What Is Polymarket

Polymarket is not one market. There is Polymarket US, a CFTC-regulated exchange that settles event contracts in dollars under a published rulebook, and there is polymarket.com, the international platform, where prediction markets resolve through the UMA Optimistic Oracle and balances are crypto. They can list similar questions. They do not share a referee, a fee schedule, or an eligibility rule.

This page is the Polymarket overview. Pair it with how markets resolve, how prices work, and Kalshi vs Polymarket. Researching either product starts the same way: How to Research a Prediction Market Before You Trade.

Polymarket US

Polymarket US lists event contracts on a designated contract market. The August 5, 2026 rulebook defines a contract outcome as $1.00 when the payout condition is met and $0.00 when it is not, with a review process when the outcome cannot be determined. Settlement runs through Polymarket Clearing. The docs say winning contracts settle at $1.00, losing contracts at $0.00, and some markets instead settle at $0.50 or at a last fair price when the rules say so. Settlements are final under the rulebook.

You fund the US exchange in dollars and complete the identity checks the exchange requires. That is the product built for US customers. It is not a wallet on polymarket.com.

What the US exchange trades

Markets are yes-or-no event contracts with rules on the market page. The resolution docs sort sources into types: government providers for political and economic outcomes, the governing league for sports, a named index for crypto prices, and, when the rules say so, specific news outlets. A clarification can explain ambiguous wording. The docs say a clarification does not change the question, and that resting orders may be cancelled when one is posted.

Sports details catch people. The sports FAQ says overtime counts for most game markets unless the contract says otherwise, and that league soccer matches settle on the score at the end of regulation. If no official winner is declared after a tie, abandonment, or cancellation, those markets settle at $0.50. Read the contract. The pattern is not universal.

US fees

The standard taker fee is:

fee = 0.0695 × contracts × price × (1 − price)

At 50¢, 100 contracts cost $1.74. Table tennis uses a 0.10 coefficient ($2.50 per 100 contracts at 50¢). Makers are not charged. Since October 19, 2026, maker and taker rebates follow prior-month volume tiers; the flat −0.0125 maker rebate ended. Makers below $10 million in prior-month maker volume receive no rebate. Higher tiers receive −0.0035 to −0.0104 ($0.09 to $0.26 per 100 contracts at 50¢). Weekly taker rebates, paid as a percentage of taker fees, run from 0% under $250,000 of prior-month taker volume up to 30% at $50 million and above. Combo trades use a different taker curve and carry no maker rebate.

Fees round to the nearest cent. A tiny trade near 1¢ or 99¢ can round to zero. Nothing is charged if the order never trades.

The international site

polymarket.com is the crypto-native platform. Polymarket's own resolution docs describe it as a different mechanism from an exchange determination: prediction markets use UMA, and up-down markets can use a Chainlink TWAP.

Resolution

For a UMA market, as documented:

1. A proposer posts the outcome and a bond, typically $750.
2. There is a two-hour challenge period.
3. No dispute, and the market resolves.
4. One dispute starts a second proposal.
5. A second dispute goes to UMA token holders. The vote takes about 48 hours, per the docs.
6. Finalized outcomes are immutable. Winning shares redeem for $1. An "unknown / 50-50" result redeems each share for $0.50.

Proposing early or incorrectly costs the bond. This is the process behind the disputes people screenshot. It is not how Polymarket US works.

International fees

The international fee page charges takers only. Makers are not charged. Geopolitics and world-event markets are fee-free. Other categories use a coefficient between 0.04 and 0.07 in the same price × (1 − price) shape. The table on the docs page, checked October 28, 2026:

A share of taker fees is rebated to makers on a category-specific percentage (20% or 25% on most rows, 15% on sports, none on geopolitics). Deposits and withdrawals of USDC have no Polymarket fee on that page. A wallet provider or on-ramp can still charge you.

There is no single "Polymarket fee." Ask which site and which category.

Which price you are looking at

A Polymarket US contract and a polymarket.com market can share a subject and print different probabilities. Reasons that are ordinary, not conspiracies:

• The resolution source is different (an exchange determination versus a bonded proposal).
• One book is deeper.
• One version of the question includes overtime, a revision, or a different deadline.
• Fees and who can trade are different, so the set of people setting the price is different.

If you research a market, save the URL. "The Polymarket price" is not a precise object. BetScan reads the market you paste and cites the sources it used. The rules on that page still outrank the summary.

Sources

• Polymarket US rulebook, August 5, 2026: PDF
• Polymarket US fees, including the October 19, 2026 rebate tiers: docs.polymarket.us/fees
• Polymarket US resolution and settlement: Market resolution, Market settlement, Sports FAQs
• International resolution: docs.polymarket.com/concepts/resolution
• International fees: docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees