Kalshi Incentive Program (2026): Liquidity Rewards and the API

The Short Answer

Kalshi's incentive program pays eligible US members for resting liquidity, from reward pools of $1 to $1,000 per market per day. Kalshi snapshots the order book once a second. It scores each resting order by its size and how close it sits to a reference price, then splits each day's pool by share of score and pays it as reward credits once the program ends. Every program is public through the Trade API's GET /incentive_programs endpoint. On 3 October 2026 it listed 8,886 active liquidity programs, with reward pools adding up to about $1.15 million.

Key Takeaways

Liquidity programs reward resting orders, and each market's pool runs from $1 to $1,000 a day.
Orders count only when the book holds the target size on both the yes and the no side, at between 100 and 20,000 contracts.
Orders at or better than the reference price get full credit, and each tick below it multiplies the credit by the discount factor.
Rewards arrive as reward credits after a program ends, and a final reward under $1 is not paid.
GET /incentive_programs needs no key and returns every program's market, dates, pool, target size and discount factor.

What is the Kalshi incentive program?

It is Kalshi's set of rewards for traders who make its markets deeper. Most programs are liquidity incentive programs, which pay for resting limit orders that other traders can fill. Kalshi has also run volume incentive programs, which reward trading activity in specific markets, and its API lists types for both. On 3 October 2026 every active program was a liquidity program.

In the app, incentivized markets carry a Rewards badge or a diamond icon, and the full list sits under Menu, then Rewards, at kalshi.com/incentives. Most regular US members are eligible. Kalshi affiliates and employees, introducing brokers, FCMs and their customers, and non-US users are not.

How are Kalshi liquidity rewards calculated?

Kalshi's help center spells out the scoring, and it runs in four steps:

A snapshot every second. Kalshi takes a snapshot of the order book once per second, at a random moment within each second.
The target size must be met. Each program sets a target size of more than 100 and fewer than 20,000 contracts. A snapshot only counts when resting orders reach the target size on both the yes side and the no side.
A reference price is set. Walking down from the best bid, the reference price is the first price level at which cumulative resting size reaches one fifth of the target size.
Each order is scored. Orders priced at or better than the reference price get full credit for their size. Orders below it get the discount factor raised to the number of ticks they sit away.

At the end of each day, your share of the market's total score decides your share of that day's pool. With a discount factor of 0.5, which is what most programs used on 3 October 2026, an order one tick below the reference price earns half credit and an order two ticks below earns a quarter. Size near the top of the book earns the most.

How are Kalshi incentive rewards paid?

Not in real time. Final scoring happens after a program ends, and payment follows in a later processing run, as reward credits on your account. Rewards are rounded down to the nearest cent, and a final reward below $1 for an individual program is not paid.

How do you get Kalshi incentive programs from the API?

The Trade API publishes every program through GET /incentive_programs, which needs no authentication. It filters by status (all, active, upcoming, closed or paid out) and type (all, liquidity, volume, and two margin volume types for Kalshi's perpetual futures), and returns up to 10,000 programs a page with a cursor for the next one.

Field	What it holds
`market_ticker`	The market the program covers
`incentive_type`	Liquidity, volume or a margin volume type
`incentive_description`	The program family, such as `series_lip` or `new_event`
`start_date`, `end_date`	When the program runs
`period_reward`	The reward pool in centi-cents, so divide by 10,000 for dollars
`target_size_fp`	The target size in contracts
`discount_factor_bps`	The discount factor in basis points, so 5000 means 0.5
`paid_out`	Whether the program has been paid

This lists the ten richest active liquidity programs, with Node 18 or newer and no dependencies:

const BASE = 'https://external-api.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2';

const res = await fetch(`${BASE}/incentive_programs?status=active&type=liquidity&limit=1000`);
const { incentive_programs: programs } = await res.json();

const top = programs
  .map((p) => ({
    market: p.market_ticker,
    rewardUsd: p.period_reward / 10_000,
    hours: Math.round((new Date(p.end_date) - new Date(p.start_date)) / 3_600_000),
    targetSize: p.target_size_fp,
    discount: p.discount_factor_bps / 10_000,
  }))
  .sort((a, b) => b.rewardUsd - a.rewardUsd)
  .slice(0, 10);

console.table(top);

The pool covers the whole program, so divide by its length to compare rewards per day. A $500 pool over 14 days pays far less per day than the same pool over 36 hours. Add &cursor= with the returned next_cursor to page through the rest.

On 3 October 2026 the endpoint returned 8,886 active liquidity programs: 5,442 in the series_lip family, 2,839 for new events and 605 others, with pools adding up to about $1.15 million across their periods. The rest of the Trade API is covered in the Kalshi API guide.

Is quoting for Kalshi incentives worth it?

Rewards make quoting cheaper. They do not make it safe. Resting orders get filled when the market moves against them, and a reward pool split across many quoters can be small next to one bad fill. Kalshi makers pay nothing on most markets and a reduced fee on designated ones, as explained in Kalshi's fees, so the inventory you take on matters more than the cost of posting.

Test a quoting strategy before you size it up. Predictefy's paper trading fills simulated orders against Kalshi's live order book at 0 credits. When you go live, the Predictefy API streams Kalshi's books next to 15+ other venues, so you can see where the same event trades elsewhere before you quote it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Kalshi incentive program?

It is Kalshi's set of reward programs for making its markets deeper. Liquidity incentive programs pay eligible US members for resting limit orders near the top of the book, and Kalshi has also run volume incentive programs that reward trading activity in specific markets.

How does the Kalshi liquidity incentive program work?

Kalshi snapshots the order book once a second. A snapshot counts when resting orders reach the program's target size on both sides. Orders at or better than the reference price get full credit, orders below it are discounted per tick, and each day's pool is split by share of score.

How much do Kalshi liquidity rewards pay?

Each market's pool runs from $1 to $1,000 per day, split among all qualifying quoters by score. Rewards are paid as reward credits after the program ends, rounded down to the cent, and a final reward under $1 is not paid.

Who is eligible for Kalshi incentive programs?

Most regular US Kalshi members. Kalshi affiliates and employees, introducing brokers, FCMs and their customers, and non-US users are not eligible.

Is there an API for Kalshi incentive programs?

Yes. GET /incentive_programs on the Trade API is public and returns each program's market, type, dates, reward pool, target size and discount factor, filterable by status and type. The pool is in centi-cents, so divide by 10,000 for dollars.

What is the Kalshi volume incentive program?

A program type that rewards trading volume in specific markets instead of resting liquidity. The API lists these programs with the type volume. None were active on 3 October 2026, when every active program was a liquidity program.