Kalshi Fees Overview
- Fees Structure: Kalshi charges low taker fees ($0.0007–$0.0175 per contract) and even lower maker fees ($0.000175–$0.004375 per contract).
- Key Benefit: Transparent pricing with no house edge; users trade at near-true market odds with clear, minimal fees.
Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
Payout Speed
Up to 3 to 5 Business Days
Kalshi is a legal, legitimate prediction market app that is available in all 50 U.S. states.
With Kalshi, you can buy and sell contracts based on real-world outcomes, including sports, politics, weather, and much more.
Your risk and payout are determined by the number of contracts you buy and the price when you buy. Contract prices range from $0 to $1, with lower numbers representing less likely events.
If your pick hits, you are paid out $1 for each contract. If it doesn’t, you get nothing. The price shows what the market believes the odds are for that outcome.
Kalshi fees are among the lowest you’ll find on prediction market apps.
The platform charges 0.0007–$0.0175 per contract for taker orders and 0.000175–$0.004375 per contract for maker orders.
A taker order means you accept a price that is already available in the market, so your trade goes through right away.
A maker order means you post your own price and wait for another trader to match it.
Kalshi fees are often 10% to 15% lower than what competitors charge. If you use maker orders, those costs can drop by about 4x.
You can use my Kalshi fee calculator to see what you’d pay based on order type, contract count, and share price.
Kalshi Pricing & Fees
Kalshi’s pricing system differs from online sportsbooks because there’s no built-in house edge or vig.
The odds are determined entirely by what traders are willing to pay for contracts, based on real supply and demand rather than preset bookmaker margins.
That’s why Kalshi often ends up with better pricing than most online sportsbooks. Each contract price reflects the market’s belief about the outcome at that moment, minus some small fees.
If more traders buy Yes on an outcome, the price goes up. If sentiment shifts toward No, it goes down.
Prices move instantly as news breaks, games unfold, or public opinion changes, so what you see on the screen is always the live market consensus.
In short, when you trade on Kalshi, you’re not paying a bookmaker’s markup. You’re trading at near-true market odds set by other traders, not by a house trying to profit off the spread.
Kalshi charges a variable percentage fee based on the contract price and the number of contracts you trade. These fees apply only when an order is immediately matched, meaning it executes immediately.
If you place a limit order that stays on the order book (a “maker” order), you’ll pay a smaller maker fee once it fills, and there’s no fee at all if you cancel it before execution.
Here’s how it breaks down.
| Fee Type | Formula / Description | Effective Range |
|---|---|---|
| Taker Fee (instant match) | fees = round up (0.07 × C × P × (1 − P)) | About $0.07 – $1.75 per 100 contracts |
| Maker Fee (limit order) | fees = round up (0.0175 × C × P × (1 − P)) | About $0.02 – $0.44 per 100 contracts |
| Settlement Fee | None | ✅ No settlement fees |
| Membership Fee | None | ✅ No membership required |
- P = price of a single contract (e.g., $0.50 = 50¢)
- C = number of contracts traded
- Round up = always rounds to the next cent
In simple terms, the closer the contract price is to $0 or $1, the smaller the fee, since Kalshi only charges based on expected earnings, not total trade value. So, Kalshi fees are usually highest when a market is trading closest to 50/50.
Maker Fee Rebates
If rounding results in a slight increase in maker fees, Kalshi automatically reimburses the difference monthly. Refunds are processed during the first week of the following month, provided the additional amount exceeds $10.
Position Limits
Kalshi enforces position limits to maintain market stability and ensure compliance with CFTC trading regulations. These limits vary by market, but most sports and event contracts allow traders to hold thousands of open positions before hitting any restrictions.
For example:
- Sports markets (such as game outcomes or props) are typically capped at several thousand contracts per side.
- Financial or macro markets often have tighter limits based on total exposure or leverage.
Kalshi’s dashboard automatically notifies you if you’re getting close to a limit, so you won’t accidentally overextend your position.
How Kalshi Fees Compare to Other Prediction Markets
Here’s how Kalshi’s fees compare with other prediction market platforms.
| Platform | Fee Model | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| Kalshi | Probability-based maker/taker fee | $0.0007 to $0.0175 per contract for taker orders and $0.000175 to $0.004375 per contract for maker orders |
| Polymarket | Formula-based trading fee | contracts × price × (1 − price). Taker fees range from about $0.0005 to $0.0125 per contract. Maker orders have no fees |
| OG | Flat per-contract fee | $0.02 per contract |
| Novig | No-fee model | No fees |
| Crypto.com | Contract-based fee | $1 contracts: $0.02 to open or close early, with no fee if held to a win. $10 contracts: $0.20 to open or close, reduced to $0.10 on a winning settlement |
| ProphetX | Commission on winnings | 2% commission on winning bets |
| Underdog | Flat per-contract fee | $0.02 per contract |
| Fanatics Markets | Per-contract fee | $0.0034 to $0.02 per contract, depending on contract price |
| Sporttrade | Profit-based commission | 2% on net profit |
| Robinhood | Per-contract fee | $0.02 per contract, with $0.01 paid to Robinhood and $0.01 paid to Kalshi |
| PrizePicks | Per-contract fee | $0.005 to $0.02 per contract |
| FanDuel Predict | Payout-based commission | 2% on potential payout |
| DraftKings Predictions | Flat per-contract fee | $0.02 per contract |
| PredictIt | Profit-based fee | 10% on profits from winning trades |
As you can see from the table, Polymarket US is the only prediction market app with more favorable overall fees than Kalshi. Lower fees are one of Polymarket’s biggest advantages in a Kalshi vs. Polymarket comparison.
Novig has no fees, but smaller markets and less popular sports often have lower trading volume. That makes free trading less useful if there isn’t enough interest on the other side of your order.
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