Checked against Polymarket’s documentation on 11 October 2026 and against real trades in Polymarket’s public records.
The short answer
Yes. On Polymarket, an instant sale pays the same fee as an instant buy: shares × rate × price × (1 − price). The fee comes out of what you receive. A sale with a limit order that waits for a buyer at your price pays no fee, and a winning share that you hold to the end pays $1 with no fee at all.
To see how much your sales and buys cost in the last 30 days, to the cent, type your Polymarket @name or paste your address into the free check above.
Why some answers say sales are free
Polymarket’s documents describe the fee for “takers”: whoever trades at once against an order that is already waiting. They don’t list a separate rule for sales, and some replies online, including automated ones, have read that as “sales are not charged”. The public records say otherwise. In 117 wallets we checked by 10 October 2026, 104,854 instant buys and 18,156 instant sales paid a fee.
What a sale costs, with numbers
You buy 250 shares at 40¢ on a sports market: $100, plus a $3.00 fee. The price moves to 75¢ and you sell all 250 shares at once.
- The sale is worth 250 × $0.75 = $187.50.
- The fee is 250 × 0.05 × 0.75 × 0.25 = $2.34, taken from it: you receive $185.16.
- Both fees together: $5.34. Had the bet won and you held it, you would have received $250.00 with no second fee.
Selling or holding is your decision, and we don’t give betting advice. More on the choice and what it costs: cashing out early on Polymarket.
How to sell without the fee
Place a sell order at your own price and let it wait. If a buyer takes it, you pay no fee and get a share of the fees other traders pay in that market. The catch: the order may not trade, and on sports markets open orders are cancelled when the game starts.
What traders who sell most positions early paid: 44 wallets.
Questions
Does Polymarket charge a fee when you sell?
Yes, if you sell instantly at the current price: the same formula as a buy, taken from what you receive. A sell order that waits for its price pays nothing.
Is there a fee when a market resolves?
No. Each winning share pays $1, and nothing is taken at the end.
Why did I receive less than the price shown?
Two common reasons: the fee on the sale, and the size of the sale. A large instant sale is matched with several waiting buy orders, some at lower prices, so the average price can be below the price on the screen.