Kalshi vs Polymarket: fees, access and how to track both

Kalshi and Polymarket sell the same kind of contract: a share that pays $1 if an event happens and nothing if it does not. The differences are in who runs the market and who may use it. Kalshi is an exchange that describes itself as CFTC-regulated, with accounts kept in dollars. Polymarket runs two platforms: Polymarket US, a CFTC-licensed exchange for US traders, and the international polymarket.com, where positions sit on-chain on Polygon. Both charge takers a fee shaped around the price. The facts below were checked against each venue’s documentation and help pages on 2 October 2026.

How do Kalshi and Polymarket compare at a glance?

What does each one cost?

Both venues price fees the same way. The fee scales with price × (1 − price), so it is largest when a contract trades near 50 cents and shrinks towards the edges. On Kalshi the coefficient is 0.07 on most markets: 100 contracts taken at 50 cents cost $1.75 in fees, and at 10 or 90 cents about $0.63. Kalshi gives the range for 100 contracts as $0.07 to $1.75. Orders that rest on the book and fill later pay no trading fee on most markets.

Polymarket uses the same formula with a rate per category: 0.07 for crypto, 0.05 for sports, economics, culture and weather, 0.04 for politics, finance and tech, and zero for geopolitics and world events. Makers never pay, and since 6 March 2026 the taker fee covers all crypto markets, from hourly to weekly. The same 100 shares at 50 cents cost $1.00 in a politics market, $1.75 in a crypto market and nothing in a geopolitics market.

Who can use each one?

Kalshi serves US traders and, according to its help center, traders in many other countries, within the country list of its member agreement. International accounts can deposit by debit card, wire transfer or crypto; US accounts can also link a bank. Polymarket splits by geography. polymarket.com is for users outside the United States and other restricted jurisdictions, and US traders are served by Polymarket US, fully live since May 2026, which verifies identity on every account. Check the current list for your country before funding either.

How do markets settle?

On Kalshi, settlement is automatic once the outcome is known: each winning contract pays $1 into the balance, losing contracts pay nothing, and settling a simple yes or no market costs no fee. On Polymarket, a proposer reports the outcome to UMA’s optimistic oracle with a bond, anyone can dispute it during a challenge period, and disputed results go to a vote of UMA token holders. After that, winning shares become redeemable for $1 each, with no deadline.

What can anyone see?

Polymarket positions sit in a proxy wallet on Polygon, so anyone with its address can read the book: positions, current value, PnL and activity. That makes tracking and following other traders easy, and it means your history is exactly as private as your address. A Kalshi account works the other way round. Prices and order books are public, but your positions, fills and settlements are visible only to you and to whatever you authorize with an API key.

Which one should you use?

None of this is advice, and location decides much of it. In the US the choice is between Kalshi and Polymarket US; elsewhere it is between Kalshi and polymarket.com, if your country is on both lists. After that, compare the markets you actually trade, the fee rate for that category and how you want to fund the account. Some traders keep both and buy wherever the price is better for the same event.

How do you track positions on both?

Each venue shows its own PnL, so a total across both needs one place. In TrueHold, Polymarket connects by the proxy wallet address and Kalshi through a read-only API key, and both sit in one total with your crypto wallets and exchange accounts. The step-by-step guides cover each side: tracking Polymarket and tracking Kalshi.

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