits, the excess portion is simply added to your overall profit target, so you keep trading to make up the difference, and the breach may trigger a review by the risk team. It is a nudge toward consistency, not a trapdoor. It applies to the 1-Step evaluation and nowhere else: not to the 2-Step program, not to Instant Funded, and not once you are trading a funded account, where IC Funded’s rules page states plainly that the consistency rule no longer applies.
The margin exposure rule
Across both programs, IC Funded limits how much of your available margin you can commit to a single position. You may use a maximum of 50% of your available margin on one trade or trading idea. Exceeding that threshold is a soft breach that may trigger a risk-team review, and repeated violations can lead to trading restrictions or account closure. It is designed to stop traders concentrating the whole account into one all-or-nothing position.
News, overnight and weekend rules
These rules change depending on whether you are still in evaluation or already funded:
- News trading is allowed during the evaluation. You can trade straight through high-impact releases while you are working toward a target.
- Once you are funded, a 3-minute cool-off applies. You cannot open or close a trade within 3 minutes before or 3 minutes after a high-impact news announcement, such as interest-rate decisions, CPI and other inflation prints, Non-Farm Payrolls, and central-bank statements.
- Overnight holding is allowed on both programs.
- A Friday flatten is required. Every position must be closed before the market closes for the week, and any trade left open may be closed automatically. This applies to all accounts, so there is no weekend holding on IC Funded, on either the 1-Step or the 2-Step program. Any guide telling you the 2-Step lets you hold over the weekend is wrong; we checked the FAQ directly and the Friday flatten has no program exception.
Platforms, leverage and commissions
- Platforms: MetaTrader 5 and cTrader only, both free, on desktop, web and mobile. There is no MT4. If you need to switch platform, support can only do it before your first trade.
- Leverage: IC Funded sets a cap per program, so read the tab for the one you are buying. Forex runs up to 1:50 on the 2-Step Professional and up to 1:30 on both the 1-Step Accelerated and Instant Funded. Indices, metals and commodities are capped at 1:20 and crypto at 1:2 across all three.
- Commissions (simulated): $4 per standard lot round turn on forex, metals and energy; $0 on indices.
Instruments cover forex, indices, metals, commodities, energy and crypto, all in a simulated environment. IC Funded’s public pages do not list equities or stock CFDs, so any source quoting an equities leverage figure is describing a product the firm does not currently document.
Expert Advisors and forbidden practices
IC Funded’s stance on automation is cautious and, importantly, discretionary. Expert Advisors “might be allowed,” but only if they are developed and fully controlled by the account holder. Commercial, rented or third-party bots are not permitted. Because the permission is conditional, anyone relying on an EA should get written confirmation from support before trading it.
The forbidden-practices list is broad, and reading it before your first trade is the single best thing you can do to avoid a payout dispute:
- All arbitrage variants: latency, hedge, reverse, rollover and gap arbitrage
- High-frequency trading and tick scalping
- Copy trading, mirror trading, signal sharing and coordinated execution across accounts
- Shared IPs, shared VPS environments and proxy networks
- Martingale systems, grid averaging and uncontrolled recovery-style risk escalation
- Excessive risk-taking, gambling-style behavior and overleveraging
- Artificial trade placement designed only to satisfy objectives
- Sudden strategy switching between the evaluation and funded stages
- Account sharing, rented accounts and cross-firm hedging
A VPS or VPN is allowed, but it is monitored. IC Funded flags patterns such as frequent IP changes, shared infrastructure, and simultaneous logins from multiple countries. Using your own dedicated setup is fine; sharing one is where traders get into trouble.
The paid add-ons that change your rules at checkout
Some of the limits above are not fixed. IC Funded’s checkout sells four upgrades that rewrite the rulebook for the account you are buying, plus one thing it gives away. We priced them on September 3, 2026; each is quoted as a share of the challenge fee, so the dollar cost scales with the account size you pick.
| Checkout option | Price | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Daily drawdown limit increase | +10% of the fee | Raises the daily loss the account tolerates |
| Max drawdown limit increase | +20% of the fee | Lifts the static equity floor set on your initial balance |
| Accelerated payout | +15% of the fee | Shortens the 14-day payout cycle |
| Profit split boost | +20% of the fee | Takes the split above the standard 80% |
| Funded account activation | Free | Charged separately at some rival firms |
Two things worth saying plainly. First, IC Funded does not publish the new numbers these upgrades produce on the checkout tile itself, so if you buy the drawdown increases, confirm in writing what your daily and maximum limits actually become before you place a trade: those are the figures a risk review will hold you to. Second, buying room is not the same as needing it. A wider drawdown does not make a losing strategy pass, and at 20% of the fee the split boost has to earn its cost out of profits you have not made yet.
Account rules: KYC, refunds and inactivity
- KYC is mandatory before any payout. You will need a government photo ID and a proof of address, and no withdrawal is released until verification clears. Complete it early, right after your funded account activates, rather than when the money is already due.
- You must be 18 or older.
- 14-day refund on untouched accounts. If you buy a challenge and place zero trades, the fee is refundable for 14 days. Open a single position and that window closes.
- 30-day inactivity rule. An account with no trading activity for 30 days can be suspended or terminated.
- One promo code per order. You cannot stack discounts.
For how the payout side works once you pass, including the fixed 80/20 split and the bi-weekly RISE cycle, see our IC Funded payout guide. For the full picture on whether the firm is trustworthy, read our IC Funded legitimacy analysis, and for pricing and our verdict, the complete IC Funded review.
What is the IC Funded maximum drawdown?
The IC Funded maximum overall drawdown is a static, equity-based floor fixed on your initial balance that does not trail with profits. It is 6% on the 1-Step program (a $94,000 floor on a $100,000 account), 5% on Instant Funded (a $95,000 floor on the same size), and, per IC Funded’s pricing and rules pages, 8% in Step 1 and 10% in Step 2 and Funded on the 2-Step program. Note that the FAQ states the 2-Step maximum as size-based instead (10% below $100,000, 8% at $100,000 and above), so confirm your exact number with support in writing before you trade.
What is the IC Funded daily drawdown?
The IC Funded daily drawdown is 3% on the 1-Step program, 3% on Instant Funded, and 4% (Step 1) or 5% (Step 2 and Funded) on the 2-Step program. IC Funded calculates it on your end-of-day equity, counts both open and closed positions, and resets it at 00:00 server time (GMT+2 or GMT+3 with daylight saving). Because the reference is your previous close, a profitable day raises the level you must protect the next day.
Does IC Funded have a time limit?
No. Neither the 1-Step nor the 2-Step program has a time limit, and Instant Funded has no evaluation to time. What the evaluations do require is a minimum of 3 profitable days per phase, days that close in net profit rather than days on which you simply traded. There is no maximum, so you can pass at your own pace, which makes IC Funded workable for swing traders and anyone who does not want a deadline forcing low-quality trades.
What is the IC Funded consistency rule?
The IC Funded consistency rule applies to the 1-Step Accelerated evaluation only and caps any single trading day at 45% of your total profit. It is a soft rule: exceeding it does not fail the account, the excess is added to your profit target, and it may trigger a risk-team review. It stops applying the moment you are funded, and the 2-Step Professional and Instant Funded programs have no consistency rule at any stage.
Does IC Funded have an instant funding option?
Yes. IC Funded sells Instant Funded alongside its two challenges: no evaluation phase, no profit target, and a funded simulated account from the moment you pay. Sizes run from $5,000 at $109 to $100,000 at $879, the split is the same fixed 80/20, and the risk limits are the tightest of the three programs at 3% daily and 5% maximum drawdown, static on your initial balance.
Can you hold trades over the weekend on IC Funded?
No. IC Funded requires a Friday flatten on every account, so all positions must be closed before the weekly market close, and any left open may be closed automatically. Overnight holding during the week is allowed, but weekend holding is not, on any of the three programs. This limits exposure to weekend gaps.
Does IC Funded allow Expert Advisors?
Only conditionally. Self-developed EAs that you fully control “might be allowed,” which is deliberately discretionary language. Commercial, rented and third-party bots are forbidden, along with all arbitrage, HFT, copy trading and shared-infrastructure setups. If your strategy depends on an EA, get written confirmation from support before you trade it.
Verification Log
Every rule on this page was re-read against IC Funded’s official pricing, rules and FAQ pages on September 3, 2026, and the add-on prices were read on the live checkout the same day. The page was first published against those pages on July 18, 2026. Where the official pages contradict each other, the conflict is stated rather than smoothed over.
Changelog
- 2026-09-02: Full re-read. Added the third program, Instant Funded: no evaluation, no profit target, 3% daily and 5% maximum drawdown static on the initial balance, $109 to $879. Corrected the day requirement to minimum profitable days, following IC Funded’s own change of wording on the rules page. Restated the maximum drawdown as static on the initial balance and the daily drawdown as calculated on end-of-day equity. Added the paid checkout add-ons (daily drawdown +10%, max drawdown +20%, accelerated payout +15%, split boost +20%, free funded activation). Published the leverage caps per program (forex 1:50 on the 2-Step, 1:30 on the 1-Step and on Instant Funded), unchanged since July, and recorded the 45% consistency rule as evaluation-only. The 2-Step drawdown conflict between the pricing/rules pages and the FAQ is still unresolved.
- 2026-07-18: Page published. Verified 1-Step and 2-Step targets, daily and maximum drawdowns, the 45% consistency rule (soft, 1-Step only), the margin exposure rule, news and Friday-flatten rules, platforms, leverage, commissions, the forbidden-practices list, and the KYC, refund and inactivity rules against icfunded.com. Documented the official pricing/rules-versus-FAQ drawdown discrepancy.
Related: IC Funded Payout · 1-Step vs 2-Step · Accepted Countries · IC Funded Review