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Before a 5-minute bot makes a cent, it has to clear the fee and the spread. At 50¢ on Polymarket US, a taker round trip costs 3.48¢ in fees, and the median spread adds another 1¢. You can watch the price live on the 5-Minute Board.
Bitcoin, ether, solana and XRP Up or Down, a new window every five minutes. Every window’s result is on the 5-Minute Board.
A new bitcoin 5-minute window closes every five minutes, on the :00, :05, :10 and so on.
The fee on each fill
Polymarket US charges the taker fee at the fill, win or lose, and it peaks at 50¢. The rate is on our Polymarket US fees page. These are the per-contract figures from that schedule:
| Price | Fee, one fill | Fee, round trip |
|---|---|---|
| 5¢ or 95¢ | 0.33¢ | 0.66¢ |
| 10¢ or 90¢ | 0.63¢ | 1.26¢ |
| 30¢ or 70¢ | 1.46¢ | 2.92¢ |
| 40¢ or 60¢ | 1.67¢ | 3.34¢ |
| 50¢ | 1.74¢ | 3.48¢ |
The round-trip column assumes both fills happen at the same price. A real round trip enters and exits at two prices, so its fee sits somewhere between those two rows.
The spread comes on top
Across 40,338 of our 5-second book snapshots from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, 2026, the median Up spread was 1¢ and the 90th percentile was 2¢. Those snapshots run from 270 seconds to 30 seconds before the close.
A bot that crosses the spread to get in and again to get out pays roughly that spread once across the round trip. At 50¢ with a 1¢ spread, the total is about 4.5¢ a contract.
| Cost at 50¢ | Cents per contract |
|---|---|
| Taker fee, two fills | 3.48¢ |
| Median spread | 1¢ |
| All-in round trip | about 4.5¢ |
What 4.5¢ means on a 5-minute clock
That 4.5¢ is the amount the contract has to move in your favor, inside a window that lasts five minutes, just to get back to even. For scale, the median bitcoin move across 3,782 logged windows was 4.5 bps. The higher frequency means a bot pays this cost many more times a day than it would on a 15-minute clock, where the same math applies on Kalshi.
Holding to settlement pays the fee once instead of twice, because there's no exit fill. It also means taking the full result of the window.
None of this says a bot can or can't work. It sets the number any idea has to beat.
18+ Only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. See https://polymarketexchange.com/files/legal/Polymarket%20US%20Rulebook%20(2026.09.30).pdf for more information. The Polymarket US App serves as an independent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing, the CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing organization.