Kalshi fees explained: the taker and maker formulas, what a trade really costs, and every other charge on the schedule

Guide · Updated October 16, 2026 · 18+ · Not legal, tax or financial advice · By BetG8 Editorial · Prediction Markets

The two formulas

Kalshi publishes its fees as formulas rather than as a flat rate, and the formula is the whole story. For a taker, an order that executes immediately against an order already resting on the book, the fee is:

fee = round up ( M × 0.07 × C × P × (1 − P) )

C is the number of contracts, P is the price per contract in dollars (a 40-cent contract is P = 0.40), and M is a per-series multiplier that is 1 on almost every market. For a maker, an order that rests on the book at a price nobody is currently offering and is filled later by someone else, the coefficient is 0.0175 instead of 0.07:

fee = round up ( M × 0.0175 × C × P × (1 − P) )

Two consequences follow. First, the fee depends on P × (1 − P), which is largest when P is 0.50 and shrinks symmetrically toward 1 cent and 99 cents. A trade at 50 cents costs the most per contract; a trade at 90 cents costs the same as a trade at 10 cents. Second, the fee is charged per matched order, not per position. If you buy and hold to settlement you pay once. If you buy and sell before settlement you pay twice, once on each trade. Cancelling a resting order that has not filled costs nothing.

The maker multiplier deserves one more sentence, because it is where most summaries go wrong. The schedule's series table assigns a maker multiplier of 1 to the high-volume series it lists, among them NFL and NBA games, Fed decisions, CPI and GDP, so resting orders on those markets pay the 0.0175 rate when filled. For series the table does not list, the schedule's stated default is a maker multiplier of 0, meaning resting orders pay nothing. Combination contracts in the KXMVE series, Kalshi's parlays, carry a maker multiplier of 2. Whether your resting order costs a quarter of the taker fee, half of it or nothing therefore depends on the series, and the series table is the place to check.

The fee at every price

Because the formula is fixed, the fee can be tabulated once. The table gives the taker fee per 100 contracts with a multiplier of 1, and the same fee expressed as a share of the money at risk, which is the number that matters when you compare Kalshi with a sportsbook's margin.

Read the fourth column, not the third. In dollars the fee is highest at 50 cents, but as a share of what you put down it is highest on longshots: 6.3 percent of stake at 10 cents against 0.7 percent at 90 cents. The schedule itself gives the per-100 figures for every 5-cent step, and the first column of its table shows that for a single contract the fee rounds up to 1 or 2 cents at every price, so very small orders pay a proportionally larger fee than the formula suggests. Kalshi's own examples are $1.75 on 100 contracts at 50 cents, $0.63 on 100 at 10 cents and $0.07 on 100 at 99 cents.

A worked example: 100 contracts at 30 cents

Suppose a market asks whether a monthly jobs figure will come in above a stated threshold, Yes is offered at 30 cents, and you buy 100 Yes contracts at the market, taking liquidity on a series with a multiplier of 1. Here is every number.

Three things the table shows. The market says 30 percent, but you need the event to happen more than 31.5 percent of the time to break even after the fee, and more than that again if you crossed a spread to get filled. Resting a limit order at 30 cents instead would have cost $0.37, a saving of $1.10 on a $30 trade, at the price of not knowing whether or when it fills. And the exit fee is larger than the entry fee in this example because 45 cents is closer to the 50-cent peak than 30 cents is; a trader who buys low and sells near the middle pays the most on the way out.

The spread is a cost the schedule does not list

The fee page tells you what Kalshi charges. It does not tell you what the other traders charge, which is the gap between the best bid and the best ask. If a market is quoted 29 to 31 and you buy at 31 and later sell at 29, you have paid 2 cents a contract to the people on the other side, more than the taker fee on the same trade. On busy markets the spread is often a cent; on thin ones it can be ten or more. We measured it across venues in what the spread really costs, and the honest total cost of a Kalshi round trip is fee plus spread, not fee alone.

Deposits, withdrawals and the charges that are not trading fees

Two practical notes. Deposited funds sit under a temporary security hold before they can be withdrawn, with a length that depends on the deposit method, so the cheapest rail is not always the fastest one to get money back out. And if you reach Kalshi through a brokerage app rather than directly, the broker is a futures commission merchant that can layer its own commission on top of Kalshi's; the schedule says those fees will be disclosed before any transaction, and they are not Kalshi's to set.

Zero-fee series, combos and the perpetual futures table

The July 2026 schedule carries three kinds of exception. A short list of series is fee-free for both sides, with a multiplier of 0 for makers and takers: year-end bitcoin and ether price ranges, a tech-layoffs market and several political scenario markets are on it as of October 2026. Combination contracts in the KXMVE series, which bundle several outcomes into one parlay-style contract, charge takers the standard rate and makers double the standard maker rate. And Kalshi's perpetual futures, a separate margined product, have their own fee table in basis points of notional with volume tiers: takers pay 12 basis points at the base tier, falling in steps to 2.6 basis points above $3 billion of 30-day volume, and makers pay 5 basis points at the base tier, falling to 0.6. None of the event-contract formulas above apply to perps.

How Kalshi's fee compares

A sportsbook does not charge a fee; it builds its margin into the price, and at a standard −110 line on both sides that margin is about 4.5 percent of the money wagered, as our odds converter shows when you remove the vig. Kalshi's taker fee at 50 cents is 3.5 percent of stake one way, or 7 percent on a round trip, and it comes on top of whatever spread you cross. Polymarket uses per-category caps rather than a formula, with makers paying nothing; we compared the two venues line by line in Kalshi versus Polymarket fees. The honest summary is that for a taker near the middle of the range Kalshi is in the same cost band as a sportsbook, cheaper for makers, and more expensive than either on longshots when the fee is measured against stake.

What this guide does not cover

This is a guide to the published fee schedule, not to Kalshi as a whole. It does not cover how prices are formed or how settlement works, which are in how Kalshi works; the tax treatment of gains, which depends on your situation; or promotional credits, which are not fees. The multiplier table in the schedule is long and changes without notice, so a series we describe as fee-free or as carrying a maker fee may have moved by the time you read this; the live schedule at kalshi.com/fee-schedule governs, and the page says upcoming changes are posted there. Every number above is from the schedule effective 7 July 2026 and the Transfers FAQ as read on 16 October 2026. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice, and nothing here is a suggestion to trade.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Kalshi charge per trade?

For an order that fills immediately against the order book, Kalshi charges 0.07 times the number of contracts times the price in dollars times one minus the price, rounded up to the next cent. That is at most 1.75 cents per contract, at a 50-cent price, and falls toward both ends: 0.63 cents per contract at 10 cents or 90 cents. Resting orders that are later filled pay the maker rate, which uses 0.0175 instead of 0.07 on the series where it applies.

Does Kalshi charge a fee when a market settles?

No. The fee schedule effective 7 July 2026 lists no settlement fee and no membership fee. If you hold a contract to resolution you pay only the trading fee on the way in. Selling before resolution is a second trade and carries a second trading fee.

Is it cheaper to be a maker on Kalshi?

Yes. A maker order rests on the book at a price nobody is currently offering and only pays if it fills. On series where the maker multiplier is 1, the maker fee is a quarter of the taker fee; on series the schedule does not list, the maker multiplier is 0 and resting orders pay nothing. Cancelling an unfilled order is always free.

What does it cost to deposit and withdraw on Kalshi?

ACH bank transfers carry no Kalshi fee in either direction. Debit card deposits carry a fee of up to 2 percent. Wire deposits carry no Kalshi fee but need a $1,000 minimum, and wire withdrawals are not offered below $500,000. Crypto transfers may carry fees from Kalshi's third-party processor, shown before each transaction. The standard minimum deposit is $10.

Are any Kalshi markets fee-free?

A short list of series carries a zero multiplier for both makers and takers in the July 2026 schedule, including year-end bitcoin and ether price ranges and a handful of political scenario markets. The list changes, and the live schedule at kalshi.com/fee-schedule governs.

Related

• Odds converter: cent prices, American odds and the vig
• How does Kalshi work? Contracts, prices, fees and payouts
• Kalshi versus Polymarket fees
• Is Kalshi legal in your state? The 50-state tracker
• What the spread really costs on prediction markets

Sources

• Kalshi, Fee schedule, last updated and effective 7 July 2026, for the taker and maker formulas, rounding, the fee examples by price, the series multiplier table, the perpetual futures tiers, and the settlement, membership, ACH, debit, wire and crypto charges.
• Kalshi Help Center, Transfers FAQ, for deposit and withdrawal methods, the $10 and $1,000 minimums, holds and processing times.
• Kalshi Help Center, How are prices determined?, for the order-book mechanics behind maker and taker status.
• CFTC, Designated contract markets, for Kalshi's registration status and the FCM distribution model.

18+ only. Prediction market contracts carry real financial risk and you can lose everything you pay for a position. This page explains a published fee schedule; it is not legal, tax, financial or betting advice. If gambling stops being fun, help is available at 1-800-GAMBLER.