Sub-users vs. Subaccounts - API Documentation

Sub-users and subaccounts solve different problems. A sub-user is an additional login that lets someone else use your account with limited permissions. A subaccount is a separate balance and set of positions inside your account. Sub-users control who can act on the account; subaccounts control which funds and positions an action uses. In the Kalshi web app, sub-users appear as Team Members.

At a glance

	Sub-users (Team Members)	Subaccounts
What it is	Another login on your account, with its own email and password	A separate balance and set of positions within your account
Balance and positions	Shares the account’s	Has its own
Permissions	Read, Trade, and Transfers, set per sub-user	None of its own; an API key can be restricted to one subaccount
Set up by	Kalshi enables the feature; the account owner adds sub-users in the web app	The account owner, through the API
Availability	Institutions, on request	Direct accounts on the Advanced API tier or above

Sub-users

Each sub-user signs in to the Kalshi web app with their own email and password and acts on your account: the orders they place and the funds they move are yours. Sub-users can’t sign in to the Kalshi mobile app. Sub-users are for institutions that want to provision logins for their team members with different scopes. Kalshi enables them for an account on request. The account owner then adds, edits, and revokes them on the Team Members page of the web app, and gives each one any combination of three permissions:

Permission	Allows	Scope
Read	View portfolio, markets, and history	`read`
Trade	Place and cancel orders, including RFQs and quotes	`write::trade`
Transfers	Deposit and withdraw funds and manage payment methods	`write::transfer`

Granting Trade or Transfers also grants Read. For a trader who shouldn’t move money, grant Read and Trade and leave Transfers off. Changing a sub-user’s permissions or revoking their access signs them out immediately. Whatever their permissions, sub-users can’t create or manage API keys, and can’t add or manage other sub-users. Orders and fills belong to the account and don’t record which sub-user placed them.

Subaccounts

Every account has a primary subaccount (0). Eligible accounts can add numbered subaccounts 1–63 with Create Subaccount. Cash moves between them with Transfer Between Subaccounts and never leaves the account. See Subaccounts for numbering, transfers, and restricted API keys. A subaccount has no login or permissions of its own. The account owner and every sub-user can act on all subaccounts, within their permissions.

Using them together

Sub-user permissions apply to the whole account, so you can’t limit a sub-user to one subaccount. To confine trading to one subaccount, use an API key restricted to that subaccount: it can read and trade only that subaccount and can’t transfer funds. Only the account owner can create API keys.

Goal	Use
Let a colleague trade in the web app without sharing your login	A sub-user with Read and Trade
Stop a colleague from depositing or withdrawing	A sub-user without Transfers
Keep each strategy’s balance and positions separate	One subaccount per strategy
Give a bot or API trader a fixed amount of capital	A subaccount funded with that amount, plus an API key restricted to it
Remove a person’s access without moving funds	Revoke their sub-user

​At a glance

​Sub-users

​Subaccounts

​Using them together

At a glance

Sub-users

Subaccounts

Using them together