On Polymarket, makers do not just skip the fee - they earn part of it back. Every time your resting limit order gets filled, you collect a share of the taker's fee, paid daily in pUSD. This guide explains how that rebate works, the 2026 fee schedule it comes from, how it differs from liquidity rewards, and the honest math on what it pays.
Maker rebates in 60 seconds
Think of a busy market stall that charges shoppers a small entry fee, then hands a slice of that fee back to the suppliers who keep the shelves stocked. On Polymarket, the "shoppers" are takers (people who cross the spread to trade now), and the "suppliers" are makers (people who rest limit orders for others to trade against). Takers pay a fee; makers pay nothing and get a cut of that fee back. That cut is the maker rebate.
The one word that matters is filled. You only earn a rebate when a taker actually trades against your resting order. That makes rebates the mirror image of liquidity rewards, which pay you for resting near the midpoint whether or not anyone ever trades with you. Here is what this guide covers.
- The 2026 taker fee schedule that funds the rebate
- How the rebate is calculated and paid
- Maker rebates vs liquidity rewards (do not confuse them)
- The honest math on what rebates pay
- How a bot earns them
The 2026 taker fee schedule
Rebates come out of the taker fee, so it helps to know the fee first. Polymarket's 2026 fees are category-based: takers pay, makers do not. As percentages of the traded amount:
| Category | Taker fee | Maker fee |
|---|---|---|
| Sports | ~0.75% | 0% |
| Politics, Finance, Tech | ~1.00% | 0% |
| Culture, Weather | ~1.25% | 0% |
| Economics | ~1.50% | 0% |
| Crypto | ~1.80% | 0% |
| Geopolitics / world events | fee-free | 0% |
Two things follow immediately. Crypto markets, with the highest taker fee, fund the richest rebates; sports and other low-fee categories rebate less. And the fee-free geopolitics markets generate no taker fee at all, so there is nothing to rebate there - quote them for liquidity rewards, not for rebates. Rates can change, so confirm your category on Polymarket's trading-fees page before sizing a strategy.
How the rebate is calculated and paid
When a taker fills your resting order, Polymarket takes its fee from the taker and credits you back a share of it - reported at roughly 20 to 25%. Rebates accrue across all your fills and are paid daily in pUSD, automatically, with nothing for you to claim.
A quick worked figure. Suppose a taker buys $1,000 of notional against your resting quote in a crypto market with a 1.80% taker fee. The taker pays about $18 in fee. At a 25% rebate, you collect roughly $4.50 from that single fill. The same fill in a 1.00% politics market would rebate about $2.50; in a fee-free geopolitics market, nothing. The rebate scales directly with how much volume crosses your quote, which is why fill rate matters so much.
Maker rebates vs liquidity rewards
These are the two ways Polymarket pays makers, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in this corner of the platform.
| Maker Rebates (this guide) | Liquidity Rewards | |
|---|---|---|
| You get paid for | Orders that fill | Orders resting near the midpoint |
| Need a trade? | Yes - no fill, no rebate | No - resting alone earns |
| Paid from | A share of the taker fee on your fill | A daily reward pool per market |
| You maximise it by | Getting filled, in high-fee categories | Resting near mid, avoiding fills |
A market maker typically earns both at once - rebates on the fills, rewards on the resting time. But they pull in opposite directions: rebates reward trading, while a pure rewards-farmer tries hard not to get filled, because a fill leaves them holding inventory. Know which one you are optimising for. To estimate the rewards side, use our liquidity rewards calculator.
The honest math
On their own, rebates are thin. A rebate is a fraction (about a quarter) of a fee that is itself only one to two percent of the trade, so even at full tilt you are earning well under half a percent of the volume that crosses your quote. That only becomes real money with serious fill volume - which means a real market-making operation, with the adverse-selection risk that comes with getting filled by informed traders.
So treat maker rebates as a top-up, not a strategy. They sweeten a spread-capture or market-making approach (see the market-making bot guide), and they reward you for the fills you were taking anyway. If your plan is to earn passively without trading, rebates are not your tool - liquidity rewards are.
How a bot earns rebates
You do not need special code to earn rebates - any bot that rests maker orders and gets filled collects them automatically. The work is in maximising profitable fills without getting run over:
- Quote where you will get filled - tighter to the touch means more fills and more rebate, but more adverse selection. Find the spread that nets positive after the inevitable bad fills.
- Lean into high-fee categories - the same fill rebates far more on crypto (1.80%) than on sports (0.75%), and nothing on fee-free geopolitics.
- Track the rebate stream separately - reconcile the daily pUSD credits against your fills so you know your true net edge, spread plus rebate minus inventory losses.
- Never chase rebates into bad trades - a fill that loses 2 cents of inventory is not saved by a fraction-of-a-cent rebate. The rebate is gravy, not the meal.
Key takeaways
- Makers pay 0% and earn back roughly 20-25% of the taker fee on every filled order, paid daily in pUSD.
- The rebate is funded by the category taker fee - richest on crypto (1.80%), nothing on fee-free geopolitics.
- Filled is the key word: no trade, no rebate. That is the opposite of liquidity rewards.
- Rebates are a top-up to a market-making strategy, not a standalone income - they only add up with real fill volume.
- Confirm your category's live fee on Polymarket's trading-fees page; rates can change.
