On a two-leg arbitrage, the Polymarket leg can be a resting limit order instead of a market order. This article summarises what Polymarket's documentation says about the two programs that pay makers: maker rebates and liquidity rewards. It is not trading advice, and the rules and percentages can change, so check the current documentation.
Makers are not charged a fee
The documentation lists a taker fee rate for each market category (for example 0.07 for Crypto, 0.05 for Sports, 0.04 for Politics) and a maker fee rate of 0 in all of them. The fee follows C × feeRate × p × (1 − p). The fee side of the calculation is in Polymarket Fees Explained.
Maker rebates
A percentage of taker fees is redistributed to makers whose liquidity was actually taken. Rebates are paid daily in pUSD, directly to the wallet, and at least $1 must accrue before a payout is issued. The documentation lists the share by category: 20% for Crypto, 15% for Sports and 25% for most others (Finance, Politics, Economics, Culture, Weather, Mentions, Tech and Other), with Geopolitics fee-free. It also says the percentage is at Polymarket's sole discretion and may change.
Your share of the pool is your fee-equivalent divided by the total fee-equivalent of all makers in that market, using the same formula as the taker fee. Totals are per market, so you only compete with the other makers in the market you quoted.
Fee-free markets pay no rebate
Because rebates are funded by taker fees, fills in a market with a 0% taker fee, including a market temporarily made fee-free, earn no rebate for as long as the fee is 0.
Liquidity rewards are a separate program
By posting resting limit orders you are automatically eligible for the liquidity rewards program, but each incentivised market defines its own minimum order size, maximum spread and reward allocation. Rewards are distributed daily at midnight UTC, with a $1 minimum payout. Scoring is quadratic: the closer an order is to the size-adjusted midpoint, the more it scores. The book is sampled once per minute at a random offset, so an epoch (one UTC day) has up to 1,440 samples. When the midpoint is between 0.10 and 0.90, a one-sided order can still score at a reduced rate (divided by a scaling factor, currently 3.0); outside that range liquidity must be double-sided to score. A market appearing in the rewards list does not mean an active reward exists: the documentation says to inspect its configuration.
What it means for an arbitrage
A resting order on the Polymarket leg avoids the taker fee, and may earn a rebate or reward. The cost is that a resting order may not fill, or may fill after the other leg has moved, which leaves one leg open. That trade-off is the subject of order types for two-leg arbitrage. Do not count a rebate or reward as part of the edge before you see it paid, because both depend on conditions you do not control.
Where Arbitrage Agent fits
Arbitrage Agent matches markets across Kalshi and Polymarket, checks the resolution rules on both sides, and shows the result in a live feed with a step-by-step guide for both legs. You place the orders yourself, and the final check of the details is still yours. See the plans or start with the Starter plan.
Related articles
- Polymarket Fees Explained
- Order Types for Two-Leg Arbitrage
- Net Edge After Fees on Polymarket
- How to Arbitrage Polymarket vs Kalshi
Key terms: Market Maker · Spread · CLOB