Polymarket bids farewell to the zero-fee era: What does the fee structure reform mean?

On March 26, the prediction market platform Polymarket announced a major policy change: starting March 30, it will charge a Taker (taker) fee for nearly all trading categories for the first time. This means that just a few days from now, the era in which you can place bets on Polymarket without paying more than the wager amount in fees will come to an end.

1. Comparison of Polymarket fees before and after the adjustment

Polymarket explains the fee issue in detail in its official documentation.

Polymarket charges a small trading fee on certain markets. These fees are used to fund a market maker rebate program. Each day, the program redistributes part of the fees back to market makers to incentivize them to provide deeper liquidity and narrow the bid-ask spread.

Geopolitical and world events markets are exempt from fees. Polymarket does not charge any fees or profits from trading activity in these markets. In addition, Polymarket does not charge USDC deposit or withdrawal fees (but intermediaries such as Coinbase or MoonPay may charge their own fees).

1. Current fee rates

Currently, only crypto and sports markets have enabled taker fees.

2. New fee rates

Starting March 30, 2026, the fee parameters will expand to cover more market categories and will use updated fee rates.

Fees are calculated using the following formula:

fee = C × p × feeRate × (p × (1 - p))^exponent

where C = number of trade shares, and p = share price. Fee parameters vary by market category:

Trading fees are calculated in USDC and change based on the share price. However, buy-side fees are charged in shares, while sell-side fees are charged in USDC. The effective fee rate reaches its peak at 50% probability and symmetrically declines toward both ends.

Fees are rounded to four decimal places. The minimum fee is 0.0001 USDC. Any trades smaller than this amount are rounded to zero, so tiny trades close to extreme values may be charged no fee at all.

When contract prices are close to 50/50, fees are highest because this represents the greatest uncertainty. Once the outcome becomes clearer, fees gradually drop to zero. As a result, contract fees for prices of $0.02 or $0.98 are almost negligible. But any contract priced at $0.50 will reach the fee peak.

Fee rates also differ across different categories. Crypto has the highest fee rate, up to 1.80%. Economic categories are about 1.50%, culture and weather about 1.25%, politics 1%, and sports the lowest at 0.75%.

3. API user fee handling

Using the SDK

The official CLOB client automatically handles fees—it fetches the fee rate and includes it in the signed order payload.

Actions executed automatically by the client:

1. Fetch the fee rate for the market token ID;

2. Include feeRateBps in the order structure;

3. Sign the order that includes the fees.

No additional actions are required. Orders can operate normally in markets where fees are enabled.

Using the REST API

If you call the REST API directly or build and sign your own orders, you must manually include the fee rate in the signed order payload. Step 1: Before creating an order, retrieve the token ID’s fee rate;

Step 2: Add this field feeRateBps to your order object. This value is part of the signed payload—CLOB verifies your signature based on this value.

Step three: Sign and submit:

1. Before signing, ensure the feeRateBps field is included in the order object;

2. Sign the complete order;

3. Send a POST request to the order endpoint.

4. How much revenue will Polymarket generate from its trading fees?

1. Polymarket revenue changes

According to a report jointly released by Keyrock and Dune, in 2025 Polymarket’s trading volume was $21.5 billion; it processed 95 million trades (about 54% of cumulative trading volume). Its monthly trading volume rose from about 45,000 trades to about 19 million trades (a 421x increase).

Based on data compiled from a certain exchange on Dune, since trading fees began being charged on some markets starting January 6, Polymarket has cumulatively earned about $7.94 million in fee revenue, of which February’s fee revenue was about $4.99 million. (The markets Polymarket charges fees for include “15-minute crypto price movements” and sports markets such as Serie A and NCAA.)

Over the past 30 days, Polymarket’s trading volume was about $9.55 billion. At the current trading volume level, assuming an effective blended taker fee rate, this implies monthly revenue of about $25 million, annualized revenue of about $300 million, or daily revenue of about $833,000.

2. Polymarket valuation changes

Some analysts believe the current level of revenue will help sustain Polymarket’s valuation, which is currently approaching $20 billion. A year ago, its valuation was about $1.2 billion.

Specifically, according to data disclosed by Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan: in 2024, when Blockchain Capital led a $55 million funding round, the company’s valuation was $350 million; in 2025, when Founders Fund led a $150 million funding round, the company’s valuation was $1.2 billion. That same year in October, the Intercontinental Exchange Group invested $2.0 billion in Polymarket, with post-investment valuation of about $9 billion. In late October, Polymarket also held preliminary talks with investors for a new investment with a valuation between $12 billion and $15 billion.

According to the latest data from PM Insights: as of January 19, 2026, Polymarket’s implied valuation reached $11.6 billion.

3. Polymarket PS multiple (price-to-sales) changes

Using February’s fee revenue of about $4.99 million as a reference, current full-year revenue is $59.88 million, and the current valuation is $11.6 billion. Under Polymarket’s fee levels going forward, full-year revenue would be around $300 million. With the valuation unchanged, the PS multiple (price-to-sales) would change from 193.7x to 38.7x.

(PS multiple (price-to-sales) = company market cap ÷ company operating revenue, i.e., “how much the market is willing to pay for every $1 of the company’s revenue.”)

Against the backdrop of the current 193.7x price-to-sales multiple, Polymarket’s future would have to be explosive growth in users, domination of prediction markets, and becoming a global information pricing infrastructure. But amid challenges such as regulation and user stickiness, it remains to be seen whether Polymarket can truly support a 193.7x price-to-sales multiple. Going forward, at least when revenue reaches $300 million, Polymarket’s valuation would appear more reasonable.

Polymarket will gradually convert its story-driven high valuation into a valuation supported by real revenue.

3. Will Polymarket’s changes affect user stickiness?

Polymarket’s additional trading fees will also be used for structural updates. The maker rebate program will return the collected fees to liquidity providers in the form of daily USDC payments. This is intended to deepen markets and reduce spreads.

For example, political market makers will receive a 25% rebate of the fees collected for their category. This mechanism should create a healthier ecosystem, because market makers will post more accurate quotes, traders will pay lower fees, and overall liquidity will improve.

If user volumes remain stable after the new fee policy is implemented, Polymarket can successfully convert free users into paid users without losing users. Conversely, if user volume drops significantly, it would be detrimental to Polymarket’s development.

But for now, it seems users will continue using Polymarket and will not give up Polymarket because of the fees.