How much SOL to keep for fees when you trade on ripr

By ripr Editorial Team14 Nov 20267 min read

Keep about 0.02 SOL spare for transaction fees. That is the practical answer to how much SOL you should keep for transaction fees on ripr, and the figure is small because the 1% swap fee comes out of the amount you enter. Your spare SOL only has to cover what Solana charges to record each transaction, and most of that 0.02 SOL is a refundable deposit rather than a fee, so it comes back to you later.

How much SOL should you keep for transaction fees?

On ripr, a reserve of about 0.02 SOL covers transaction fees for ordinary trading, with a bit more set aside if you buy into new coins every week. A transaction fee on Solana is what the network charges to record your trade on the chain, and it is always paid in SOL, whichever coin you are buying.

That is the catch beginners run into: a wallet holding nothing but coins cannot send anything at all.

Two things draw on that spare SOL.

The first is the network's own charge, which ripr keeps to Solana's base rate and which works out at a fraction of a cent for a trade. The app also caps what that charge may come to on a prepared trade and refuses anything above the cap, so the network side of your reserve stays small and predictable. The second draw is larger but temporary: the first time you buy a particular coin, about 0.0015 SOL is set aside as a refundable deposit for the account that will hold it.

So 0.02 SOL covers the deposits on roughly a dozen first buys with plenty left over for the trades themselves. Round up to about 0.05 SOL if you rotate through new coins quickly. There is no benefit in parking much more than that, because the SOL is doing nothing while it waits.

What your SOL reserve pays for on a ripr trade

Your reserve pays the network's charge for the transaction and, on a coin you have never held before, that refundable account deposit. The percentage is handled separately.

Trading on ripr uses a total 1% swap fee on both buys and sells, split between the platform and the coin's creator, and it is taken out of the amount you enter rather than out of your spare SOL. The help centre sets out the split in what fees are charged during trading.

The two charges are not the same size. On one actively traded Solana coin, ripr's market data counted about 51,000 buys and sells across 24 hours, with the average buy worth around $70. The 1% on a buy that size is roughly 70 cents, while the chain's charge for recording it stays under a cent, which is why a small reserve goes such a long way.

On iOS and Android, the trade sheet lists the network fee, any ripr fee and the refundable account deposit before you confirm, so the deduction is on screen while you still have the choice.

Before your wallet signs, the app also checks the prepared transaction on your device against the amount, slippage and fee limits you set, and refuses it if anything differs. That check is about the transaction matching what you asked for, not about whether the coin itself is any good.

Size your reserve to the way you trade

The right reserve follows how many different coins you buy, not how much money you put through them. A $50 buy and a $5,000 buy cost the same to record.

What varies is the deposit side: every coin you hold for the first time sets aside its own, so five new tickers in a week means five deposits waiting to come back.

How you trade	Spare SOL to keep	Why
A couple of buys a month	about 0.01 SOL	A handful of account deposits, plus the chain's charge per trade
Several new coins a week	about 0.05 SOL	Each first buy of a coin sets aside its own deposit
In and out of positions daily	0.05 SOL and up	Every buy and sell is its own transaction, and a retry pays the chain's charge again

Table 1. how big a SOL reserve suits the way you trade

Whichever band you are in, top the reserve up before you trade rather than after something stalls. Deciding in advance also keeps the reserve out of your position sizing, which is a separate judgement covered in how much to invest in meme coins.

Token-account rent: the part of your reserve you get back

Token-account rent is the refundable deposit that keeps an account open on Solana, and on your first buy of a coin it is about 0.0015 SOL. It is not a fee. The SOL sits in an account that belongs to you, and it comes back when that account is closed.

ripr can close your empty token accounts and return their deposits in SOL, and a full sell can close a coin's account for you automatically. Treat that part of the reserve as a float rather than a cost: it goes out as you collect coins and comes back as you clear them out.

Closing an account is itself a transaction, so it needs a little SOL of its own: one more reason not to run the balance down to nothing. If you want to watch the deposits move for yourself, every one of those accounts is public on Solana's block explorer.

How to top up and look after your reserve on ripr

Topping up starts in your ripr Profile. Deposit opens the payment flow, and Receive shows your wallet address and QR code for a transfer from an external wallet or an exchange. Signing up on ripr creates the wallet for your account, so there is nothing to install first.

You can add money by card or Apple Pay, and in India by UPI or bank transfer, through providers that set their own costs and show them at checkout. Both routes are described in how to deposit SOL into your app wallet.

One habit does most of the work: when you deposit for a position, add the reserve to the amount rather than carving it out afterwards.

Two general points matter as much as the reserve itself. Start with an amount you would be relaxed about losing, and paste a coin's full contract address into ripr's search when you want to be certain you are on the right coin rather than a copycat with the same ticker.

Read the warnings before you buy, too: ripr flags known rug patterns, such as a creator holding unlocked liquidity or liquidity that has already been pulled, and says plainly that not seeing a warning never means a coin is fine.

Frequently asked questions

How much SOL do you need to start trading on ripr?

Enough for the position you want plus the small reserve: about 0.02 SOL spare covers the chain's side of ordinary trading on ripr. In practice the deposit minimum decides your first top-up, and it depends on the payment method you pick, as set out in the minimum amount to deposit.

Can you withdraw all the SOL in your ripr wallet?

The help centre advises against moving out 100%, because you may need SOL for later confirmations or account actions, and a full-balance attempt can fail if the fee leaves too little behind. Withdraw most of it, keep a small reserve, then recheck what is left. The detail is in can I withdraw all my SOL balance.

Do you need SOL in your wallet to sell a coin?

Yes. A sell is a transaction like any other, so it needs SOL in your ripr wallet for the network's charge even though you are receiving SOL from the sale. This is the reason to keep a reserve rather than put every last bit of SOL into a position.

What should you do if a trade fails because your SOL ran low?

Top the balance up, then retry with a fresh quote rather than resubmitting the old one. Low SOL for fees is one of the first things ripr's help centre lists in why did my swap fail, alongside an invalid amount and fast price movement.

Before your next trade

The reserve question has a dull answer, which is the useful kind: hold roughly 0.02 SOL back on ripr, more if you collect new coins quickly, and remember that most of it is a refundable deposit rather than a fee. Top it up before you need it. Let full sells hand the deposits back. When you are ready to trade, how to buy a Solana meme coin on ripr and how to sell a Solana meme coin take the trade itself from start to finish.

Last verified 3 November 2026. This article is published by ripr, which builds an app for trading Solana coins. Nothing here is financial advice.