AIFO – Prop Firm Review

Updated and verified on 15 September 2026

Pricing snapshot

Entry is $79 for a $10,000 2-Step account, rising to $899 for a $200,000 1-Step. The 2-Step is the cheapest line at every size it shares with the 1-Step. Not every programme runs to every size: Instant stops at $100,000 and Sprint at $50,000, while the 1-Step and 2-Step run the full $10,000 to $200,000 ladder.

AIFO also discounts accounts bought together, 10% off a second and 15% off a third, applied at checkout. Two add-ons are offered against the fee: a 90% profit split for 20% more, and payout on demand for 10% more.

Company and regulation

AIFO is operated by AIFO Holding Limited, registered in Hong Kong under company number 80190485, alongside a second entity, AIFO Global Ltd, licensed in Anjouan under L16175/AG. The terms are governed by Hong Kong SAR law and the Anjouan regulatory framework. The firm is not regulated by any financial regulator.

AIFO is explicit that it is not a broker: it takes no client deposits, provides no brokerage services, and describes itself as a proprietary trading evaluation platform and education provider. All accounts run on simulated capital in MetaTrader 5. It was founded in 2025, so it has roughly a year of trading history behind it.

Initial allocation is capped at $200,000 per trader, rising to $2,000,000 through the scaling plan. The two-entity structure is worth a minute of your time before you buy: check which company your contract actually names at checkout.

The four programmes

AIFO splits its range by how you get funded rather than by rule set. Instant skips the evaluation entirely. 1-Step and 2-Step are the conventional evaluations, both on a static drawdown. Sprint is a 24-hour product, a short qualification window with tight risk limits and a fast payout cycle.

There is no time limit on Instant, 1-Step or 2-Step. Instant carries a 2% maximum floating loss and a consistency rule capping your best day at 20% of profit. The 1-Step and 2-Step carry no consistency rule at all, and the 1-Step has no margin usage restriction. Sprint is the outlier: one open trade at a time, a 1% floating loss cap, and a payout cycle that starts 24 hours from your first trade.

Leverage

Leverage is not uniform across the range. The 2-Step runs noticeably higher on forex and indices than everything else AIFO sells.

AIFO reserves the right to reduce leverage for accounts it judges to be carrying excessive risk exposure, under its risk guidelines.

Split and payouts

The number on the marketing is 95%. The number you start on is lower, and it depends which programme you bought. 1-Step and 2-Step start at 80%, Instant starts at 70%, and Sprint starts at 90%. The 95% ceiling is reached one of two ways: through the scaling plan, which pays 90% at Level 1 and 95% at Level 3, or on Sprint once closed net profit passes 6%.

There is also a shortcut, and it costs money. AIFO sells a 90% split as a checkout add-on at 20% of the challenge fee. On a $449 2-Step that is roughly $90 for ten points of split, which is worth pricing against how long the scaling route would realistically take you. A faster payout cycle is sold the same way, at 10% of the fee.

On timing, the first payout lands 14 days after your first trade on the Step programmes, on demand on Instant, and after the 24-hour cycle on Sprint. After that it is every 14 days on Step, on demand at Scaling Level 3, and weekly at Level 2. The minimum payout is $200 and processing takes 1 to 3 business days, or within one business day for approved Sprint payouts. Bank transfer and crypto are both supported.

Two clauses deserve a proper read. There is a $10,000 cap on a single payout request, with anything above it deferred in account equity rather than paid or forfeited. And withdrawing profit moves your equity floor: take out the full 2% buffer and the MT5 account closes.

Payout data

This is the part of the review we cannot fill in. AIFO answered every line of our payout-data section, total paid, number of payouts, largest single payout, top paying country and total since inception, with not publicly disclosed. It does not publish a payout log either. It offered to send figures to listing editors on request, and we have asked.

We flag that rather than paper over it. Several firms we list do publish monthly totals, so this is a choice rather than a constraint, and a firm that will not say what it paid last month is asking you to take its payout record on trust.

Rules and fees at a glance

• Split: 80% on 1-Step and 2-Step, 70% on Instant, 90% on Sprint. Ceiling 95% through scaling. 90% also sold as a paid add-on at 20% of the fee.
• Fees: $79 to $899 list. 10% off a second account bought alongside, 15% off a third.
• Fee refund: no rebate. The fee is not returned with a payout on the standard programmes, and a failed challenge is not refunded. Reaching Scaling Level 3 grants one free retry, and there is no activation fee after passing. Separately, clause 12.1 of the terms gives consumers 14 days to withdraw from the contract for a full refund, a statutory cooling-off right that lapses once you start trading the demo account.
• Drawdown: static on 1-Step, 2-Step and Sprint, measured against the initial balance. Trailing on Instant, tracking the equity high-water mark.
• Daily loss: measured on the higher of the previous day’s closing balance or equity, and equity includes open positions, swap and commissions.
• Drawdown floor after a payout: yes. Withdrawing profit adjusts the available equity floor, and withdrawing the full 2% buffer closes the MT5 account.
• Platform and markets: MetaTrader 5 on Windows, iOS, Android and web. Forex, metals, indices, stocks and crypto, on simulated institutional raw spreads. The Elite Instant account is zero commission.
• Swap-free accounts: not offered as a standard option.
• Automation: Expert Advisors are permitted on the 1-Step and 2-Step challenges and the funded accounts that follow them, and not on Standard Instant. The strategy must be unique to you; public EAs, shared bots and passing bots are prohibited.
• Copy trading: prohibited across multiple accounts, in groups, and from third parties.
• News trading: allowed, with a 5-minute blackout either side of high-impact releases on the affected assets. Opening or closing a trade inside that window, or leaving a pending order to execute in it, is prohibited.
• Weekend and overnight holding: allowed on Instant, 1-Step and 2-Step. Sprint positions should not be held over a weekend: the 24-hour window keeps running through Saturday and Sunday, so a position carried across it can expire the account. Crypto is the exception, because the crypto market stays open.
• Scalping: conventional scalping allowed, hyper-scalping prohibited, defined as 50% or more of trades held under one minute.
• Consistency: none on the 1-Step or 2-Step, which AIFO has removed. It still applies on Instant, where your best day must stay under 20% of profit, and on Sprint, where a single trade must stay under 20%. A breach there defers a payout until the ratio is rectified rather than failing the account.
• Margin usage: no restriction on the 1-Step.
• Inactivity: 21 consecutive days freezes the account, 30 days closes it permanently.
• Profit caps: none per day or per trade. Concentration is only limited on Instant and Sprint, where the consistency rules still apply.
• Maximum allocation: $200,000 initial, up to $2,000,000 through scaling.
• Payout conditions: KYC through Veriff, all positions and orders closed, and the consistency rule satisfied where it still applies, which is Instant and Sprint. Crypto network fees and currency conversion costs are deducted from the payout.
• Rule that ends most accounts: the firm names the 3% daily loss limit and trading inside the 5-minute news blackout.

Verdict

AIFO gets several things right for a firm barely a year old. The programme range is genuinely wide and the four products are meaningfully different rather than the same evaluation in four wrappers. Pricing is keen, and $79 for a $10,000 2-Step is at the cheap end of what we list. Three of the four programmes run on a static drawdown with no time limit. AIFO has also dropped the consistency rule from the 1-Step and 2-Step altogether, which is unusual and removes the most common cause of a delayed payout. And the firm volunteered corrections to three things other listings get wrong about it, including that its drawdown is programme-specific rather than uniform.

What holds the score back is disclosure and the real cost of the upside. AIFO would not give us a single payout figure and publishes no payout log. There is no fee rebate at all, which is behind the sector norm, where the fee usually comes back with one of your first payouts. The only money-back route is the statutory 14-day cooling-off right, and that disappears the moment you start trading. The headline split needs unpicking: 95% is a scaling ceiling, Instant actually starts at 70%, and the 90% shortcut is a paid add-on at a fifth of the challenge fee rather than something you earn. The two-entity Hong Kong and Anjouan structure is one more thing to read before you buy.

The honest summary is a well-built, cheap and flexible product range from a firm that has not yet shown its payout record. Price the 90% add-on against how long scaling would actually take you, check that your strategy survives a 5-minute news blackout and a daily loss limit measured on open equity, and prefer the static programmes unless instant funding is specifically what you came for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AIFO regulated?

No. AIFO is operated by AIFO Holding Limited, registered in Hong Kong under company number 80190485, with a second entity, AIFO Global Ltd, licensed in Anjouan under L16175/AG. It is not regulated by any financial regulator, it is not a broker, it takes no client deposits, and all accounts run on simulated capital in MetaTrader 5.

What profit split does AIFO pay?

80% on the 1-Step and 2-Step programmes, 70% on Instant and 90% on Sprint. The advertised 95% is a ceiling reached through the scaling plan, 90% at Level 1 and 95% at Level 3, or on Sprint once closed net profit passes 6%. AIFO also sells a 90% split as a checkout add-on at 20% of the challenge fee.

Can you trade the news on an AIFO account?

Yes, outside the blackout. AIFO applies a 5-minute blackout before and after high-impact news releases on the affected assets. Opening or closing a trade inside that window, or leaving a pending order to execute in it, is prohibited. Outside the window, news trading is allowed on every programme.

Is the AIFO challenge fee refundable?

Not as a rebate. AIFO does not return the fee with a payout on its standard programmes, and a failed challenge is not refunded. Reaching Scaling Level 3 grants one free retry, and there is no second activation fee after passing. There is one exception worth knowing: clause 12.1 of the terms gives consumers 14 days to withdraw from the contract for a full refund, but that right lapses once you begin trading the demo account.

How much does an AIFO challenge cost?

From $79 for a $10,000 2-Step account up to $899 for a $200,000 1-Step. Instant runs $129 to $699 and Sprint runs $149 to $599. A second account bought at the same time is 10% off and a third is 15% off.