Understanding the Monthly Cost KPI
The Monthly Cost KPI on the Challenges page tells you how much you're spending on prop firm evaluations per month, on average, over the period you've selected.
It's one of the headline numbers traders use to answer a simple question: "What's my monthly run-rate for challenges?"
What the KPI Shows
The Monthly Cost card shows your average monthly spend on challenge costs across the date range you have selected at the top of the page.
It's a time-based average. The denominator is the number of months in your selected period, not the number of challenges you bought.
The Formula
Monthly Cost = Total Challenge Costs ÷ Number of Months in Selected Period
That's it. The number is recalculated whenever you change the date range filter.
Why It's Time-Based, Not Per-Challenge
The KPI answers "how much am I spending on challenges each month?", which is a time question. Number of challenges purchased doesn't matter for that answer.
You could:
Buy 5 cheap challenges in one month, or
Buy 1 expensive challenge spread across the quarter
Either way, what matters for business planning is the monthly run-rate, not the per-challenge average.
This makes the number useful for things like:
Budgeting for the next month or quarter
Comparing your challenge spend against your payout income
Deciding whether to scale challenge purchases up or down
Worked Examples
Here's how the calculation works across different date range filters. Each example assumes you spent $600 on challenge costs in the selected period.
Last 30 days
Period length: 1 month
Calculation: $600 ÷ 1
Monthly Cost: $600
Last 90 days
Period length: 3 months
Calculation: $600 ÷ 3
Monthly Cost: $200
Last 180 days
Period length: 6 months
Calculation: $600 ÷ 6
Monthly Cost: $100
This Year (e.g. January through June)
Period length: 6 months
Calculation: $600 ÷ 6
Monthly Cost: $100
The same total spend gives you very different monthly averages depending on the window you're looking at, which is exactly the point. A longer window smooths out spikes from heavy buying months.
What's Included in Total Challenge Costs
The KPI uses your gross challenge costs for the period, net of refunds. So if you spent $1,000 on challenges but received $200 in refunds, your total challenge cost is $800, and that's what feeds the calculation.
This matches how refunds are treated everywhere else in the platform: refunds reduce challenge costs, they never appear as income.
Common Questions
Why is my Monthly Cost different when I change the filter? Because the formula divides your total challenge spend by the number of months in the window. A shorter window or a higher-spend window will show a larger monthly average.
Why is the card showing a dash or hidden? Your date range is shorter than one month. Pick a longer window to see the KPI.
Does this include refunds? Yes, indirectly. Total Challenge Costs in the formula is already net of any refunds for the period.
Why isn't it dividing by the number of challenges I bought? Because the question the KPI answers is about time, not transactions. "How much am I spending per month" is a different question from "how much does each challenge cost." For per-challenge averages, look at the individual challenge entries directly.
What if I only buy challenges occasionally, not every month? The KPI still divides by the number of months in the window, even if some of those months had zero spending. This is intentional, it shows your true monthly run-rate including the quiet months.
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