Kalshi provides separate production and demo environments. Credentials are not shared between environments, so demo API keys only work against demo endpoints and production API keys only work against production endpoints.
REST API
Use these base URLs for the Trade API:
| Environment | Recommended base URL | Also supported |
|---|
| Production | https://external-api.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2 | https://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2 |
| Demo | https://external-api.demo.kalshi.co/trade-api/v2 | https://demo-api.kalshi.co/trade-api/v2 |
external-api hosts are dedicated to the external Trade API and are the recommended hosts for API traders. The existing shared hosts remain supported for compatibility with existing clients.
Despite the elections subdomain, the production Trade API provides access to all Kalshi markets, not only election-related markets.
WebSocket API
Use these WebSocket URLs for the Trade API:
| Environment | Recommended URL | Also supported |
|---|
| Production | wss://external-api-ws.kalshi.com/trade-api/ws/v2 | wss://api.elections.kalshi.com/trade-api/ws/v2 |
| Demo | wss://external-api-ws.demo.kalshi.co/trade-api/ws/v2 | wss://demo-api.kalshi.co/trade-api/ws/v2 |
Request Signing
The host does not change the signature payload. Sign the full request path from the API root, without query parameters.
For example, all of these hosts use the same signed path for an order request:
/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders
https://external-api.kalshi.com/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders?limit=5
/trade-api/v2/portfolio/orders
