How old do you have to be to use Kalshi?

Kalshi’s sign-up guide lists the conditions for an individual account, and the first is to “be 18 years or older”. A rulebook Kalshi filed with the CFTC in September 2025 says the same in its own words: persons under 18 “are not permitted to create Kalshi accounts”.

The member agreement Kalshi filed with the CFTC in July 2024 (version 1.54, the latest copy we could read) adds that an individual member must be of the age of majority in their state of residence. Kalshi does not publish a list of states where that would mean an age above 18, and its help centre states 18 without exceptions. If you are 18 in a state whose age of majority is higher, read the current member agreement before signing up.

Age is checked as part of identity verification, which every account goes through because Kalshi is a CFTC-regulated exchange. According to Kalshi’s verification page:

• Your name and date of birth must match your government photo ID exactly.
• The ID is a driver’s licence or passport, photographed live in the app — not uploaded from your files.
• Commercial addresses and PO boxes are not accepted.
• Kalshi may ask for proof of address, employment information or source of funds.

Its document guide rules out screenshots, photocopies, scans, expired IDs and student or employee cards, and says that in some cases you will also take a live selfie. Verification usually takes a few minutes; an account flagged for review, for example because details resemble an existing account, is typically decided within 48 hours.

Kalshi says plainly that the risk is not a teenager signing up as themselves — the ID check stops that — but using a parent’s identity. Its page for families (read 26 October 2026) lists what it does about it:

• ID CHECK: a tool that lets you ask Kalshi whether anyone has opened an account using your identity.
• Face ID on by default for users who have it enabled on their device, so a borrowed unlocked phone does not open the account.
• Two-factor authentication, so a known password is not enough to log in.
• A government ID and live selfie for sign-ups that trigger its risk checks.
• Inner Circle, through which family members and friends can ask a trader to share their trading activity.

Kalshi announced the selfie and Face ID measures in May 2026, when it acknowledged that “motivated minors try to circumvent KYC by using family members’ identification” and advised parents to switch Face ID on.

Kalshi’s help centre says you can trade from many countries, with some jurisdictions restricted under section VI of its member agreement. The age rule and the ID check are the same wherever you sign up from. Which US states limit what you can trade is on our state-by-state availability pages, and whether Kalshi is allowed at all is covered in is Kalshi legal?