Manifold Markets API Guide 2026 — Play Money Predictions and Real-Money Alternatives

What this page covers

What Manifold Markets is and how it differs from real-money platforms
Manifold Markets API overview and key endpoints
When to use Manifold vs real-money platforms
How to access real-money prediction market data and analysis

What is Manifold Markets?

Manifold Markets is an open-source prediction market platform that uses play money (called “mana”). Anyone can create a market on any topic, making it popular for community forecasting, research, and casual predictions.

Feature	Details
Currency	Play money (mana) — not real money
Market creation	Anyone can create a market
Categories	Unlimited — user-generated
Source code	Open source (GitHub)
API	Full REST API, no auth required for reads
Community	Active forecasting community, academic research

Key difference: play money vs real money

Manifold uses play money, which means prices may not reflect real market consensus the way real-money platforms do. Real money creates stronger incentives for accurate pricing — traders with genuine financial exposure research more thoroughly and correct mispricings faster. For serious analysis, trading signals, or building trading bots, real-money platforms (Kalshi, Polymarket) provide more reliable price signals.

Manifold Markets API

Manifold has a clean REST API. No authentication is needed for read operations.

Base URL

https://api.manifold.markets/v0

List markets

import httpx

resp = httpx.get("https://api.manifold.markets/v0/markets", params={"limit": 10})
markets = resp.json()
for m in markets:
    print(f"{m['question'][:60]:60} | Prob: {m.get('probability', 'N/A')}")

curl "https://api.manifold.markets/v0/markets?limit=10"

const resp = await fetch("https://api.manifold.markets/v0/markets?limit=10");
const markets = await resp.json();
markets.forEach((m) => console.log(`${m.question} | Prob: ${m.probability}`));

Get a single market

resp = httpx.get(f"https://api.manifold.markets/v0/market/{market_id}")
market = resp.json()

Search markets

resp = httpx.get("https://api.manifold.markets/v0/search-markets", params={"term": "Fed rate"})
results = resp.json()

Market data format

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Unique identifier
question	string	The market question
probability	number	Current probability (0-1)
totalLiquidity	number	Available liquidity (mana)
volume	number	Total volume traded (mana)
creatorName	string	Who created the market
closeTime	number	When trading closes (Unix ms)
resolution	string	YES, NO, MKT, or null if unresolved
mechanism	string	`cpmm-1` (constant product market maker)

Place a trade (requires auth)

Trading requires an API key from your Manifold account:

resp = httpx.post(
    f"https://api.manifold.markets/v0/market/{market_id}/bet",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Key {MANIFOLD_API_KEY}"},
    json={"amount": 100, "outcome": "YES"},
)

Python SDK

The community maintains a Python client:

pip install manifoldpy

from manifoldpy import api

markets = api.get_markets(limit=10)

When to use Manifold vs real-money platforms

Use case	Manifold	Real-money (Kalshi/Polymarket)
Community forecasting	Yes
Custom market creation	Yes
Academic research on crowd wisdom	Yes
Casual predictions with friends	Yes
Financial trading and profit		Yes
Building automated trading bots		Yes
AI-powered analysis and signals		Yes
Cross-platform arbitrage		Yes
Portfolio management with real P&L		Yes

Manifold is excellent for forecasting research and community engagement. For financial applications, real-money platforms provide stronger price signals and actual trading infrastructure.

Real-money prediction market APIs

If you need real-money market data, AI analysis, or trading signals, the Rekko API provides unified access to Kalshi, Polymarket, and Robinhood:

import httpx

client = httpx.Client(
    base_url="https://api.rekko.ai/v1",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
)

# Real-money markets across all platforms
markets = client.get("/markets", params={"limit": 5}).json()
for m in markets:
    print(f"{m['platform']:12} | {m['title'][:50]} | YES: {m['yes_price']:.2f} | Vol: ${m['volume_24h']:,.0f}")

curl "https://api.rekko.ai/v1/markets?limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

const resp = await fetch("https://api.rekko.ai/v1/markets?limit=5", {
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" },
});
const markets = await resp.json();

Beyond market data, Rekko provides AI-powered analysis, probability estimates, trading signals with Kelly sizing, cross-platform arbitrage detection, and portfolio tracking — features that go well beyond what any single platform API offers.

What’s next

API comparison

Kalshi vs Polymarket vs Robinhood — detailed comparison.

Build a trading bot

Step-by-step Python trading bot tutorial.

Quickstart

Get a free API key and start querying real-money markets.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Tutorials

Account

Manifold Markets API Guide

What this page covers

What is Manifold Markets?

Key difference: play money vs real money

Manifold Markets API

Base URL

List markets

Get a single market

Search markets

Market data format

Place a trade (requires auth)

Python SDK

When to use Manifold vs real-money platforms

Real-money prediction market APIs

What’s next

API comparison

Build a trading bot

Quickstart

​What this page covers

​What is Manifold Markets?

​Key difference: play money vs real money

​Manifold Markets API

​Base URL

​List markets

​Get a single market

​Search markets

​Market data format

​Place a trade (requires auth)

​Python SDK

​When to use Manifold vs real-money platforms

​Real-money prediction market APIs

​What’s next

API comparison

Build a trading bot

Quickstart

What this page covers

What is Manifold Markets?

Key difference: play money vs real money

Manifold Markets API

Base URL

List markets

Get a single market

Search markets

Market data format

Place a trade (requires auth)

Python SDK

When to use Manifold vs real-money platforms

Real-money prediction market APIs

What’s next