Kalshi Perps Calculator
Liquidation price, fees, funding and the Kalshi contract that pays you if it happens: for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, gold, silver and more.
Your Kalshi perp liquidates when your equity falls to the maintenance margin, not to zero. That puts a 5x Bitcoin long roughly 10% from liquidation, not the 20% the quick rule suggests. Pick an asset, put in your margin and leverage, and this page gives you the liquidation price, fees (0.120% taker / 0.020% maker at the entry tier, each way), expected funding, and the Kalshi event contract that pays you if it happens.
The quick rule (100 ÷ leverage) says 33%. Kalshi's maintenance margin eats part of that cushion, so the real distance is closer to 24.9%. Estimate from Kalshi's published risk parameters; the app shows your exact number once the position is open.
Buy YES on Bitcoin below $67,500 (Bitcoin monthly one-touch, closes Sep 30, 11:59 PM ET) at 2¢.
A one-touch contract pays $1 if the price trades through the strike at any point before it closes, so it pays whether or not you were still holding the perp. The hedge closes on Sep 30, 11:59 PM ET; the perp does not. Re-hedge on the next month's ladder if you hold longer.
See this contract on Kalshi →Live from Kalshi's public perps API, Sep 25, 2026, 10:10 PM ET. Funding uses the BTC 30-day average per 8-hour window (+0.0115%); a single print can run to Kalshi's ±2% cap. Liquidation ignores fees and funding already paid, which pull it closer. See every print on the Bitcoin perps page.
Go Pro · 26% off your first year
Every edge the engines find, the moment they find it
Pro opens every engine on the site — the cross-market arb scanner, the Mispricing Scanner, Thee Oracle, and the silver, gold, oil and bitcoin edge models that price commodity contracts in real time.
$111 for the first year, then $150/yr. Code applies automatically. Ends Dec 31. Monthly is $14.99/mo.
Every signal graded in public, losers left on the board. See the record →
Related Tools
Related Reads & Boards
Why a Kalshi perp is closer to liquidation than it looks
Every perps explainer uses the same shortcut: at 2x you can take a 50% move, at 5x a 20% move. That math assumes you get liquidated when your margin hits zero. Kalshi, like every futures clearinghouse, closes you out earlier, when your equity drops to the maintenance margin. On Kalshi that maintenance level is the opening margin divided by 1.3, and the opening margin is high because Kalshi's leverage caps are low. The cushion you think you have is smaller than the shortcut says.
The part only a prediction market can do
Kalshi lists perps and event contracts on the same assets. A long Bitcoin perp has a price where it dies; Kalshi's monthly one-touch ladder asks “will Bitcoin trade below $X this month?” at strikes all the way down. The contract at or just above your liquidation price is a live, tradable read on the odds you get wiped out, and it pays $1 a contract if you do. No crypto exchange can show you that, because none of them list both products. For gold and silver the ladder settles on a closing price rather than a touch, and the calculator says so when it matches one.
Cost to hold: fees plus funding
Fees are charged on the full position, not your margin, once to open and once to close. Funding is the other running cost. On Kalshi it has mostly been zero, because any window under 0.01% rounds to nothing. When it does print, Bitcoin has usually charged longs and many smaller coins have paid them. The calculator uses each asset's 30-day average, and the full history is on the Kalshi perps board.
Fee schedule read 2026-09-25 from Kalshi's perpetuals fee page. Perps carry leverage and can lose your entire margin quickly; trade responsibly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate my liquidation price on Kalshi perps?
For a long: liquidation ≈ entry × (1 − 1/leverage) ÷ (1 − maintenance rate). For a short: entry × (1 + 1/leverage) ÷ (1 + maintenance rate). Kalshi publishes the pieces on its public API: the most leverage you can open at each size (that is 1 ÷ the initial margin rate) and an initial-margin multiplier of 1.3, meaning maintenance margin is the initial margin divided by 1.3. The calculator runs those numbers live. Kalshi’s app shows the exact figure once a position is open, and fees and funding already paid move it slightly closer.
Is it true that a 5x position needs a 20% move to liquidate?
That is the rule of thumb (100 ÷ leverage), and it ignores maintenance margin. Kalshi liquidates when your equity falls to the maintenance requirement, not to zero. With Bitcoin’s published parameters on Sept. 25, 2026, a 5x long sits roughly 10% above its liquidation price, not 20%. Always read the liquidation price in the app before sizing up.
What is the maximum leverage on Kalshi perps?
It depends on the asset, the side, and the size of the position; bigger positions get less leverage. On Sept. 25, 2026, Kalshi’s API showed gold at about 15x, silver about 8–9x, Bitcoin about 6.4–6.8x, Ethereum about 4.9x, and smaller coins between roughly 2x and 4x. The calculator reads the live table for your size and side.
How much are Kalshi perps fees?
Kalshi charges perps fees on the full notional value of the position (margin × leverage), once to open and once to close. At the entry tier that is 0.120% for a taker fill and 0.020% for a resting maker fill; rates step down as your 30-day volume grows, and Kalshi counts your prediction-market volume toward that tier, not just perps. On a $1,000 position that is $2.40 in and out as a taker at the entry tier.
How is funding charged on Kalshi perps?
Crypto perps settle funding three times a day (12 a.m., 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET) and metals once a day at 10 a.m. ET. When the perp trades above the index, longs pay shorts; below it, shorts pay longs. Payments go between traders, not to Kalshi, are capped at 2% of the position per window, and anything under 0.01% rounds to zero, which is why most windows pay nothing at all.
What is liquidation insurance on Kalshi?
Kalshi also lists event contracts on the same assets, such as “Bitcoin below $75,000 this month.” If your long perp would be liquidated at $75,500, a YES contract on “below $75,000” pays $1 if that happens. Its price is the market’s own estimate of the odds you get wiped out, and buying enough contracts to cover your margin caps the damage. The calculator finds the cheapest strike on the current ladder that still covers your liquidation price.
Does my prediction-market volume lower my perps fees?
Yes. Kalshi sets the perps fee tier on 30-day trailing notional volume across perps AND prediction markets combined. A trader already doing $100,000 a month in event contracts starts perps one tier down.
Get The 7 Oracles' daily edge — subscribe free
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.