A prop firm scaling plan increases the size of your funded account when you hit published milestones — typically a net profit figure, a minimum time on the account, and one or two completed payouts. The balance goes up. The percentage rules usually stay identical, so a scale-up hands you more dollars per point, not more room to be wrong.
That last sentence is the whole page. Everything below is the detail behind it.
What a scaling plan actually is
Scaling is the firm's answer to an obvious problem: a trader who is profitable on a $100,000 simulated account is worth more to the firm on a $200,000 one, but handing over the larger account immediately is a risk it does not want to take. So the increase is sold as a reward and structured as a probation.
Almost every plan is built from the same four ingredients, in some combination:
- A profit threshold — a percentage gain on the current balance, measured over a defined window.
- A time requirement — months elapsed since funding or since the last scale-up, which stops one lucky week from unlocking a large account.
- Completed payouts — proof the profit was real enough to be withdrawn, not an open position that later gave itself back.
- An account in good standing — no breaches, and a positive balance at the moment the increase is applied.
A published plan, in full
FTMO publishes its scaling terms openly, which makes it a useful reference point rather than a recommendation. As of September 2026 the stated plan is a 25% account size increase every four months, requiring all of the following (FTMO, Scaling Plan):
- At least 10% net simulated profit above the starting balance, generated within the prior four months.
- A minimum of four months trading since funding, or since the last scale-up.
- At least two processed Rewards within that same four-month period.
- A positive account balance at the time of the scale-up.
The firm also states a ceiling: accounts can be scaled up to $2,000,000 across all of a trader's accounts. Terms change and vary widely between firms, so read the current version of whichever plan applies to you.
The shape is what matters more than the specific numbers. Notice that the profit requirement is rolling — it resets with every scale-up. A trader who scales three times has had to produce 10% three separate times, over three separate four-month windows, with payouts in between. That is a considerably higher bar than the headline “25% every four months” suggests.
Two different things people mean by scaling
The word is used for two structures that behave nothing alike, and futures firms and forex firms tend to sit on opposite sides of it.
| Growing one account | Adding more accounts | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | The balance and buying power on your existing account increase at each milestone | You keep or buy additional funded accounts and trade them in parallel |
| Common in | Forex and CFD evaluation firms | Futures firms, where account sizes are fixed tiers |
| Risk profile | One drawdown floor, larger in dollars | Several independent floors, each of which can fail on its own |
| The hidden cost | Position size must be recalculated at every step | Correlated positions across accounts multiply a single bad idea |
Traders who run several funded accounts on the same instrument at the same time are not diversified. They have one position in several wrappers, which is the trap described in correlation risk in trading.
What scales with the balance, and what does not
This is the part scaling pages skip.
Scales up: the account balance, the buying power, the dollar value of the drawdown allowance where it is defined as a percentage, and the dollar value of a given percentage gain.
Does not scale: your number of survivable losing days, your reaction time, your tolerance for watching a position move against you, or the quality of your setups.
The arithmetic is worth seeing directly. Take a 5% maximum drawdown and a trader risking 1% per trade:
| Account | Max drawdown (5%) | Risk per trade (1%) | Consecutive losses to breach |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | $5,000 | $1,000 | 5 |
| $125,000 | $6,250 | $1,250 | 5 |
| $200,000 | $10,000 | $2,000 | 5 |
The right-hand column never moves. Doubling the account doubles the money at risk and buys exactly zero additional losing trades. What a scale-up increases is the consequence of your existing risk of ruin, not your protection against it.
The first week on a larger account
The dangerous part of scaling is not the rules. It is that the same chart now produces unfamiliar numbers in the profit and loss column, and unfamiliar numbers change behaviour.
Three specific failure modes show up again and again after a scale-up:
- Early exits. A $600 open profit feels different from a $300 one, so the trader takes it before the target, and the win rate stays flat while the average win collapses — the pattern in cutting winners early.
- Wider mental stops. The same drawdown in points now costs twice the dollars, so the stop gets moved rather than taken.
- Chasing the milestone. The next scale-up needs 10% in four months, so the trader starts trading the calendar instead of the chart. Deadlines and discretion are a bad combination.
None of those are rule breaches. They are all quiet, and they all show up in the equity curve about six weeks later.
Questions to answer before you accept a scale-up
- Does the drawdown rule stay a percentage, or does it convert to a fixed dollar figure at the new size?
- Does the consistency requirement reset, and against which balance is it now measured?
- Is the profit split the same at the larger size, or is the headline split tied to a specific tier?
- What is the published ceiling, and what happens when you reach it?
- Can you scale down voluntarily, and does doing so cost anything?
If the answer to any of these is not written down somewhere you can link to, that is a finding in itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a prop firm scaling plan work?
A scaling plan raises the size of your funded account once you hit stated milestones, usually a combination of net profit, elapsed time and completed payouts. FTMO publishes one of the clearest versions: a 25 percent account increase every four months, requiring at least 10 percent net simulated profit generated in the prior four months, at least two processed Rewards in that period, and a positive balance at the moment of the scale-up.
Does the drawdown limit increase when your account scales up?
Usually yes in absolute dollars, because most drawdown rules are expressed as a percentage of the account balance. What does not change is your tolerance for a losing streak. A bigger account with the same percentage rules gives you the same number of losing days before termination, not more, so scaling up buys you dollars rather than breathing room.
How big can a prop firm account get?
Firms cap it, and the cap is stated in the terms. FTMO publishes a maximum of 2,000,000 dollars across all of a trader's accounts. Futures firms usually cap much lower and scale by letting you hold more funded accounts rather than by growing one. Treat any firm that advertises scaling without publishing a ceiling as having not told you the whole rule.
Should you take a scale-up as soon as you qualify?
Not automatically. A scale-up increases the dollars at risk per point of movement while your skill, your stop distances and your emotional tolerance stay exactly where they were. The safer approach is to accept the larger account and keep trading your old position size for a few weeks, letting the size catch up to the balance rather than the other way round.
Bottom line
A scaling plan is a rolling probation dressed as a reward. The published version at FTMO — 25% more account every four months, on 10% net profit, two processed Rewards and a positive balance, capped at $2,000,000 — is a fair example of the shape: the requirement resets every time you clear it. The number that matters is the one the plan never changes. At 5% maximum drawdown and 1% risk per trade, five consecutive losses ends the account whether it holds $100,000 or $200,000. Take the balance, keep your old size for a fortnight, and confirm which rules re-anchored to the new number before you place a single larger order. The full rule inventory sits in prop firms explained.