What Is Kalshi? How It Works, Fees and a Calculator

A Kalshi trade comes down to three things: what a contract pays, what its price says and how much the fee takes. This guide works through them with one running example.

What is Kalshi?

Kalshi is a US exchange, regulated by the CFTC, for event contracts: questions with a yes or no answer, such as whether a team wins or the Fed holds rates, that settle when the answer is known. By number of market series in Kalshi's public data on October 13, 2026, sports is its largest category, followed by entertainment, elections and politics, with markets on the economy, the weather and crypto as well.

Until a market settles, the price moves as traders buy and sell; Kalshi says it reflects the market's collective view of how likely the event is. You trade with other members, not with the exchange itself, which earns a fee on trades.

For safety and regulation, see our guide to whether Kalshi is legit.

How does Kalshi work?

Every Kalshi event contract is a question with a yes or no answer. You can buy Yes or No, and whichever side turns out right pays a dollar per contract at settlement. The wrong side pays nothing. A trade has four parts:

• The price. Most contracts trade in one-cent steps from 1 to 99 cents, and the price reads as the market's chance in percent. A contract at 40 cents says the market sees about a 40% chance.
• The payout. At settlement the right side pays a dollar per contract, so your profit is that dollar minus what you paid.
• The order book. The order book is the list of orders waiting to trade. Your order either fills straight away against one of them, or it joins the list until someone takes it or you cancel it.
• The fee. Kalshi charges a trading fee on an order that takes a price, and in some markets on a waiting order when it fills. The size depends on the price.

How to place your first trade on Kalshi

1. Open an account. Kalshi has to verify your identity under US law and CFTC rules, so have an ID ready.
2. Add money by bank transfer, debit card, wire or crypto.
3. Pick a market and decide whether you think the answer is Yes or No.
4. Choose how many contracts and how to buy: a quick order takes the best price on offer now and counts as a taker order, while a limit order waits at a price you set and counts as a maker order if it rests on the book and fills later.
5. Check the fee shown in the order window and confirm. Then hold until the market settles, or sell earlier if the price moves.

Reading Kalshi prices as odds

If you also bet at sportsbooks, the quickest way to judge a Kalshi price is to turn it into odds. A cheap contract is a long shot with a big payout, and a contract close to a dollar is a heavy favorite with a small one.

That conversion leaves out the fee, which moves both numbers a little. To compare a Kalshi price with a sportsbook line fairly, strip the book's margin out of the line first; the vig calculator does it in one step.

How Kalshi payouts work

Each contract on the right side is worth a dollar at settlement and each on the wrong side is worth nothing. A cheaper price means more profit if you are right and less to lose if you are wrong.

When the outcome is official, Kalshi's markets team finalizes the result and pays winning contracts into your cash balance. Kalshi says most markets settle within a few hours of the outcome being known, often within about three.

Can you sell early?

Yes. You do not have to wait for the result. Kalshi lets you sell contracts you hold, either at the current market price with a quick order sale or with a limit order sale at a price you choose or better.

The sale price follows the market, not your entry. If you bought at 40 cents and the price is now 55, selling locks in 15 cents a contract before fees; if it has fallen to 30, selling limits the loss to 10 cents before fees. A sale is a trade like any other, so the same fee rules apply to it.

How much are Kalshi fees?

On an order of 100 contracts a taker pays at most $1.75, at a price of 50 cents, and less towards either end of the range. Kalshi rounds each order's fee up to the next cent, so very small orders pay slightly more per contract.

These figures are for a taker, an order that fills at once; the next section shows when waiting orders pay less. The fee is highest at a price of 50 cents because the formula multiplies the price by what is left of the dollar.

In dollars, contracts near 50 cents carry the biggest fee; as a share of what you spend, cheap long shots pay the most. Use the last column: at the 40-cent price used in this guide, a taker must be right about 41.7% of the time to break even.

The formula is the one in the fee schedule Kalshi filed with the CFTC in 2022. A fee example in Kalshi's API documentation, updated in August 2026, matches the same rate to the last decimal.

Maker and taker fees on Kalshi

Who pays the full fee depends on timing. The taker is the order that fills at once against an order already on the book; the maker is the order that was waiting there. Kalshi lists a fee type for every market series: most series charge makers nothing, though the big sports and Fed markets charge them a quarter of the taker fee.

• Most markets. When we pulled Kalshi's public market data on October 13, 2026, all but 163 of its 15,005 market series charged no maker fee.
• Maker-fee markets. The exceptions are mostly major sports and Fed markets. In our October 2026 check, NFL, NBA, college football and Premier League games, and Fed meetings, charged makers a quarter of the taker fee.
• Discounted markets. Some series run at half the usual fee. Professional baseball games were one of them in our check.
• Fee-free markets. A handful of series, 14 in our check, carried no trading fee at all.

So a limit order left to rest is usually cheaper than taking the price on offer, though it may never fill. Kalshi shows the fee behind the "i" icon next to "You're buying" before you confirm.

What slippage means on Kalshi

Quick orders carry one more cost. A quick order buys at the best price available right now, and a large one can span several price levels in the order book, so the average you pay can end up above the price you saw. That gap is slippage. A limit order never fills at a worse price than the one you set.

Can you parlay on Kalshi?

Yes, through combos. Kalshi lets you trade custom combinations of events in a single position, and each combo has its own order book. A combo pays up to $1 a contract: its value is the product of its parts, so it pays the full dollar only if every part settles at $1, and nothing if any part settles at $0.

• Fills are not guaranteed. You request a quote, and the combo fills only if another trader responds with one, so some combos never trade.
• No take-backs. Once a combo fills, you cannot cancel or reverse it.

Combos carry the same trade-off as parlays at a sportsbook. Our guide to the round robin bet shows how splitting picks into smaller parlays changes what one losing pick costs you.

Can you profit on Kalshi?

Some do, but only at other traders' expense: what you win on a contract, another member loses, and Kalshi takes its fee from the trade. The price is the market's estimate of the chance, so a trade has positive expected value only when your own estimate of that chance is above the price plus the fee.

A one-point edge is not enough when you take the price, because the taker fee adds more than a point at mid-range prices. As a maker the same edge can pay, which is why a limit order can turn a small edge into a profit.

Kalshi withdrawals: fees and how long they take

Kalshi's help pages list no Kalshi fee for bank or wire deposits or for bank, debit card and crypto withdrawals. Debit card deposits may carry a 2% processing fee.

• Bank transfers start at a $10 minimum deposit and are open to US users only.
• Wires under $1,000 are not accepted and are sent back. A wire has to be received by Kalshi Klear before 4pm Eastern to count the same day.
• From outside the US, ACH bank transfers, PayPal and Venmo are not available.
• To withdraw, open the Transfers tab, choose Withdraw from Kalshi and pick the method. A crypto withdrawal needs an earlier crypto deposit.

Does Kalshi pay interest?

Yes, on cash and open positions, for eligible users in the United States and its territories. The rate is variable and can change at any time.

Kalshi fees and payouts FAQ