Every winning Kalshi contract pays exactly $1.00 at resolution. Your net payout is that gross amount minus your total entry cost including fees paid. If you bought 100 Yes contracts at 40 cents as a taker and paid $1.68 in fees, your total cost was $41.68. On a win your net profit is $58.32. The calculator on this page runs this automatically for any inputs you enter.
Kalshi Payout Calculator
Enter your trade details below to calculate your exact Kalshi payout, net profit, fees paid, and return percentage before you place a trade.
How to Use This Calculator
Four inputs are all you need to get your result.
STEP 1
Select Your Market Category
Choose from politics, economics, finance, sports, entertainment, or weather. The fee coefficient changes by category and the calculator applies the correct one automatically.
STEP 2
Enter Your Contract Price
Input your contract price in cents, between 1 and 99. Each contract pays $1.00 if your side wins and $0.00 if it does not.
STEP 3
Enter the Total Amount invested
Enter the exact amount you have invested while placing a trade.
STEP 4
Select Your Order Type and Market Category
Choose Taker (market order, fills immediately) or Maker (limit order, 75% cheaper than taker on the same trade).
Your results appear instantly below the fee curve, showing both If Right and If Wrong scenarios in a single card.
How Kalshi Payouts Work
Kalshi is a CFTC-regulated prediction market where you trade event contracts on politics, economics, sports, weather, finance, and more. Every contract is binary. You buy Yes or No on an event outcome, each contract is priced between 1 cent and 99 cents, and every winning contract pays exactly $1.00 at resolution. Every losing contract pays nothing.
The contract price represents the market's implied probability of the event occurring. A contract at 40 cents means the market believes there is a 40% chance the event resolves Yes. If you think the true probability is higher than 40%, buying Yes contracts gives you a positive expected value edge.
PAYOUT STRUCTURE
Winning contract payout$1.00 per contract
Losing contract payout$0.00
Your profit per contract$1.00 minus entry price minus fee
40¢ contract → win (taker)
58.3¢ profit after fee
60¢ contract → win (taker)
38.3¢ profit after fee
25¢ contract → win (taker)
73.7¢ profit after fee
Understanding Kalshi Fees
Kalshi's fee structure has two variables: your order type and your contract price. The category you trade in sets the coefficient. The price determines how much of that coefficient hits your position.
Taker Fees
A taker places a market order that executes immediately against existing orders on the book. Takers pay Kalshi's standard fee using this formula:
Taker Fee = ceil(0.07 × contracts × price × (1 - price))The ceil function rounds the fee up to the nearest cent. The 0.07 is the taker coefficient. Price and (1 - price) are your contract price and its complement as decimals. At 50 cents the formula hits its maximum because 0.50 x 0.50 = 0.25, the highest value the price term can reach. As the price moves away from 50 cents in either direction, the fee shrinks.
- At 30 cents on 100 contracts: ceil(0.07 × 100 × 0.30 × 0.70) = $1.47
- At 50 cents on 100 contracts: ceil(0.07 × 100 × 0.50 × 0.50) = $1.75
- At 70 cents on 100 contracts: ceil(0.07 × 100 × 0.70 × 0.30) = $1.47
The fee is symmetric. Buying at 30 cents costs the same in fees as buying at 70 cents for the same number of contracts. The peak is always at 50 cents.
Maker Fees
A maker places a limit order that sits on the order book waiting for a match. Makers pay a significantly lower fee using the same parabolic formula but with a coefficient of 0.0175, exactly one quarter of the taker rate.
Maker Fee = ceil(0.0175 × contracts × price × (1 - price))At 50 cents on 100 contracts that works out to ceil(0.0175 x 100 x 0.50 x 0.50) = $0.44, compared to $1.75 for a taker on the same trade. That is a 75% reduction in fees from one order type decision. On markets with enough liquidity, placing a limit order one cent inside the spread is often filled within minutes and saves meaningful fees across an active month of trading.
The Fee Curve Explained
The fee curve visual in the calculator shows the parabolic relationship in real time. The marker positions automatically at your entered contract price. Drag it across the price range and your fee per contract updates live before you commit to the trade. The practical implication for market selection: contracts priced closer to the edges of the range cost less in fees than contracts priced near 50 cents. If two markets have similar implied probabilities but one trades at 45 cents and another at 28 cents, the 28 cent market is cheaper to trade as a taker. Fee drag is a real cost and accounting for it at market selection, not just at order entry, is one of the lower-effort ways to improve your net return on Kalshi.
Fees by Market Category
Kalshi applies the 0.07 taker coefficient and 0.0175 maker coefficient across its standard categories including politics, economics, sports, finance, entertainment, and weather. Unlike Polymarket, Kalshi has no permanently fee-free category. The calculator applies the correct coefficient automatically when you select your category from the dropdown.
Kalshi vs Polymarket: Fee Difference at a Glance
Both platforms use a parabolic fee formula but with different coefficients. Kalshi charges a 0.07 taker coefficient versus Polymarket's 0.0625, making Kalshi roughly 12% more expensive for taker orders at every price point.
- At 50 cents on 100 contracts: Kalshi taker fee: $1.75 | Polymarket taker fee: $1.5625
- At 30 cents on 100 contracts: Kalshi taker fee: $1.47 | Polymarket taker fee: $1.3125
For maker orders the gap is larger. Polymarket makers pay zero fees and receive daily USDC rebates. Kalshi makers pay the 0.0175 coefficient, which is cheaper than Kalshi taker but still more expensive than Polymarket maker. If you are an active limit order trader, Polymarket's maker structure is structurally cheaper.
The counterweight is that Kalshi is CFTC-regulated, accepts fiat deposits directly, requires no crypto wallet, and offers deeper liquidity on US political and economic markets. For US-based traders who cannot access Polymarket legally, Kalshi is the primary regulated alternative with the most competitive fee structure available in that category.
Kalshi also does not offer a holding reward equivalent to Polymarket's 4% annualized passive income on open positions. For long-hold trades this is a meaningful structural difference in total return.
Worked Example: What You Actually Take Home
Scenario 1: Holding to Resolution as a Taker
You buy 100 Yes contracts on a Kalshi politics market at 40 cents per contract as a taker.
- Entry cost:100 × $0.40 = $40.00
- Taker fee:ceil(0.07 × 100 × 0.40 × 0.60) = ceil($1.68) = $1.68
- Total cost including fee:$41.68
If the market resolves Yes:
Gross payout: 100 × $1.00 = $100.00
Net profit: $100.00 - $41.68 = $58.32
Return: 139.9% on total cost
If the market resolves No:
Total loss: $41.68
Effective odds after fee: Your 40 cent entry implies 2.50 decimal odds without fees. After the $1.68 taker fee your effective odds drop to 2.399. That gap is the real cost of trading as a taker at mid-range prices where the fee peaks.
Scenario 2: Maker Order on the Same Trade
Same trade: 100 Yes contracts on a politics market at 40 cents, placed as a limit order filled as a maker.
- Entry cost:100 × $0.40 = $40.00
- Maker fee:ceil(0.0175 × 100 × 0.40 × 0.60) = ceil($0.42) = $0.42
- Total cost including fee:$40.42
If the market resolves Yes:
Gross payout: $100.00
Net profit: $59.58
Return: 147.4%
Compared to the taker scenario your net profit is $1.26 higher and your effective odds improve from 2.399 to 2.474, purely from the order type decision. On a $40 position that is a 7.5 percentage point return improvement. Across 20 similar trades in a month the difference becomes significant.
Scenario 3: If You Are Wrong
You buy 150 No contracts on a Kalshi sports market at 35 cents as a taker.
- Entry cost:150 × $0.35 = $52.50
- Taker fee:ceil(0.07 × 150 × 0.35 × 0.65) = ceil($2.39) = $2.39
- Total cost including fee:$54.89
The market resolves Yes, meaning your No contracts lose.
Payout: $0.00
Total loss: $54.89
Your maximum loss on any Kalshi trade is always your entry cost plus the taker fee paid. There is no margin, no leverage, and no way to lose more than what you put in. The If Wrong panel in the calculator shows this number clearly alongside the If Right payout so you always see your full downside before confirming a trade.
Read More: Prediction Market Bankroll Management Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Kalshi charges a trading fee on every order using the formula: ceil(0.07 x contracts x price x (1 - price)) for takers and ceil(0.0175 x contracts x price x (1 - price)) for makers. The fee peaks at 50 cent contracts and shrinks toward zero at both ends of the price range. Fee rates can also vary by market category.
Yes, but significantly less than takers. The maker coefficient is 0.0175, exactly one quarter of the 0.07 taker rate. On 100 contracts at 50 cents a taker pays $1.75 while a maker pays $0.44 on the same position. If your trading style allows for limit orders, maker trading is meaningfully cheaper on Kalshi over time.
Kalshi pays out automatically when the market resolves. Winning contracts convert to $1.00 each and the funds transfer to your Kalshi account balance immediately. Withdrawal timing to your bank depends on your method, with ACH transfers typically settling within one to three business days.
Fee cost on Kalshi is driven primarily by contract price, not category. Contracts priced near 1 cent or 99 cents carry the lowest fees because the parabolic formula approaches zero at both ends. Contracts near 50 cents carry the highest fees in any category. Choosing maker orders over taker orders reduces your fee by 75% at any price point.
A sportsbook embeds its margin into the odds it offers so you cannot see the cost separately. Kalshi charges a transparent fee on top of the contract price as a separate line item. The contract price on Kalshi reflects genuine market probability rather than bookmaker-adjusted odds. The fee is visible, calculable before you trade, and shown as a separate line in the calculator results card.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: This calculator provides estimates for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment or trading advice. Fees, payouts and market rules can change; always confirm current terms on Kalshi before trading.
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