Compare
Fees from each venue's own fee page, market data from DefiLlama and CoinGecko, and the campaigns running on each right now. We don't pick a winner: what fits depends on what and where you trade.
| Type | Prediction market | Prediction market |
| Trade | Crypto, Stocks, Commodities, Indices, Event contracts | Event contracts |
| Maker fee | 0% | Not confirmed |
| Taker fee | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Fee notes | Taker-only fee = shares x fee rate x p x (1-p), peaking at 50c: rate 0.07 crypto; 0.05 sports, economics, culture, weather, other; 0.04 finance, politics, mentions, tech; geopolitics fee-free. Makers pay 0% and get 15-25% of fees back as rebates | Taker fee = round up(0.07 x contracts x P x (1-P)), max about 1.75c per contract at 50c; maker fee 0.0175 x C x P x (1-P) applies only on markets with a maker multiplier (default 0); some products have their own schedules; no settlement fee (schedule effective 7 Jul 2026) |
| Open interest | $646.9M | $1.8B |
| Volume 24h | $189.1M | $458.8M |
| Volume 30d | $5.1B | $13.0B |
| Launched | 2020 | 2021 |
| Regulators | CFTC (Polymarket US) | CFTC |
| Venue score (beta) | 75/100 | 67/100 |
| Live campaigns | 1 | 0 |
| Join Polymarket ↗ | Join Kalshi ↗ |
By Julian Stafford, Co-Founder, Surgence Labs · 11 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Polymarket and Kalshi both let you trade yes or no contracts on real-world events, priced from 0 to 100 cents. Kalshi is a US exchange regulated by the CFTC from the start, with identity checks for every trader. Polymarket is an onchain market on Polygon whose main site serves users outside the US, and it now also runs a separate, CFTC-regulated US platform.
Our venue data, checked today, takes Kalshi's figures from its fee schedule, effective 7 July 2026. The taker fee is 0.07 × contracts × price × (1 minus price), rounded up, so it is highest at 50 cents. Maker fees apply only on markets that set a maker multiplier, which is zero by default. There is no settlement fee.
Polymarket's fee docs use the same shape with a rate by category: 0.07 for crypto, 0.05 for sports, economics, culture and weather, 0.04 for finance, politics and tech, and zero for geopolitics. Makers pay nothing and get 15% to 25% of fees back as rebates. These are the international site's rates. Polymarket US publishes its own.
For 100 contracts bought at 50 cents, a taker pays $1.75 on Kalshi. On Polymarket that is $1.75 in crypto, $1.25 in sports and $1.00 in politics. At 90 cents both fees fall sharply, because price × (1 minus price) shrinks near the ends.
Kalshi lists event contracts on economics, politics, sports and more. In May 2026 the CFTC approved its bitcoin perpetual contract (Fortune).
Polymarket is an order-book market for Yes and No shares, running on Polygon. Our profile lists crypto, stocks, commodities, indices and events. In September 2026 it added Polymarket Perps, which reached 67 markets within hours of launch. For how event markets work, see our event contracts page.
At the time of writing (11 October 2026), the DefiLlama figures in our table show:
Polymarket Perps adds about $96 million of open interest on a separate DefiLlama line. Volume in event markets moves with the calendar, so a big election or final can swing either figure. Our guide on how to read trading volume and open interest explains the measures.
Our calendar has no live prize campaign on either venue. The one Polymarket listing, the perps launch, carried no published reward.
Polymarket's standing programs are liquidity rewards, paid daily to makers who quote close to the midpoint, and holding rewards, a variable annual rate on positions in certain markets.
Kalshi runs liquidity incentives on selected markets for set periods. In a CFTC filing at the end of September 2026, it said it would end its Volume Incentive Program no earlier than 13 October (The Block). Kalshi also pays interest, 3.50% when we checked, on eligible US accounts holding $250 or more. The rate is variable.
The CFTC designated KalshiEX LLC as a contract market on 4 November 2020 (CFTC). Every trader must pass identity verification first. In October 2025 Kalshi opened to over 140 countries, with 38 excluded, including Canada, France, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK (Cointelegraph). Some states dispute its sports contracts: a Massachusetts court granted an injunction against them in January 2026 (SBC Americas), while a federal appeals court ruled in April 2026 that New Jersey cannot block them (SBC Americas).
Polymarket's international site geoblocks countries including the United States, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Australia and Ontario, and sets Singapore, Poland, Thailand and Taiwan to close-only. US users go through Polymarket US. It received an amended CFTC order of designation in November 2025, after buying the licensed exchange QCEX, and trades through futures commission merchants (Bitcoin Magazine). Its US app opened through a waitlist in December 2025, starting with sports (Bitcoin Magazine).
Kalshi launched trading in 2021 and has operated under CFTC oversight throughout. Its recent scrutiny centres on the incentive program above: The Block reported CFTC questions over repeated ether perpetual trades, which Kalshi attributed to market makers while denying it was under investigation.
Polymarket launched in 2020. In January 2022 it paid a $1.4 million CFTC penalty for offering unregistered event contracts and agreed to wind down the markets concerned (The Block). The FBI searched founder Shayne Coplan's home in November 2024, and the Justice Department and CFTC closed their probes in July 2025 (The Block).
Choose Kalshi if you are in the US and want a CFTC-regulated exchange with identity-checked accounts, interest on idle cash, and markets on US economic data and sports.
Choose Polymarket if you live where its international site is open, are comfortable funding an account with crypto, and trade politics or world events where its category fees are lower.
The international site blocks US users. Americans can use Polymarket US, which operates under a CFTC order of designation and opened through a waitlist.
It depends on the market. Kalshi's peak taker fee matches Polymarket's crypto rate. Polymarket charges less on sports and politics, and nothing on geopolitics.
In most countries, yes, since October 2025. The UK, Canada, France and 35 other places remain excluded.
See the prediction markets hub, the prediction market rankings, and the Polymarket and Kalshi profiles.
This comparison is information, not financial advice. Trading carries risk, and fees and terms change: check each venue's own pages before you trade.
