Kalshi Review 2026: Fees, Markets & Features

Trading on Kalshi

Kalshi is the first CFTC-regulated prediction market exchange in the United States. Founded in 2018, it launched publicly in 2021 after receiving its Designated Contract Market (DCM) status from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This regulatory standing is not a marketing checkbox - it means segregated customer accounts held at regulated banks, standardized settlement procedures with defined timelines, and automatic 1099 tax reporting at year-end. If the exchange went bankrupt tomorrow, your funds would be held separately from its operating capital.

The platform focuses on event contracts across politics, economics, weather, entertainment, and finance. Many of these contract types - particularly economic data releases (CPI prints, nonfarm payrolls, Fed rate decisions) and weather events (hurricane landfalls, temperature records) - are exclusive to Kalshi and not available on competing platforms. This category exclusivity is Kalshi's primary moat.

Fee Structure Deep Dive

Kalshi's fee formula is ceil(0.07 * P * (1-P) * 100) / 100 per contract for takers, and approximately one-quarter of that rate for makers. This creates a parabolic fee curve that peaks at 50/50 contracts and drops toward zero at extreme prices. The cap is $0.035 per contract regardless of price.

Worked Examples at Key Price Points

At 50 cents (maximum fee): 0.07 x 0.50 x 0.50 = 0.0175, ceil to the penny = $0.0175 per contract. Round-trip taker cost: $0.035. Maker fee at ~25% of taker: approximately $0.0044 per side, or $0.0088 round-trip.

At 20 cents: 0.07 x 0.20 x 0.80 = 0.0112, ceil = $0.0112 per contract. Round-trip taker: $0.0224. The fee at 80 cents is identical - the formula is symmetric around 50 cents.

At 10 cents: 0.07 x 0.10 x 0.90 = 0.0063, ceil = $0.0063 per contract. Round-trip taker: $0.0126. At extreme prices the fee becomes negligible.

The practical implication: Kalshi's fees are competitive for contracts priced below 20 cents or above 80 cents, where the fee rounds down to a penny or less. In the 30-70 cent range where most trading volume concentrates, the fee is measurably higher than Polymarket's 2%-on-winnings model. Maker orders (limit orders that add liquidity to the book) pay roughly 75% less in fees. If you consistently place limit orders instead of market orders, Kalshi becomes significantly cheaper - a strong incentive to provide liquidity rather than take it. Use the fee calculator to model exact costs at any price point.

Market Coverage

Kalshi offers the broadest category coverage of any US-regulated event contract exchange. Key contract types include:

• Economics (exclusive): CPI monthly prints, nonfarm payroll ranges, Fed Funds rate decisions, GDP quarterly estimates, unemployment rate brackets
• Weather (exclusive): Hurricane landfall location and intensity, monthly temperature records for specific cities, seasonal snowfall totals
• Politics: Presidential and congressional elections, cabinet confirmations, policy outcomes, government shutdown timelines
• Entertainment: Oscar and Emmy winners, box office performance, streaming subscriber milestones
• Finance and crypto: Bitcoin and Ethereum price ranges, S&P 500 daily and weekly ranges, IPO timing
• Sports: Game outcomes, season win totals, MVP awards

The economics and weather categories are where Kalshi has no direct competition from Polymarket or DraftKings. If you want to trade CPI surprises or hurricane paths, Kalshi is your only regulated venue.

Tax Treatment

Kalshi issues a 1099 automatically at year-end. Event contracts settled through a CFTC-regulated DCM are treated as Section 1256 contracts under current IRS guidance, which means a 60/40 blended rate: 60% of gains taxed at long-term capital gains rates and 40% at ordinary income rates, regardless of holding period. This is the same treatment applied to futures contracts on the CME.

The 1099 reports your aggregate gains and losses. You do not need to manually track individual trades. At tax time, the data flows directly into Form 6781 (Gains and Losses From Section 1256 Contracts). Compare this to Polymarket, where you need to manually reconstruct your trading history from blockchain transactions for crypto tax reporting.

Onboarding and Funding

Signup requires standard identity verification: government ID, Social Security number, and proof of address. Verification typically completes within minutes using automated KYC. From account creation to first trade, most users are live within 15-30 minutes.

Deposits are made via ACH bank transfer. There is no minimum deposit requirement. ACH transfers typically settle in 1-3 business days, though Kalshi offers instant deposit for smaller amounts on verified accounts. Withdrawals return to your linked bank account via ACH. No crypto wallets, no stablecoin conversions, no gas fees - the funding experience is identical to opening a brokerage account.

Position Limits and Liquidity

Kalshi imposes position limits on certain contracts, typically around $25,000 per market. This is rarely a constraint for retail traders but can limit institutional sizing. Liquidity varies significantly by market category - political markets tend to be thinner than on Polymarket, while economic data markets are Kalshi's strength. On high-profile markets (election night, Fed decision days), the order book can deepen substantially as volume spikes.

Who Kalshi Is Best For

Casual Trader (1-5 trades/month)

Kalshi's clean interface, automatic tax reporting, and bank-transfer funding make it the lowest-friction option for US residents who want to make occasional event contract trades. You do not need to understand crypto wallets or manage USDC. The per-trade fees in the 30-70 cent range are slightly higher than alternatives, but for a handful of trades per month, the dollar difference is negligible compared to the convenience of automatic 1099 reporting.

Active Trader (20+ trades/month)

Active traders should exclusively use limit orders to capture the ~75% maker fee discount. At 50 cents, the difference between taker ($0.0175) and maker ($0.0044) over 100 round-trip trades of 100 contracts each is $262 saved per month. The API supports this workflow well. However, compare your all-in costs against Polymarket for markets available on both platforms - Polymarket's fee structure often wins for high-frequency takers. Use the EV calculator to model expected value after fees.

Quantitative/Systematic Trader

Kalshi offers a REST API and WebSocket feeds for real-time market data and order management. Systematic traders can build models that submit limit orders programmatically, capturing maker fee discounts at scale. The exclusive economics and weather markets create opportunities for quantitative strategies based on nowcasting models (e.g., predicting CPI prints from component data before release). No other regulated platform offers API access to these contract types. Check Kalshi vs Polymarket for a detailed API and fee comparison.