# Polymarket 15-minute fees explained, and a zero-fee alternative

> How the taker fee on Polymarket and Kalshi 15-minute Bitcoin markets is calculated, what it costs at every price, how much it takes from a bot, and where to trade Up or Down with no fees.

Source: https://lucyd.trade/learn/polymarket-15-minute-crypto-fees

Short Bitcoin Up or Down markets are where most prediction market traders meet their first fee. On Polymarket and Kalshi you pay a **taker fee** on every order that fills against the book, and on a 5-minute or 15-minute round it is a large part of the cost of trading. Here is how it is calculated, what it costs at every price, and how much it takes from a bot that trades all day.

## The formula

Polymarket and Kalshi use the same shape of fee:

> fee = 0.07 × shares × price × (1 − price)

- **0.07** is the fee rate. On Polymarket it is set per category, and crypto has the highest one, 0.07. Kalshi uses 0.07 for its standard markets and rounds the fee up to the next cent.
- **price** is the price of the share you trade, between 0 and 1.
- **price × (1 − price)** peaks at 0.25 when the price is 0.50 and falls toward zero near 0 and 1.

So the fee is highest exactly where Up or Down rounds trade most: near 50/50 at the start of every round. Only takers pay; makers whose resting orders get filled pay nothing on Polymarket and receive part of the fees back as rebates.

Fee schedules change; this is the formula published in the [Polymarket fee docs](https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees) and by Kalshi as of October 2026.

## What it costs at each price

For 100 shares bought as a taker:

| Price | You pay | Fee | Fee as % of stake |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 0.10 | $10.00 | $0.63 | 6.3% |
| 0.20 | $20.00 | $1.12 | 5.6% |
| 0.30 | $30.00 | $1.47 | 4.9% |
| 0.40 | $40.00 | $1.68 | 4.2% |
| 0.50 | $50.00 | $1.75 | 3.5% |
| 0.60 | $60.00 | $1.68 | 2.8% |
| 0.70 | $70.00 | $1.47 | 2.1% |
| 0.80 | $80.00 | $1.12 | 1.4% |
| 0.90 | $90.00 | $0.63 | 0.7% |

Two things stand out. In dollars, the fee peaks at 0.50. As a share of what you pay, it is worst on the cheap side: buying an outsider at 0.20 costs 5.6% before the round even starts, because the fee as a share of the stake is 7% × (1 − price).

## Why it matters more in short rounds

A fee of 3.5% sounds small for a single trade. It is not small for a strategy.

**Break-even moves.** Buy Up at 0.50 and pay 0.0175 per share in fees: you now need Up to win 51.75% of the time just to break even. In our own data, Up won 50.3% of more than 5,000 five-minute rounds ([see the statistics](https://lucyd.trade/learn/bitcoin-up-or-down-statistics)). An edge of one or two percentage points is a good edge in these markets, and the fee takes all of it.

**Round trips.** If you buy and then sell before the end, you pay the fee twice.

**Frequency.** Short rounds are made for frequent trading. A bot that takes 100 orders a day of 100 shares near 0.50 pays about **$175 a day, over $5,000 a month**, whether it wins or loses.

That is why most profitable bots on fee-charging venues quote as makers rather than take liquidity, and why simple taker strategies that look good in a backtest often lose money live.

## Polymarket vs Kalshi vs Lucyd

| | Polymarket | Kalshi | Lucyd |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Taker fee on crypto Up/Down | 0.07 × shares × p × (1 − p) | 0.07 × contracts × p × (1 − p), rounded up | none |
| Maker fee | none, plus rebates | depends on the market | none |
| Fee on 100 shares at 0.50 | $1.75 | $1.75 | $0 |
| Gas to place or cancel | none | none | none |
| Round lengths for BTC | 5m, 15m, longer | 15m, longer | 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 4h, 1 day |

## How Lucyd works without fees

Lucyd charges no trading fees at any price, for takers or makers, and placing or cancelling orders costs no gas: the exchange pays to settle matched orders on chain. The business earns from its own market making, quoting both sides of the book, not from charging traders.

For a short-round strategy that changes the arithmetic: the break-even win rate for a buy at 0.50 is 50%, not 51.75%, and a bot can trade as often as its strategy needs. The order book, the market data and the full order book history are open through a [free API](https://lucyd.trade/api-docs), and AI agents can trade through the [MCP server](https://lucyd.trade/mcp).

Lucyd is on the Sepolia testnet with test USDC for now, so you can test a strategy without risking money: [see the 15-minute markets](https://lucyd.trade/bitcoin-up-or-down/15-minute).

## FAQ

**Does Polymarket charge fees on 15-minute markets?** Yes. Crypto markets, including the 5-minute and 15-minute Bitcoin Up or Down rounds, carry a taker fee of 0.07 × shares × price × (1 − price). Makers pay nothing.

**How much is the Polymarket fee on a 50¢ share?** 1.75 cents per share, or $1.75 per 100 shares, which is 3.5% of what you pay.

**Are Kalshi fees lower than Polymarket on crypto?** For a taker on a crypto market they are about the same: Kalshi uses the same 0.07 × price × (1 − price) formula and rounds the result up to the next cent.

**Is there a prediction market with no fees?** Lucyd has no trading fees for takers or makers on its Bitcoin Up or Down markets, from 5 minutes to a day.