{ "schemaVersion": "vultax-public-research-data-v1", "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/how-does-polymarket-make-money", "datasets": [ { "title": "How the fee is set", "columns": [ { "name": "Date", "unit": null }, { "name": "What changed", "unit": null } ], "rows": [ [ "Until January 2026", "No trading, deposit or withdrawal fees on any market" ], [ "5 January 2026", "Taker fee on 15-minute crypto markets, peaking at 1.56% at a 50% price; it funds daily rebates to makers" ], [ "12 February 2026", "5-minute crypto markets launch on the same fee curve" ], [ "18 February 2026", "Taker fee on college basketball (NCAAB) and Serie A markets, peaking at 0.44%" ], [ "6 March 2026", "All new crypto markets, including hourly, 4-hour, daily and weekly" ], [ "30 March 2026", "Almost every category: crypto, sports, finance, politics, economics, culture, weather, tech, mentions and other; geopolitics stays fee-free" ], [ "28 April 2026", "New exchange contracts: the fee is set when an order matches rather than signed into it" ], [ "28 May 2026", "Tiered rebates for takers begin" ], [ "10 July 2026", "Sports rate raised from 0.03 to 0.05" ], [ "25 September 2026", "Rates: crypto 0.07; sports, economics, culture, weather and other 0.05; politics, finance, tech and mentions 0.04; geopolitics 0" ] ], "measurementContext": "From Polymarket's documentation and changelog, including archived copies of its fees page from September 2025 to May 2026.", "sources": [ { "label": "Boka Qin and Rui Yang — Polymarket-v1 Database (TimeSeventeen)", "url": "https://huggingface.co/datasets/TimeSeventeen/Polymarket-v1", "note": "Historical fills, CC BY 4.0; 714,691,643 fills, 1 January 2025 to 28 April 2026" }, { "label": "Polymarket — trading fees", "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees", "note": "Formula, category rates, fee-free geopolitics; read 2026-09-25" }, { "label": "Polymarket — changelog", "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/changelog/predictions", "note": "Fee start on 15-minute crypto, NCAAB and Serie A, all crypto from 6 March, all categories from 30 March, sports 0.05 from 10 July" }, { "label": "Polymarket — fees page, September 2025 (Wayback Machine)", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250914202753/https://docs.polymarket.com/polymarket-learn/trading/fees", "note": "\"Polymarket does not charge any type of fee\"" }, { "label": "Polymarket — fees page, 22 April 2026 (Wayback Machine)", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260422232554/https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees", "note": "April schedule; \"Makers are never charged fees. Only takers pay fees.\"" }, { "label": "Polymarket — maker rebates", "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/programs/maker-rebates", "note": "Rebates funded by taker fees" }, { "label": "Polymarket — taker rebates", "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/programs/taker-rebates", "note": "Live from 28 May 2026" }, { "label": "Polymarket — builder fees", "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/programs/builders/fees", "note": "Builder fees stack on top of platform fees" }, { "label": "The Block — Polymarket adds taker fees to 15-minute crypto markets (Jan 2026)", "url": "https://www.theblock.co/post/384461/polymarket-adds-taker-fees-to-15-minute-crypto-markets-to-fund-liquidity-rebates", "note": "First trading fees" }, { "label": "Polymarket — acquisition of QCEX for $112 million (Jul 2025)", "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/polymarket-acquires-cftc-licensed-exchange-and-clearinghouse-qcex-for-112-million-302509626.html", "note": "QCX LLC and QC Clearing LLC" }, { "label": "Polymarket US — fee schedule notice (8 Jan 2026)", "url": "https://www.polymarketexchange.com/files/notices/Fee%20Schedule%20%282026.01.08%29.pdf", "note": "Taker fee from 1 to 10 basis points of premium" }, { "label": "Polymarket US — weekly notification (21 Sep 2026)", "url": "https://www.polymarketexchange.com/files/notices/Exchange%20Notice%20-%20Weekly%20Notification%20%282026.09.21%29.pdf", "note": "Taker coefficient from 0.06 to 0.0695" }, { "label": "ICE — Form 8-K exhibit on the Polymarket investment", "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1571949/000094787125000890/ss5432176_ex9901.htm", "note": "Up to $2 billion; global distributor of Polymarket's event data" }, { "label": "ICE — Polymarket Signals and Sentiment launch (Feb 2026)", "url": "https://ir.theice.com/press/news-details/2026/ICE-Launches-Polymarket-Signals-and-Sentiment-Tool-Turning-Crowd-Sourced-Dynamic-Views-into-Market-Opportunities/default.aspx", "note": "Institutional data product" }, { "label": "Polymarket and X — official partnership", "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/polymarket-and--announce-official-prediction-market-partnership-302475432.html", "note": "Terms not disclosed" }, { "label": "Polymarket and Dow Jones — data partnership", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/polymarket-dow-jones-publisher-wall-160000431.html", "note": "No financial terms stated" }, { "label": "The Oracle by Polymarket — Inside Polymarket Perps", "url": "https://news.polymarket.com/p/inside-polymarket-perps", "note": "Launched 3 September 2026" }, { "label": "CNBC — Polymarket annualized revenue above $1 billion (26 Jun 2026)", "url": "https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/26/polymarket-annualized-revenue-1-billion-us-exchange-.html", "note": "Company-supplied run rate" } ], "measurement": { "kind": "reference", "temporalCoverage": "2025-09/2026-09", "population": null, "methodology": "Read from docs.polymarket.com and its Wayback Machine captures on 25 September 2026." }, "id": "how-the-fee-works-table", "kind": "published-table", "description": "Polymarket charged no trading fees in 2025. From 1 January to 28 April 2026 takers on its international exchange paid an estimated $46.6 million, $28.4 million of it in April, two thirds on crypto markets. Fees by month and category, the schedule behind them and its other revenue.", "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/how-does-polymarket-make-money", "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/how-does-polymarket-make-money#how-the-fee-works", "publishedAt": "2026-09-29", "modifiedAt": "2026-09-29", "version": "87035759dec21e9273c326bfaa0892ba821522601339f7788365fbec3ca9fb60", "isLive": false, "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Fee figures are Vultax estimates from public on-chain fills at Polymarket's published schedule, checked against fees collected on-chain; they are not Polymarket's reported revenue. Nothing here is financial advice.", "downloads": { "json": "https://vultax.com/research/how-does-polymarket-make-money/data.json?dataset=how-the-fee-works-table", "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/how-does-polymarket-make-money/data.csv?dataset=how-the-fee-works-table" } } ] }