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What is a mini lot in forex?

In one line: A mini lot is 10,000 units of the base currency, or 0.1 of a standard lot. On pairs quoted in US dollars, one pip is worth about $1.

Trading glossary · Updated 2026-10-21

The short answer

A mini lot is the middle forex trade size: 10,000 units of the first currency in the pair.

On most platforms you type it as 0.10. It's ten times a Micro lot and one tenth of a Standard lot.

Why $1 a pip is handy

On pairs where the US dollar is the second currency, like EUR/USD, a mini lot is worth about $1 per Pip. That makes the math easy:

• 20 pips = about $20
• 35 pips = about $35
• 50 pips = about $50

For pairs like USD/JPY or EUR/GBP, the pip value moves with the exchange rate. The pip value calculator works it out.

A simple example

Your account is $5,000. You risk 1% a trade, which is $50.

You're trading GBP/USD with a Stop loss 25 pips away.

• $50 ÷ 25 pips = $2 per pip
• $2 ÷ $1 per mini lot = 2 mini lots, or 0.20

Now say the stop is 40 pips away instead:

• $50 ÷ 40 = $1.25 per pip
• That's 1.25 mini lots, which you'd round down to 0.12

Notice: the wider the stop, the smaller the size. Same $50 risk either way. A math example, not a promise. Losses can still run past the stop in fast markets.

Why it matters

Your lot size is the dial that sets your risk. The stop comes from the chart. The size comes from the math. Our lot size calculator does both steps in seconds.

A common mistake

Using the same lot size on every trade. "I always trade 1 mini lot" sounds simple. But a 15-pip stop risks $15, and a 60-pip stop risks $60. Four times the risk, same setup.

The fix is to let the stop decide the size, every time. See how much to risk per trade.

Questions