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How to Use the Polymarket API: Discovery, Live Data, and Trading

A practical guide to Polymarket API workflows, from Gamma market discovery and outcome identifiers to CLOB trading, public WebSocket updates, rate limits, and geographic checks.
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Use Gamma to discover events and markets, then use the relevant CLOB or trading workflow for an outcome’s prices, order book, or orders. For real-time public updates, subscribe to the market data stream. Keep the identifiers straight: an event, a market, and an outcome are different objects, and the correct outcome identifier depends on the market version.

Choose the API workflow that matches your task

Polymarket’s API workflows serve different purposes; they are not interchangeable endpoints. Start by deciding whether you need to find a market, inspect or trade it, or receive updates as its state changes.

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Task Workflow What it is for Access and identifier notes
Find events and inspect market metadata Gamma market-data workflow Discover events and their markets, then inspect market details. Use discovery to identify the market and its outcomes; an event or market ID is not interchangeable with an outcome ID.
Read a book, get prices, or submit an order CLOB and trading workflow Work with the selected market’s trading data and orders. The appropriate outcome identifier varies by market version. Order submission uses an authenticated client in the quickstart workflow.
Keep public market data current Real-time market data Receive streamed order-book and market-state changes rather than relying only on repeated polling. Subscribe using the relevant outcome IDs and follow the current event schema. This public market stream is distinct from authenticated account updates.

A WebSocket subscription can keep a client informed about market changes, but it does not replace discovery or the separate order-submission workflow.

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Understand events, markets, and outcomes before using an ID

In Polymarket’s data model, an event can group one or more markets. A market is a tradable question, and its outcomes have their own identifiers. The practical sequence is to discover the event, select the market within it, choose the outcome, and then use the identifier that belongs to that outcome for the operation you want to perform. See the Market Data Overview for the current discovery model.

  • Event: a grouping that can contain one or more markets.
  • Market: the specific tradable question.
  • Outcome: a possible result for that market, with its own identifier.

Do not pass an event ID or market ID where an outcome ID is required. The current trading quickstart further distinguishes identifiers by market version: it uses a CTF token ID for a CTF market and a position ID for a Polymarket Protocol V2 market. Select the identifier exposed for the particular outcome and market version rather than assuming one ID type works for every market.

Follow the trading sequence, and distinguish matching from settlement

Polymarket’s Place Your First Order guide shows an authenticated trading flow. Its TypeScript example uses @polymarket/client, and its Python example uses a polymarket client; package interfaces and code can change, so use the current examples and field names on the official page.

  1. Authenticate a client. The guide’s flow uses a wallet address and signer/private key. Treat signing credentials as sensitive; do not expose them in client-side code, logs, or shared examples.
  2. Fetch the market and select an outcome. Use the market discovery information to identify the exact question and outcome you intend to act on.
  3. Choose the matching outcome identifier. Confirm whether the market version requires a CTF token ID or a Protocol V2 position ID.
  4. Submit the intended order. The quickstart’s market-order example matches against available liquidity; any unfilled amount is canceled instead of remaining as a resting order. Check the current order example and parameters before adapting it.
  5. Check the resulting position after settlement. A successful matching response does not mean settlement is already complete. Polymarket’s guide states, “Your order matched, but its trade settles on-chain asynchronously.”

Do not use a real order simply as a setup test. Follow the official example to understand the client and identifier flow, and confirm the order behavior you intend before submitting anything.

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Use WebSockets for public market changes, not account notifications

The Real-Time Data documentation describes a market stream for synchronizing an application with order-book and market-state changes. Its example subscribes to the market topic with one or more outcome IDs and includes event types such as book, price change, last-trade-price, and tick-size-change updates.

Use the official page’s current subscription fields and payload schemas when implementing a client. The market feed is for public market data; authenticated order and trade updates follow a separate real-time order-updates workflow. Do not treat a public market subscription as a feed of activity on your account, and do not assume a stream removes the need for REST reads or trading operations.

Check current rate limits before setting request behavior

Polymarket’s Rate Limits reference is the place to check current rules for each service and endpoint. It was checked on 7 October 2026, but no numeric thresholds or reset intervals are stated here. Do not copy a limit from an older or third-party example and assume it applies to the endpoint or access tier you use. Consult the live reference before choosing polling frequency, retry behavior, or request volume.

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Check the geographic access gate without assuming it settles eligibility

Polymarket maintains a Geographic Restrictions reference for its IP-related access rules. The page was checked on 7 October 2026; this article does not state a country list or specific response fields. Consult the current page for the endpoint’s scope and fields, and do not infer that one IP check by itself establishes account-level, product-level, or legal eligibility.

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Use the documented access checks as written and respect any restriction that applies. Do not attempt to evade geographic controls.

Keep an integration reliable as the documentation changes

  • Recheck official documentation for current route names, SDK syntax, subscription schemas, and trading fields before deployment.
  • Keep event, market, and outcome identifiers labeled separately in your own code and data model.
  • Use Gamma for discovery and metadata; use the relevant trading or market-data workflow after choosing a specific outcome.
  • Handle matching and settlement as separate states when presenting order status to users.
  • Review the live rate-limit and geographic-restriction references rather than relying on remembered values or old examples.

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