Alpha Capital - Prop Firm Review
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- Real UK company (Companies House 13719951); NOT FCA regulated, and no FCA warning exists
- A flat 80% split on every plan – there is no 90% tier at any price
- Static on Alpha Pro, Swing and Three; Alpha One trails a high-water mark
- The 2-minute rule: 50% of profits must come from trades held over two minutes
- $100 minimum payout; the fee is not refundable – all sales are final
Last reviewed: 13 July 2026. Checked against Alpha Capital Group’s official terms, return policy, help centre and pricing pages, and against Companies House and the FCA register. Figures below reflect the products on sale at the time of review; prop firm rules change often, so always confirm on the firm’s own pages before you buy.
TL;DR: Alpha Capital in 30 seconds
- What it is: a genuine UK company (Companies House 13719951) trading simulated capital. Not FCA regulated, and there is no FCA warning against it - similarly named unrelated firms do appear on that list.
- The split: a flat 80% on every plan. There is no 90% tier at any price - scaling raises your balance, not your share.
- The drawdown: static on Alpha Pro, Swing and Three. Alpha One trails a high-water mark.
- The catch: the 2-minute rule: at least 50% of profits must come from trades held over two minutes, or profits are removed and the balance reset. The discretionary Risk Management Group can halve your lot sizes.
- Cost: one-time fee, and it is not refundable - “all sales are final”. Trustpilot 4.7 from 20,000+ reviews.
- Best for: swing and position traders. A poor fit for scalpers, who the 2-minute rule effectively excludes.
Table of contents
Pricing snapshot
CFD pricing
| Program | Account size | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listed challenge | $10K | USD 97 | One-time | Migrated from existing JoinProp product price field. |
| Listed challenge | $25K | USD 197 | One-time | Migrated from existing JoinProp product price field. |
| Listed challenge | $50K | USD 257 | One-time | Migrated from existing JoinProp product price field. |
| Listed challenge | $100K | USD 457 | One-time | Migrated from existing JoinProp product price field. |
| Listed challenge | $200K | USD 897 | One-time | Migrated from existing JoinProp product price field. |
Firm Overview
Alpha Capital Group is a simulated-capital prop firm operating from a real, active UK company: Alpha Capital Group Limited, Companies House number 13719951, incorporated November 2021. That is worth stating plainly, because it is more corporate substance than most of this industry offers.
It is also worth being precise about what that does and does not mean. Alpha Capital is not FCA regulated, and it does not claim to be - its own help centre describes it as “not a broker… a proprietary trading company”, and its Companies House filing lists it under IT services rather than financial services. The only licence anywhere in the group belongs to its execution broker, ACG Markets, which holds a Seychelles Financial Services Authority Securities Dealer licence (SD182). That licence covers the broker, not the prop firm, and it is not a UK permission.
We checked the FCA’s live warning list directly. There is no FCA warning against Alpha Capital Group. Several unrelated firms with similar names do appear on it, which is exactly the trap that catches careless research - do not confuse them.
The Product Line
| Plan | Steps | Profit target | Daily DD | Max DD | Drawdown type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha One | 1 | 10% | 4% | 6% | Trailing (high-water mark) |
| Alpha Pro 6% | 2 | 6% / 6% | 3% | 6% | Static |
| Alpha Pro 8% | 2 | 8% / 5% | 4% | 8% | Static |
| Alpha Pro 10% | 2 | 10% / 5% | 5% | 10% | Static |
| Alpha Swing | 2 | 10% / 5% | 5% | 10% | Static |
| Alpha Three | 3 | 8% / 4% / 4% | 4% | 6% | Static |
Alpha One is the only trailing-drawdown plan. Everything else is static. There is no time limit and no account expiry on any plan - free retakes were abolished and replaced with unlimited trading days. Account sizes run $5,000 to $200,000, with allocation capped at $400,000 per household and $300,000 per strategy; breaching that cap closes all your accounts.
There is also Alpha Prime, a progression to live capital. Note it pays 60%, not more - lower than the simulated product - with an optional monthly salary attached.
The Split Is 80%. There Is No 90% Tier.
This is the most commonly misreported fact about Alpha Capital, and it is worth being blunt about.
The profit split is 80%, on every plan, and there is no way to get more. Not by scaling, not by paying, not by performing. The help centre says analysts “are eligible to receive an 80% share of the profits”; the product page says “up to an 80% performance split”; the scaling plan pays “your performance fee of 80%” at Scale 1 and Scale 2 alike.
Scaling raises your balance - in 10% steps to a cumulative $2m - and your lot sizes. It does not touch your share. The checkout add-ons that exist are for enabling EAs and choosing a Raw account; there is no split upgrade to buy.
The one thing that moves the number is a discretionary 0.25% bonus of your initial account size, paid on your 4th performance-fee request only.
Where does the widely-quoted “90%” come from? Most likely from Alpha’s own comparison content, which puts both numbers in one sentence - “Alpha Capital pays up to 80% on all four paths; FTMO and FundedNext pay up to 90%”. The 90% belongs to the competitors in that sentence, not to Alpha.
The Fee Is Not Refundable
The return policy is one line, and it is unambiguous:
“All sales are final and no refund will be issued.“
The help centre repeats it: “All our evaluation plans are non-refundable.” There is no fee rebate on your first payout, and no cooling-off window. The only refund that exists anywhere in Alpha’s documentation is one the firm may elect to make - it reserves the right to refund a passed account if funding it would push your total allocation above $400,000.
The 2-Minute Rule: The One That Ends Most Alpha Accounts
Alpha’s drawdowns are conventional. The rule that actually removes people is a duration test, and it is not on the pricing page.
At least 50% of your profits must come from trades held longer than two minutes. It is assessed as an average trade duration test across the account, not trade by trade - so a strategy that is mostly fast, with a few long holds, fails it even if every individual trade was compliant.
The consequences escalate depending on when you are caught:
- Breach it after passing the evaluation: you restart from Phase 1.
- Breach it on a qualified (funded) account: all profits are removed and the balance is reset.
If you are a scalper, this rule alone decides whether Alpha Capital is a viable firm for you - and the answer is probably no. It is the single most important line in this review for a short-term trader.
The Risk Management Group
The other under-reported mechanism, and the firm’s real friction point. The Risk Management Group (RMG) is a discretionary status Alpha can move you into for behaviour it deems high-risk: “extreme scalping”, all-or-nothing sizing, risking 2% or more per trade, excessive lot usage, news gambling, or “account rolling”.
Once you are in it:
- Leverage is cut to 1:30 (1:15 on Swing), and lot caps are halved.
- Further restrictions can add a 1% single-position risk cap and a cooling-off rule - lose 1% or more on a symbol and you are barred from trading it until the next day. Non-compliance is itself a breach.
- You cannot scale or merge accounts while in RMG.
- Exit requires two consecutive successful payouts plus a discretionary review by the risk team.
Nothing about RMG is objective, and nothing about it is advertised. It is the mechanism most likely to sit between a profitable Alpha trader and their money.
Payouts
| Payout term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Minimum payout | $100 gross ($80 net to you) on the bi-weekly route |
| Bi-weekly | Every 14 days (Alpha Pro and Alpha Three only); first payout needs 5 trading days |
| On-demand | Any time you hold 2% gross profit (Swing is on-demand only) |
| Best Day Rule | On-demand payouts require no single day exceed 40% of total profits |
| Processing | Within 2 business days; account is locked while processing |
| Methods | Rise, Wise, bank transfer. Crypto only via Rise - not paid directly |
| Commission | Standard: none. Raw: $2.50 per lot round turn (indices free on both) |
Using minimal lot sizes purely to tick off trading days is explicitly “not allowed”.
Alpha One: Withdrawing Everything Can Close The Account
Worth stating carefully, because the blunt version of this claim circulates and it is not quite right.
Alpha One’s 6% maximum drawdown trails a high-water mark. Once your account reaches 6% profit, that trailing floor locks to your initial balance. From that point, your equity may never fall back to the starting balance - so if you withdraw all of your profit, you land exactly on the floor and the account is closed. Alpha’s help centre advises leaving a buffer for precisely this reason.
Below 6% profit, this does not apply. The floor has not locked yet, and you can request a payout of all profits and carry on trading. The rule is a consequence of the trailing drawdown locking, not a penalty for withdrawing.
Trading Rules
- Allowed: hedging, stacking (three or more trades on the same instrument), and overnight and weekend holds during all evaluation phases. That is more permissive than most firms.
- Weekend holds on qualified accounts: allowed on Alpha One, Alpha Three and Alpha Swing - but NOT on Alpha Pro. This is a genuine trap for funded Pro traders who held positions freely during the evaluation.
- Expert Advisors: risk-management EAs only, on MT5 only, pre-approved by email before use and enabled at checkout. Fully automated EAs mean immediate account closure.
- Copy trading: only from your own verified master account. Group trading and signal following are prohibited.
- News: allowed, with blackout windows - 5 minutes either side on Alpha One and Three, 2 minutes on Alpha Pro. You may not open or close on the affected instrument in that window. Swing is relaxed.
- Lot-size limit is per position, not per idea. A first breach makes those profits unpayable; a second breach forfeits your profits and deactivates the account. One oversized trade followed by another is two breaches.
- IP rule: one IP per account, and two people in the same household cannot both hold accounts. VPN or VPS use requires a static IP declared in advance.
- Inactivity: 30 consecutive days deactivates the account, irreversibly. Logging in does not count - you must trade.
- Prohibited: latency and arbitrage trading, HFT, front-running, order-book spamming, reverse and group hedging, and third-party account management.
Platforms, Markets and Costs
Alpha Capital supports MetaTrader 5, cTrader, DX Trade and TradeLocker. US residents cannot use MT5, and cTrader is closed to new US customers.
Two account types are offered at checkout: Standard, with no commission, and Raw, at $2.50 per lot in each direction with tighter spreads. Indices are commission-free on both. Execution runs through ACG Markets.
Note one inconsistency on Alpha’s own site: the product page advertises plans “from $50”, while its own pricing article lists an Alpha Pro 6% $5,000 account at $40. Prices also shift with frequent promotions, so treat any figure as indicative.
Company Information
- Entity: Alpha Capital Group Limited, UK, Companies House no. 13719951, incorporated 2 November 2021
- Regulation: not FCA regulated, and does not claim to be. Its execution broker, ACG Markets, holds a Seychelles FSA Securities Dealer licence (SD182) - that covers the broker, not this firm
- FCA warning list: checked directly - no warning exists against Alpha Capital Group. Similarly-named unrelated firms do appear on it
- Account type: simulated capital
- Maximum allocation: $400,000 per household; $300,000 per strategy
- Trustpilot: 4.7 out of 5 from over 20,800 reviews, on a claimed profile with no consumer alert. That is a strong score and, unlike much of this sector, it is being displayed normally
Who Alpha Capital Actually Suits
There is a real company here, with a long-standing and well-rated Trustpilot profile, four platforms, static drawdowns on five of its six plans, no time limits, and unusually permissive rules on hedging, stacking and weekend holding during evaluations. For a swing or position trader, it is one of the more sensibly built products in the sector.
The catches are all about how you trade and how you get paid. The fee is gone the moment you buy it. The split is 80% and will never be more. The 2-minute rule quietly excludes an entire trading style. The Risk Management Group can, at the firm’s discretion, halve your position sizes and add rules mid-account. And funded Alpha Pro traders lose the weekend holding they had during the evaluation.
Consider it if you hold trades for meaningful durations, you want a static drawdown and a real corporate counterparty, and you are content with a flat 80%.
Avoid it if you scalp, if you size aggressively enough to attract a risk review, or if you are choosing Alpha on the belief that a 90% split is available here. It is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Alpha Capital’s profit split?
A flat 80% on every plan. There is no 90% tier - not by scaling, not as a paid add-on, and not for performance. Scaling increases your account balance, not your share. The live-capital progression, Alpha Prime, pays 60%.
Is Alpha Capital FCA regulated?
No. It is a genuine UK-registered company (Companies House 13719951) but it holds no FCA authorisation and does not claim any. Its execution broker, ACG Markets, holds a Seychelles FSA licence, which does not extend to the prop firm. There is no FCA warning against the company.
What is Alpha Capital’s 2-minute rule?
At least 50% of your profits must come from trades held longer than two minutes, measured as an average trade duration test. Breach it after passing and you restart from Phase 1. Breach it on a funded account and your profits are removed and the balance reset.
Can I get a refund from Alpha Capital?
No. The return policy states: “All sales are final and no refund will be issued.” There is no cooling-off period and no fee rebate on your first payout.
Alpha Prime: The Live-Capital Route, And Its Price
Alpha Prime is the firm’s progression from simulated capital to a live-capital arrangement, and it is one of the more unusual structures in the sector - worth understanding before you treat it as the goal.
The headline is counter-intuitive: Alpha Prime pays 60%, not 80%. Moving up to live capital reduces your profit share by twenty points. In exchange, Prime traders can receive an optional monthly salary, and the plan carries no consistency rule - the 40% best-day constraint that governs on-demand payouts elsewhere does not apply. Risk parameters are also different in kind rather than degree: a 30% daily loss limit and a $10,000 static maximum loss.
Two conditions deserve attention. First, your qualifying simulated accounts are closed when you transition - Prime replaces them rather than running alongside. Second, the exit terms are strict: Alpha’s own documentation states that traders who decline the live programme “will receive their final payout and forfeit any further relationship with any branch of the Alpha Group.” Turning down the offer ends the relationship.
Whether the trade is worth it depends entirely on the salary, which is not published. A 20-point split cut is a large, certain cost against an unquantified, discretionary benefit.
Getting Paid: The Gates Before The Money
Alpha runs two payout modes and they are mutually exclusive - you choose one, and the choice is constrained by the plan you bought.
Bi-weekly is available on Alpha Pro and Alpha Three only. Payouts land every 14 days from your first trade, with a $100 gross minimum - which nets you $80 after the split. Your first payout additionally requires five trading days on the same strategy.
On-demand is available on Pro, Swing, One and Three, and it is the only route on Alpha Swing. You may request at any time, but two gates apply: you must hold at least 2% gross profit on the account, and you must pass the 40% Best Day Rule - no single day may account for more than 40% of your total profits.
That second gate is the one people hit. A trader who makes most of their money on one strong day is blocked from withdrawing until subsequent trading dilutes that day’s share below 40%. It is not a breach and nothing is lost - but the money stays where it is until the distribution evens out, and there is no way to appeal it.
Your account is locked while a payout is processing, so you cannot trade through it. Processing itself is quick, at two business days.
Is Alpha Capital legit?
Alpha Capital Group is a genuine, active UK company - Companies House number 13719951, incorporated November 2021 - with a long-standing Trustpilot profile rated 4.7 from over 20,000 reviews. It is not FCA regulated and does not claim to be. There is no FCA warning against it; several similarly named but unrelated firms do appear on the FCA warning list.
Does Alpha Capital have a consistency rule?
Only on the on-demand payout route, where the 40% Best Day Rule applies - no single day may account for more than 40% of your total profits. The bi-weekly route has no such rule. Separately, the 2-minute average trade duration rule requires at least 50% of profits to come from trades held over two minutes.
Can you hold trades over the weekend at Alpha Capital?
During the evaluation, yes - on every plan. Once funded, weekend holding is allowed on Alpha One, Alpha Three and Alpha Swing, but not on Alpha Pro. That change between evaluation and funded account catches Pro traders out.
Are Expert Advisors allowed at Alpha Capital?
Only risk-management EAs, only on MT5, and only with prior approval - you must email the EX5 file and enable the option at checkout. Fully automated EAs mean immediate account closure. Copy trading is permitted only from your own verified master account.
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