Kalshi VS Robinhood

★ The verdict these records support

First recorded difference that usually settles it: eligibility — Kalshi records Individuals aged 18 or older who pass identity and document verification at signup, which Kalshi says it runs to meet CFTC identity rules. Kalshi now takes members from many countries as well as the US; international eligibility is bounded by the restricted jurisdictions in Section VI of the Member Agreement, and Kalshi puts the legality question on the member, saying it gives no individual legal or eligibility advice. Federal DCM status does not settle the state question: sports, election and entertainment contracts are geofenced for customers in Nevada (Nevada Gaming Control Board agreement, geofencing due 12 August 2026), Washington (state court order, August 2026) and Michigan, with litigation live in several other states. Sources: Kalshi Help Center, 'Signing Up as an Individual' (article dated 10 March 2026) and 'Can I trade on Kalshi from outside the United States?' (20 March 2026); Kalshi Member Agreement, Section VI; CFTC Release 8302-20 designating KalshiEX LLC; Nevada GCB release, 24 July 2026; CoinDesk, 21 August 2026. Checked 2026-10-21; Robinhood records US residents aged 18 or older, with an individual Robinhood brokerage account and a separately approved Robinhood Derivatives account, applied for inside the app. Event contracts are not available in all states: Maryland and Nevada residents cannot trade sports event contracts, and Michigan residents could not open new sports event contracts as of 9 September 2026. Robinhood says further state restrictions may apply and that the app holds the current list. Source: Robinhood Help Center, 'Event contracts overview', checked 2026-10-21. This page does not name a winner. The fee notes below carry the formulas, and what a given trade costs depends on that formula, the contract price and how many contracts are traded — not on the pricing tier.

• › Platforms: Kalshi records Web, iOS, Android; Robinhood records iOS, Android.
• › Eligibility: Kalshi records Individuals aged 18 or older who pass identity and document verification at signup, which Kalshi says it runs to meet CFTC identity rules. Kalshi now takes members from many countries as well as the US; international eligibility is bounded by the restricted jurisdictions in Section VI of the Member Agreement, and Kalshi puts the legality question on the member, saying it gives no individual legal or eligibility advice. Federal DCM status does not settle the state question: sports, election and entertainment contracts are geofenced for customers in Nevada (Nevada Gaming Control Board agreement, geofencing due 12 August 2026), Washington (state court order, August 2026) and Michigan, with litigation live in several other states. Sources: Kalshi Help Center, 'Signing Up as an Individual' (article dated 10 March 2026) and 'Can I trade on Kalshi from outside the United States?' (20 March 2026); Kalshi Member Agreement, Section VI; CFTC Release 8302-20 designating KalshiEX LLC; Nevada GCB release, 24 July 2026; CoinDesk, 21 August 2026. Checked 2026-10-21; Robinhood records US residents aged 18 or older, with an individual Robinhood brokerage account and a separately approved Robinhood Derivatives account, applied for inside the app. Event contracts are not available in all states: Maryland and Nevada residents cannot trade sports event contracts, and Michigan residents could not open new sports event contracts as of 9 September 2026. Robinhood says further state restrictions may apply and that the app holds the current list. Source: Robinhood Help Center, 'Event contracts overview', checked 2026-10-21.
• › Data and API access: Kalshi records Documented and public. docs.kalshi.com covers a REST Trade API (external-api.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2) and a WebSocket streaming API (external-api-ws.kalshi.com/trade-api/ws/v2) for event contracts, plus FIX sessions and a separate API for perpetual futures. Requests are signed with an RSA key created in account settings and sent as KALSHI-ACCESS-KEY, KALSHI-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP and KALSHI-ACCESS-SIGNATURE, which covers market data, portfolio, and order placement and cancellation; a demo environment mirrors production for testing. Sources: Kalshi API documentation, 'Introduction', 'API Keys' and 'API Environments and Endpoints', checked 2026-10-21; Robinhood records None published for event contracts. Robinhood's developer documentation at docs.robinhood.com covers the Robinhood Crypto Trading API only, and prediction markets can be traded in the mobile app only, so there is no documented endpoint for reading or placing event-contract orders. Sources: Robinhood Help Center, 'Trading event contracts'; docs.robinhood.com, checked 2026-10-21.

This page does not model what a trade costs, how much liquidity sits behind a market, or how many markets are open today. Those numbers change daily and belong to the venues; each pricing note below names the document it came from and the date it was read.