GUIDE · LUNARSHADOW AI · UPDATED
Polymarket fees, explained.
Who pays, and how much.
On Polymarket only one side of a trade pays a fee, and the rate depends on what kind of market you are trading. Here is the formula, the rates, and what they work out to.
The short answer
A Polymarket taker pays shares × rate × price × (1 − price), with a rate of 0.04 to 0.07 by market category (some categories are free): 1¢ to 1.75¢ per share at 50¢. Makers pay nothing.
On Polymarket's international exchange, orders that fill right away (“taker” orders) pay a fee; orders that rest on the book (“maker” orders) pay nothing. The fee depends on the share price and the market's category. Polymarket charges nothing to deposit or withdraw USDC.
The fee formula
fee = shares × rate × price × (1 − price)
Price is in dollars, so a 30¢ share is 0.30. Like most prediction-market fees, it is largest at 50¢, where the outcome is least certain, and shrinks toward either end. See Polymarket's fee documentation.
Rates by market category
- Politics, finance, tech, mentions: rate 0.04, so 1¢ per share at 50¢
- Sports, economics, culture, weather, other: rate 0.05, so 1.25¢ per share at 50¢
- Crypto: rate 0.07, so 1.75¢ per share at 50¢
- Geopolitics and world events: no fee
Example: buying 100 shares of a politics market at 50¢ costs $50 plus a $1.00 fee. Buying 100 shares of a sports market at 30¢ costs $30 plus a $1.05 fee (0.05 × 100 × 0.30 × 0.70).
Cheap shares carry a bigger fee share
A crypto-market share at 10¢ carries a fee of about 0.63¢, which is 6.3% of what you pay. The same market at 90¢ carries the same 0.63¢ fee, under 1% of the price. Long shots cost more to trade than the headline rate suggests.
Maker rebates
Makers pay no fee, and Polymarket returns part of the taker fees it collects to makers through a daily Maker Rebates Program: 25% in most categories, 20% in crypto and 15% in sports. A separate tiered program lets takers earn some fees back.
Fees are calculated to five decimal places, with a smallest charge of 0.00001 USDC, so a trade at an extreme price can round to almost nothing.
Deposits, withdrawals and gas
Polymarket charges no fee to deposit or withdraw USDC. Exchanges, bridges and card providers you use to move money may charge their own. On-chain transfers on Polygon also need a small amount of POL for network fees.
Polymarket's separate US app is a different, CFTC-regulated exchange with its own fee schedule; the figures on this page are for the international exchange.
What this means for a bot
A bot that takes liquidity pays these fees on every fill, the same as you would by hand. The LunarShadow Polymarket bot trades from a wallet made for you, so Polymarket's fees apply as above; LunarShadow's own platform fee is separate and paid in SOL (current tiers).
Figures are from Polymarket's fee documentation as of October 2026. Fees change; Polymarket's documentation is the source of truth. Compare with Kalshi's fees.