By Risk note. Automated crypto trading can lose money quickly. 3Commas connects to real exchange accounts via API keys. Nothing here is investment advice, and Meln earns a commission from some links on this page.
Still the most capable, no longer the most trusted. DCA, Grid, Signal and SmartTrade bots, TradingView webhooks, every major exchange, and a genuinely useful AI assistant. Against that, a 2022 API key breach with litigation ongoing, a V2 migration that angered long-time users, price rises, and backtesting limits that make the Starter plan feel thin. Use it with trading-only API keys or not at all.
- Best for
- Experienced crypto traders who want TradingView signals and multiple bot types in one place
- Skip if
- You are new to bots (Pionex, Bitsgap), you want deep backtesting (Cryptohopper), or the breach history is a dealbreaker
- Price
- $20/$50/$140 list; $15/$38/$105 on promotion; annual saves about 3 months
- Trustpilot
- 3.5 from 1,762 reviews; only 29 in the last 12 months
Best for, and not ideal for
Best for traders who already use TradingView and want to turn alerts into automated entries, people running several strategies across more than one exchange, and anyone who wants DCA and Grid bots with a proper terminal in the same tool. Not ideal for first-time bot users, who will find Pionex or Bitsgap gentler; strategy designers who need long backtests, who will prefer Cryptohopper; and anyone who, having read the security section, decides a platform that has leaked keys once is one they would rather not trust with keys again. That is a legitimate position.
How this review was put together
We did not run live capital through 3Commas for a quarter and report the return, because a quarter's return tells you about the quarter. We reviewed what a buyer can verify: the official pricing page and the October 2025 restructure as reported by a competitor and by users, the bot documentation, the published breach timeline and court record, 1,762 Trustpilot reviews by theme with attention to the last twelve months, G2, and the affiliate terms (which conflict between sources, so we disclose the range). Where the company's registration details conflicted across sources, we say so rather than pick one.
What 3Commas is and how it connects
3Commas, founded in 2017, is a non-custodial trading automation layer. You create an API key on your exchange, give it to 3Commas, and the platform places orders on your behalf. Your coins never leave the exchange. That architecture is the right one and it is also exactly why the 2022 incident mattered: a leak of API keys is a leak of the ability to trade your account. The company's registration is variously reported as 3C Trade Tech Ltd in the British Virgin Islands, 3Commas Technologies OÜ in Estonia, and a Vancouver headquarters with a Tallinn office; check the legal footer on the site for the entity you are contracting with.
Bots and features
DCA bot
The dollar-cost-averaging bot opens a position and adds safety orders as price moves against it, closing on a take-profit target. It is the workhorse of the platform, well documented and highly configurable, and the one most users run first. It performs well in trending or recovering markets and can accumulate large positions in a sustained downtrend, which is the risk you are managing.
Grid bot
Places a ladder of buy and sell orders inside a range and profits from oscillation. Good in sideways markets, loses when price breaks the range. The 2025 restructure reportedly capped Grid backtesting at four months, which is too short to see how a range strategy behaves across regimes and is one of our main complaints about the current product.
Signal bot and TradingView
The feature that justifies 3Commas for a lot of its users. Any TradingView alert can fire a webhook that opens, adds to or closes a 3Commas position, which means any indicator or Pine Script strategy becomes executable without writing exchange code. If you live in TradingView, this is the reason to pay.
SmartTrade terminal
A manual trading terminal with trailing take-profit, multiple targets and stop-loss across exchanges from one screen. Useful for discretionary traders who want order types their exchange lacks.
Backtesting
Present but limited, and more limited since 2025. If backtesting is central to your process, Cryptohopper does it better.
AI assistant and QuantPilot
The AI assistant helps you configure bots in plain language and is more useful than most such features; QuantPilot is a newer layer of guided strategy selection. Neither is a model making trades for you. This is the "configuration assistant" category of AI, not the "signal engine" category, and we think the distinction matters when a platform is marketed as an AI trading bot.
Supported exchanges and regions
The official site listed nine exchanges when we checked; a rival's review counted sixteen. The majors are there: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit, KuCoin, Bitget and others. Since the 2025 restructure, connecting more than one exchange requires the Pro tier. Regional availability follows the exchanges rather than 3Commas itself, so a US user is limited to what US-accessible exchanges allow.
Pricing: which plan is worth it
| Plan | List price | Promo price seen | Annual | What you get (post-Oct 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $20/mo | $15/mo | About 3 months free | Core DCA and Grid bots, one exchange connection, limited backtesting |
| Pro | $50/mo | $38/mo | About 3 months free | Multiple exchanges, Signal bots, SmartTrade, more active bots |
| Expert | $140/mo | $105/mo | About 3 months free | API write access, highest bot limits, priority support |
Different review sites quote different figures (one lists $15/$40/$110 as the standard prices, another shows a free single-bot tier and plans from $29), partly because the pricing changed in October 2025 and partly because promotions run often. Treat the live pricing page as the truth. Our view on value: Starter is thin now that multi-exchange and Signal bots sit on Pro, so the real entry price for the features that make 3Commas distinctive is $38 to $50 a month. On a $5,000 account that is a 9 to 12 percent annual hurdle. On a $50,000 account it is noise. Size your account to the plan, not the other way round.
Is 3Commas safe? The breach and the lawsuit
In December 2022, 3Commas API keys were leaked. Binance's CEO publicly warned users to disable keys connected to 3Commas, and losses were later estimated at around $22 million. 3Commas initially denied that its platform was the source, then acknowledged the leak. Reports at the time said the FBI was investigating; we could not confirm the outcome.
We went back and forth on whether the 2022 incident should disqualify 3Commas from this site entirely. It does not, because the architecture is sound and the fix is in your hands: trading-only keys. But if a reader told us they would never hand keys to a platform that leaked them once, we would not argue.
A class action alleging negligent security was dismissed, and on March 2, 2026 the Ninth Circuit reversed that dismissal, finding sufficient California contacts, and sent the case back for trial. It is ongoing and nothing has been decided on the merits. Since 2022 the platform has adopted the standard protections and users have adopted the standard habits: trading-only API keys, IP whitelisting, and two-factor authentication on both sides. We have found no second incident. We also think a reader who treats one leak as disqualifying is being reasonable, which is why Bitsgap, with no comparable incident, sits above 3Commas in our trading bots guide for cautious users.
Whatever platform you use: create a dedicated API key with trade permission only, never withdraw. Whitelist the platform's published IP addresses if your exchange supports it. Keep only trading capital on the connected exchange.
Can 3Commas bots be profitable?
The platform does not publish audited user returns and neither does any competitor. Community posts show both long-running profitable DCA setups and accounts drawn down hard in trends. The bots do exactly what you configure, around the clock and without emotion. They do not know whether the configuration is good, and 3Commas' own marketing is careful to say so. The workflow that respects that is paper trading for a month, going live with money you can afford to lose, keeping the subscription under five percent of the account, and reviewing monthly.
What users say
Trustpilot: 3.5 out of 5 from 1,762 reviews, 69 percent five-star and 13 percent one-star, but only 29 reviews in the last twelve months, which is a quiet signal of a user base that has stopped talking. The recent reviews are dominated by the V1 to V2 migration: bots that could not be transferred, features that disappeared, data that did not move, slow support, and price rises, with one user citing a jump from roughly £36 to $180 a year. Refunds are described as hard to get. G2: 4.4 from 23 reviews, praising the bot range and the TradingView integration. A competitor's review site claims a 4.3 Trustpilot rating, which does not match what Trustpilot showed us; we use the figure we saw.
Setup and support
Setup is straightforward if you have created an exchange API key before and intimidating if you have not; the AI assistant helps with bot parameters but not with the exchange side. Documentation is thorough. Support is chat and ticket based, priority on Expert, and the migration-period reviews describe it as slow. We have not independently tested support response times.
Pros and cons
Still the case for it
- Widest bot range in the category: DCA, Grid, Signal, SmartTrade
- TradingView webhook integration
- Every major exchange, non-custodial
- AI assistant that actually helps with configuration
- Nine years in operation
The case against
- 2022 API key breach; litigation revived in 2026
- V2 migration cost features and goodwill
- Price rises; Starter tier hollowed out
- Grid backtesting capped at four months
- Refunds reported as difficult; no public policy found
- Company registration details conflict across sources
Alternatives
| 3Commas | Bitsgap | Cryptohopper | Pionex | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid | $20/mo list ($15 promo) | $29/mo, $23 annual | $29/mo, $24.16 annual | Free bots, 0.05% fee |
| Trial | Limited free | 7 days, no card | 3 days | Everything free |
| Custody | API keys | API keys | API keys | Exchange holds funds |
| TradingView signals | Yes | No | Yes (marketplace) | No |
| Backtesting | Limited | Demo bots | Strong | Basic |
| Security incident | 2022 key leak | None known | None known | Regulatory questions on global entity |
Questions traders ask about 3Commas
Is it safe?
Non-custodial, but it leaked API keys in December 2022 and the class action was revived in March 2026. Trading-only keys, IP whitelist, two-factor on both sides.
What does it cost now?
$20, $50 and $140 list, often $15, $38 and $105 on promotion. Annual gives about three months free. Multi-exchange needs Pro since the October 2025 restructure.
Can the bots make money?
Some do, some do not, no audited figures exist. Paper trade first and keep the fee under five percent of the account.
Which exchanges?
The majors. The site lists nine, a rival counts sixteen. One exchange on Starter.
What was the V2 mess?
A forced 2025 migration that lost bots, features and goodwill, with a price rise on top. It has settled down.
Alternatives?
Bitsgap for a clean record and a real trial, Cryptohopper for backtesting, Pionex for free bots inside an exchange.
Verdict
3Commas is still the platform we would choose if we needed TradingView signals, multiple bot types and several exchanges in one place, and we would set up trading-only API keys before touching it. It is no longer the platform we would recommend to someone starting out, because the Starter tier has been hollowed out, the backtesting is too short, and the 2022 breach plus the 2025 migration have left a trust deficit the company has not fully repaired. Capable, yes. Comfortable, not quite.