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World desk4 min

Polymarket API FAQ: Endpoints, Authentication, Rate Limits, and WebSockets

Polymarket separates event discovery, CLOB trading, account data, and live streams across distinct APIs. Here’s how to choose an endpoint, authenticate private requests, and avoid over-polling.
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Polymarket uses separate APIs for market discovery, order books and trading, account data, and live updates. Public market-data reads do not require credentials; private CLOB requests use wallet-based authentication. Choose the service for the task, use the selected outcome’s token ID for market data or orders, and follow the rate limit for the specific route you call.

Which Polymarket API should you use?

Polymarket’s services have distinct roles, hosts, authentication needs, and response formats. Use the service that matches the data or action you need rather than treating them as interchangeable.

Service Use it for Host or connection
Gamma API Discover events and markets; retrieve metadata https://gamma-api.polymarket.com
CLOB API Read prices and order books; submit and manage orders https://clob.polymarket.com
Data API Inspect positions, activity, and market participation https://data-api.polymarket.com
Relayer API Submit wallet transactions without requiring the account to hold POL for gas https://relayer-v2.polymarket.com
CLOB Market WebSocket Public order-book, price, and market lifecycle updates wss://ws-subscriptions-clob.polymarket.com/ws/market
CLOB User WebSocket Authenticated account order and trade updates wss://ws-subscriptions-clob.polymarket.com/ws/user
RTDS Public reference prices, comments, and trade activity wss://ws-live-data.polymarket.com
Sports WebSocket Live game status and scores wss://sports-api.polymarket.com/ws

See Polymarket’s API documentation for service details and supported clients.

How do event, market, outcome, and token IDs fit together?

An event can contain multiple markets. A market represents a tradable question, typically with YES and NO outcomes, and each outcome has its own token ID. Use the token ID for the particular outcome when requesting its price or order book, or when preparing an order.

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  1. Discover an event and its markets.
  2. Select the market that represents the question you want.
  3. Choose the outcome within that market.
  4. Retain that outcome’s token ID for its price, book, or order operations.

Polymarket explains these relationships in its Market Data Overview.

Does Polymarket have an API key, and how does authentication work?

Public market-data reads are available without credentials. Private CLOB requests require a two-layer authentication setup; an API key alone is not the whole process.

L1: establish wallet control

The wallet signs an EIP-712 ClobAuth message to establish control and create or derive CLOB credentials.

L2: authenticate private requests

API credentials sign private requests using HMAC-SHA256. When placing an order, L2 authenticates the request while a wallet signature separately authorizes the order itself. Keep both the wallet private key and API secret private. Polymarket’s API documentation describes its SDKs and authentication flow.

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What are Polymarket API rate limits?

Limits vary by service and route. Polymarket documents IP-based limits enforced through Cloudflare throttling over sliding windows; when a limit is exceeded, requests are delayed or queued rather than immediately rejected. CLOB order and cancel requests also have separate per-signer token-bucket limits.

As an example of the route-specific nature of the limits, Polymarket’s rate-limit documentation lists 4,000 requests per 10 seconds for Gamma general traffic. That is an operational ceiling in the current documentation, not a universal allowance for every Gamma route or a permanent contract. The same page lists separate values for endpoints such as /events, /markets, and listing combinations.

Check the live rate limits table for each route you call. Pace requests and implement backoff for throttling instead of translating the limits into one assumed requests-per-minute figure.

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Should you poll the REST API or use WebSockets?

Use REST when you need a snapshot, discovery, or a specific lookup; use a WebSocket when your application needs continuing updates. The market stream provides book snapshots, price changes, last trade prices, tick-size changes, and optional best-bid/ask and market lifecycle updates. Polymarket positions real-time feeds as a way to keep public data current without repeatedly polling.

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Approach Best fit Authentication and trade-offs
REST Discovery, snapshots, and targeted or historical lookups Public market-data reads need no credentials. Straightforward for individual requests, but repeated polling uses route-specific rate-limit capacity and may not provide continuous freshness.
Market WebSocket Continuous public book and market-state updates Public stream; requires handling a persistent connection and update events rather than making isolated requests.
User WebSocket Continuous account order and trade updates Authenticated channel for private account events.

For public book and state changes, use the CLOB Market WebSocket; for your own order and trade events, use the authenticated user channel. Consult Polymarket’s Real-Time Data documentation for event types and stream behavior.

What is the basic order workflow?

Polymarket’s quickstart illustrates a flow using a secure client, a market lookup, an outcome token ID, and an authenticated market order. It then waits for asynchronous on-chain settlement and reads the resulting position.

  1. Set up the client and the required wallet-based CLOB credentials.
  2. Fetch the market and select the intended outcome’s token ID.
  3. Submit the market order through the CLOB.
  4. Wait for settlement, which is asynchronous on-chain, then query the position if needed.

The quickstart says a market order trades against available liquidity and cancels any unfilled amount instead of leaving it open. That behavior does not guarantee a fill or specify how long settlement will take. See Place Your First Order for the documented example.

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