A refundable fee is a challenge fee that comes back to you if you pass the evaluation and reach a funded payout. On a refundable plan, the fee is a deposit against your success. On a non-refundable plan, the fee is kept whatever happens, pass or fail. The difference is worth more than the headline price suggests.
Refundable plans are common but not universal. Among the $100,000 full-price plans the firms we track list, 43 of 97 carry a refundable fee. The rest keep the fee. Refund terms also differ: some firms return the fee with the first payout, others return it as account credit, and the timing is set on the plan page.
This matters when you compare two plans with the same headline price. A $549 refundable fee and a $549 non-refundable fee look identical until you pass: one returns $549 and the other returns nothing. Across several attempts, the gap is larger still, because a refundable fee is only paid once per success while a non-refundable fee is paid on every attempt.
The common trap is assuming a fee is refundable because the plan page calls it a deposit. Check the refund term itself: whether it is refunded, when it is paid, and whether it comes back as cash or credit. Prop trading can cost you every fee you pay.