The 3Commas DCA bot is one of the most popular crypto trading bots, and also one of the easiest to misconfigure. This guide explains what every main setting does, shows how the averaging-order “ladder” is calculated with worked examples, and covers the safety checks to make before you launch. It is based on 3Commas' own help centre documentation as of October 2026.
Risk warning: DCA bots add to losing positions. If the price keeps falling past your last averaging order, losses grow. Test on 3Commas' demo account first. Nothing here is financial advice.
How a DCA bot works in one paragraph
The bot opens a trade with a base order. It then places averaging orders (formerly called safety orders) at set distances below the entry. If the price drops, they fill and lower your average entry price, so a smaller bounce is needed to hit your take profit. When take profit is reached, the trade closes and the bot looks for the next one. See the 3Commas listing for plans and supported exchanges.
Fastest ways to start
- Strategy presets: “Classic trading” (long on spot), “Super power” (long on futures) and “Super speed” (short on futures) fill in default settings for you.
- Strategy Gallery: pre-built DCA strategies you can browse and launch with filters already applied.
- Advanced settings: every option below, with a TradingView chart beside the form where you can drag take profit, stop loss and averaging orders directly on the chart.
Main settings
- Exchange and direction: pick the exchange account and long or short.
- Pairs: single-pair or multi-pair. A multi-pair bot can't mix quote currencies (for example /BTC and /ETH pairs need separate bots).
Entry order settings
- Base order size: the first buy. On a single-pair bot it can be a fixed amount of the quote currency (e.g. 20 USDT), a fixed amount of the base coin, or a % of your total quote balance. That includes funds locked in other trades, so 2% of a 1,000 USDT balance is always 20 USDT.
- Futures note: order sizes already include leverage. A 100 USDT base order at 20x uses 5 USDT of margin.
- Trade start condition: open immediately, or wait for indicator conditions, a TradingView signal or a webhook.
Averaging order settings (the ladder)
- Deviation to open first averaging order: how far below the entry the first extra buy sits (e.g. 1%).
- Averaging order size: the size of the first extra buy.
- Deviation step multiplier: multiplies the gap between each order. 1 keeps the gaps equal, and above 1 spreads later orders further apart.
- Order size multiplier: multiplies the size of each new averaging order (for example 1.5 makes each one 50% bigger).
- Averaging orders per trade: the maximum number of extra buys, and Limit averaging orders placed on exchange to avoid locking up all your funds in open orders.
- Averaging orders condition: optionally only place averaging orders when indicators or webhook signals agree. 3Commas also offers a Custom Price Ladder instead of standard DCA.
Worked examples
All three use a 20 USDT base order, a 20 USDT first averaging order and 5 averaging orders. Distances are measured from the base order price. We calculated them from 3Commas' formula: each step = previous step × step multiplier.
| Settings | Order 1 | Order 2 | Order 3 | Order 4 | Order 5 | Max funds needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1% first deviation, step ×1, size ×1 | −1% | −2% | −3% | −4% | −5% | 120 USDT |
| 2% first deviation, step ×1.2, size ×1.2 | −2% | −4.4% | −7.28% | −10.74% | −14.88% | 168.83 USDT |
| 1% first deviation, step ×1.5, size ×1.5 | −1% | −2.5% | −4.75% | −8.12% | −13.19% | 283.75 USDT |
What this shows: equal steps (row 1) only protect you down to −5%, which crypto can move in hours. Multipliers stretch the ladder much further (−13% to −15%) but raise the money the bot may need. The size multiplier has the bigger effect on capital, more than doubling it in row 3. 3Commas shows the max amount for bot usage and max averaging order price deviation in the summary before launch. Check both against your balance and the coin's recent drops.
Exit settings
- Take profit: a target % calculated either from the base order only or from the total position. You can set up to 4 take profit targets if your order size allows, and the target accounts for exchange fees.
- Trailing take profit: lets profit run past the target. The final exit becomes a market order, which can slip in volatile or illiquid markets.
- Reinvest profit: adds profits to future entry orders.
- Stop loss: calculated from the base order price, not the average price, so set it below your last averaging order. Actions are “close trade” or “close trade and stop bot”. A stop loss timeout waits before acting, to ignore brief wicks. Breakeven, risk reduction and trailing stop loss are also available.
- Maximum hold period: closes the trade after a set time whether it is in profit or not.
Advanced settings worth knowing
- Max active trades: cap simultaneous trades to what your balance can actually fund, including all averaging orders.
- Simultaneous trades per same pair and cooldown between trades (in seconds) control how aggressively the bot re-enters.
- Min/max price to open trade keeps the bot inside a price range, and minimum daily volume filters out illiquid coins.
- Maximum trade iterations: stop the bot after a set number of completed trades.
Important: if you edit a running bot, the new settings only apply to new trades. Open trades keep their old settings unless you edit them manually.
Pre-launch checklist
- Run the strategy on the demo account or backtest it first.
- Check “max amount for bot usage” is affordable even if every averaging order fills, multiplied by max active trades.
- Compare “max averaging order price deviation” with the coin's typical sell-offs.
- Set a stop loss below the last averaging order, or accept and size for the risk without one.
- Use API keys with trading permission only, and enable IP whitelisting.
FAQ
What are the best 3Commas DCA bot settings?
There are no universally best settings. Liquid large-cap coins, a modest size multiplier (around 1.0–1.5), wider spacing via the step multiplier and a cap on max active trades are a common, more defensive starting point. Always backtest on the coin you plan to trade.
What is the difference between a DCA bot and a grid bot?
A DCA bot buys more as price falls and sells everything at one take profit. A grid bot places many buy and sell orders across a range and profits from each bounce. See what a grid trading bot is.
Is 3Commas the only DCA bot?
No. Cryptohopper, Bitsgap, Gainium, Cornix and exchange bots on Bybit and Binance also offer DCA. Compare them in 3Commas vs Cryptohopper vs HaasOnline and Bybit and Binance bot settings.
