Polymarket Referral Code 2026: What You Actually Get
A Polymarket referral code mostly pays whoever shared it, not you. We checked six programmes: only Polymarket US offers a sign-up credit, and it is $25.
Affiliate disclosure: contains affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. 18+ only — see BeGambleAware.org. Last updated 9 October 2026.
Key takeaways
- The US welcome credit is $25, and the code may be optional. Polymarket US's incentive page shows "Deposit at least $10", "Receive $25". Its CFTC filing in force since 2 October 2026 says "Use of a Campaign Code is not a condition of eligibility"; the incentive page still says "via an onboarding code or link".
- It is a credit, not a bonus. Promotional trading credits "may not be withdrawn", your own money is spent first, and the current deposit filing says each credit expires "within seven (7), ten (10), or thirty (30) days" of issue, depending on the campaign.
- Outside the US there is nothing to type. Polymarket.com's referral programme works off share links, pays the referrer 10% of net fees, and needs $10,000 of lifetime volume before it pays anything. Nothing is documented for the person signing up.
- Perps has a visible invite code, and it pays the referrer. One code per account on a polymarket.com/perps?c= link, 20% of referred traders' fees to the referrer, and "no separate bonus is paid to the trader you invite".
- The money a new trader can actually keep is in the tiers. $2,000 of 30-day weighted volume unlocks Bronze: a $10 one-off bonus and a 3% rebate on taker fees, paid daily in pUSD.
On this page
Pages ranking for Polymarket referral code tend to promise the same thing: trading credit for a $10 deposit, if you type in whichever code that site owns. Polymarket US's own incentive page puts that credit at $25, and its current CFTC filing says you do not need a code to earn it. Whatever the amount, it cannot be withdrawn and expires 30 days after it lands at the latest.
So this guide does the unglamorous version. Six referral and incentive programmes come up when people search for a code, and they pay different people different amounts. I re-read every one on 9 October 2026, from Polymarket's own docs to the exchange notices Polymarket US filed with the CFTC in August and September that changed what a credit even is.
Disclosure, since it is the subject of the article: the Polymarket link on this page is our Polymarket.com referral link, and under the rules below it pays us; Polymarket documents nothing for you. That is true of every Polymarket.com referral link, including the ones that say otherwise. New to prediction markets? Start with our Polymarket explainer, then come back.
What a Polymarket referral code actually gets you
Six programmes, re-checked on 9 October 2026. The column that matters is the third one.
Read across the third column and the pattern is hard to miss. Outside Polymarket US, the person using the link or code gets nothing documented at all, and inside it the thing they get is a credit with a clock on it. Everything below is the detail behind that table.
The US welcome credit: $25, and the code may be optional
Polymarket US publishes its live campaign parameters on its User Incentive Programs page, which is the page the codes are selling without linking to. Two of the four programmes listed there are the ones people mean when they search for a code.
The amount is not in dispute: Campaign A reads "Deposit at least $10", "Receive $25", and no live Polymarket page shows a $50 credit for it. The only trace of a bigger number is struck-through, deleted wording in the Deposit Incentive filing of 18 September 2026. A code page still promising a $50 welcome credit is not quoting anything Polymarket US publishes today.
What is in dispute is whether you need a code at all, because Polymarket US's own pages disagree. The incentive page, updated 9 October, says: "A Participant qualifies only for the campaign presented to them, via an onboarding code or link, before the qualifying deposit." The filing that has governed the programme since 2 October says: "Use of a Campaign Code is not a condition of eligibility to earn a Promotional Trading Credit." I cannot tell you which one Polymarket US's systems follow, so do what satisfies both: have the code or link in front of you before you fund the account.
Either way, only your first completed deposit after onboarding counts, it must land within 7, 14 or 30 days of onboarding depending on the campaign, and each Participant gets one deposit credit, ever.
Refer-A-Friend is the only genuinely two-sided offer in the set: referrer and friend each get the posted credit once the friend deposits. Polymarket US told the CFTC on 26 August 2026 it was "increasing the maximum number of Referred Participants per Program Participant from fourteen (14) to fifty (50)", effective 10 September, so pages quoting "up to 14 friends, up to $350" are out of date.
Three of its rules matter more than the cap. A referred friend cannot also take the deposit credit — the 26 August filing adds "Referred Participants may not participate in the Deposit Incentive Program" — so a friend's username gets you one $25 credit, not two. The Refer-A-Friend FAQ says "Each new user can only be referred once, and only one bonus is paid per verified identity", and the code must go in at sign-up (an invite link usually applies it). And the programme ends on 10 March 2027.
Two more US programmes rarely make the code pages. Deposit and Trading uses no code: Participants qualify "based on their prior deposit and trading activity", for credits from $5 on a $25 deposit up to $250 on a $500 deposit. The affiliate Referral Incentive Program "rewards approved affiliates for referring new Participants to Polymarket US"; its 24 August filing deletes the payment to the referred person, so an affiliate code just makes you eligible for the deposit credit — which the October filing says you can earn without one.
Why a trading credit is not a bonus, in Polymarket US's own words
This is the part I would want explained to me before depositing, and the primary sources are unusually blunt about it. The help page is one sentence: "Promo credits are trading credits, not cash. They cannot be withdrawn, including after they are used in trading or after the related position settles or is liquidated."
One Polymarket US page disagrees: the Refer-A-Friend FAQ says credits "may be withdrawn upon position settlement or liquidation". The CFTC filings side with the promo-credit help page — credits "may not be withdrawn" — and that is the version I would plan around.
Three mechanics decide what a credit is worth:
The three rules that decide what a credit is worth
- Your money is spent first. "A Participant's existing collateral will be used before the Credit." The credit backs the part of a position your own deposit could not cover.
- It expires. The deposit filing says each credit "shall expire within seven (7), ten (10), or thirty (30) days after the date of issuance"; the Refer-A-Friend filing allows one to thirty days. On 9 October Polymarket US's incentive page posted no period for either credit, so check the app when yours lands. Whatever is left at expiry is removed.
- Only eligible proceeds can leave. The credit itself never becomes withdrawable. Polymarket US's own example: a $20 credit used in trading stays non-withdrawable, and if it produces $10 in eligible proceeds after settlement, "up to $10 may become withdrawable, subject to the applicable withdrawal requirements."
The first rule is the one that stings: your own collateral backs a position before the credit does, so it is your deposit that is at risk first. (An earlier version of this article quoted worked examples from Polymarket US's filings; those examples are struck through in the current filings, so I have removed them.)
To get eligible proceeds out, Polymarket US says you must link a payment method and make an initial deposit; "once the deposit fully clears, typically within 3–4 business days, eligible funds become available to withdraw". So the credit is a stake you put at risk before it expires: eligible proceeds can become yours, the stake never does. If you have read our piece on casino bonus expiry windows, the shape will be familiar.
Outside the US, there is no Polymarket referral code to type
Here is the fact most code pages skip. Polymarket.com — the international product, the one our link points at — gives you nothing to type at sign-up. Its Referral Program works by sharing a market or profile page with the share button, and the referral travels inside the link (ours lands on polymarket.com/?r=skiln). Polymarket's Perps page says the prediction-market programme uses "different codes", but no Polymarket page describes a code field at sign-up, or anything for the person who arrives. You sign up with Google, email or a crypto wallet.
What it has instead is a revenue share for the referrer, under terms that took effect on 28 May 2026.
"Net" is doing real work in that table, and Polymarket spells out why: "Net trading fees are what Polymarket keeps after the referred user's own tier rebate. The more rebate they earn, the more of their fees go back to them rather than into your referral reward." Refer a serious trader and your cut shrinks as they climb — then stops outright at Platinum. Refer a casual one and the 30-day clock stops it instead.
The $10,000 threshold is the detail that quietly kills the "share your code, make money" pitch for almost everyone. You can share links from day one, but you earn nothing until your own lifetime volume crosses $10,000. Self-referrals, accounts you control and inauthentic trading are grounds for disqualification and clawback, so there is no shortcut worth trying. For how fees are actually priced on each product, our Polymarket vs Kalshi comparison has the category-by-category numbers.
Polymarket Perps: the only real invite code
If you have seen someone's Polymarket "code" and it genuinely looked like a code, there is a good chance it was this one. Every Perps account has exactly one, your referral code and your invite code are the same string, and it travels in a link shaped like polymarket.com/perps?c= followed by the code.
It pays the referrer 20% of the trading fees paid by every Perps trader they bring in, with no cap on how much a single referred trader can earn them, settled weekly. The docs state the other side without hedging: "No separate bonus is paid to the trader you invite." A code can be applied only once, an account keeps the first code it is ever given, and you cannot apply your own. The Perps referral page also keeps it apart from the Polymarket.com programme: "They use different codes and track earnings independently."
The interesting constraint is that invites are rationed, which is why people trade these codes around at all.
Eligible volume counts your own Perps trading plus your direct referrals' volume after attribution; indirect referrals do not count. Use every invite at your tier and your code simply stops accepting referrals until you unlock the next one. None of which changes the headline: it is still a code that pays the person who gave it to you.
What actually pays a new trader: tiers, not codes
Chasing a code is the wrong optimisation, and Polymarket's own numbers show why. The Taker Rebate Program hands money to you, with no referral relationship involved, and the first rung is genuinely reachable.
Weighted volume is not the same as money traded, which is what makes Bronze easier than it looks. The formula is trade size, multiplied by the upside per share, multiplied by a category weight: Crypto counts 2.3x, Economics, Culture and Weather 1.7x, Politics, Finance, Mentions and Tech 1.3x, Sports 1.0x, and geopolitics counts zero because those markets are free to trade. Buying at long odds counts for more, because the upside per share is bigger.
Polymarket's own worked example: $50 into a Crypto market at 5¢ earns $109.25 of weighted volume, while the same $50 at 50¢ earns $57.50. Rebates are paid daily at midnight UTC in pUSD once you have accrued at least $1, and only taker trades count — resting orders are rewarded separately as maker rebates. That Bronze $10, and 3% back on every taker fee from then on, is more than the Polymarket.com or Perps referral programmes document for a new account.
If you are in the UK, none of this is available to you
Most of our readers are British, so this has to be said plainly rather than buried in an FAQ. The United Kingdom is one of 39 countries Polymarket lists as completely restricted on its geographic restrictions page, last updated 14 August 2026. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Brazil are on the same list, along with Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.
The US app is not an alternative, because it is for US residents only — and Polymarket's terms of service prohibit using a VPN to get around any of it. So if you are reading this from Manchester, no code, credit, rebate or tier applies to you, and the honest answer to "which Polymarket referral code should I use" is "none, because you cannot open the account". Our Polymarket UK guide covers where that leaves British punters, and the Polymarket hub has the rest of our coverage.
If you are eligible
Polymarket.com — nothing to type at sign-up
Geopolitics markets are fee-free, makers never pay a fee, and Polymarket charges nothing to deposit or withdraw USDC. Sign up with Google, email or a crypto wallet; no promo code is involved.
Visit Polymarket.com →Only for readers outside the US and Polymarket's other restricted countries — the UK included. US residents must use the separate Polymarket US app.
This is our referral link: it pays us, and Polymarket documents no reward for you — exactly as this article describes. 18+ only. Prediction-market trading can lose you money.
My verdict: is a Polymarket referral code worth using?
If you are a US resident signing up for the Polymarket US app anyway, a code matters less than the pages selling it suggest. The current filing says the $25 deposit credit does not depend on one; the incentive page still ties it to "an onboarding code or link". Have one in front of you before you fund the account and you satisfy both. A friend's username gets you $25 through Refer-A-Friend instead of the deposit credit, not on top. Treat it as a short-lived stake rather than money, and remember you only get one.
If you are anywhere else Polymarket.com serves, stop looking: there is nothing to type, no documented sign-up credit to claim, and the thing worth understanding is your tier. If you trade anyway, $2,000 of 30-day weighted volume brings the $10 and the 3% rebate, and the category weights mean the same $50 counts for more than twice as much in Crypto as in Sports.
And if you are in the UK or anywhere else on Polymarket's restricted list outside the US, the question does not arise. The three claims to check on any code page before you believe it: the credit amount, the expiry, and which Polymarket product it applies to. A page that cannot answer all three has not read Polymarket's own terms.
Related guides
- Polymarket vs Kalshi 2026: Fees, Access and Who Settles — the fee tables behind the "net fees" your referrer earns from.
- How Does Polymarket Work? Explained for 2026 — YES/NO shares, resolution and wallets, from scratch.
- Polymarket UK 2026: Is It Legal? Honest Guide — what the restricted list means for British users.
- Crypto Casino Bonus Expiry 2026: The 24-Hour Default — the same expiring-credit mechanic, on the casino side.
- Best No-Wagering Crypto Casino Bonuses 2026 — offers that pay in cash instead of credit.
- Polymarket hub — all our Polymarket guides in one place.
Polymarket referral code FAQ
Is there a Polymarket referral code that gives me a bonus?
Only on Polymarket US, and only as a promotional trading credit: $25 on a first deposit of at least $10, or $25 to each side through Refer-A-Friend once the friend deposits $10 or more. A referred friend cannot take both. On Polymarket.com and on Perps, nothing is documented for the new user.
Is the Polymarket welcome bonus still $50?
No Polymarket US page shows a $50 welcome credit today. The incentive page lists the deposit campaign as "Deposit at least $10", "Receive $25", and the only $50 figure in the Deposit Incentive terms is wording struck through in the 18 September 2026 CFTC filing.
Do I need a code to get the Polymarket US deposit credit?
Polymarket US's own pages disagree. Its incentive page says you qualify "via an onboarding code or link, before the qualifying deposit", while the CFTC filing in force since 2 October 2026 says "Use of a Campaign Code is not a condition of eligibility to earn a Promotional Trading Credit." Having a code or link ready before your first deposit satisfies both.
Can I withdraw a Polymarket promo credit?
No. Polymarket US calls them "trading credits, not cash" that cannot be withdrawn even after the position settles, and its CFTC filings agree, although its Refer-A-Friend FAQ still says otherwise. Eligible proceeds made with a credit can become withdrawable after settlement, once you have linked a payment method and a deposit has fully cleared, typically within 3–4 business days.
Do Polymarket credits expire?
Yes. The current deposit filing says each credit expires "within seven (7), ten (10), or thirty (30) days after the date of issuance", and the Refer-A-Friend filing allows one to thirty days; on 9 October 2026 Polymarket US posted no period for either. At expiry the remaining balance is removed, and a credit backing an open position goes when that position closes, settles or is liquidated.
How much does a Polymarket referral pay the referrer?
On Polymarket.com it is 10% of a direct referral's net trading fees and 5% of an indirect referral's, paid daily in pUSD, but only once your own lifetime volume passes $10,000. Earnings stop after 30 days or when the referral reaches Platinum, whichever comes first. Perps pays 20% of referred traders' fees, weekly, with no per-trader cap, and Polymarket US Refer-A-Friend pays a $25 credit per qualifying friend, up to 50.
Where do I find my own Polymarket referral code?
On Polymarket.com you share a market or profile page with the share button; the referral travels in the link, and anyone who signs up within 30 days of clicking is attributed to you. On Perps your code is on your profile and on market pages. On Polymarket US it is your username, shown with your invite link on the Invite Friends screen.
Can I use a Polymarket referral code from the UK?
No. The UK is one of 39 countries Polymarket lists as completely restricted, so you cannot open a Polymarket.com account, and the US app is limited to US residents. Polymarket's terms also prohibit using a VPN to bypass its geographic restrictions.