Kalshi fees explained

Kalshi charges a trading fee of 0.07 x C x P x (1 - P), rounded up to the next cent. C is the number of contracts and P is the price in dollars. The fee peaks at 1.75 cents a contract on a 50 cent contract and falls toward zero at 1 and 99 cents. About 160 series also charge makers a smaller fee. Withdrawals are free.

That's the whole answer. The rest of this page shows what the formula does to your money at every price, where the rounding bites, which series charge makers, and how to keep more of each trade.

The Kalshi fee formula

fee = round up(M x 0.07 x C x P x (1 - P))

• C is the number of contracts in the fill.
• P is the price in dollars. 40 cents is 0.40.
• M is the series multiplier. Kalshi sets one per series.
• round up means up to the next cent on a normal retail account.

The P x (1 - P) term drives everything. It hits its maximum of 0.25 at 50 cents, drops to 0.09 at 10 cents and to 0.0099 at 1 cent. So a coin flip pays the most fee and a near certainty pays almost none. A 10 cent contract and a 90 cent contract pay the same fee in dollars, because 0.10 x 0.90 equals 0.90 x 0.10.

You pay the taker fee when your order takes liquidity. A market order does, and so does a limit order priced at or through the best offer, because it fills the moment it arrives. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee if the series has one, and nothing if it doesn't.

What multiplier does your market use

Kalshi's public API lists a fee type and a multiplier for every series. We pulled all 14,399 series on September 27, 2026. Here's the split:

Two takeaways. First, 98.6% of series follow the plain formula with no maker fee. Second, the biggest sports markets are exactly where makers do pay. Third-party guides quote S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 markets at a 0.035 taker rate, which matches a 0.5 multiplier, but we couldn't confirm that rate in Kalshi's own schedule.

Kalshi fees at every price

Every fee below is for 100 contracts with multiplier 1, rounded up to the cent the way Kalshi rounds a retail order.

The maker column uses 0.0175, a quarter of the taker rate, and only applies on the 159 series with maker fees. On the other 14,000-plus series, makers pay $0.00.

The longshot tax and the favorite tax

In dollars the fee looks symmetric. In practice it isn't. Measure it against what you put in and against what you win, and two different taxes show up.

• Longshot buyers pay the most per dollar spent. A 5 cent contract costs you 6.8% of your stake in fees. Most longshots lose, so that 6.8% goes on money you won't see again.
• Favorite buyers pay the most per dollar won. Buy at 90 cents and the fee eats 6.3% of your profit. Favorites usually carry a thin edge, and the fee takes a big bite out of it.
• 50 cents is the middle. 3.5% of stake and 3.5% of profit.

How much edge you need to beat the fee

Turn the fee into probability points. On 100 contracts at 50 cents, the fee is 1.75 cents a contract. You only break even if the true chance is 51.75% or better. The market says 50%, so you need to be right 1.75 points more often than the price implies before you make a cent.

Our take: if your edge is "I think this 50 cent market should be 52", the taker fee eats most of it. Post a limit order instead, or skip the trade.

Where the rounding bites

Kalshi rounds each order's fee up to the next cent. On big orders you'll never notice. On small orders, the rounding is the whole story.

• A single 1 cent contract costs 2 cents all in. You've doubled your cost before the market moves.
• Kalshi's API documents a per-order rounding accumulator. If one order fills in several pieces, Kalshi tracks the over-rounding and rebates the excess, so you pay one rounded fee per order, not one per fill.
• Direct members settle to a hundredth of a cent. Retail accounts settle to the cent.

Our take: never buy 1 to 5 contracts of a cheap longshot as a taker. Batch the order or rest a limit.

A round trip pays two fees

Selling before settlement is a second trade, so it costs a second fee. Settlement itself is free. Here's one position played two ways.

The math: 0.07 x 100 x 0.40 x 0.60 = 1.68, and 0.07 x 100 x 0.60 x 0.40 = 1.68. The exit fee equals the entry fee because 40 and 60 cents mirror each other around 50.

• Swing traders pay the fee twice on every idea. A strategy built on 3 cent moves near 50 cents loses about 3.5 cents a contract to fees before the move pays anything.
• Holding to settlement costs nothing extra, win or lose. Of course, if it loses, you lose the whole stake.
• Exits as a maker pay zero on most series. Rest your take-profit as a limit order instead of hitting the bid.

Kalshi maker fees in detail

A maker order rests on the book until another trader fills it. On 14,000-plus series makers pay nothing. On 159 series makers pay round up(M x 0.0175 x C x P x (1 - P)) when the resting order fills.

• You only pay the maker fee on the part of your order that fills.
• Placing, amending and cancelling orders costs nothing.
• The maker-fee series cluster in the highest-volume markets: NFL, NBA, MLB and college football games, plus S&P 500 ranges, CPI, payrolls, Fed decisions and crypto.
• 100 contracts filled as a maker at 50 cents on a maker-fee series cost $0.44, a quarter of the $1.75 taker fee.

Our take: on NFL Sunday a limit order still saves you 75% of the fee. On a weather market it saves you all of it. Posting limit orders is the single best fee habit on Kalshi.

Kalshi deposit and withdrawal fees

A 2% card fee on a $500 deposit costs $10, the same as the taker fee on about 570 contracts at 50 cents. If you trade more than once, fund by ACH. Kalshi's wire article lists wires for deposits only, but its transfers FAQ groups them under deposits and withdrawals. We treat wire as a deposit method until Kalshi says otherwise. Full steps in how to withdraw from Kalshi.

Kalshi combo and RFQ fees

Combos, Kalshi's parlays, trade through request for quote. A July 12, 2026 filing, effective no earlier than July 24, 2026, set the rule for combo trades where no order rested more than 5 seconds:

• The trader who accepts the quote pays a taker-equivalent fee.
• The market maker who quoted pays a maker-equivalent fee.
• Kalshi adjusts both within 5 seconds of the trade.
• The combo series carry a maker multiplier of 0.5 instead of 0.25, a maker rate of 0.035.

The fee is the small cost of a combo. The quote spread is the big one. See Kalshi parlays explained for the math.

Kalshi fees compared with Polymarket and Gemini

The same trade, 100 contracts, on four venues:

• Everyone uses the same rate x C x P x (1 - P) shape. The rate and the rounding differ.
• polymarket.com is the cheapest venue for politics and sports takers. Polymarket US pays makers the most. Kalshi charges makers nothing on 98.6% of series.
• Gemini charges makers on every market. Kalshi charges makers on 159 series.

More in Polymarket fees explained and Kalshi vs Polymarket. If you plan to trade the gap between two venues, read prediction market arbitrage first. Taker fees on both legs add up to about 3.5 cents a contract near 50 cents, which is more than most gaps.

What a month of Kalshi trading costs

Say you place 40 taker trades a month, 50 contracts each, at an average price of 40 cents. Each trade pays 0.07 x 50 x 0.40 x 0.60 = $0.84. Forty trades cost $33.60 in fees on $800 of trading, or 4.2% of everything you put in.

• The same trades as resting limit orders on weather, politics or economics markets: $0.
• The same trades as resting limit orders on NFL games, a maker-fee series: 0.0175 x 50 x 0.24 = $0.21 each, $8.40 a month.
• If you sell every one of those out before settlement as a taker, the bill roughly doubles, to about $67.

Five ways to pay less on Kalshi

1. Rest limit orders. Zero fee on most series, a quarter of the taker fee on the rest.
2. Size up or stay out. Orders under 10 contracts lose a big share to rounding.
3. Fund by ACH or wire. Skip the 2% card fee.
4. Check the multiplier. MLB props run at half fee. A few long-dated markets run free.
5. Hold to settlement when you like the position. Settlement carries no fee. Selling before settlement pays a second trading fee.

Where Rivo fits

Rivo is not an exchange. It's a $15 a month terminal on top of Kalshi, Polymarket, Polymarket US and Gemini. Your Kalshi money stays in your Kalshi account, and Kalshi charges you its fees as usual. Rivo adds no fee on Kalshi orders.

• The order ticket shows the exact fee before you click Buy. Rivo reads the market's own fee rules from Kalshi, including the series multiplier, the maker fee and Kalshi's price bands, and runs the same formula on your order. The ticket walks the live book level by level, so the fee, the average fill and the total match what Kalshi charges.
• Limit orders are one click away. The same ticket posts limit orders, so the cheapest habit on this page takes no extra work.
• Bots size down to the book. A live Kalshi bot only fills what the book supports inside your slippage limit, so you never pay taker fees on a price you didn't want.
• Backtests show you net results. Test a signal on settled Kalshi markets at your size before you pay a single fee.

See who beats the fee in practice on the Kalshi leaderboard. Building your own tools? The Kalshi API guide covers the fee fields in the series endpoint.

Frequently asked questions