How to Use Post-Only Orders on Bitget Futures

By Editorial Team · July 2026

Who This Is For

This guide is for intermediate to advanced futures traders on Bitget who want to reduce trading costs by earning maker rebates and avoiding accidental taker fees.

What You’ll Need

• A verified Bitget account with futures trading enabled
• At least 10 USDT in your futures wallet to cover margin requirements
• Basic understanding of order types (limit orders vs market orders)
• A clear trading strategy that benefits from limit order placement on the order book

Step 1: Log Into Bitget Futures and Select Your Market

First, head to the Bitget exchange and log into your account. Navigate to the “Derivatives” tab in the top menu, then select “USDT-M Futures” or “Coin-M Futures” depending on what you’re trading. For this walkthrough, we’ll use BTC/USDT perpetual futures because it’s the most liquid pair and the most common choice for post-only strategies.

Once you’re on the trading interface, look at the order entry panel on the left side. You’ll see options for Market, Limit, and sometimes Stop orders. The post-only feature is a special modifier that attaches to limit orders. It’s not a standalone order type — it’s a toggle you activate on your limit order.

Before you place any order, check the current order book depth. You want to see where the bid and ask walls are. If the spread is tight — say 0.5 USDT on BTC/USDT — that’s a good environment for post-only orders. If the spread is huge, your limit order might sit there unfilled for hours.

Step 2: Enable the Post-Only Toggle in the Order Panel

In the order entry panel, click the “Limit” button to select a limit order. Right next to that, you’ll see a small checkbox or toggle labeled “Post-Only” or “PO.” It might look like a little flag icon, depending on your UI version. Click it to turn it blue or green — that means it’s active.

Here’s the critical part: when post-only is enabled, Bitget checks your limit order before it hits the order book. If your limit price is better than or equal to the current best bid (for a buy) or best ask (for a sell), the exchange knows your order would immediately match against existing orders. That would make you a taker, not a maker. So Bitget rejects the order entirely. You’ll see a popup saying something like “Order would execute immediately, please adjust price.”

To avoid this, you need to place your limit order at a price that’s slightly worse than the current market. For a buy order, set your price below the current best bid. For a sell order, set your price above the current best ask. This ensures your order sits on the order book as passive liquidity, making you a maker.

And why does that matter? Because on Bitget, makers earn a rebate of around 0.02% of the trade value, while takers pay a fee of about 0.04%. Over 100 trades of 1 BTC each, that’s a difference of roughly $60 at current prices.

Step 3: Set Your Price and Quantity for the Post-Only Order

Now you need to decide your entry price. Let’s say BTC/USDT is trading at $60,000. The best bid is $59,990 and the best ask is $60,010. If you want to buy, you can’t set your limit price at $59,990 or higher — that would trigger the taker rejection. So you set your buy limit at $59,980 or even $59,950, depending on how aggressive you want to be.

Enter the quantity. For a post-only order, you can use any size that fits your margin. But remember: if the market moves against you, your order might never fill. That’s the trade-off. You’re getting lower fees in exchange for potentially missing the trade.

One pro tip: use a “good till canceled” (GTC) time-in-force setting for your post-only orders. This keeps your order on the book until it fills or you cancel it. Don’t use “immediate or cancel” (IOC) — that defeats the purpose because IOC orders are designed to fill immediately or die.

After you’ve set your price and quantity, double-check that the post-only toggle is still active. Then click “Open Long” or “Open Short” depending on your direction. The order will be sent to Bitget’s matching engine for validation.

Step 4: Monitor Your Open Orders and Adjust for Market Moves

Once your post-only order is live, it appears in the “Open Orders” tab below the chart. You’ll see the price, quantity, and a status that says “Active.” Now you wait. The market might come to your price, or it might not.

If the price moves toward your order, watch the order book. You want to see if your order becomes one of the top bids or asks. If the market is volatile, you might need to cancel and readjust your price. For example, if BTC suddenly drops to $59,500 and your buy order is at $59,980, that order is now way above the market — it would fill immediately as a taker. But Bitget’s post-only logic would cancel it before it executes. So you’d need to cancel manually and place a new buy order at, say, $59,450.

This is the biggest challenge with post-only orders: you have to actively manage them. You can’t just set and forget. Use Bitget’s mobile app or desktop alerts to get notified when your order is close to the top of the book.

Another thing to check: your margin balance. If your post-only order uses leverage, the margin is locked up while the order is open. So if you have multiple post-only orders, you might run out of available margin for other trades. Keep an eye on your “Available Balance” in the futures wallet.

Common Pitfalls and Risks

⚠️ Risk: Your order never fills because the market moves away. This is the most common issue. You place a post-only buy at $59,800, but BTC rallies to $61,000 and never comes back. Your order sits there for days, earning nothing. Mitigation: use post-only only on pairs with high liquidity and tight spreads, like BTC/USDT or ETH/USDT. Avoid it on low-volume altcoin pairs where the spread can be 1% or more.

⚠️ Pitfall: Forgetting to disable post-only when you want an immediate fill. Say you’re in a fast-moving market and you need to enter a position right now. If you leave post-only on, your order gets rejected. You panic, miss the entry, and the price runs without you. Mitigation: always check the toggle before placing any order. Make it a habit. If you need speed, use a market order or a regular limit order without the post-only modifier.

⚠️ Risk: Accumulating too many open orders and losing track of your positions. It’s easy to place multiple post-only orders at different prices, thinking you’ll catch any dip. But each open order ties up margin. If the market gaps down, all your orders might fill at once, leaving you overleveraged. Mitigation: limit yourself to 1-2 post-only orders per trading session. Use a spreadsheet or a trading journal to track your pending orders.

Remember, post-only orders are not a magic trick to avoid all fees. They’re a tool for traders who plan their entries in advance. If you’re scalping or day trading with rapid entries, market orders might be more practical despite the higher fees.

What Next?

Start practicing with a small amount — say 10 USDT — on a low-volatility pair like BTC/USDT to get comfortable with the post-only toggle and order rejection mechanics.

Sources & References

• Investopedia: Limit Order Definition and Uses
• CoinDesk: Maker vs Taker Fees Explained
• Bitget Support: Futures Trading Rules and Fee Structure
• Learn more about order types in our guide to 8 Ways to Master Your Leverage Bracket in Futures.

— Editorial Team