Kalshi vs Robinhood: which should you use?

Kalshi vs Robinhood at a glance

One is an exchange, the other a broker. Kalshi runs the market. Robinhood takes your order and sends it to a market, often Kalshi's.

Read Robinhood's fee cell as a range. Its commission is fixed by formula, but the exchange fee depends on where your order goes.

The real difference between Kalshi and Robinhood

It is not the market. Robinhood does not run a rival book for Kalshi's contracts. It sells you Kalshi's own.

Here is how it works. Robinhood's broker, Robinhood Derivatives, is registered with the CFTC. It is a clearing member of Kalshi's clearinghouse and routes orders to Kalshi's exchange.

So a Kalshi-listed contract bought on Robinhood is the same contract, on the same order book. Robinhood adds its commission. Kalshi adds a 1¢ exchange fee.

Not every Robinhood contract is Kalshi's. It also routes to ForecastEx, Rothera and Crypto.com's exchange, CDNA. That is why its menu differs from Kalshi's.

Robinhood does not own Kalshi. Its own exchange project is Rothera, a joint venture with Susquehanna. Robinhood names most of Rothera's board and began routing contracts there in June 2026.

So on a Kalshi contract, the choice is fees, funding, custody, the app and each company's court fights.

Same contract, same book: Kalshi and Robinhood prices

Robinhood publishes no machine-readable prices, so no market can be priced on both here.

For a Kalshi-listed contract, there is no price gap to find. The Robinhood order meets the same Kalshi order book as a Kalshi order does.

What changes is the cost on top. So compare the all-in price per contract, fees included. The table in the next section does it on $100.

Contracts Robinhood routes to Rothera, ForecastEx or CDNA are another matter. Those are separate books, and their prices can drift from Kalshi's. Kalshi's side of every market is in our live prediction market odds.

Kalshi vs Robinhood fees on the same $100 trade

Two fees stack on Robinhood. Its commission is 10% × price × (1 − price), capped at 1¢ a contract. Kalshi then charges 1¢ a contract on every Robinhood order.

At 50¢, $100 buys 200 contracts. Robinhood's commission is $2 and Kalshi's exchange fee is $2, so $4.00. Kalshi's own app charges a taker $3.50.

Long shots widen the gap. At 10¢, $100 buys 1,000 contracts. Through Robinhood, that costs $19, or $14.50 with Gold. On Kalshi, it costs $6.30.

Gold costs $5 a month and halves the commission rate. Even with Gold, Robinhood costs more than a Kalshi taker fee on Kalshi's contracts, at every price.

Patient traders gain most on Kalshi. Resting limit orders there are free on most series. On Robinhood, both fees apply to every order, in and out.

Robinhood's column assumes a Kalshi-listed contract. Its other exchanges can charge less than Kalshi's 1¢. Every rate is on our Kalshi fees and Robinhood fees pages.

Is Kalshi or Robinhood legal in the US?

Both, at the federal level. Kalshi has been a CFTC-designated exchange since November 2020. Robinhood Derivatives is a CFTC-registered broker, and every exchange it routes to is registered too.

By our state records: Kalshi’s contracts are restricted or contested in 17 states. Robinhood’s contracts are restricted or contested in 8 states. Each state's page is on our prediction market legal hub.

State law is where they part, and mostly over sports. Court orders close Kalshi's sports contracts in Michigan, Nevada and Washington. Robinhood's are closed in Maryland, and new ones in Michigan and Nevada.

Robinhood fights its own cases. On August 28, 2026, the Ninth Circuit ruled against it in Nevada, holding that sports contracts are not “swaps.” Robinhood has asked the Supreme Court to hear it.

Kalshi's record is mixed. It beat New Jersey in the Third Circuit in April 2026. It lost in the Ninth Circuit in August and the Sixth Circuit on September 25. New York sued it on July 31.

Some states sue both. Wisconsin and Kentucky named Kalshi and Robinhood in the same lawsuits. Every case is on our prediction market legal tracker.

Kalshi or Robinhood: which is safer?

Both keep your cash apart from company funds, in different places. On Kalshi, it sits at its clearinghouse, Kalshi Klear. On Robinhood, it sits at the broker, Robinhood Derivatives.

Robinhood's segregated balance is published in CFTC data. On July 31, 2026, it held $149 million against $26.2 million required.

Neither is insured. Robinhood's stock accounts carry SIPC cover, but Robinhood says its derivatives arm “is not FDIC insured or SIPC protected.” Kalshi balances have no FDIC or SIPC cover either.

ID checks differ. Robinhood needs a valid Social Security number to open an account, then a second approval for event contracts. Kalshi may ask for your SSN later, but you can trade without it.

Both face lawsuits from customers over sports contracts. Kalshi also faces one over its Khamenei market. None of these cases claims either took deposits and vanished.

The details are in our Kalshi review and Robinhood review.

Kalshi vs Robinhood markets

Both list all six categories we track: sports, politics, economics, crypto, culture and climate. Kalshi counts far more individual markets, because it splits one question into many strikes and dates.

Robinhood picks from four exchanges. Football, for example, goes to Kalshi, Rothera or CDNA, depending on what each lists. Midterm contracts go to Kalshi and Rothera.

Robinhood publishes no market feed we can read, so its column above stays blank. Compare daily totals across venues on our prediction market volume page.

Deposits, withdrawals and payouts on Kalshi and Robinhood

Kalshi takes ten ways in. They include bank and real-time transfers, debit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, wire and crypto. Robinhood takes bank transfer, debit card and wire.

Robinhood's edge is that there is no new wallet. Cash sweeps automatically from your brokerage balance. But Instant Deposits do not count for event contracts, so a bank transfer must settle first.

Getting money out differs too. Kalshi pays out to a debit card, bank, PayPal, Venmo or crypto wallet, with no Kalshi fee. Robinhood's bank withdrawals are free, instant ones cost 1.75%, and wires $25.

Kalshi also pays 3.25% APY on cash and open positions, for balances of $250 or more. Robinhood publishes no interest rate on event-contract cash.

Winning contracts pay $1 on both. Most Kalshi markets settle within hours of the result. Robinhood says most sports payouts arrive within 1 to 2 business days.

Settlement and disputes

On a Kalshi-listed contract, Kalshi decides the result, whichever app you use. Robinhood says it cannot override an exchange's settlement, even if a sports app shows another score.

So the rules are what to read. Kalshi's Khamenei market paid the last price before his death, not $1, under a rule excluding death.

Contracts Robinhood routes elsewhere settle under that exchange's own rules. Robinhood points traders to each exchange's terms for the data source.

Kalshi and Robinhood apps and support

Kalshi: App Store 4.8 (548K) · Google Play 4.7 (120K). Robinhood: App Store 4.3 (4.9M) · Google Play 4.7 (577K), for the whole Robinhood app. Ratings read September 25, 2026.

Robinhood's scores rate its whole app, stocks and crypto included. Kalshi's rate an app built around prediction markets.

Kalshi trades on iOS, Android and the web. It adds a desktop terminal, Kalshi Pro, and a free API. Robinhood takes event-contract orders only in its iOS and Android apps.

Support is where Robinhood leads. It runs 24/7 in-app chat and weekday phone callbacks. Kalshi offers chat and email, with no phone line.

Can you use Kalshi and Robinhood together?

Yes. Nothing stops you holding an account on each.

But on a Kalshi-listed contract, there is nothing to arbitrage. Both orders meet the same Kalshi book at the same price. Only the fee differs, and Kalshi's is lower.

Where Robinhood routes to Rothera, ForecastEx or CDNA, prices can differ from Kalshi's. Check that both markets settle on the same source and date first. A matched pair can still pay out on neither side.

Kalshi or Robinhood: which should you pick?

On our published method, Kalshi ranks first of 15 apps at 4.9 out of 5. Robinhood ranks sixth, at 4.3. Your own use decides it.

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