Hyperliquid builder codes explained

Contents

What are Hyperliquid builder codes?#

Builder codes are Hyperliquid's built-in way for an app to charge a fee on the trades it routes. Hyperliquid's builder codes documentation defines them as a fee a builder receives on fills it sends on behalf of a user, set per order, approved by the user up to a maximum, and processed entirely onchain as part of HyperCore's fee logic. "Builder" here means an app developer, not a block builder in consensus.

The model matters because Hyperliquid's fees page says its trading fees go entirely to the community: HLP, the Assistance Fund and deployers. An app that wants revenue from Hyperliquid trading has two protocol-level options. It can deploy markets under HIP-3 or HIP-4 and earn a deployer fee share, or it can send orders to existing markets and add a builder fee. Builder codes are the second route, and they need no stake. For where builder codes sit among HyperCore, HyperEVM and the HIPs, see what Hyperliquid is and how it works.

How do Hyperliquid builder codes work?#

A builder code takes one approval from the user, then one field on each order.

1. The user approves a maximum fee. The user's main wallet signs an approveBuilderFee action with the builder's address and a maxFeeRate written as a percent string, such as "0.1%". Hyperliquid's exchange endpoint reference shows the full payload, including hyperliquidChain and signatureChainId. API wallets and agent wallets cannot sign it.
2. The app attaches the code to orders. Each order action can include "builder": {"b": "0x...", "f": 100}. b is the builder address. f is the fee in tenths of a basis point, so f: 100 is 10 basis points, or 0.1%.
3. HyperCore charges the fee on fills. The fee is taken in the quote or collateral asset as part of normal fee processing. In fill data, the fee field includes the builder fee, and a separate builderFee field shows the builder's part.
4. The builder claims. Builder fees accrue like referral rewards and are claimed through the same referral reward claim process.

Two conditions sit on the builder side. The builder address must hold at least 100 USDC in perps account value, and it must use the standard account abstraction mode. Hyperliquid's account modes page repeats that builder code addresses only accrue fees in standard mode.

Smart contracts can take part too. HyperEVM contracts can approve a builder fee through CoreWriter action 12, with maxFeeRate in decibps, per Hyperliquid's HyperCore interaction reference. How CoreWriter connects the two sides is covered in HyperCore vs HyperEVM.

Builder code fee caps and units#

Builder fees are capped by market type, and each part of the API writes the rate in a different unit. The same 0.1% fee looks like this in each place:

An order can carry any fee up to the lower of the market cap and the maximum the user approved. The approval is the ceiling, so an app cannot charge more than the rate the user signed.

Builder fees on HIP-4 outcome markets#

HIP-4 outcome markets, Hyperliquid's version of prediction markets, trade through the spot API, so builder codes follow spot rules with one addition. Hyperliquid's HIP-4 deployer actions page says builder codes inherit spot behavior for sell orders, can also be applied to buy orders, and are charged in the quote token. The protocol charges those buy-side builder fees on a best-effort basis, and builders may check the user's quote balance when they compute a maximum order size.

The older HIP-4 overview still mentions only sell orders. As of 2 November 2026, the deployer actions page is the more specific of the two.

This matters because Hyperliquid's own outcome fee works differently. Hyperliquid charges outcome trading fees only when a position is closed or settled, not when it is opened, and outcomes pay no maker rebates. A builder fee on an outcome buy is therefore often the only fee on that fill. Totalis, which publishes this guide, charges a 0.1% builder fee this way: a $100 buy of a Yes token in its app pays $0.10 to Totalis and nothing to Hyperliquid. Selling that position later pays another 0.1% to Totalis plus Hyperliquid's outcome fee. How HIP-4 markets mint, trade and settle is in HIP-4 outcome markets explained.

How builder fees add up: worked examples#

A builder fee is added to what the trader already pays Hyperliquid. These examples use Hyperliquid's base fee tier, before staking or referral discounts.

On a large order the builder fee can be bigger than Hyperliquid's. At the perp cap, an app takes more than twice Hyperliquid's base taker rate. Staking discounts lower Hyperliquid's own fee tiers, and the docs do not describe them for builder fees. Every Hyperliquid fee, including HIP-3 deployer fees and outcome fees, is laid out in Hyperliquid fees explained.

How do I see or revoke a builder code approval?#

Hyperliquid has a page in its app at app.hyperliquid.xyz/builderCodes where you can remove builder codes you approved, added in February 2026 per Hyperliquid's 24 February update. Developers can query the same state through the info endpoint: {"type": "approvedBuilders", "user": "0x..."} lists the builders a user has approved, and {"type": "maxBuilderFee", "user": "0x...", "builder": "0x..."} returns the approved maximum in tenths of a basis point.

Each account can have 10 active builder approvals. A new app may need you to remove an old one first. The approval itself grants no trading or withdrawal rights. It only sets the most an app can add as a fee to orders sent with its code.

Sub-builders: splitting one builder fee#

Since late October 2026, one builder fee can be split. The order's builder object takes an optional s list of up to 5 sub-builders, each an existing Hyperliquid user, with a share in units of 0.001% of the builder fee. s: 50000 sends half the fee to that address. Shares must be positive and add up to at most 100%, and the main builder keeps the remainder. Hyperliquid listed optional sub-builders in its 28 October update. A wallet that embeds another team's trading interface can use this to pay that team without a separate settlement.

Builder code revenue: which apps earn the most?#

On the last complete UTC day before 2 November 2026 (1 November), OpenChainBench's frontend leaderboard, built from Hyperliquid's per-builder fill files and its own node, ranked the 106 builders it tracks by builder fees collected. Wallets led:

Fee rank and volume rank differ. Hyperdash routed the most volume in that table but charged about 1.4 basis points, while MetaMask and Trust Wallet charged the full 0.1% perp cap. A single day moves around, so treat the table as a snapshot.

Over longer periods, Hyperliquid itself reported in its 13 May 2026 update that Phantom had passed $20 million in builder code revenue in under a year. The same update and later ones list new integrations, including Ledger, the Base app per the 24 August update, and VALR, Africa's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, per the 6 July update.

How builders track builder fee revenue#

Hyperliquid publishes three sources a builder can reconcile against, described in its builder codes page and its info endpoint reference:

• The referral info request returns builderRewards. The top-level field counts USDC only; builder fees collected in other quote tokens appear per token under tokenToState.
• Every fill in userFills carries a builderFee field when a builder fee was charged.
• Daily fill files for each builder are published as LZ4-compressed CSVs at https://stats-data.hyperliquid.xyz/Mainnet/builder_fills/{builder_address}/{YYYYMMDD}.csv.lz4. The address must be lowercase, and the URL is case sensitive.

One caution on the daily files. OpenChainBench reports that since 8 September 2026 the public export has cut off around 12:10 UTC on most days, so a day summed from the files alone can show about half of the real total. It fills those days from its own Hyperliquid node. Builders who pay partners from the daily files should check them against builderRewards, token by token, or against their own fill data, and convert to dollars only after the units match.

Builder codes vs deployer fees vs referral rewards#

Hyperliquid has several ways to earn from trading, and they stack in different places.

A trader on a HIP-3 market opened through a wallet can pay all three at once: Hyperliquid's base fee, the deployer's multiple of it, and the wallet's builder fee. The HIP-3 guide shows the deployer side in detail.

How Totalis uses a Hyperliquid builder code#

Totalis uses a Hyperliquid builder code on single-market orders placed in the Totalis app. Its single markets are Hyperliquid's own HIP-4 outcome markets traded on HyperCore. Per Totalis's Combo fees and limits page, as of 2 November 2026:

• Single-market orders in the Totalis app that carry the Totalis builder pay a 0.1% builder fee on the filled value, buy or sell.
• Some orders go without it and pay no builder fee, such as a new account's first buy. A HyperCore account that does not exist yet cannot have approved any builder.
• Hyperliquid charges its own outcome trading fee on top, on closing or settlement only.
• Orders you send to Hyperliquid yourself, for the same markets, pay only Hyperliquid's fee.

In API terms, the Totalis rate is f: 100 on each order, and Hyperliquid only accepts it after the account's main wallet has approved a maximum builder fee for Totalis.

Combos are priced differently. A Combo joins 2 to 5 outcomes into one position with one payout, quoted by market makers through an RFQ and settled on HyperEVM. Combos pay no Hyperliquid builder fee. They pay a 1.5% entry fee on the stake and a 1% profit fee on proceeds above the net stake when the Combo settles or is sold back, both charged by Totalis.

Totalis RFQ builder codes are a different thing#

Totalis also issues its own "builder codes" to partners, and they are not Hyperliquid builder codes. A Totalis RFQ builder code is attribution inside Totalis: it names a partner on a Combo RFQ so that the positions it opens, and the Combo fees they pay, count toward that partner's revenue share. Totalis's RFQ builder codes guide documents how it works.

Accounts a partner admitted are attributed automatically, with no code on each RFQ. For accounts nobody admitted, a partner's page sends an origin code signed by the partner's server, and only from that registered origin. A code is recorded once when the RFQ is created and never changes, and a cash-out keeps the attribution of the RFQ that opened the position. Partners that put Totalis in their own frontend start with the guide to your users' own wallets.