Kraken Futures Demo: testing Autoview before you trade live
Kraken Futures Demo is a free, separate account for testing Kraken's perpetual and fixed-maturity futures contracts, running the exact same order-placement code Autoview uses for live Kraken Futures. If you want to prove a new alert or a new stop shape works before it touches a funded account, this is the connection to test it on.
This is not Kraken Spot's demo. Kraken has no public testnet for spot trading -- the Kraken Spot guide covers connecting your live spot account directly, with no demo step. Kraken Futures Demo only covers futures contracts, a separate Kraken product with its own account, credentials, and symbols.
What Kraken Futures Demo is
Kraken Futures Demo is a first-class connection on Autoview, separate from live Kraken Futures, priced at $0. It isn't a stripped-down copy of the live integration -- the Demo connection literally wraps the same order-placement function live Kraken Futures calls, and only swaps two things: the API endpoint (Kraken's demo-futures.kraken.com host instead of its live futures.kraken.com one) and the exchange aliases you reference it by. Every order type, the stop-loss/take-profit side rule, and the sizing behavior documented for live Kraken Futures apply identically on Demo.
Kraken credits a Futures Demo account with demo funds automatically, and orders fill against Kraken's real futures market data and matching engine, so fills and rejections behave like a live account would -- only the money isn't real.
Get a Kraken Futures Demo account
Sign up directly at demo-futures.kraken.com. It's a separate registration from your regular Kraken account -- a Kraken Spot login does not carry over. Once you're in, generate an API key from the Demo site's own account settings; Kraken issues a Public Key and a Private Key pair, shown once at creation. Copy both before you leave that screen.
Connect it to Autoview
Kraken Spot has its own dedicated setup wizard on Autoview. Kraken Futures does not -- Demo or live, it's reached through Autoview's generic connect-an-exchange flow instead, since Futures authenticates differently from Spot. Add an account, choose Kraken Futures Demo from the exchange list, and paste in the Public Key and Private Key you generated above.
Save, then run the connection test. It's read-only -- it reads your Demo account balance to confirm the two credentials authenticate. It places no orders.
Sending commands: what changes, what doesn't
Command syntax is identical to live Kraken Futures: the same contract-symbol format (for example PI_XBTUSD for the XBT perpetual inverse contract), the same b=/q=/t= parameters, and the same stop rule. Only the account and the money behind it differ.
The one thing that changes is how the Chrome extension picks the exchange. On the webhook platform, a webhook is already tied to whichever account you connected it to, so you never set an exchange in the command itself. On the extension, swap e=krakenfutures for e=KRAKENFUTURESDEMO (or the equivalent e=KRAKEN-FUTURESDEMO):
| Live Kraken Futures (extension) | Kraken Futures Demo (extension) |
|---|---|
e=krakenfutures s=PI_XBTUSD b=buy t=market q=1 | e=KRAKENFUTURESDEMO s=PI_XBTUSD b=buy t=market q=1 |
Add d=1 to any command first, on Demo the same as live, and Autoview parses it and reports what it would have done without sending anything to Kraken.
Stop-loss and take-profit follow the same side rule as Kraken Spot: fsl=/sl= and ftp=/tp= are attached exits and flip to the opposite side to close a position, the same as documented on the Kraken command reference's side-rule section. fpx=/px= is an entry stop instead and keeps your original side. ro=1 marks an order reduce-only, so it can only shrink a position, never extend it.
Leverage is set on Kraken's side
Autoview's command syntax has no leverage parameter for Kraken Futures. The leverage applied to an order is whatever you've configured for that contract in your Kraken Futures account settings (Demo or live) at the time the order fires -- there's no l= or equivalent to set it from a command. Set your leverage preference on Kraken directly before you start sending alerts.
Once Demo looks right
Demo proves your command syntax and your alert wiring, not your live account's credentials -- those are separate on Kraken Futures, so a working Demo connection doesn't skip the setup steps on live Kraken Futures. Live Kraken Futures billing rides on the same $39.99/mo subscription as Kraken Spot. When you're ready, generate a live API key at futures.kraken.com, connect it the same way through the generic exchange list, and run the same dry-run-then-live check at a small size.