How Polymarket fees work
It is a curve that peaks at fifty cents, which is where everybody trades.
Polymarket charges takers a fee at match time. You do not put fee information in your order; the protocol applies it. What surprises people is the shape: it is not a flat percentage of your stake, it is a function of the price.
The formula
fee = C × feeRate × p × (1 − p), where C is the number of shares traded and p is the price per share. Makers are never charged — only takers pay — and the taker fees fund a rebate programme that pays back to market makers daily.
The p(1−p) term is the whole story. It is zero at both ends and maximal at 50¢, so the fee in dollars is symmetric around a coin-flip: a trade at 30¢ costs the same as one at 70¢. Polymarket’s own published table shows a crypto trade of 100 shares costing $1.75 at 50¢ and $0.07 at 1¢ — which is exactly what the formula gives, and is how we checked the rates below rather than trusting them.
The current rates
| Category | Taker fee rate | Maker fee | Maker rebate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crypto | 0.07 | 0 | 20% |
| Sports | 0.05 | 0 | 15% |
| Finance | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Politics | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Economics | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Culture | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Weather | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Other / General | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Mentions | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Tech | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Geopolitics | fee-free | 0 | — |
fee = C × feeRate × p × (1 − p), not a percentage of the trade. Polymarket can change them; check the source before you rely on it.Where it actually costs you
As a fraction of what you stake, the fee is worst on cheap contracts. Buy at 5¢ in a sports market and the fee is 0.05 × 0.05 × 0.95 = 0.24¢ a share — under a quarter of a cent, but 4.75% of the 5¢ you paid. Buy the same market at 50¢ and the fee is 1.25¢ a share: five times the dollars, but only 2.5% of your stake.
So the two readings point in opposite directions, and the one that matters depends on what you are doing. If you are sizing by dollars at risk, long shots are the expensive ones. If you are sizing by shares, the middle of the board is. Either way the number that decides a trade is your all-in entry price, which is what the fee calculator gives you.
What is not charged
No maker fee. No Polymarket fee to deposit or withdraw USDC — though an intermediary you route through can charge its own. Geopolitical and world-event markets are fee-free entirely. Fees are rounded to five decimal places, with a floor of 0.00001 USDC, so very small trades near the extremes can round to nothing.
Questions
How much does Polymarket charge per trade?
Takers pay shares x feeRate x price x (1 - price). At 100 shares and 50 cents that is $1.75 in crypto, $1.25 in sports, $1.00 in politics — and nothing at all in geopolitics markets.
Is there a Polymarket withdrawal fee?
Polymarket states there are no Polymarket fees to deposit or withdraw USDC, though intermediaries such as an exchange or on-ramp may charge their own.
Why is the fee highest at 50 cents?
Because of the p x (1 - p) term in the formula, which is largest when p is 0.5 and falls to nearly nothing at 1 cent and 99 cents.