Kalshi Fees, Explained — With the Math

Kalshi charges one fee that matters: a trading fee, collected the moment your order fills. For standard markets the formula is fee = 0.07 × C × P × (1 − P), rounded up — where C is the number of contracts and P is the contract price in dollars. That works out to at most 1.75¢ per contract, paid when the price is 50¢, and it shrinks toward zero at both extremes. There is no settlement fee, no membership fee, and no fee on ACH deposits or withdrawals; debit card deposits can cost up to 2%. Orders that rest on the book — maker orders — trade free in most markets. Everything below comes from Kalshi’s published fee schedule, current as of August 2026.

Where does the formula come from?

Kalshi describes its fee as a percentage of your expected earnings on a contract. Buy a contract at price P and your potential profit is 1 − P (contracts pay $1 if you’re right). On a prediction market, the price is also the market’s probability estimate, so your expected profit is P × (1 − P). Kalshi takes 7% of that number, per contract, per trade.

Two properties fall out of the math. First, the fee is symmetric: a trade at 25¢ costs exactly what a trade at 75¢ costs, because P × (1 − P) is the same in both cases. Second, the fee peaks at 50¢ — where P × (1 − P) is largest — at 0.07 × 0.25 = 1.75¢ per contract.

One practical wrinkle: Kalshi rounds fees up, never down. Per the exchange’s published fee table, a single contract at 50¢ carries a 2¢ fee — the raw 1.75¢ rounded up. On a 100-contract trade the rounding is negligible; on a one-contract trade it can push the effective rate meaningfully above the formula. Small orders pay a little extra.

What does a 100-contract trade at 50¢ actually cost?

Say you buy 100 YES contracts at 50¢ with a market order (a taker order — more on that below).

• Position cost: 100 × $0.50 = $50.00
• Trading fee: 0.07 × 100 × 0.50 × (1 − 0.50) = $1.75
• Total out of pocket: $51.75

If the event happens, your contracts settle at $1 each and you collect $100.00 — settlement itself is free — for a net profit of $48.25. If it doesn’t, you lose the full $51.75. Note that the fee was charged when the trade executed, so you pay it whether you win or lose.

Exit before settlement and you pay the formula again. Buy 100 contracts at 40¢ ($1.68 fee) and later sell them at 60¢ with another taker order ($1.68 fee), and your $20.00 gross profit becomes $16.64 net — the round trip consumed 16.8% of the gross. Hold the same position to settlement instead and you pay the entry fee only.

How does the fee change with price?

The table below shows Kalshi’s taker fee on a 100-contract trade in a standard market, straight from the exchange’s schedule, plus two numbers Kalshi doesn’t print: the fee as a share of your cash outlay, and the probability you need to break even.

Contract price	Taker fee (100 contracts)	Fee as % of outlay	Break-even probability
5¢	$0.34	6.8%	5.34%
10¢	$0.63	6.3%	10.63%
25¢	$1.32	5.3%	26.32%
50¢	$1.75	3.5%	51.75%
75¢	$1.32	1.8%	76.32%
90¢	$0.63	0.7%	90.63%
95¢	$0.34	0.4%	95.34%
99¢	$0.07	0.1%	99.07%

Standard-market taker fees as of August 2026, per Kalshi’s fee schedule. Break-even = (outlay + fee) ÷ $100 payout.

The fee peaks exactly where the market is least sure — 50 cents — and melts toward zero at both extremes.

What’s the difference between maker and taker fees?

A taker order matches immediately against an order already resting on the book — you take liquidity, and you pay the 0.07 formula. A maker order rests on the book waiting to be filled. Kalshi’s maker formula is 0.0175 × C × P × (1 − P) — exactly a quarter of the taker rate — but the maker multiplier defaults to zero. In most markets, resting orders that get filled pay nothing, and canceling a resting order is always free.

The exceptions are listed by name in the schedule’s non-standard section. As of August 2026 the maker-fee list is dominated by high-volume series: single-game sports markets (NFL, MLB, WNBA, college football, Champions League), championship futures (Super Bowl, World Series, NBA, Stanley Cup), economic data (CPI, Fed decisions, payrolls, GDP, unemployment), and awards races (Emmys, Heisman, Ballon d’Or). In those series, 100 contracts resting at 50¢ cost the maker 0.0175 × 100 × 0.25 = $0.44 when filled.

A smaller set of listed series has both multipliers at zero — no trading fees in either direction. As of August 2026 that includes bitcoin and ether end-of-year ranges and several long-dated novelty markets. The list changes, so check the schedule page, which also posts scheduled fee changes (none are scheduled as of mid-August 2026).

One subtlety: maker versus taker is about what your order does, not what type it is. A limit order priced through the market executes immediately and pays taker fees; only a limit order that rests earns maker treatment.

How do fees change expected value?

The fee is small in absolute terms, but it shifts your break-even, and the shift depends on price. Buy at 50¢ and you need the true probability to be 51.75% just to break even — 1.75 points of edge before you make a cent. Buy at 90¢ and the break-even is 90.63%: only 0.63 points of required edge.

Measured against your maximum profit rather than your stake, the picture flips. At 90¢ your potential profit is 10¢ per contract, and the 0.63¢ fee eats 6.3% of it. At 10¢ your potential profit is 90¢, and the same 0.63¢ fee is a rounding error — 0.7%. In general, the fee consumes 7% × P of your maximum profit: cheap on longshots, comparatively expensive on near-certainties.

Trading frequency compounds all of this. A round trip at mid-range prices costs roughly 3.5¢ per contract in taker fees — paid on every cycle. The formula is why resting limit orders in zero-maker-fee markets and holding to settlement (which is free) are the cheapest ways to interact with the exchange, and why the cost of crossing the spread repeatedly adds up fastest in 50¢ territory. That’s arithmetic, not advice — but it’s arithmetic worth doing before you trade.

What about deposits, withdrawals, and settlement?

Per the fee schedule: there is no settlement fee and no membership fee. ACH deposits and withdrawals are free in both directions. Debit card deposits carry a fee of up to 2%, which Kalshi says may be reduced “based upon standards applied fairly and uniformly across members”; debit card withdrawals are free, per Kalshi’s help center. Kalshi adds no fee of its own on wire deposits (your bank might), and wire withdrawals aren’t currently supported for amounts under $500,000. Crypto deposits and withdrawals may incur third-party processor fees, disclosed before the transaction, and the schedule reserves the right to charge between 0% and 2% on any payment rail. Traders accessing Kalshi through a third-party futures commission merchant may owe that firm’s separate fees.

Kalshi’s perpetual futures — a separate product from event contracts — use their own volume-tiered schedule: taker fees start at 12 basis points and fall to 2.6 bps at the highest 30-day volume tiers, with maker fees running 5 bps down to 0.6 bps.

Quick answers

Does Kalshi charge a fee when a market settles? No. Settlement at $1 or $0 is free. Trading fees are charged only when an order executes.

Do I pay the fee if I lose? Yes. The fee is collected when your trade fills, regardless of how the market resolves. On a losing 100-contract trade at 50¢, you’re out $51.75, not $50.00.

Are limit orders free on Kalshi? Usually. Resting orders pay no fee in most markets, but the series named in the non-standard schedule — most single-game sports, economic data, and awards markets — charge makers a quarter of the taker rate. A limit order that fills instantly pays taker fees either way.

What does it cost to withdraw money? Nothing, by ACH, debit card, or crypto (third-party processor fees may apply to crypto). Wire withdrawals aren’t supported below $500,000.

Why is the fee highest at 50¢? Because Kalshi charges 7% of expected profit, P × (1 − P), which is largest when the market is at maximum uncertainty. A 50¢ trade costs 1.75¢ per contract; a 99¢ trade costs 0.07¢.

Where is the official fee schedule? At kalshi.com/fee-schedule, with the full formulas in the linked PDF (last updated July 7, 2026). As of August 17, 2026, no upcoming fee changes are scheduled.