By the CryptoToolPicker editorial team · Last checked · Fact-check log
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Prices and rules as of October 17, 2026 Checked against official pages on October 17, 2026. Prices and rules change; always confirm on the provider's own page before you pay.
Koinly is free to use until you need the tax report. Reports cost $49 per tax year for up to 100 transactions (Newbie), $99 for 1,000 (Hodler) and from $199 for 3,000+ (Trader), paid once per year with no automatic renewal. It produces Form 8949 and Schedule D, walks you through matching Form 1099-DA, and exports to TurboTax. The catch: refunds are only within 7 days and only if you have not generated a report yet.
Not financial advice. This is a general, educational comparison of features and published fees. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any crypto asset. Crypto prices are volatile and you can lose money.
What Koinly charges (as of October 17, 2026)
| Plan | Transactions | Price | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Imports up to 10,000 | $0 | Every feature, including the capital gains preview and tax optimizer, but no downloadable tax report |
| Newbie | 100 | $49 per tax year | A light year: a few buys, a transfer, a sale |
| Hodler | 1,000 | $99 per tax year | Regular buyers, small stakers |
| Trader | 3,000+ | From $199 per tax year | Active traders; the exact price above 3,000 is set in the app |
| More than 10,000 | Pro plan plus top-ups of 1,000 transactions | Not published | High-volume traders; Koinly also mentions custom plans, price Not published |
Checked October 17, 2026 against the official pages listed under Sources.
Every paid plan includes unlimited wallets and exchange accounts, Form 8949 and Schedule D, international tax reports, a comprehensive audit report, export to TurboTax and TaxACT, margin and DeFi support, and email and chat support. Koinly accepts debit and credit cards and four cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, DAI and USDC) as payment. You can generate unlimited reports for a year you have paid for, and if you upgrade you pay only the price difference.
What counts as a transaction, and why it decides your price
Koinly defines a transaction as "any deposit, withdrawal or trade that you add". It says it groups related transactions and filters out spam, so most people pay for fewer than their raw count, but it does not publish exactly which pairs it groups. That makes the free import the only reliable way to see your number. Here is how a raw count builds up for three common beginners:
| Your year | Raw count by Koinly's definition | Plan if nothing is grouped | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 monthly bank deposits, 12 buys, 1 move to a hardware wallet (withdrawal + deposit), 2 sells, 1 cash-out | 29 | Newbie | $49 |
| A weekly recurring buy: 52 deposits + 52 buys, plus 2 wallet moves (4 entries) | 108 | Hodler (just over 100) | $99, or $49 if grouping brings it under 100 |
| Daily staking rewards (365 deposits) plus 40 trades | 405 | Hodler | $99 |
| 2,500 trades across three exchanges, plus 400 moves between your own wallets (800 entries) | about 3,300 | Trader | From $199 |
| Catching up three past years at about 100 each | 100 per year | 3 × Newbie | $147 |
Checked October 17, 2026 against the official pages listed under Sources.
The second row is the one to watch. A weekly recurring buy, popular with beginners, lands just above Newbie's 100-transaction limit if every deposit and buy counts separately. Import first, check the count Koinly shows, and only then choose a plan. If you buy Newbie and later import more history, you pay the $50 difference to reach Hodler, not a second full price.
What you get before paying
Koinly says every feature is free, "with nothing held back", until you need the report. In practice that means you can connect every exchange and wallet, fix errors and see your full gains and income summary for every year on the Tax Reports page without a card. That is more than a demo: you can find out whether you even have gains to report, and how messy your data is, before spending anything.
Feature highlights from Koinly's pricing page: smart transfer matching (moves between your own wallets keep their original cost basis), mining, staking, lending and airdrop income, exchange and network fee tracking, spam detection, bulk editing and rules, 20,000+ cryptocurrencies, 8+ years of historical prices, automatic balance checks and negative-balance warnings, and a double-entry ledger for every asset. Imports cover exchange API sync, CSV files, EVM chains, Solana, Cardano and others, and xPub/yPub/zPub keys for bitcoin wallets. Its home page says it connects to 800+ exchanges and wallets.
Setting up Koinly, step by step
- Create a free account at koinly.io. No card is needed to import or preview.
- Add every exchange account by API (read-only) or CSV, and every self-custody wallet by its public address. For bitcoin hardware wallets, an xPub key imports the whole wallet at once.
- Open the transactions list and check that moves between your own wallets show as transfers, not as sales and new purchases.
- Fix every "missing purchase history" warning (no sale should show a $0.00 cost basis) and every "missing market price" warning (no sale should show $0.00 proceeds). Koinly lists both as must-fix before filing.
- Pick the cost-basis method Koinly should use. It supports FIFO, LIFO, average cost, HIFO and wallet-based tracking (Spec ID). Which one you may use is a tax question, so ask a professional if unsure.
- On the Tax Reports page, preview your gains and income free.
- Complete the 1099-DA step: for each wallet in the "Pending" section, mark whether you received a Form 1099-DA, until Pending is empty.
- Check the transaction count, buy the plan that covers it, and generate your reports: Form 8949, Schedule D and the audit report.
Getting it into TurboTax and other tax software
TurboTax Online is the best-documented route. On Tax Reports, generate "TurboTax (Gain/Loss)" and unzip it: you get one PDF per exchange (all blockchain wallets go into one "Non custodial" PDF), split into parts above 900 disposals. In TurboTax, go to Federal → Income → Investments and Savings, answer Yes to investment income, choose "Enter a different way", then Upload, and upload each PDF in turn. Koinly warns that TurboTax's PDF reader "may randomly miss some data", so check dates, cost basis and proceeds after importing.
Lots of sales? TurboTax caps PDF imports at roughly 9,000 transactions, per Koinly. The alternative is to enter section totals from Koinly's Form 8949 summary report and upload the statement PDF instead.
Staking or mining income goes in separately: Koinly tells you to take the year's income total from its Tax Reports page and enter it in TurboTax under "Digital assets not reported anywhere else". If an exchange sent you a 1099-MISC for some of that income, enter it on its own and subtract it from the total.
TurboTax Desktop is the weak spot. Koinly says Desktop's TXF import does not support the new Form 8949 digital asset boxes, so you would have to edit every sale by hand. Its workaround is to import into TurboTax Online first and then continue that return in Desktop. TaxACT has its own export. For H&R Block, Koinly has no special export; you copy figures from its IRS report. Koinly's home page also lists FreeTaxUSA.
Pros, cons and catches
Koinly
Pros
- The fullest free preview of the tools we compare: every feature until you download the report.
- One-time payment per tax year, and Koinly says it will never charge you automatically.
- 1099-DA matching is built into the report flow, with a clear TurboTax Online path.
- Pays in crypto as well as cards; upgrades cost only the difference.
Cons
- Each tax year is a separate purchase, so catching up on old years adds up ($49 or $99 a year).
- Prices above 10,000 transactions (Pro plan and top-ups) are Not published.
- No dedicated H&R Block export.
Catches
- The 7-day refund ends as soon as you generate a report, not when you download it.
- Deposits count, so weekly recurring buys or daily staking rewards can push you past 100 quickly.
- TurboTax Desktop users face manual edits unless they route through TurboTax Online.
Who it's for, and who it isn't
Koinly fits people who file one year at a time, use TurboTax Online, hold coins across several chains or wallets, and want to see everything before paying. It's a weaker fit if you want a generous trial-and-refund window, file with H&R Block and want a direct import, or need several past years at once (see our tax software comparison, where CoinTracker includes past years). If your year includes complex DeFi, business income or anything you are unsure how to classify, software is a starting point, not a replacement for a tax professional.
Comparing options? See Koinly vs CoinLedger, the CoinLedger review, and Form 8949 for crypto for what the report actually contains.
Not tax advice. This is general, educational information about tools and IRS forms. Your situation may differ; ask a tax professional before you file.
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FAQ
How much does Koinly cost?
$49 per tax year for up to 100 transactions, $99 for 1,000, and from $199 for 3,000+. Importing and previewing are free. Above 10,000 transactions you need a Pro plan plus top-ups, whose price is not published.
Is Koinly a subscription?
No. Koinly says all plans are one-time payments per tax year and it will not charge you automatically.
Can I get a refund from Koinly?
Yes, within 7 days of purchase, but only if you have not generated a tax report yet. Koinly says the money arrives in 5 to 10 business days.
What counts as a transaction in Koinly?
Any deposit, withdrawal or trade you add. Koinly groups related transactions and filters spam, so your billed count is often lower than the raw total.
Does Koinly handle Form 1099-DA?
Yes. Its report flow asks you to mark, for each wallet, whether you received a 1099-DA, and its home page says it reconciles 1099-DAs and generates Form 8949.
Does Koinly work with TurboTax Desktop?
Only partly. Koinly says the Desktop TXF format does not support the new digital asset boxes, so it suggests importing into TurboTax Online first and continuing in Desktop.
Can I pay Koinly with crypto?
Yes. It accepts BTC, ETH, DAI and USDC, plus major debit and credit cards.
How we checked
On October 17, 2026 we read Koinly's pricing page, home page and two Koinly Help Center articles on tax software, and copied only the prices, limits and steps stated there. Transaction counts in the tables are our own arithmetic using Koinly's published definition; Koinly's grouping can lower them, and it does not publish exactly how. Prices above 10,000 transactions are marked "Not published". We did not buy a plan or file a return for this review, and nothing here is tax advice.
Sources
- Koinly pricing: https://koinly.io/pricing/
- Koinly home page (features, 1099-DA and integrations): https://koinly.io/
- Koinly Help Center: Filing using TurboTax: https://support.koinly.io/en/articles/10586971-filing-using-turbotax
- Koinly Help Center: How to use Koinly with TurboTax, TaxAct, etc.: https://support.koinly.io/en/articles/9490081-how-to-use-koinly-with-turbotax-taxact-etc
- IRS: Digital assets: https://www.irs.gov/filing/digital-assets
Everything above comes from these official pages as of October 17, 2026. Claims we couldn't confirm there are left out or marked "Not published".