Polymarket Taker Fees in 2026 and What They Cost a Copy Trader

Updated Oct 10, 2026FollowCheck

A copy trade almost always takes liquidity: you see the leader’s trade and then buy at whatever is on offer. That means you pay taker fees where they apply, even when the leader paid none because they were providing liquidity.

How fees enter the backtest

• Every simulated copy fill is charged the taker fee for its market category and price, using Polymarket’s 2026 fee schedule.
• Fees are reported separately in the Where the returns go breakdown on each wallet page, so you can see how much of the gap to the leader is fees versus delay and slippage.
• Exits are charged the same way when the copier sells.

Rates

We apply Polymarket’s published taker fee formula to every copy fill:

fee = shares × rate × p × (1 − p)

where p is the fill price per share (0–1) and rate depends on the market’s category. Fees are in USDC, rounded to 5 decimal places; makers pay nothing. Because of the p × (1 − p) term, a share costs the most fee at 50¢ and almost nothing near 0¢ or 100¢.

Categories without a listed rate pay the 5% “Other” rate. The rates come from Polymarket’s fee documentation as of October 2026. We apply today’s rates to the whole indexed period, including trades made before a category’s fees were introduced, and we ignore the taker rebate program. Polymarket may change these rates; check its fee docs for the current schedule.

Why small edges disappear

Fees are charged on volume, not on profit. A trader who makes many small-edge trades can be profitable themselves and still leave a copier with nothing after fees. That pattern shows up on wallet pages as a high fee share in the breakdown.

Related: slippage · methodology