How Trading Works on Polymarket: Orders, Fees, Liquidity & Rewards

Orders: limit orders and the order book

Polymarket uses an order book: buyers and sellers place orders at chosen prices, and trades execute when orders match. The main order type is the limit order—an open (pending) order that only executes when the market trades at your desired price.

Example: if the best ask for “Trump YES” is 73¢ but you only want to pay 72¢, you place a limit order at 72¢ and wait until someone is willing to sell at that price. Your order doesn’t have to fill all at once; limit orders can partially fill as other traders hit your price. You see open orders just below the order book on the market page, and you can manage orders across multiple markets from the Portfolio page. To cancel, use the red × next to the order.

Sports markets: outstanding limit orders are automatically cancelled when the game begins (order book clears at official start time). Game start times can change, so monitor orders. There is also a 3-second delay on the placement of marketable orders in sports markets.

Full details: Limit Orders (Polymarket Help).

Trading fees

Most Polymarket markets have no trading fees. There are no Polymarket fees to deposit or withdraw USDC (though intermediaries like Coinbase or MoonPay may charge their own), and no fees to trade shares on the vast majority of markets.

15-minute crypto markets are the exception: they charge a taker fee on each trade. These fees are collected and redistributed daily to market makers as rebates (see Maker Rebates below), to encourage deeper liquidity and tighter spreads. The fee is calculated in USDC and varies by share price: it’s highest at 50% probability (max effective rate 1.56%) and lowest at the extremes (near 0¢ or 99¢). So most of the platform remains fee-free; only 15-minute crypto markets have taker fees.

Details: Trading Fees (Polymarket Help).

Liquidity and trading limits

By design, the Polymarket order book does not impose trading size limits—it matches willing buyers and sellers at any size. That doesn’t mean you can always get a large fill at a good price: there’s no guarantee you can transact a desired amount without moving the price a lot, or at all if there aren’t enough counterparties. Before trading, especially in large size, it’s useful to look at the order book to see depth—how many buyers and sellers there are and at what prices and sizes.

When you copy trade (e.g. with HolyPoly playbooks or bot), you still execute on Polymarket’s order book; our tools help you decide what to trade and at what size, and the bot can enforce your own caps (e.g. max $ per market). For sizing, see how much money to copy trade.

Details: Does Polymarket Have Trading Limits? (Polymarket Help).

Rewards: holding, liquidity, and maker rebates

Polymarket runs several programs that can reward traders: holding positions in certain markets, providing liquidity with limit orders, and (for 15-minute crypto markets) maker rebates. Rates and eligibility are set by Polymarket and can change; the links below go to their official Help articles.

Holding Rewards

To keep long-term pricing accurate, Polymarket pays a 4.00% annualized Holding Reward on your total position value in certain eligible markets. Your position value is based on your YES and NO shares and the most recent mid-price for each outcome. It’s randomly sampled once per hour, and rewards are distributed daily. The rate is variable and subject to change; Polymarket may introduce limits on total payouts. Eligible events have included presidential and midterm election markets, and various “out before 2027?” leader markets (e.g. Erdoğan, Zelenskyy, Netanyahu, Xi, Putin, Russia–Ukraine ceasefire). A new reward and oracle-resolution system was anticipated; check the Help Center for the current list and migration details.

Holding Rewards (Polymarket Help).

Liquidity Rewards

With the Liquidity Rewards Program, you can earn by placing limit orders that help keep the market active and balanced. The closer your orders are to the market’s average (mid) price, the more you earn; reward amount depends on how helpful your orders are in size and pricing relative to others. The more competitive your limit orders, the more you can make. Rewards are paid daily; the minimum payout is $1 (amounts below that are not paid). On the order book you can see which markets have rewards, the total rewards available, the max spread (how far from the midpoint an order can be and still earn), and minimum shares. When your orders are earning rewards, a blue highlight appears around the clock icon. Payouts happen automatically around midnight UTC and show in your portfolio history.

Liquidity Rewards (Polymarket Help).

Maker Rebates Program (15-minute crypto markets)

For 15-minute crypto markets, Polymarket runs a Maker Rebates program: market makers who provide active liquidity (orders that get filled) earn daily USDC rebates proportional to the liquidity they provide. That makes these fast-moving markets deeper and tighter. Rebates are paid daily in USDC and are performance-based (you earn based on the share of liquidity you provided that was actually taken). The rebate pool is funded by the taker fees collected in those 15-minute crypto markets; the rebate percentage is at Polymarket’s discretion and has varied (e.g. 100% for an initial period, then 20%). Only 15-minute crypto markets have taker fees and maker rebates; all other markets remain fee-free.

Maker Rebates Program (Polymarket Help).

Frequently Asked Questions: How Trading Works on Polymarket

How do limit orders work on Polymarket?

Limit orders are open orders that only execute when the market trades at your desired price. They can partially fill. You manage them below the order book on the market page or from the Portfolio page; cancel with the red ×. In sports markets, outstanding limit orders are cancelled when the game begins, and there’s a 3-second delay on marketable orders.

Does Polymarket charge trading fees?

Most markets have no trading fees and no Polymarket deposit/withdraw fees for USDC. Only 15-minute crypto markets charge a taker fee (max effective rate 1.56% at 50% probability); those fees fund Maker Rebates.

Does Polymarket have trading limits?

The order book has no built-in size limits—it matches any amount. You may not be able to trade a large size without significant price impact or at all without enough counterparties. Check the order book for depth before trading.

What rewards can I earn on Polymarket?

Holding Rewards (4% annualized on eligible positions, sampled hourly, paid daily), Liquidity Rewards (earn by placing helpful limit orders, paid daily, min $1), and Maker Rebates (for 15-minute crypto markets, daily USDC rebates to makers whose orders get filled, funded by taker fees).