Quickstart

Get up and running with the Polymarket API in minutes — fetch market data and place your first order.

Fetch a Market

All data endpoints are public — no API key or authentication needed. Use the markets endpoint to find a market and get its token IDs:

cURL
TypeScript
Python

curl "https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets?active=true&closed=false&limit=1"

const response = await fetch(
  "https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets?active=true&closed=false&limit=1"
);
const markets = await response.json();

const market = markets[0];
console.log(market.question);
console.log(market.clobTokenIds);
// ["123456...", "789012..."]  — [Yes token ID, No token ID]

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://gamma-api.polymarket.com/markets",
    params={"active": "true", "closed": "false", "limit": 1}
)
markets = response.json()

market = markets[0]
print(market["question"])
print(market["clobTokenIds"])
# ["123456...", "789012..."]  — [Yes token ID, No token ID]

Save a token ID from clobTokenIds — you’ll need it to place an order. The first ID is the Yes token, the second is the No token. See Fetching Markets for more strategies like fetching by slug, tag, or event.

Install the SDK

npm install @polymarket/clob-client ethers@5

Set Up Your Client

Derive API credentials and initialize the trading client:

TypeScript
Python

import { ClobClient } from "@polymarket/clob-client";
import { Wallet } from "ethers"; // v5.8.0

const HOST = "https://clob.polymarket.com";
const CHAIN_ID = 137; // Polygon mainnet
const signer = new Wallet(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY);

// Derive API credentials (L1 → L2 auth)
const tempClient = new ClobClient(HOST, CHAIN_ID, signer);
const apiCreds = await tempClient.createOrDeriveApiKey();

// Initialize trading client
const client = new ClobClient(
  HOST,
  CHAIN_ID,
  signer,
  apiCreds,
  0, // Signature type: 0 = EOA
  signer.address, // Funder address
);

from py_clob_client.client import ClobClient
import os

host = "https://clob.polymarket.com"
chain_id = 137  # Polygon mainnet
private_key = os.getenv("PRIVATE_KEY")

# Derive API credentials (L1 → L2 auth)
temp_client = ClobClient(host, key=private_key, chain_id=chain_id)
api_creds = temp_client.create_or_derive_api_creds()

# Initialize trading client
client = ClobClient(
    host,
    key=private_key,
    chain_id=chain_id,
    creds=api_creds,
    signature_type=0,  # Signature type: 0 = EOA
    funder="YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS",  # Funder address
)

This example uses an EOA wallet (signature type 0) — your wallet pays its own gas. Proxy wallet users (types 1 and 2) can use Polymarket’s gasless relayer instead. See Authentication for details on signature types.

Before trading, your funder address needs USDC.e (for buying outcome tokens) and POL (for gas, if using EOA type 0).

Place an Order

Use the token_id from Step 1 to place a limit order:

TypeScript
Python

import { Side, OrderType } from "@polymarket/clob-client";

// Fetch market details to get tick size and neg risk
const market = await client.getMarket("YOUR_CONDITION_ID");
const tickSize = String(market.minimum_tick_size);   // e.g., "0.01"
const negRisk = market.neg_risk;             // e.g., false

const response = await client.createAndPostOrder(
  {
    tokenID: "YOUR_TOKEN_ID", // From Step 1
    price: 0.50,
    size: 10,
    side: Side.BUY,
    orderType: OrderType.GTC,
  },
  {
    tickSize,
    negRisk,
  },
);

console.log("Order ID:", response.orderID);
console.log("Status:", response.status);

from py_clob_client.clob_types import OrderArgs, OrderType
from py_clob_client.order_builder.constants import BUY

# Fetch market details to get tick size and neg risk
market = client.get_market("YOUR_CONDITION_ID")
tick_size = str(market["minimum_tick_size"])   # e.g., "0.01"
neg_risk = market["neg_risk"]             # e.g., False

response = client.create_and_post_order(
    OrderArgs(
        token_id="YOUR_TOKEN_ID",  # From Step 1
        price=0.50,
        size=10,
        side=BUY,
        order_type=OrderType.GTC,
    ),
    options={
        "tick_size": tick_size,
        "neg_risk": neg_risk,
    },
)

print("Order ID:", response["orderID"])
print("Status:", response["status"])

Next Steps

Authentication

Understand L1/L2 auth, signature types, and API credentials.

Trading Quickstart

Detailed trading guide with order management and troubleshooting.

Fetching Markets

Strategies for discovering markets by slug, tag, or category.

Core Concepts

Understand markets, events, prices, and positions.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Market Data

Trading

Market Makers

Builder Program

Resources

Next Steps

Authentication

Trading Quickstart

Fetching Markets

Core Concepts

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Market Data

Trading

Market Makers

Builder Program

Resources

​Next Steps

Authentication

Trading Quickstart

Fetching Markets

Core Concepts

Next Steps