Kalshi guide
Kalshi fees explained
Kalshi doesn’t charge a flat commission. Instead, trading fees scale with the price of a contract and the size of your order — so what you pay depends on the market. Here’s how it works in practice.
Trading fees
Kalshi’s trading fee isn’t a fixed percentage of your stake. It varies with two things: how close the contract price is to the middle of the range, and how many contracts you trade. Fees tend to be largest around the 50¢ mark — where the outcome is most uncertain and a contract is most “valuable” in probability terms — and smaller for contracts priced near the extremes. The more contracts in your order, the larger the absolute fee, since it scales with size.
The practical takeaway: the headline price you see isn’t quite the whole cost. Before sizing a position, check the fee Kalshi shows for that specific order, and fold it into your expected return. Our profit calculator has a fee field so you can see the effect on profit and ROI.
Deposit and withdrawal fees
Funding is where Kalshi’s dollar model shines. Moving money in and out through standard banking rails is generally free, and because there’s no crypto involved, you avoid the network (gas) fees that crypto-native platforms incur. That makes the all-in cost of using Kalshi easy to predict compared with platforms where on-ramp and off-ramp charges can stack up.
How it compares
No prediction market is truly “free” to trade — the cost just shows up differently. On Kalshi it’s the per-order trading fee; on a crypto platform like Polymarket it’s mainly the spread plus network fees. For a side-by-side view, see Kalshi vs Polymarket. Whatever the platform, liquid markets with tight spreads are cheaper to trade than thin ones.
Read the full Kalshi review for the bigger picture, and the deposit and withdraw guides for funding.
Fee structures change; this is a general explanation, not a fee schedule. Check Kalshi’s current fees before trading. 18+.
Frequently asked questions
Does Kalshi charge fees?
Kalshi charges a trading fee that scales with the contract price and your order size rather than a flat commission, and fees tend to be largest near the 50-cent mark. Deposits and withdrawals through standard banking are generally free.
How can I see the fee before I trade?
Kalshi shows the fee for a specific order before you confirm it. You can also use our profit calculator's fee field to see how a fee affects your profit and ROI.
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