Who pays and who receives funding?
When the Hyperliquid funding rate is positive, traders holding long positions pay traders holding shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs. Payments go directly between traders at each hourly interval, and Hyperliquid collects no fee on them.
Each payment equals position size times oracle price times the funding rate. The oracle price, not the mark price, converts your position size into notional value for this calculation. Funding applies to every open position whether it is in profit or not, and it is separate from trading fees and any approved builder fee.
Why the funding rate changes
The Hyperliquid funding rate changes mainly because the premium changes, meaning the gap between the perpetual's price and its oracle price. When buyers push the perpetual above the oracle, the premium rises and longs pay more; when sellers push it below, the premium falls and the rate can turn negative.
Order book depth also matters, because the premium is measured with impact prices, the average prices to trade a set notional on each side of the book, rather than with the last trade. The oracle itself follows prices on external exchanges. When the premium is close to zero, the rate settles at the fixed interest component of 0.01% per 8 hours, or 0.00125% per hour, paid by longs to shorts. The docs equate that baseline to about 11.6% APR, but a single observed rate should not be annualized as if it will persist.
How to use funding in a trading decision
Treat funding as a running cost or income line next to price risk, liquidity, margin and liquidation exposure, and check it immediately before placing an order. The longer a position stays open, the more hourly payments it accumulates, so funding weighs more on positions held for days or weeks than on short trades.
The public BTC, ETH and HYPE guide pages show a current rate with its fetch time, and the Perpex markets table lists funding as an hourly rate, but the live trading screen is the reference before an order. Copy trading can replicate positions at different times and prices from the source trader, so a copied position's funding can differ from the trader's.
How the Hyperliquid funding rate is calculated
Hyperliquid computes the funding rate as the average premium index plus a clamped interest term: funding rate = average premium + clamp(interest rate − premium, −0.05%, +0.05%). The interest rate is fixed at 0.01% per 8 hours. The rate is computed on an 8-hour basis, and each hourly payment uses one-eighth of it.
The premium is how far the impact bid and ask prices sit above or below the oracle price, divided by the oracle price. It is sampled every 5 seconds and averaged over the hour. Per the contract specifications, the impact notional is 20,000 USDC for BTC and ETH and 6,000 USDC for all other assets.
Funding is capped at 4% per hour, and the cap and the hourly interval are the same for every asset. HIP-3 perpetuals use a more responsive premium formula that lets their deployers express a wider range of funding behavior, so their rates can move differently from main-market perps.
Funding cost example for a Hyperliquid position
The funding paid or received each hour equals position size times oracle price times the hourly funding rate. For example, a 2 BTC long with an oracle price of $50,000 has a notional value of $100,000. At an hourly rate of 0.00125%, the baseline when the premium is near zero, the long pays $1.25 per hour to shorts, or $30 over 24 hours if the rate stays constant.
If the rate rose to 0.01% per hour, the same position would pay $10 per hour, or $240 over 24 hours. If the rate turned negative at −0.005% per hour, the long would receive $5 per hour instead. A short of the same size sees the opposite sign in every case.
These figures assume a constant rate and a constant oracle price, which rarely hold for long. The Hyperliquid docs give their own example: a perpetual at $10,100 against a $10,000 spot price has a 1% premium, and with the interest term clamped to −0.05% the computed rate is 0.95%, of which one-eighth applies to each hourly payment.
Funding vs trading fees and builder fees
Funding is a transfer between traders on open positions, while trading fees and builder fees are charged on filled orders. Funding can be a cost or an income depending on the sign of the rate and your side. Hyperliquid trading fees follow a rolling 14-day volume tier, and makers can earn rebates at higher maker volume tiers.
On Perpex, the only Perpex fee is a Hyperliquid builder fee of 0.10% of eligible filled notional under the current setting, charged on top of the Hyperliquid trading fee. Perpex takes no part of funding. The Perpex funding calculator estimates funding together with entry and exit fees for a chosen market, size and holding period at a constant rate, so treat its result as an estimate and not a forecast.
Frequently asked questions
Is funding the same as a trading fee?
No. Funding is a transfer between holders of long and short positions, and Hyperliquid collects no fee on it. Trading fees and any builder fee are charged on filled orders and follow separate rules.
Does a positive rate guarantee profit for shorts?
No. A positive funding rate means longs pay shorts at that moment, but the rate can change every hour. Price movement, execution, fees and liquidation risk can outweigh any funding a short position receives.
How often is funding paid on Hyperliquid?
Hyperliquid pays funding every hour. The rate is computed on an 8-hour basis and each hourly payment uses one-eighth of it, with the same interval and cap for all assets.
What is the maximum funding rate on Hyperliquid?
Funding on Hyperliquid is capped at 4% per hour, according to the Hyperliquid funding documentation. The cap and the hourly payment interval are the same for every asset.
How do I calculate a Hyperliquid funding payment?
Multiply position size by the oracle price and by the funding rate for the interval. For example, a position with $100,000 of notional at an hourly rate of 0.00125% pays or receives $1.25 for that hour, depending on the sign of the rate and whether it is long or short.