Reviewed guide | 2026-10-17
Keeping a DCA purchase log that shows your true average cost per bitcoin
Recurring buys scatter across order history, convert records and card statements. A simple log format that captures each purchase, includes the costs, and gives you an average cost you can trust.
Multiple exchanges | the reader's region | the reader's funding currency | fees, access and account safety
Dollar-cost averaging is meant to be boring, and that is part of its appeal. The trouble starts months later, when you want to know what you actually paid on average. The exchange's portfolio screen may show an estimate that ignores fees, mixes in coins you transferred in, or resets when you move funds. Recurring buys may sit in a different history tab from manual orders. A log you keep yourself solves this, and it takes only a couple of minutes per purchase.
Find every place your purchases are recorded
On Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget, recurring purchases can appear under the recurring buy or auto-invest section, under convert history, or as ordinary spot trades, depending on how you set them up. Card purchases may be in yet another list. Open each of these once and note which one your plan uses. If you buy on more than one exchange, list them all, because an average built from only one source will be wrong.
Record the fields that matter
For each purchase, write the date, the amount of local currency or stablecoin spent, the amount of bitcoin received and any fee shown on the confirmation. If the fee was deducted in bitcoin rather than in the spending currency, record that explicitly, since it reduces the coins you actually hold. Keep the order or transaction ID in a separate column so you can find the original record later. A spreadsheet works well, but a plain note with one line per purchase is enough.
Calculate the average the honest way
Add up everything you spent, including fees, and divide by the total bitcoin you actually received. That figure is your real average cost. It will usually be slightly higher than the price shown on any single purchase screen, which is expected. Do not include coins that came from a transfer between your own accounts as new purchases, and do not subtract coins that left for your own hardware wallet as sales; they are still yours and still carry their original cost.
Reconcile once a month
Once a month, export the relevant histories and check that every scheduled buy appears in your log, especially if a payment failed or a plan was paused. Compare the total bitcoin in your log with what you actually hold across the exchange and your wallets. A mismatch usually means a missing fee entry or a forgotten transfer. Fixing it while it is a month old is far easier than reconstructing a year.
Risk boundary: BTC Pulse
Digital assets are volatile and derivatives can amplify losses. This website has no login, wallet connection, deposit form or customer-support chat. A referral link only records attribution; it does not guarantee access, pricing, rewards, approval or investment results. Availability can differ by residence, legal entity and product, so no regional access is assumed from language or branding alone.
Scenario checkpoint
- Identify which history tab each recurring plan writes to on every exchange you use.
- Log date, amount spent, bitcoin received, fee and order ID for each purchase.
- Divide total spending including fees by total bitcoin received to get your average cost.
- Reconcile the log monthly against exports and the coins you actually hold.
Digital assets are volatile and derivatives can amplify losses. This website has no login, wallet connection, deposit form or customer-support chat.