Cost calculator
Polymarket fee calculator
Polymarket charges the taker only: shares × rate × price × (1 − price). Taking 100 shares at 50¢ costs $1.00 in politics, $1.25 in sports and $1.75 in crypto, and a resting order that gets filled costs nothing. The rate belongs to the market, not just its category: 309 of the 1,000 most-traded open markets charged no fee when we read them on 20 September 2026.
Polymarket international. Schedule checked against the official fee rules. Polymarket US runs a separate schedule.
Calculate one fill
Trading fee
$1.00
2.00% of the trade’s value, from a rate of 0.04. The rate is a coefficient, not a percentage of your stake.
- 100 shares at 50¢
- $50.00
- Trading fee
- + $1.00
- You pay
- $51.00
- All-in cost per share
- 51¢
Held to settlement, a winning outcome pays $100.00 and leaves $49.00; a losing one leaves −$51.00. At 51¢ all-in, the outcome has to happen more often than 51% of the time for this fill to break even. That is arithmetic, not a forecast.
One hypothetical fill from the numbers you enter. It reads no live quote, order-book depth or account, and places no order. A limit order that fills immediately is a taker order.
What markets actually charge
Every market publishes its own fee setting through Polymarket’s public API. We read it for the 1,000 open markets with the most 24-hour volume. 309 of them, 31%, charged a taker nothing: markets with fees switched off, as Polymarket does for geopolitical and world events, and markets on a zero-fee schedule, that Sunday’s NFL games among them. Another 65 reported a rate of 0.03 where the published sports rate is 0.05. They are sports markets listed between 22 September 2025 and 2 July 2026, mostly season-long winners such as a league title. Every fee-charging market used the same curve, so one formula covers them all once the rate is right.
| What a taker is charged | Markets | 100 shares at 50¢ | Which markets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taker rate 0.05 | 338 | $1.25 | sports 241, weather 43, culture 42, economics 11, general 1 |
| No fee: rate set to 0 | 191 | $0.00 | for example nfl-gb-nyj-2026-09-20 |
| Taker rate 0.04 | 179 | $1.00 | politics 142, finance 23, tech 14 |
| No fee: fees not enabled | 118 | $0.00 | for example will-united-russia-er-gain-the-most-seats-in… |
| Taker rate 0.07 | 109 | $1.75 | crypto 109 |
| Taker rate 0.03 | 65 | $0.75 | sports, earlier schedule 65 |
Read once, . One pass over a ranking that moves while it is read. Fields are reported by the API, not confirmed against executed trades. Markets outside the ranking are not described. Settings can change after retrieval. CSV · JSON · the Python script that produced it
Check a market’s actual rate
The market’s public record carries three fields. No account or key is needed. Replace the slug with the last part of the market’s address:
https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets?slug=YOUR-MARKET-SLUG| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| feesEnabled | false or missing: no trading fee on this market. |
| feeSchedule.rate | The number to enter above. 0 means a taker pays nothing even though fees are switched on. |
| feeSchedule.exponent | 1 on every market we read. This calculator does not cover any other value. |
Prefer code? This standard-library Python script prints these fields for a market and its order book in one run. Polymarket’s field reference.
The formula, and why 0.07 is not 7%
fee = shares × rate × price × (1 − price), with the price in dollars and the result rounded to five decimal places. Anything under $0.00001 is charged as nothing.
The rate is a coefficient. For 100 crypto shares at 50¢ it gives 100 × 0.07 × 0.50 × 0.50 = $1.75, which is 3.5% of the $50 paid, not 7%. The dollar fee is the same at 25¢ and 75¢ ($1.3125), but as a share of the money paid it is 5.25% at 25¢ and 1.75% at 75¢: cheap shares carry the heavier percentage.
A buy pays the fee on top of the price. A sale has it taken from the proceeds. Work out each fill separately when prices differ, because each one rounds on its own.
Published rates by category
Polymarket’s reference table. Makers pay 0 in every row. Use it when you cannot read the market’s own rate.
| Category | Taker rate | 100 shares at 50¢ | As a share of the $50 paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Politics | 0.04 | $1.00 | 2.0% |
| Finance | 0.04 | $1.00 | 2.0% |
| Tech | 0.04 | $1.00 | 2.0% |
| Mentions | 0.04 | $1.00 | 2.0% |
| Sports | 0.05 | $1.25 | 2.5% |
| Economics | 0.05 | $1.25 | 2.5% |
| Culture | 0.05 | $1.25 | 2.5% |
| Weather | 0.05 | $1.25 | 2.5% |
| Other / general | 0.05 | $1.25 | 2.5% |
| Crypto | 0.07 | $1.75 | 3.5% |
| Geopolitics | 0 | $0.00 | 0.0% |
How the fee moves with price
Taker fee on 100 shares at the published rates. Calculated examples, not market observations.
| Share price | politics | sports | crypto |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5¢ | $0.19 | $0.2375 | $0.3325 |
| 10¢ | $0.36 | $0.45 | $0.63 |
| 25¢ | $0.75 | $0.9375 | $1.3125 |
| 50¢ | $1.00 | $1.25 | $1.75 |
| 75¢ | $0.75 | $0.9375 | $1.3125 |
| 90¢ | $0.36 | $0.45 | $0.63 |
| 95¢ | $0.19 | $0.2375 | $0.3325 |
Questions
- How much does Polymarket charge to trade?
- Only the taker pays, and the fee is shares × rate × price × (1 − price). Taking 100 shares at 50¢ costs $1.00 in a politics, finance, tech or mentions market, $1.25 in sports, economics, culture or weather, and $1.75 in crypto. Geopolitical markets are free, and the fee shrinks toward zero as the price approaches 0¢ or 100¢.
- Do makers pay fees on Polymarket?
- No. An order that rests in the book until someone else fills it pays no trading fee, in every category. A limit order priced to fill immediately is a taker order and pays the taker fee.
- Why was my Polymarket fee different from the category table?
- Because each market carries its own fee setting, and it does not always match the published category. When Vultax read the 1,000 most-traded open markets on 20 September 2026, 309 charged takers nothing and 65 sports markets reported a rate of 0.03 where the table says 0.05. Read the market's own rate and enter it in the calculator.
- Is there a fee to sell shares on Polymarket?
- A sale that fills immediately is a taker trade and pays the same formula, taken from the proceeds. The dollar fee for selling at 70¢ equals the fee for buying at 30¢, because price × (1 − price) is the same at both. Holding shares to settlement involves no sale and no further trading fee.
- Does Polymarket charge to deposit or withdraw?
- Polymarket states that it charges nothing to deposit or withdraw USDC. A card processor, exchange or bridge in between can charge its own fee; enter that under other costs.
- Can I get Polymarket taker fees back?
- Partly, if you trade enough. Polymarket's taker rebate tiers return 3% of fees at Bronze, from $2,000 of weighted 30-day taker volume, up to 50% at the top tier. Rebates are paid daily once $1 has accrued, and Polymarket can change the tiers.
What this leaves out
The fee is usually the smaller cost. A thin book moves the price you actually get, and two contracts that look alike can settle on different wording. Our order-size and depth audit measures the first, the copy-trading cost study shows what following another wallet adds, and Kalshi vs Polymarket sets the two venues’ fees side by side with what is left of a price gap after both.
To cite: Vultax, “Polymarket fee calculator”, https://vultax.com/tools/polymarket-fee-calculator, schedule checked 20 September 2026. Quote a result with its inputs; the scenario link and the JSON download carry them. Not financial advice.