The short answer
No. When a market ends, each winning share pays $1, and Polymarket takes nothing from that payout. The fee is taken earlier: when you buy, and again if you sell before the market ends. In the 117 public wallets we checked, 89% of all fees were paid at the moment of buying.
To see what you paid in the last 30 days, to the cent, type your Polymarket @name or paste your profile address into the free check above.
This page is about polymarket.com. Polymarket US has its own rules and is not covered here.
Where the fee is taken
If you come from betting sites, you may expect a cut of the profit when your bet wins. Polymarket works another way: the fee is part of each trade. The person who buys or sells instantly, at the price on the screen, pays it. A limit order that waits for its price pays no fee.
| What happens | Fee |
|---|---|
| You buy instantly, at the price on the screen | Yes |
| You sell instantly, before the market ends | Yes, a second fee |
| Your limit order waits for its price and someone else trades with it | No fee, and you get a share of the market's fees |
| The market ends and your shares win | No fee: each share pays $1 |
| The market ends and your shares lose | No fee, but the shares are worth $0 and the buy fee is already paid |
| You add or withdraw money | No Polymarket fee |
Buys and sells use the same formula:
fee = rate × shares × price × (1 − price)
Price is in dollars, so 40¢ = 0.40. The rate is 0.07 for crypto, 0.05 for sports, economics, culture, weather and other markets, 0.04 for politics, finance and tech, and 0 for geopolitics. The full table is on our Polymarket fees page.
Cheap shares cost more in fees for the same money. On a sports market, a $100 bet at 5¢ pays $4.75 in fees, a $100 bet at 50¢ pays $2.50, and a $100 bet at 80¢ pays $1.00.
A worked example
You put $100 on a sports market at 40¢. At that price, $100 buys 250 shares.
- Fee at the buy: 0.05 × 250 × 0.40 × 0.60 = $3.00. This is 3% of your bet, and you pay it whether the bet wins or loses.
- If the bet wins: 250 shares pay $1 each, so you get $250. Polymarket takes nothing from the $250. Your profit is $150 before the fee and $147.00 after it.
- If the bet loses: the shares are worth $0. You lose the $100 and the $3.00 fee, $103.00 in all.
- If you sell before the end: say the price rises to 80¢ and you sell all 250 shares instantly. You get $200, and the sale pays its own fee: 0.05 × 250 × 0.80 × 0.20 = $2.00. Buying and selling cost $5.00 in fees together.
Now compare this with a fee on winnings, the way some betting exchanges charge. A $3.00 cut from winnings would be 2% of the $150 profit, and a losing bet would pay no fee. On Polymarket the losing bet pays the $3.00 too. Over a month, every instant buy adds to your fees, win or lose.
What we saw in 117 wallets
We checked the fees of 117 public Polymarket wallets over 30 days, from Polymarket's own public records, to the cent.
- 89% of all fees were paid when buying. $165,088 in fees on 104,854 buys.
- 11% were paid when selling before the market ended. $20,582 in fees on 18,156 sales.
So the answer for most traders is this: nothing is taken from what you win, but the fee was taken when you bought. If you sold before the end, you paid a second fee on the sale. 117 wallets are a sample, not everyone. Your own numbers take a minute to check.
How to pay less
- Let the order wait for its price. A limit order that waits pays no fee. When someone else trades with your order, you get a share of a daily pool: 15% of the fees on that market in sports, 20% in crypto and 25% in other markets with fees, split among the waiting orders that were taken. Some of these orders never trade, and the price can move away from you.
- Know what selling early costs. An instant sale before the market ends pays a second fee, with the same formula as the buy. Shares that stay until the end pay no fee on the payout. Selling or holding is your decision; the fee is one part of its cost.
- Know your level. Since 28 May 2026 Polymarket returns 3% to 50% of the fee on instant buys, depending on your level over the last 30 days. Read does Polymarket give any fees back?
Questions
Is there a fee on winnings on Polymarket?
No. When the market ends, each winning share pays $1 and Polymarket takes nothing from the payout. The fee was paid earlier, when you bought instantly, and again if you sold instantly before the end.
Is there a withdrawal fee on Polymarket?
Polymarket charges no fee to add or withdraw money. A service you use to move the money, such as an exchange or a card payment service, may charge its own fee.
Do I pay a fee when I sell?
Yes, if you sell instantly before the market ends. The sale uses the same formula as the buy. A sell order that waits for its price pays no fee, and shares that win and pay out at the end pay no fee.
Why doesn't my profile show the fees?
The profit or loss on your Polymarket profile already has the fees taken out. Polymarket shows the fee on each trade, but there is no total for the month. The money Polymarket pays back is not in the profile figure either.
How do I see my total fees?
Type your Polymarket @name or paste your profile address into the free check above. You see every fee you paid in the last 30 days, to the cent, and what Polymarket paid back. Other ways are in how much have I paid in Polymarket fees.