Exness demo account: set the balance and avoid deletion

You do not need to open an Exness demo account, because it already exists. According to Exness's official documentation (updated 06/04/2026), right after you register, the system automatically creates two accounts in the Personal Area: a real Standard MT5 account and a demo Standard MT5 account.

All you have to do is open the "Demo" tab and set the balance correctly.

But there is something more important, which Exness states clearly in its documentation and which many Vietnamese-language guides leave out: a demo account is deleted PERMANENTLY if it is inactive, and it cannot be restored.

A real account is only archived, and it can be switched back on. That is where people practising on demo can easily lose all their work.

The demo account is there from the moment you register

The welcome dialog gives two choices: "Risk-free trial trading" and "Trade with real money", and this is where people misread it. It is not the step that creates an account, only the step where you choose which account to open first.

If you close this dialog by mistake, you lose nothing: go to My accounts → the "Demo" tab and it is there.

Three facts you can read straight off this screen:

• In the Vietnamese interface, Exness calls the demo a "trial" (thử nghiệm) account. If you are searching for "open an Exness trial account", this is the same thing, not a different product.
• The "Trade with real money" button is highlighted, while the demo button sits on a grey background. This is an observation about the design, not an accusation, but once you know it you can click by your own choice.
• The banner at the top says you need to fill in your details "to be able to make your first deposit" → identity verification is tied to depositing, so you can use the demo right away without uploading documents.

How much is the Exness demo balance, and how to reset it

Exness does not fix one figure: you set the virtual balance yourself, higher or lower than the current one. That is the official answer, and it matters more than a default figure, because the number you choose yourself is the one you can use.

According to the Exness guide (updated 06/04/2026), the steps are:

1. Log in to the Personal Area.
2. Open My accounts and select Demo.
3. Click Set balance on the demo account you want to adjust. In Grid view, this option sits in the three-dot menu.
4. Enter the balance you want and confirm. You can only set it in the currency of that particular demo account.

You can also create additional demo accounts inside the Exness Trade app, so a computer is not required.

Which account types have a demo and which do not

Every Exness account type has a demo version, except exactly one: Standard Cent. Exness states this directly in its documentation (updated 31/07/2026): "Except for the Standard Cent account type, which only has real trading accounts, all account types have demo trading accounts."

This has a practical consequence: the familiar path demo → Cent → regular account has a gap in it. You cannot try a Cent account on demo first; stepping into Cent already means using real money, even if the amount is small.

So treat Cent as the "real money, low risk" stage, not a practice stage. How Cent works is covered in what a cent account is.

On the other hand, if you plan to use Standard, Pro, Raw Spread or Zero, you can demo that exact type, and you should demo the type you will actually use, because the spread (the gap between the buy and the sell price, which is the fee you pay) and the fee structure differ from type to type.

See the Exness account types.

Exness says demo conditions match real ones. How far is that true?

The Exness documentation says: "The market conditions for demo accounts are the same as for real accounts, which makes them an ideal tool for practising strategies."

That sentence is about market conditions, prices, instruments and trading hours, and at that level it is reasonable. But "the same market conditions" does not mean "the same experience". The table below shows the gap that remains.

This is our assessment, based on how order execution systems work (that is, the moment your order is actually filled), not a quote from Exness documentation:

The first four rows can be narrowed by setting up the demo to resemble a real account; the last one cannot. A strategy that made steady profits on demo for three months can still lose in the very first week with real money, and the cause is often not the strategy.

When you are ready to leave demo is something we analyse separately in how long to trade on demo.

Setting up the demo to resemble a real account: four settings

1. A virtual balance equal to exactly the amount you plan to deposit for real (use the Set balance function in the section above).
2. The same account type you will use for real, so the spread and fee structure match, except Cent, because Cent has no demo.
3. Leverage set to the level you will actually use, not left at the maximum. High leverage on demo gives a false sense of how far you are from a margin call; see how Exness leverage works.
4. Trade in the same hours you will trade for real. Practising in the evening and then going live in the early-morning Asian session means practising in the wrong market conditions.

🔴 A deleted demo is gone for good: the biggest difference from a real account

This rule is in the Exness documentation, but it sits on a help page that many Vietnamese-language guides do not link to. Here is the Exness comparison table, quoted directly (updated 06/04/2026 and 27/07/2026):

Three things to read carefully in this table:

1. "Inactive" does not mean "not logged in". Exness defines it clearly: "Inactivity means there is no trading activity or change in the account balance. You must log in and carry out these activities to keep the account active."

In other words, logging in and out is not enough; there has to be a trade or a change in the balance.

2. The 3-day mark applies to REAL accounts. For demo accounts, the documentation only says they "will be deleted if there is no activity" and gives no specific number of days.

Neither the Vietnamese nor the English version of the same article gives one. So do not trust any figure (21 days, 30 days, 180 days) you read on aggregator sites: they do not agree with each other or with the original documentation.

3. Exness adds one more important sentence: "For technical reasons, trading accounts may be archived or deleted within a shorter period than stated above." So even the 3-day mark is not a guarantee.

What to do is simple: if you are practising a strategy on demo and want to keep your trade history, go in and place a trade or adjust the balance at least once every few days.

With a real account there is less to worry about: an archived account can be switched back on with the balance intact. Find it under My accounts → the Real or Demo tab → "Archived accounts", below the list of active accounts.

Three common misconceptions

"Does the Exness demo show different prices from the real account to lure beginners?" We have no basis for saying so and do not claim it. On the contrary, the Exness documentation says demo market conditions are the same as on a real account.

The gap you feel usually comes from the first four rows of the comparison table: slippage (the fill price differs from the price you saw when you clicked), order execution, widening spreads, and psychology. To check for yourself, open a demo chart and a real chart of the same pair side by side and compare them when news comes out.

"Profit on demo means the strategy is good." That is only true once you have set up the demo to resemble a real account and have been through enough different market conditions. A strategy that only works in a sideways market will look good through three quiet months and then break in the first session with major news.

"Just keep using demo forever to stay safe." Besides the fact that staying on demo too long means you never practise handling real emotions, there is a very specific reason: an inactive demo is deleted and cannot be recovered. The whole trade history you rely on to judge your strategy goes with it.

Spotted something inaccurate? Tell us and we will check it and publish a correction.