Polymarket Fees, Explained
Polymarket's zero-fee era ended in 2026. As of August 2026, takers pay up to $1.75 per 100 shares depending on category, while makers, deposits, withdrawals, and gas stay free — and the spread is often the bigger cost. Here's the full math, with worked examples.
As of August 2026, Polymarket charges a taker fee on most of its markets: at most $1.75 per 100 shares in crypto markets, $1.25 in sports, $1.00 in politics, and nothing in geopolitics. Limit orders that rest on the book pay zero. So do deposits, withdrawals, and redemptions — and you never touch gas in the normal app. That is the entire bill from Polymarket itself. The cost the exchange doesn’t itemize — the bid-ask spread — is often bigger than the fee.
This is a real change. Polymarket built its brand on zero trading fees, and that era ended in 2026, when taker fees rolled out category by category. Below is the current schedule, the formula behind it, and what it works out to in dollars. If contracts priced between 1¢ and 99¢ are new to you, start with what a prediction market is.
What does Polymarket charge to trade?
Polymarket’s fee schedule splits every trade into a maker and a taker. A maker places a limit order that sits on the book waiting to be filled. A taker hits an order already resting there — every market order is a taker order, and so is a limit order priced aggressively enough to fill instantly. Makers never pay fees. Takers pay a fee set by the market’s category and the share price:
fee = shares × fee rate × price × (1 − price)
The fee is deducted in dollars from your balance the moment the trade matches. The price × (1 − price) term peaks at 50¢ and shrinks toward the extremes, so fees are highest where the outcome is a coin flip and nearly nothing on 95¢ favorites. It’s also symmetric: a trade at 30¢ costs exactly what a trade at 70¢ costs.
| Category | Fee rate | Max fee per 100 shares (at 50¢) |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto | 0.07 | $1.75 |
| Sports | 0.05 | $1.25 |
| Economics, culture, weather, other | 0.05 | $1.25 |
| Politics, finance, tech, mentions | 0.04 | $1.00 |
| Geopolitics and world events | 0 | $0 |
Source: Polymarket’s fee documentation and help center, as of August 2026.
Polymarket says the fees exist to fund its maker rebates program: between 15% and 25% of collected taker fees, varying by category, are redistributed daily to the market makers who provide liquidity. The pitch is that fees buy you tighter spreads.
What does that work out to in dollars?
The order ticket shows the estimated fee before you confirm, but the formula is easy to run yourself:
- 100 YES shares in a sports market at 50¢, bought with a market order. You pay $50 for the shares plus 100 × 0.05 × 0.50 × 0.50 = $1.25 in fees — 2.5% of your stake, the worst case in sports.
- 100 YES shares in the same market at 90¢. Fee: 100 × 0.05 × 0.90 × 0.10 = $0.45. Heavy favorites are cheap to trade.
- 200 NO shares in a politics market at 30¢. You pay $60 plus 200 × 0.04 × 0.30 × 0.70 = $1.68.
- Any of the above as a resting limit order that someone else fills: $0.
When did Polymarket start charging fees?
Polymarket introduced its first taker fees in January 2026, limited to crypto markets, and added sports in February. On March 30, 2026, it extended fees to most of the board — politics and finance at 0.04; economics, culture, and weather at 0.05 — with sports set at 0.03. In July 2026, the sports rate rose from 0.03 to 0.05 — lifting the worst-case fee from $0.75 to $1.25 per 100 shares — which is where the current schedule stands. As of August 2026, geopolitics is the only major category still fee-free.
What do deposits, withdrawals, and gas cost?
Polymarket charges nothing to move money in or out. Your balance is held as pUSD, a token redeemable 1:1 for USDC on the Polygon blockchain; deposits wrap into it and withdrawals unwrap from it automatically.
Deposits. You can deposit USDC or a range of other tokens across more than a dozen chains, transfer from Coinbase, or buy in with a card through third-party on-ramp providers. Polymarket adds no fee, but the intermediaries can: card on-ramps charge their own processing fees (shown in their quote before you pay), and non-USDC deposits are swapped on arrival, so the amount credited can differ slightly from the amount sent. For cross-chain deposits over $50,000, Polymarket’s own docs recommend using a dedicated bridge to reduce slippage.
Withdrawals. Per the documentation, withdrawals are instant and free. Converting to another token or chain routes through liquidity pools — the interface caps that conversion slippage at 10 basis points — and very large withdrawals may need to be split if the payout pool runs low.
Gas. In the app, you don’t pay it. Polymarket’s relayer sponsors the gas for approvals, transfers, position management, and redemptions, so you only ever need a dollar balance. The exception is programmatic traders operating directly from their own wallets, who pay their own Polygon gas — pennies at Polygon’s typical prices.
Winnings. There is no settlement fee. When a market resolves, winning shares redeem for $1.00 each, and redemption is one of the operations the relayer sponsors.
The spread is a cost too
Every taker order crosses the bid-ask spread, and that’s frequently the largest line item on a trade. Say a market shows 48¢ bid, 52¢ ask. A market buy fills at 52¢ — two cents above the 50¢ midpoint, or $2.00 per 100 shares. That single crossing costs more than the maximum fee in any category, and buying then immediately selling would surrender the full four cents. In Polymarket’s most liquid markets the spread is a penny or less; in long shots and quiet markets it can be several cents.
The fee tops out at 1.75 cents a share; a wide spread can cost you several times that.
Resting limit orders sidestep both costs at once — no taker fee, no spread crossed — with the tradeoff that they may never fill.
Does Polymarket US charge the same fees?
No. The regulated American exchange — QCX LLC, doing business as Polymarket US under a CFTC amended order of designation — runs its own fee schedule, effective July 1, 2026. It uses the same price-scaled formula with a flat taker rate of 0.06 across categories, a maximum of $1.50 per 100 contracts. Makers there don’t just trade free — they’re paid a rebate at the point of trade, up to $0.31 per 100 contracts. Traders who clear $250,000 in taker volume in a calendar month earn 10% to 50% back on the following month’s fees.
Quick answers
Does Polymarket charge trading fees? Yes. As of August 2026, takers pay a category-based fee of up to $1.00–$1.75 per 100 shares, peaking at 50¢ prices. Makers pay nothing, and geopolitics markets are fee-free.
How much is the fee on sports markets? The sports rate is 0.05, a maximum of $1.25 per 100 shares at 50¢ — raised from 0.03 in July 2026. Only taker orders pay it.
Are deposits and withdrawals free? Polymarket charges nothing either way. Third-party card on-ramps charge their own fees, and depositing or withdrawing anything other than Polygon USDC involves a conversion with small slippage.
Do I pay gas fees? Not in the app — Polymarket’s relayer pays Polygon gas for trades, transfers, and redemptions. Only API traders using their own wallets pay gas directly.
Is there a fee on winnings? No. Winning shares redeem for $1.00 each with no settlement fee, and redemption itself is gasless.
Are limit orders really free? Yes, if they rest on the book before filling. A limit order priced to execute immediately against an existing order counts as a taker order and pays the taker fee.