Kalshi Fee Calculator
The price on the exchange isn’t the price you pay. Enter a contract price and size; this computes the trading fee, your true break-even probability after it, and what holding to settlement saves versus trading out — every step shown.
How the fee works
Kalshi’s standard taker fee scales with the variance of the contract, not its price:
contracts at price (in dollars). The term peaks at 50¢ — 1.75¢ per contract, the most a taker ever pays — and shrinks toward the tails. That’s the mirror image of sportsbook vig, which is heaviest on longshots. But don’t celebrate cheap contracts too fast: relative to the money at risk, a 0.33¢ fee on a 5¢ contract is a bigger bite than 1.75¢ on a 50¢ one.
The true break-even
Buying YES at as a taker, the contract has to be right more often than the price implies:
At 50¢ the price implies 50%, but you need 51.75% — the fee is 1.75 probability points of edge you must find before the trade is worth a cent.
Round trips pay twice; settlement is free
Fees are charged per trade. Enter a position and later sell it before resolution, and you pay the fee on both legs. Let the contract settle and the exit is free. That single asymmetry shapes exchange strategy: the calculator prices both paths so you can see exactly what trading out costs.
Worked example: 100 contracts at 50¢, taker
Two fine points worth knowing. Makers pay less: a resting order that gets filled is charged at roughly a quarter of the taker rate — patience is literally discounted. And some major events carry a flat 0.25% maker fee instead, which on a sub-5¢ contract is a meaningful slice of the whole price. Rates are Kalshi’s published standard schedule; the exchange can vary fees by market, so verify on the contract page before sizing anything.
Want it beside the de-vig and Kelly tools? Open the Kalshi fee check in the app →
Frequently asked questions
How much are Kalshi’s trading fees?
The standard taker fee is 0.07 × C × P × (1−P), rounded up to the next cent — C contracts at price P in dollars. It peaks at 1.75¢ per contract at 50¢ and shrinks toward the tails. Resting (maker) orders pay roughly a quarter of that, and settlement itself is free.
What win probability do I need to break even?
Buying at price P as a taker, you need the true probability to be at least P + 0.07 × P × (1−P). At 50¢ that’s 51.75% — the price implies 50%, and the extra 1.75 points are the fee.
Hold to settlement or sell early?
Holding is cheaper: fees are charged per trade, so entering and selling before resolution pays twice, while settlement charges nothing. A round trip at 50¢ costs double the single-trade fee.
Why do cheap longshot contracts underperform?
Two stacked effects: the classic favorite–longshot bias (low-priced contracts tend to win less often than their price implies), and the fee, which is a larger fraction of your outlay at low prices. Cheap contracts need a real edge just to reach break-even.