Polymarket vs Kalshi, priced on the same questions

At a glance

How often they agree

Of the 2,443 matched questions where both venues were showing a price, 2,272 sat within one point of each other, and on 1,955 the two books overlapped outright. 56 showed a gap wider than both venues' own spreads, and 53 of those also passed our rules check on both venues' resolution source, timing and outcome, which is when we call a gap a disagreement. Counted from our feed, read 19 October 2026, 21:22 UTC.

Gaps persist for ordinary reasons: the two venues word and settle the same question differently, their traders are different people in different countries, and a thin book moves on small orders. A gap is two prices, not a free return; our guide to why prices differ between venues covers the costs and risks of trading one.

Fees

Both venues charge a taker fee of coefficient × contracts × price × (1 − price), so a fee is largest on a contract priced at 50 cents and falls towards nothing near 0 or 100 cents. Neither is a percentage of your stake.

• Kalshi, standard series: at most 1.75¢ per contract, from a coefficient of 0.07. Makers pay on 101 of the 4,200 series with an open event, counted 2 October 2026. Source: Kalshi's fee schedule (kalshi.com/docs/kalshi-fee-schedule.pdf) and public series data, read 2 October 2026.
• polymarket.com, the Polymarket offshore exchange, on politics: at most 1¢ per contract, from a coefficient of 0.04. Other categories differ, and geopolitics markets are free; makers are never charged. Source: polymarket.com's fee documentation (docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees), read 2 October 2026.

For example, 100 contracts bought at 50 cents cost $1.75 in fees on Kalshi and $1.00 on polymarket.com politics.

Polymarket US uses the same shape of curve with a taker coefficient of 0.0695, at most 1.74¢ per contract, under its schedule effective 7 October 2026; its Table Tennis markets carry a higher taker coefficient of 0.10. Source: Polymarket US's fee schedule (docs.polymarket.us/fees), read 16 October 2026.

The formula, each category's rate and a worked example are on Kalshi vs Polymarket fees.

Who can use each

Kalshi

Kalshi is regulated in the US but not only for US residents. Its help centre says: "Yes, you can trade on Kalshi from many countries. Your eligibility to trade on Kalshi from outside the United States is subject to the terms of the Kalshi Member Agreement." (Kalshi's help article "Can I trade on Kalshi from outside the United States?", help.kalshi.com/en/articles/14026044-can-i-trade-on-kalshi-from-outside-the-united-states, read 16 October 2026.) The agreement restricts a list of countries, and Kalshi refuses sign-ups from the UK. We show Kalshi links only to readers in the US, and in the states below we withhold them for the kinds of market a court order or agreement covers there. This is where we show links, not a ruling on legality: for that, see whether Kalshi is legal in your state.

Massachusetts is held on that list by our own decision until the state's Supreme Judicial Court rules in case SJC-13906.

In Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Tennessee, Utah, New Jersey, Ohio, Montana, Missouri and New York, Kalshi links are shown and litigation is continuing. Kalshi publishes no state list of its own. Source: our Kalshi state file, checked 15 October 2026.

polymarket.com

polymarket.com does not serve the US or the UK, and our deny list holds 51 countries in all, from Polymarket's own geographic restriction pages, checked 8 October 2026. Where it is open, it is a crypto venue: you hold pUSD, a token on Polygon backed by USDC.

Polymarket US

Polymarket US's terms ask that you are at least 18 (or older where your jurisdiction requires) and legally permitted to use the exchange. They name no states, and its help pages say nothing about which states it serves (checked 15 October 2026), so we cannot tell a reader whether it is open where they are, and we do not link it.

If you are in the UK

For UK readers the answer is simpler, and more disappointing. Neither platform is available to you: both refuse UK residents for the regulatory reasons in our guide to whether prediction markets are legal in the UK, which go back to the FCA's 2019 ban on selling binary options to retail consumers. Betfair Exchange and Smarkets, both licensed in Great Britain, run order books that work in a similar way.

Markets both venues list

The questions we match, by group, from the same read as the prices. This feed holds no sports pairs; sports matches priced by both venues are on the full board, and every open market on each venue is on our markets page.

Settlement and rules

Each venue settles a contract against its own written rules: the source it will read, the time it will read it, and what counts as yes. We pair a question only when both venues' own rules texts were read and our checks found no contradiction between them. In the words our checks use, that is "the absence of a detected difference, not a finding that the contracts settle identically". Two contracts that read alike can still settle differently, so read both rulebooks before you trade.

More on how venues decide an outcome: how prediction markets decide and Polymarket disputes and resolutions.

Deposits, withdrawals and apps

• Kalshi lists debit card (including Apple Pay and Google Pay), bank transfer (ACH), PayPal, Venmo, Cash App (deposits only), crypto and wire transfer. Source: Kalshi's Transfers FAQ (help.kalshi.com), dated 24 August 2026, read 16 October 2026.
• polymarket.com trades in pUSD, "a standard ERC-20 token on Polygon, backed by USDC", funded by bridging assets from supported chains. Source: Polymarket's documentation (docs.polymarket.com), read 16 October 2026.
• Polymarket US: "Deposit via debit card or bank transfer (ACH) through the Polymarket US app." Source: Polymarket US's general FAQs (docs.polymarket.us), read 16 October 2026.

We have not yet checked either venue's deposit or withdrawal fees, or which devices each app runs on, against the venue's own pages, so this page states none.

How the two got here

The two companies took different routes to the same place. Kalshi has operated inside the US regulatory perimeter from the start, as a CFTC-designated contract market since 2020. Polymarket grew offshore on crypto rails, then bought its way back into the US: in July 2025 it acquired QCEX, a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange, for $112 million; the CFTC issued an amended order of designation in November 2025; Polymarket US relaunched in December 2025 behind an invite-only waitlist, and dropped the waitlist for general US sign-up in May 2026. polymarket.com, the original venue, carried on as a separate product for readers outside the US.

Carried from our earlier comparison guide, last reviewed 2 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, Kalshi or polymarket.com?

On politics, polymarket.com: its taker fee peaks at 1 cent per contract against Kalshi's 1.75 cents, and polymarket.com charges nothing on geopolitics markets. Both fees are largest on a contract priced at 50 cents. Figures from each venue's schedule, read 2 October 2026.

Can I use Polymarket in the US?

Not polymarket.com: it blocks the US, and the Polymarket prices on this page are polymarket.com's. Polymarket US is a separate, US exchange with its own app, order book and fees. It publishes no list of the states it serves that we could find, so we do not link it.

Are the prices the same on Kalshi and polymarket.com?

Mostly close. When this page was built, of the 2,443 matched questions where both venues showed a price, 2,272 were within a point of each other. 56 showed a gap wider than both venues' own books, and 53 of those passed our rules check on both venues' resolution source, timing and outcome, which is when we call a gap a disagreement.

Do Kalshi and polymarket.com settle the same question the same way?

Not necessarily. We pair a question only when both venues' own rules read alike on the points our checks cover, but that is the absence of a detected difference, not proof the contracts settle identically. Read both rulebooks before you trade.

Which has more markets?

This page counts only the questions both venues list. Our markets page lists every open market on each venue separately.

Can UK readers use Kalshi or Polymarket?

No. polymarket.com blocks the UK, and Kalshi, which can be traded from many countries subject to its member agreement, refuses sign-ups from the UK; the reasons are in our guide to whether prediction markets are legal in the UK. Betfair Exchange and Smarkets, both licensed in Great Britain, run similar order books.

Can I use Kalshi outside the US?

Kalshi says so: "Yes, you can trade on Kalshi from many countries." (Kalshi help centre, read 16 October 2026). Eligibility is subject to its member agreement, which restricts a list of countries, and Kalshi refuses sign-ups from the UK. We show Kalshi links only to readers in the US.

How this page is made

The prices come from our own price feed, which pairs questions that Kalshi and polymarket.com both list and keeps a pair only when both venues' rules texts read alike. The pairs our own matcher adds for Fed decisions, data releases and awards are read hourly and are left out of the six prices above, which show only pairs read live. When this page was built the feed showed 2,571 pairs; it withholds pairs our rules flag, and every price carries the time its venue last moved. The fees come from our checked fee file, the access rules from our dated venue files, and each figure on this page names its source and the date we read it.

More on the two venues: our Kalshi guide, our Polymarket guide and the fees in full.