What does the USDT/USD price actually measure?
It measures what traders are paying for USDT in US dollars at a given moment. It is not a rate that Tether sets or publishes.
Tether's Terms of Service say its tokens “may also be used, kept, or exchanged online wherever parties are willing to accept Tether Tokens”. Those markets set their own prices through trading. One exchange's USDT/USD order book gives one figure, another exchange gives a slightly different one, and an index blends several of them into a single number.
The 1:1 figure belongs to a different channel: issuance and redemption directly with Tether. That channel has its own entry rules and costs, set out below.
Who can redeem USDT for exactly $1, and what it costs
Only verified Tether customers. The Terms say: “In order to cause Tether Tokens to be issued or redeemed by Tether, you must be a verified customer of Tether.” Redemption is at $1 per token, minus fees. Tether's fees page sets a USD 100,000 minimum and a redemption fee of the greater of USD 1,000 or 0.1%.
Here is what that fee schedule works out to at a few sizes, before the one-off USD 150 verification fee:
| USDT redeemed | Redemption fee | Dollars paid out | Dollars per USDT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100,000 | 1,000 (the USD 1,000 floor applies) | 99,000 | 0.990 |
| 500,000 | 1,000 (the floor still applies) | 499,000 | 0.998 |
| 1,000,000 | 1,000 (0.1% equals the floor) | 999,000 | 0.999 |
| 5,000,000 | 5,000 (0.1%) | 4,995,000 | 0.999 |
Tether's fees page is the current source for these amounts.
The route has other limits too. Tether's FAQ says the account review “could take days to weeks to complete”, and Tether can decline an account. The Terms list “any U.S. Person (except for Eligible Contract Participants agreed by Tether, in its sole discretion)”, Canadian persons and Singaporean persons among those who cannot use it. Since 1 September 2025, Tether no longer redeems USDT held on Omni, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, EOS or Algorand.
Why ordinary holders see prices slightly above or below $1
Tether's FAQ, fees page and Terms describe the peg, the reserves and the redemption rules, but give no account of why the market price moves away from $1 or what brings it back.
What the Terms do contain points away from any price guarantee. Section 15 releases Tether from liability for losses related to “the real or perceived value of any Tether Tokens or other Digital Tokens traded or utilised on the Site”, and the Terms state in capitals: “THERE IS NO GUARANTEE AGAINST LOSSES FROM USING THE SITE, THE SERVICES, YOUR TETHER TOKENS OR A USER WALLET.”
What is documented about the two routes:
- Tether issues and redeems at $1 per token, minus fees.
- Only verified customers can use that route, starting at USD 100,000.
- Each redemption costs at least USD 1,000.
- Everyone else trades USDT with other people on exchanges and P2P markets.
If you need the dollar value of a USDT balance at a particular moment, use a market price together with its time, not the 1:1 peg.
The OKX USDT/USD index behind this site's spot reference
The spot reference on this site starts from OKX's USDT/USD index. On 28 October 2026, OKX's public index-components data listed these inputs:
| Source | Pair | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken | USDT/USD | 0.3 |
| Coinbase | USDT/USD | 0.3 |
| Bitstamp | USDT/USD | 0.2 |
| OKX's own BTC/USD index | BTC/USD, converted to an implied USDT/USD price | 0.2 |
So the index is a weighted mix of USDT/USD prices on three exchanges plus one value derived from bitcoin prices. OKX's USDT/USD index page shows the figure without a written method, and the components can change, so check the current list before relying on it.
For each currency, our spot reference is this index multiplied by the day's exchange rate for the US dollar. If the index stood at 0.9990 and the exchange rate were 100 units of your currency per dollar, the spot reference would be 99.90. Nobody trades at the spot reference. It is a yardstick for the P2P prices on the rates page.
Which USDT/USD figure should you use?
It depends on what you are trying to find out:
| What you want to know | Figure to use | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| What Tether pays a verified customer on redemption | $1 per token, minus the redemption fee | Tether's fees page and Terms of Service |
| What a USDT balance is worth in dollars right now | A current market price, noted with its time | The USDT/USD pair or index on the exchange you use |
| Whether P2P buyers in your currency are paying more than market value | The P2P premium over the spot reference | The rates page and each currency page |
Keep them apart. A P2P ad priced several percent above the exchange rate tells you about P2P pricing in that currency, not about USDT losing its link to the dollar. A USDT/USD price a fraction below 1 tells you about market trading, not about what Tether owes on redemption.
From USDT/USD to the price in your own currency
Because the spot reference already includes the USDT/USD index, the premium figures on the rates page measure only the gap between P2P ads and that reference. That gap varies widely from one currency to another. On 27 October 2026, for example, it ran from about −0.35% for the Chinese yuan to about +8.8% for the Indian rupee.
A dated snapshot for all 11 currencies, how the premium is calculated, and the official rules for each country are in USDT P2P premium: why local prices differ from the exchange rate. For the basics of the token itself, start with What is USDT.
FAQ
Is 1 USDT equal to 1 USD?
Tether pegs USDT 1:1 to the dollar and redeems at that rate, minus fees, for verified customers. On exchanges, USDT/USD is a traded price that can sit slightly above or below 1. The spot reference on the rates page uses the OKX USDT/USD index rather than a fixed 1.
How much does it cost to redeem USDT with Tether?
Tether's fees page lists a USD 100,000 minimum, a redemption fee of the greater of USD 1,000 or 0.1%, and a one-off USD 150 verification fee. On a redemption of exactly USD 100,000, the redemption fee alone is USD 1,000.
Does Tether guarantee that USDT will trade at $1?
Its Terms release Tether from liability for losses tied to the real or perceived value of Tether Tokens and state that there is no guarantee against losses.