What this calculator tells you
Open a 10x long on Bitcoin at $60,000 and there’s a price below your entry where the exchange force-closes the position. That’s the liquidation price. This calculator estimates it from four things you already know before you click buy: entry price, leverage, whether you’re long or short, and the maintenance margin rate your exchange charges.
It also gives you the distance from entry as a percentage. That second number matters more than people think. At 10x, a roughly 9% move against you wipes the position. At 50x, it’s closer to 1.6%. Same coin, wildly different breathing room.
The math behind it
Your initial margin as a fraction of the position is just 1 divided by leverage. A 20x position posts 5% margin. The exchange liquidates once your remaining margin falls to the maintenance level, so the trigger for a long is:
Liq = Entry × (1 − 1/leverage + maintenance rate)
Shorts flip the signs because price moving up hurts you:
Liq = Entry × (1 + 1/leverage − maintenance rate)
Plug in $60,000 entry, 10x, and a 0.5% maintenance rate on a long and you get roughly $55,200. The position can absorb about a 8% drop before the exchange steps in. Crank leverage to 50x and that cushion shrinks to under 2%.
Why your exchange will show a slightly different number
Here’s the honest part. This is an approximation, and it should land close, but it won’t match Binance or Bybit to the dollar. A few reasons.
- Funding fees bleed your margin over time, nudging the liquidation price closer with every funding interval you hold through.
- Tiered maintenance margin means the rate isn’t fixed. Bigger positions sit in higher tiers with steeper maintenance requirements, which moves the trigger.
- Cross vs isolated margin changes everything. In cross mode, your whole wallet balance backs the trade, so the real liquidation point can be far beyond what this single-position formula suggests.
- Unrealized PnL from other open positions feeds into your account margin and shifts the math again.
Treat the output as a planning number, not a guarantee. It’s great for sizing a trade and picking a stop-loss before you enter. It’s not a replacement for the liquidation price your exchange displays once the position is live.
A note on maintenance margin rate
If you don’t know your maintenance rate, 0.5% is a reasonable default for moderate leverage on major pairs. Low-cap altcoins and very high leverage tiers push it higher, sometimes to 1% or 2.5%. Check your exchange’s margin tier table for the exact figure. The number is small, but it directly sets how soon you get liquidated, so guessing too low makes your estimate slightly optimistic.
Common questions
Does higher leverage really get me liquidated faster? Yep. The cushion is basically 1/leverage minus the maintenance rate. Double the leverage and you roughly halve the distance to liquidation. 100x leaves almost no room for normal volatility.
Is the liquidation price the same for long and short? No. A long liquidates below entry, a short liquidates above it. The distance is similar at the same leverage, but the direction flips, which is why the calculator asks for your side.
Why is my real liquidation price further away than this shows? Probably cross margin. When your full balance backs the position, the exchange can pull from idle funds before liquidating, so the trigger sits well past this single-position estimate.
Can the liquidation price ever hit zero? For a long at very low leverage with a tiny maintenance rate, the formula can approach zero, meaning the asset would need to crater almost entirely. The tool floors negative results at zero since price can’t go below it.
Should I set my stop-loss at the liquidation price? Set it well before. Getting liquidated usually costs more than a clean stop because of liquidation fees and slippage. Use this number to know where the cliff is, then place your exit comfortably above it.