What is Polymarket?
Polymarket is a peer-to-peer prediction market where you buy and sell Yes and No shares on real-world events, settled on Polygon. It suits traders who want liquid event markets and clear rules on fees and resolution.
Every share trades between $0.00 and $1.00, and the price reads as the market's probability of the outcome. One pUSD mints one Yes and one No share; winning shares redeem for $1.00 and losing shares for $0.00. Trades match on a central limit order book against other users, not against a house, and you can sell before resolution.
Collateral is pUSD (Polymarket USD), an ERC-20 on Polygon that wraps USDC; the docs say the backing is enforced on-chain by on-ramp and off-ramp contracts. Positions are ERC-1155 tokens, recorded as Gnosis Conditional Tokens or Protocol V2 positions. Many markets resolve through the UMA Optimistic Oracle with a proposal and challenge period.
The site now has three tabs: Predict, Combos (multi-leg positions priced through an RFQ flow) and Perps, perpetual contracts on indices, commodities, crypto and equities with margin, funding and liquidation. Developers get public APIs and SDKs for market data and order placement.
Access is restricted: polymarket.com blocks trading from the United States and points US users to polymarket.us. Check the rules for your own country before depositing.
Good fit for
- Traders who want liquid markets on elections, sports and macro events
- Developers building bots or dashboards on a documented order-book API
Not ideal for
- US residents (polymarket.com redirects them to polymarket.us)
- Anyone who wants a simple fixed-odds sportsbook experience
Polymarket Atlas AI Score
8.5 / 10 Excellent
Confidence: High
The reference venue for prediction markets, with a fee model that is public down to the formula. Geographic restrictions and the still-thin public detail on perps fees are the main gaps.
Order-book event markets across many categories, plus combos, perps and public APIs.
Formula, per-category rates and worked fee tables are public; perps fees not found.
Non-custodial, on-chain settlement with USDC-backed pUSD; oracle disputes remain a risk.
Largest prediction market by its own description, but trading is geo-blocked in the US.
Extensive developer docs, help center and migration guides.
Scored by AI from official sources on October 27, 2026. No hands-on testing or security audit. How we score
Polymarket features
- Markets
- Politics, sports, crypto, finance, tech, culture, weather and more
- Products
- Predictions, Combos, Perps
- Matching
- Peer-to-peer central limit order book
- Collateral
- pUSD, a USDC-backed ERC-20 on Polygon
- Resolution
- UMA Optimistic Oracle for many markets
- Wallets
- Deposit Wallet (default since May 4, 2026); legacy Proxy and Safe wallets
- Developer access
- Public APIs and unified SDKs
- Availability
- Trading blocked in the US on polymarket.com
Polymarket fees
| Category | Taker fee rate | Maker fee |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto | 0.07 | 0 |
| Sports, Economics, Culture, Weather, Other | 0.05 | 0 |
| Finance, Politics, Mentions, Tech | 0.04 | 0 |
| Combos | 0.05 | 0 |
| Geopolitics / world events | 0 (fee-free) | 0 |
Polymarket charges only takers, and only on some markets. The fee per trade is shares x fee rate x p x (1 - p), where p is the share price, so the dollar fee peaks at a 50% price and shrinks toward 1 cent and 99 cents. Makers pay nothing.
Published taker fee rates: Crypto 0.07; Sports, Economics, Culture, Weather and Other 0.05; Finance, Politics, Mentions and Tech 0.04; Combos 0.05; Geopolitics and world-events markets 0 (fee-free). On 100 crypto shares bought at 50 cents the fee is $1.75.
Polymarket says it charges no fee to deposit or withdraw USDC; on-ramps such as Coinbase or MoonPay may charge their own. A fee schedule for the newer Perps product was not found in the pages we reviewed.
Polymarket pros and cons
Pros
- Fee formula and per-category rates are published with worked examples
- Makers pay no fees, and geopolitics markets are fee-free
- Non-custodial design with on-chain settlement on Polygon
- Wide market coverage plus combos and perps in one account
- Detailed developer documentation and help center
Cons
- Not available for trading from the United States on polymarket.com
- Fees for the Perps product were not published on the pages we reviewed
- Resolution relies on an oracle process that can be disputed and take time
- pUSD is designed for use inside Polymarket only
Polymarket vs BetMoar vs Kalshi
The closest alternatives in our catalog: same market first, then the highest-scoring products.
| Feature | Polymarket | BetMoar | Kalshi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Non-custodial prediction market on Polygon with an order book, combos and perps | Polymarket trading terminal and Discord bot | US-regulated event contracts exchange (web and mobile) |
| Platform | Web, iOS, Android, API · Polygon | Web, Discord · Polymarket (Polygon) | Web, iOS, Android · Kalshi exchange (not on-chain) |
| Trading fee | 0 to 0.07 x p(1-p) per share, takers only | No platform fees | 0.07 x C x P x (1-P) taker |
| Custody | Self-custodial | Self-custodial | Custodial |
| Telegram | Not published | @betmoar_bot | Not published |
| Atlas AI Score | 8.5 / 10 | 7.9 / 10 | 7.9 / 10 |
| Confidence | High | Medium | Medium |
How to get started with Polymarket
- Open polymarket.com and create an account; check that trading is allowed where you live.
- Deposit USDC; it is held as pUSD collateral in your Polymarket wallet.
- Read the market's resolution rules before buying, then start with a small limit order.
