Polymarket Fees Explained: What a Bet Really Costs

Maker and taker: who pays?

Two kinds of players meet on Polymarket:

• the maker posts an order in the book ("I buy at 0.48") and waits for someone to take it;
• the taker takes an existing order to be filled right away.

Polymarket's fees are paid by the taker. On some markets, makers even receive a rebate. A copy tool buys immediately to follow the trader: it is almost always the taker.

How much, and on which markets?

Each market has its own fee schedule. As of October 2026:

• Many markets charge no fees at all: the schedule is shown on each market.
• Sports markets usually charge about 3 to 5% × (1 − price) of the amount: 2.5% for a share bought at 0.50 at the 5% rate, 1% at 0.80.
• Very short crypto markets (for example "will Bitcoin go up in the next 5 minutes?") have their own schedule.

The lower the price, the more fees weigh: they apply to the "potential gain" part.

What about network fees?

Polymarket runs on Polygon, where a transaction costs a fraction of a cent. On PolyCopy, wallet operations go through a relayer that covers those fees: in practice, the user pays no network fees.

A copy-trading bot's fees

A bot adds its own fees. On PolyCopy: 2% of the amount of each bet, copied or placed manually (for a manual bet, the amount is shown before you confirm). Those are the bot's only fees: no subscription, no deposit fee.

The total cost of a copied bet

Item	Sports market, price 0.50	No-fee market, price 0.50
Polymarket fee (taker)	≈ 2.5%	0%
Bot fee	2%	2%
Copier's slippage	≈ 1%	≈ 1%
Total	≈ 5.5%	≈ 3%

Bottom line: a trader whose picks earn less than 3 to 6% per bet leaves nothing for their copier. That is exactly what happens with high-frequency bots, as the RN1 case shows.