How to create a Token on Polygon and keep gas below one cent
If you want to create a token on Polygon, the pitch is simple: it’s a standard ERC-20 and moving it costs a fraction of a cent. No dev, no Solidity, no scripts.
The bottleneck isn’t the minting. It’s deciding what the contract should be able to do once it’s public, because a handful of those decisions are permanent and the rest shape how buyers read your project.
This guide covers the full path: creating the token, what each option is for, how much you pay in POL, the legal side, and what to do once it’s live.
Why builders pick Polygon
Polygon PoS is a fully EVM-compatible network in its own right, not a Ethereum rollup, and the token you deploy on it is a standard ERC-20. Any EVM wallet, explorer and DEX handles it with no special treatment.
Projects land here for the cost. Gas is measured in fractions of a cent, and that changes what’s realistic: airdrops to thousands of wallets, small and frequent operations, on-chain mechanics that would make no sense on mainnet. Fees stop being a design constraint.
Tokens on Polygon cover the usual roles: in-product currency, governance, swaps, equity-like designs, contract execution and memecoins.
What you need before you start
- A wallet on Polygon. MetaMask, Rabby or anything with WalletConnect works.
- POL in that wallet to cover the tool fee and gas.
- A name, ticker and a supply figure. Everything else gets decided inside the tool.
How to create a token on Polygon step by step
The tool is the Polygon Token Creator by Smithii. You’ll need a wallet on Polygon and enough POL to cover the fee and gas.
- Connect your wallet and confirm the network reads Polygon. The wallet that signs keeps ownership of the contract afterwards.
- Enter the name and symbol. They travel with the token wherever it gets indexed, so check the ticker isn’t already taken.
- Set decimals and supply. Eighteen decimals is the EVM convention. Supply is minted once and lands in full in your wallet.
- Pick your options. Fees, burns, holder rewards, launch limits, distribution and the pool. All of them covered below.
- Hit Create Token, review the total and sign.
At that point the token is live and the supply sits in your wallet. If you need the address later on, our guide to finding a token contract address shows you where to look.
The options worth thinking through first
Three of these change how your token gets judged, so lock them in before the rest. None of them can be added after deployment.
- Mintable (250 POL). Keeps your ability to issue more supply, owner only. It fits phased emissions and reward programs, and it contradicts any fixed-cap promise. Buyers will check.
- Transaction Fee (free). Takes a percentage of every buy and sell and splits it across up to 10 wallets however you decide. The percentage can be adjusted after launch, and turning it on doesn’t add anything to the bill.
- Anti-Bot (250 POL). Caps the token to one trade per block, which is what breaks sniping. On a chain this cheap, bots have even less reason to hold back.
The rest, in short
- Deflation (400 POL). Burns part of the fee on every trade, shrinking supply as volume grows.
- Reflection (400 POL). Distributes part of the fee to holders automatically, with a minimum balance to qualify.
- Burnable (250 POL). Lets you destroy tokens on demand, for announced burns and buybacks.
- Pausable (250 POL). Freezes all transfers and trading. The emergency brake.
- Anti-Whale (250 POL). Caps trade size, frequency and cumulative total per wallet for as many days as you set.
- Blacklist (250 POL). Blocks the specific addresses you’ve flagged from trading.
- Multi-Wallet Distribution (250 POL). Split the supply across up to 10 wallets at creation, so team, marketing and airdrop allocations are ready instantly.
- DEXTools socials and banner (4900 POL). Push your links, logo and banner to DEXTools straight from the tool.
- Create a liquidity pool (250 POL). Opens the pool in the same run and shows you the initial price before you sign.
Pairing POL into a pool is not spending it. It sits in the pool and returns to you as buyers arrive.
How much does it cost to create a token on Polygon?
The deploy is 900 POL plus network gas, and the gas side is negligible. Options are billed separately, so a token with nothing toggled on only pays the flat fee. The tool adds up your exact setup on screen before you approve anything.
Is it legal to create a token on Polygon?
Creating one is legal in most jurisdictions. What changes is how the token is used, promoted and sold afterwards, which is where the real regulation lives, not in the act of deploying a contract.
In the United States, a utility token may not qualify as a security, which puts it under a completely different rulebook. The framework has been moving for a while: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act passed the House of Representatives in July 2025, alongside the GENIUS Act on stablecoins. Rules in this space move faster than most guides get updated, so get legal advice before selling anything or promising returns.
How to make your token tradeable
Without a pool, your token transfers and sends across airdrop just fine, but it has no price and nobody can buy it.
If you skipped the pool option during creation, our guide to create a liquidity pool on Uniswap covers the manual route, and how much liquidity to add is the one to read first. Pool depth decides whether a normal buy nudges the chart or sends it flying. When you need to close the position, how to remove liquidity on Polygon walks you through it step by step.
After the launch
- Reach people with a airdrop instead of manual transfers. Check out how to launch a airdrop on Polygon.
- Keep the pair active once you have holders, with the Polygon volume bot.
- Track your distribution with a snapshot of holders on Polygon.
- Apply for listings, both free: CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. A market that’s already working makes the application way stronger.
Launching a meme coin instead? Priorities shift quite a bit, and how to create a meme coin on Polygon covers that version.
Who controls the token once it exists
This matters more than it looks. The tool deploys the contract, but the wallet you connected is the owner, which means mint, ownership and any permission you enabled sit in your hands, not Smithii’s.
At no point in the process are you asked for a seed phrase or a private key, and nothing needs access to the tokens or NFTs already sitting in your wallet. If a token creator asks for either of those, that’s your cue to close the tab.
FAQ on how to create a token on Polygon
How much does it cost to create a token on Polygon?
900 POL plus network gas, and on Polygon the gas is a fraction of a cent. Optional features are billed separately, starting at 250 POL, and the tool shows you the total before you sign.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. No Solidity, nothing to install. You fill in the tool, approve one transaction, and an audited ERC-20 gets deployed for you.
Is a Polygon token an ERC-20?
Yes. Polygon PoS is EVM-compatible, so what you deploy is a standard ERC-20 that behaves the same as one on Ethereum. The difference is what it costs to use it.
Can I change the transaction fee later?
The percentage can be tweaked once the token is live, but the fee mechanism itself has to be enabled at creation. If you think you might use it, turn it on even at a low percentage.
Who owns the contract?
The wallet you connect, from the very first block. Smithii never asks for your private key or access to anything you hold.
Is it legal to create a token on Polygon?
Creating one is legal in most jurisdictions. The rules that actually matter cover how you market it, sell it, and use it, so talk to a lawyer if the project involves fundraising or return promises.
Wrapping up
Creating a token on Polygon takes a tool and a signature, and the cost of running it afterwards is what makes this chain worth picking. The decisions that really matter are the permanent ones: whether more supply can be minted, whether trading can be paused, and how the first hour of the pool is protected.
Ship it bare if that’s what your project needs, and turn the rest on only when there’s a real use case. From that point on, the tools stop being the variable and the project has to stand on its own.
Your next step is the definitive guide for devs on Polygon, an end-to-end walkthrough covering everything your project needs after creating the token.
Crypto writer focused on the Web3 space. Former contributor to the Smithii editorial team.
