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Polymarket Fees Explained: What US Traders Pay Now (and the Rebate Nobody Notices)

Polymarket charges trading fees now, with one twist worth knowing before your first order: on the US exchange, patient traders collect a rebate instead of paying. The current schedule, decoded.

For most of its existence, Polymarket's pitch included a magic word: no trading fees. That era ended as the platform grew up, went through its US relaunch, and started operating like the regulated exchange it now is. In 2026 there are fees, they differ between Polymarket's two venues, and the schedule has changed more than once this year. Current as of July 10, 2026; the details below come from Polymarket's own published fee documentation.

One housekeeping note first, because it decides which half of this article applies to you. There are two Polymarkets: the US exchange (the CFTC-regulated venue American traders use) and the international platform (the global crypto-based one, closed to US users). Their fee schedules are different. The full story of why there are two is in Is Polymarket legal?

The US exchange: one formula, two directions

Polymarket US uses a fee formula that will look familiar if you've read our Kalshi fees guide, because it is the same shape:

Fee = coefficient × contracts × price × (1 − price)

The fee scales with uncertainty: biggest for 50¢ coin-flips, shrinking toward zero at the extremes. What makes the US schedule interesting is that the coefficient depends on which side of the trade you are:

Takers pay 0.06. Cross the spread with a market order and the fee runs 0.06 × price × (1 − price) per contract. At the 50¢ worst case that is 1.5¢ per contract, or a maximum of $1.50 per hundred contracts.

Makers get paid 0.0125. Post a resting limit order that someone else fills and the same formula runs in reverse as a rebate, credited when the trade executes: up to 31¢ back per hundred contracts at 50¢.

The fee for trading patiently on Polymarket US is negative. Kalshi discounts its maker fee by about three quarters; Polymarket US goes past zero and pays you. The economic logic is standard exchange practice, resting orders are what create the liquidity everyone else consumes, but the practical takeaway for you is blunt: on this venue, limit orders are not just cheaper, they are income.

Per contract, side by side at common prices:

Price	Taker pays	Maker receives
20¢	0.96¢	0.20¢
35¢	1.37¢	0.28¢
50¢	1.50¢	0.31¢
65¢	1.37¢	0.28¢
80¢	0.96¢	0.20¢

There is also a high-volume program: traders doing more than $250,000 a month in taker volume earn tiered rebates on their taker fees, from 10% up to 50% at the top tier. If that is you, you are past needing this article; for everyone else, the maker rebate is the one that matters.

The international platform: per-category taker fees

The global platform (again: not available to US traders) moved off zero fees too, and its schedule works differently: taker fees vary by market category, with sports at the low end and crypto markets at the high end of a roughly 0.75% to 1.80% range, applied with the same uncertainty-scaled shape, and makers trade free. If you are reading from outside the US, check the platform's current schedule directly; category tables have been revised during 2026 and will likely be revised again.

What else costs money

Settlement and withdrawals: no settlement fee and no withdrawal fee are listed on the US exchange's schedule.
The old crypto tolls: the international platform historically exposed users to blockchain gas costs and stablecoin conversion spreads. The US exchange is a dollars-in, dollars-out venue; those frictions are not part of the American product.
Doing nothing: no account or inactivity fees on either venue.

Playing the schedule

The strategy content is short, because the schedule points one direction:

Be the maker. On this venue the case is even starker than usual: crossing the spread costs up to 1.5¢ per contract, resting orders earn 0.31¢. The swing between the two habits is nearly 2¢ per contract at mid prices, before counting the better fill price the limit order got you in the first place. The how-to lives in bid vs ask and setting orders.
Mind the round trip. Take both sides of a position's life with market orders and the fee applies twice. Two taker legs at 50¢ cost about 3¢ per contract. Enter as a maker instead and the 0.31¢ rebate offsets part of the 1.50¢ taker exit, netting out around 1.19¢, roughly two and a half times cheaper for the same trade.
Fees are lowest where prices are extreme. As on Kalshi, a 90¢ contract is cheap to trade in absolute terms. And as on Kalshi, watch the relative cost when buying cheap longshots: pennies of fee on a dime of outlay adds up faster than it looks.
Re-check the schedule quarterly. The US exchange's current numbers took effect July 1, 2026, replacing a different schedule from the spring. This article gets updated when the schedule moves, but the platform's fee page is always the authority.

Where this leaves you

Polymarket stopped being free and started being an exchange, and exchanges pay for liquidity: takers fund a small fee pool, patient traders collect from it. If you bring the one habit this whole series keeps recommending, resting limit orders at your own price, Polymarket US is currently the cheapest venue in American sports trading. How that compares to what a sportsbook takes from the same yearly volume, in actual dollars, is next: the real math on what you save.

Educational information, not financial advice. Fee schedules change; verify current rates on the platform before trading. Prediction markets involve risk of loss, and their legal status varies by location and changes over time.