In Binance spot BBO orders, "opponent price" and "queue price" are not two separate order types. They are two price anchor options for BBO limit orders. Opponent price anchors to the best price on the opposite side of the order book. The goal is to fill as fast as possible. You will most likely be a taker, paying a certain fill price and taker fees. Queue price anchors to the best price on your side of the order book. The goal is to place a resting order and wait. You aim for maker fees or at least avoid taker fees. The trade-off is that there is no guarantee of a fill, and the market may move away from your price.
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Where each option sets the price
Binance's official definition of these two options is straightforward. Opponent price is the price on the side of the order book opposite to your order direction. Queue price (officially called "same-side price" in Chinese) is the price on the same side as your order direction.
Take spot BTC/USDT as an example. Assume the current order book has a best bid of 60,000 and a best ask of 60,010.
When you buy and choose opponent price 1, your order price is set to the best ask of 60,010. This price can immediately match with the sell order resting at 60,010. Once filled, you are a taker. When you choose queue price 1, your order price is set to the best bid of 60,000. Your buy order joins the queue behind the existing best bid, waiting for someone willing to sell to you at 60,000. If it fills, you are a maker. If not, it keeps resting.
When you sell, the logic is reversed. Opponent price 1 anchors to the best bid. Queue price 1 anchors to the best ask.
BBO also supports selecting up to the 5th level. Opponent price 5 means a buy order anchors to the 5th ask price. This is worse than the best ask, but it may access deeper liquidity. Queue price 5 places a buy order at the 5th bid position, which is further back in the queue and has lower fill priority. For most users, the default level 1 is enough, unless the order book depth is very thin or you intentionally want to queue at a deeper position.
Choosing opponent price: paying a certain cost for fill speed
Opponent price suits one situation: you believe the current price is what you want, and you do not want to miss the trade to save a small amount on fees. For example, if you see the best ask at 60,010 is already within your acceptable buy range, using opponent price 1 fills you instantly. The fill price is 60,010 with no slippage uncertainty.
There are two costs. First, you pay taker fees. Binance spot's VIP 0 fee is 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker (BNB discount not included). An opponent price fill uses the taker fee rate. Second, if the size at the best ask is not enough to cover your order, the remaining part of your BBO order will rest at 60,010 and wait. It will not automatically sweep the second or third ask levels. Your order then becomes a limit order resting at the original opponent price. Whether it fills later depends on someone willing to trade with you at that price. This differs from a market order: a market order keeps eating through the book, but a BBO order does not.
Choosing queue price: trading fill certainty for fees or price
Queue price suits another judgment: you are not in a hurry, or you think the current best bid is a reasonable entry point and you are willing to wait. When you buy with queue price 1, your order rests at the best bid. If someone later sells aggressively and hits your price, you fill and pay maker fees. Even if VIP 0 maker and taker fees are the same, a resting order avoids the situation of "immediately filling at a bad price."
The problem is that queue price does not guarantee a fill. The market price may never come back, and your order just sits there. A more subtle case: you place a buy at the best bid of 60,000. The price briefly touches it and then bounces. But you are at the back of the queue. The people ahead of you get filled first, and when it is your turn, there is no liquidity left. The queue price option in a BBO order only decides the price anchor at the moment you place the order. After that, the order is just a normal limit order. It does not automatically adjust as the best bid moves. If the market best bid drops to 59,990, your 60,000 buy order becomes the new best bid, but it still needs someone to sell to you for it to fill.
An easy-to-miss detail: BBO options fall back when order book depth is insufficient
Binance's official documentation states that if the order book depth is insufficient and the system cannot find a price at the corresponding level, it will use the last traded price as the BBO order price. This fallback logic is more likely to trigger for small-cap coins or illiquid trading pairs. If you choose opponent price 1 on a pair with very thin depth and there are almost no orders on the ask side, your order price may be set to the last traded price. The fill result may not match your expected "opponent price." Major liquid pairs rarely encounter this issue.
How to choose: based on your goal, not on "which is cheaper"
If you want an immediate fill, choose opponent price. You accept the current order book price and are willing to pay taker fees for certainty. This suits entry logic based on the current price and situations where you do not want to miss a trade because your resting order did not fill.
If you are willing to wait and want to aim for maker fees or avoid filling at a bad price, choose queue price. You accept that the order may not fill or may only partially fill. In exchange, you get a passive resting position. This suits cases where you expect a short-term pullback or your order size is large and you do not want to impact the book all at once.
What neither option fits: you want both a guaranteed fill and maker fees. You cannot get that in one order. BBO orders do not support "Post Only" execution. Choosing queue price does not guarantee you will be a maker. If at the moment of order placement your queue price crosses the opponent price, you may still fill as a taker.
Verification after placing an order is simple. Check the order status in Open Orders and the fill details in Order History. BBO orders are labeled as "Opponent Price" or "Same-side Price" in the records. In the fill details, you can see whether you were a maker or taker and the actual fees charged. If you chose opponent price but did not get fully filled immediately, the remaining part of the order will appear in Open Orders. You then need to decide whether to keep waiting or cancel and reprice.
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