Solana network fees explained: how much does it cost to trade on Solana?

A trade on Solana costs you two charges and one deposit. The chain takes a network fee for recording your transaction, the app you trade through takes a fee on the trade itself, and your first buy of a coin sets aside a small deposit that is refundable rather than spent. On ripr, the network fee is a fraction of a cent in SOL, and the app's side is a 1% swap fee charged on buys and sells.

So how much does it cost to trade on Solana? The chain's part is tiny and does not grow with the size of your trade, so the number worth doing the maths on is the percentage. Here is what each charge pays for, and where the app shows them before you confirm.

How much does it cost to trade on Solana?

Trading on Solana costs a network fee in SOL for every transaction you send, plus whatever the app you are trading through charges on the trade itself. On ripr, a single buy involves three lines:

1. The Solana network fee. You pay it in SOL, and it is charged per transaction rather than as a share of the money you are moving. At the base rate ripr sends trades with, it works out at a fraction of a cent.
2. The swap fee. Trading on ripr uses a total 1% swap fee on both Buy and Sell transactions, and it comes out of the amount you enter. The help centre sets out what fees are charged during trading, including how that 1% splits between the platform and the coin's creator.
3. A refundable account deposit. Your first buy of a particular coin opens a token account on Solana to hold it, carrying a refundable deposit of about 0.0015 SOL. You meet it once per coin, not once per trade.

A brand-new coin starts out on a bonding curve, which is the starting market it trades on before it graduates to an open market pool. Buying or selling a graduated coin through ripr works out at about 1.25% in total, because the pool charges its own fee as well.

What a Solana network fee actually pays for

A Solana network fee is what you pay the network to include your transaction in its record, covering the work of checking it, ordering it and storing it across a global network of independent computers.

You pay it in SOL, whichever coin you are buying. Trading and market data on ripr both run on Solana, so SOL is what pays for every transaction you send, even when the coin you want is one you have never held.

The useful part of Solana's model is that the fee follows the transaction, not the money. ripr sends trades at Solana's base network fee and keeps a ceiling on what any one trade's network fee can be, so the chain's side of your bill is a known, tiny amount rather than a surprise. Solana's own documentation sets out how transaction fees work on Solana.

What makes the cost of a trade go up

Two things you control move your costs on Solana: how many transactions you send, and how big each trade is. Both are easy to lose track of in a fast market.

Every buy and every sell is a separate transaction with its own network fee, and the 1% applies to each one too. A round trip is two of them.

ripr's own market data shows how that adds up for an active trader: on one busy coin, roughly 56,000 buys and sells went through in a day from about 2,800 different wallets, which is around twenty trades each.

Size works the other way round. Solana's network fee treats a small buy and a large one the same way, because recording them is the same piece of work. The 1% is a share of the amount you enter, so it scales.

Where ripr shows a trade's cost before you confirm

On iOS and Android, ripr's trade sheet lists the network fee, the app's own fee line where one applies, and the refundable account deposit before you confirm. Give that part of the sheet a read on your first buy. For a bigger trade, the help centre's own advice is to work out your expected return after the swap fee and the network fee before you place it.

One cost on a trade is not a fee at all. Slippage is the price movement you are willing to accept between the quote you see and the moment your trade executes. A wide setting in a fast market can change what you end up holding. ripr's Auto slippage sets your limit from how much the coin moved in the last five minutes, between 3% and 15%, and you can set it yourself instead. The help centre explains what slippage is and how to set it.

There is also a check you do not have to run. Before your wallet signs, the app compares 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, not about whether the coin is worth buying — that part stays your call.

Keeping enough SOL in your ripr wallet for fees

Fees on Solana are paid in SOL, so the wallet ripr creates for your account needs a little spare whatever you are trading. Push every last bit of SOL into a coin and there is nothing left to pay a network fee with; low SOL for fees is one of the common reasons a swap does not go through. The help centre lists it next to an invalid amount, fast price movement and temporary network load in why did my swap fail.

The habit that avoids it is simple. Top your SOL up before you trade, not after a failed attempt. 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; available methods vary by region.

To move SOL in from a wallet you already have, open Profile and tap Receive for your address. The help centre's guide to depositing SOL into your app wallet covers both routes.

Some of what you pay comes back, too. ripr can close your empty token accounts and return their deposits in SOL, and a full sell can close that coin's account automatically.

Two habits matter more than the fees. Start with an amount you would be relaxed about losing. And to be sure you are on the coin you meant rather than a copycat with the same ticker, paste its full contract address into ripr's search, which takes a name, a ticker or the whole address.

Frequently asked questions

Do you pay Solana fees in SOL or in the coin you are buying?

You pay Solana network fees in SOL, whichever coin the trade is for. The swap fee works differently: on ripr it is a share of the amount you enter, so it comes out of the trade itself. That is why your wallet needs a little SOL spare even when you are buying something else.

Why is the Solana network fee the same for a small trade and a large one?

Solana charges for recording the transaction, not for the value inside it, and recording a small buy is the same piece of work as recording a large one. The percentage side behaves differently. Trading on ripr uses a total 1% swap fee on both Buy and Sell transactions, and that figure scales with the amount you enter.

What is the refundable deposit on your first buy of a coin?

Your first buy of a particular coin on Solana opens a token account to hold it, and that account carries a refundable deposit of about 0.0015 SOL. It is not a fee. ripr can close empty token accounts and return their deposits in SOL, and a full sell can close that coin's account for you.

How do you add SOL to cover fees on ripr?

You can add money to ripr by card or Apple Pay, and in India by UPI or bank transfer, through payment providers that set their own costs and show them at checkout. Available methods vary by region. You can also send SOL to the Receive address of the wallet the app creates for your account when you sign up.

Before your next trade on Solana

The chain's share of what you pay is small and flat, so the parts worth planning around are the percentage and how often you pay it. Read the fee lines on the sheet once, keep a little SOL spare, and remember that a first buy of a coin sets aside a deposit you get back later.

From there, ripr's Explore screen lists trending, newly launched and upcoming coins. The step-by-step guides to how to buy a Solana meme coin and how to sell a Solana meme coin take the trade itself from start to finish.

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