# Solana transaction confirmation time: how long do trades take on ripr?

> A Solana transaction is normally confirmed a second or two after you send it, and final about 13 seconds after its block. Here is that clock on ripr.

- URL: https://ripr.trade/blog/solana-transaction-confirmation-time
- Publisher: ripr (https://ripr.trade)
- Author: ripr Editorial Team
- Published: 2026-11-14
- Category: Guides

How long do Solana transactions take? A Solana transaction is normally confirmed a second or two after it is sent, and final about thirteen seconds after its block, because the network aims to produce a new block roughly every 400 milliseconds.

A trade you send on ripr is an ordinary Solana transaction, so it runs on that same clock — and ripr keeps your signed trade in flight for up to about a minute while it follows what the network does with it. Here is where that time actually goes, and what is worth watching while it runs.

## How long a Solana transaction takes, stage by stage

A Solana transaction passes three markers on the way to being final, and the honest answer to "how long does it take" depends on which marker you mean. Your transaction lands in a block, and everything after that is the network agreeing on it.

| Stage | Roughly how long |
| --- | --- |
| Solana produces a new block | about every 400 milliseconds |
| Your transaction is confirmed — a supermajority of the network has voted on its block | a second or two after you send it |
| Your fill appears in ripr's trade list and on the chart | as each fill is decoded |
| The block is finalized and will not be reorganised | roughly 13 seconds after the block |
| ripr stops following a trade that has not confirmed | up to about a minute |

*Table 1. Roughly how long each stage of a Solana trade takes*

Three of those rows belong to the network and two to the app. People quote very different numbers for Solana's speed because they are quoting different rows. None of them is wrong.

## What "confirmed" and "finalized" mean on Solana

Confirmed and finalized are two different promises about the same Solana transaction, and processed is the marker before both. Processed means a validator has included your transaction in a block it just produced. Confirmed means a supermajority of the network's stake has voted on that block, which normally happens a second or two after you send it.

Finalized means enough blocks have been built on top — 31 more — that the block will not be reorganised, which lands roughly thirteen seconds after the block itself. Most trading never waits that long.

Confirmed is the marker ripr waits for. After you send a trade, the app follows its status over a live connection until the transaction either confirms or provably expires. Solana's [RPC documentation](https://solana.com/docs/rpc) defines all three markers as commitment levels, and block explorers let you choose which one you are looking at.

## What ripr does in the minute after you tap buy

In the minute after you tap buy, ripr does four things with your trade, and none of them need you. The execution service prepares the transaction next to ripr's in-house Solana node, so your app receives a ready, simulated transaction in a single request instead of making a pile of network reads itself. Before your wallet signs, the app checks that prepared transaction on your device against the amount, slippage and fee limits you set, and refuses it if anything differs. Then your own wallet signs it: the execution service prepares the trade but does not sign it.

The fourth thing is the waiting. ripr holds your signed trade in flight for up to about a minute and follows its status until it confirms or provably expires. It is one signature for that whole window, so the trade can fill once and only once — tapping buy again does not hurry the first attempt, it starts a second trade. Behind all of that, ripr's own node has a commercial provider as automatic backup for standard requests when the node is slow or down.

Why a minute, and not longer? A signed Solana transaction points at a recent block, and the network stops accepting it once that reference is too old.

One thing can interrupt the clock before it even starts: if the price moves between your quote and your signature, the app asks you to accept the new price rather than sending the old one. Auto slippage sets your ceiling from how much the coin moved over the last five minutes, between 3% and 15%, and the help centre covers [what slippage is and how to set it](https://ripr.trade/support/what-is-slippage-and-how-should-i-set-it).

If that minute passes with nothing confirmed, the trade has expired rather than joined a queue, so re-quote before you send again. The help centre lists the usual reasons a trade does not go through in [why did my swap fail](https://ripr.trade/support/why-did-my-swap-fail).

## How quickly a confirmed trade shows up in ripr

A confirmed trade shows up on the coin's page in ripr as each fill is decoded. Prices, charts and trade lists update over a persistent streaming connection rather than waiting for you to pull down and refresh, and the figures behind them are decoded from Solana transactions by ripr's own in-house data and execution layer rather than bought from an aggregator. You can see that resolution on the chart: web charts go down to one-second candles, and the iOS and Android apps have a live tick view, each covering the most recent few minutes.

It helps to see the pace as a number. One busy coin had taken nearly 22,000 buys and sells from more than 5,000 different wallets in its first twenty-one hours of trading — roughly one confirmed trade every three or four seconds, each with its own trip through the stages above. Your transaction joins that stream, and the recent-trades list on the coin page is where you watch it arrive. Explore lists trending and newly launched coins if you want to pick one with a trade list busy enough to watch.

## How to check whether your Solana transaction confirmed

You can check whether your Solana transaction confirmed in three places, in rising order of effort. Start with the coin page in ripr, where your fill appears in the recent-trades list and, on iOS and Android, the chart marks your own trades and draws your entry line. Then check your position: the iOS and Android apps show your realised and open profit and loss over the last 7 or 30 days, computed from your indexed trades, and your profile shows real on-chain holdings and activity.

If you want the chain's own record, every ripr account is a Solana wallet, so your address and its transactions read back on [Solana's block explorer](https://explorer.solana.com/) at whichever commitment level you pick. The fill in the trade list is the first place it shows. Balances follow once the transaction has confirmed and on the app's refresh cycles, and the help-centre page on [why a balance updates after confirmation](https://ripr.trade/support/why-does-my-balance-not-update-instantly) suggests pulling to refresh.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can a Solana transaction take hours to confirm?

No. A signed Solana transaction points at a recent block and stops being valid once the network has moved past it, which takes about a minute, so it cannot sit for hours. If a trade has not confirmed inside that window it has expired rather than queued, and the next step on ripr is to re-quote and send again.

### Why is my SOL deposit still pending?

A SOL deposit that still reads as pending on ripr usually means the transfer has not been confirmed on the network yet, or the platform you sent it from is still processing it. The help-centre page on [a deposit that is still pending](https://ripr.trade/support/why-is-my-deposit-still-pending) suggests checking the status at the sender's end, confirming you used the Solana network, waiting a few minutes and refreshing the app — rather than sending a second transfer.

### Does a sell take longer to confirm than a buy?

No. A sell on ripr is a Solana transaction like a buy: it is prepared on the server, checked on your device, signed by your own wallet, and then followed until it confirms or expires, on the same network clock. The guide to [selling a Solana meme coin on ripr](https://ripr.trade/blog/how-to-sell-a-solana-meme-coin) walks through the sell sheet itself.

### What is a block explorer, and do I need one?

A block explorer is a website that shows Solana's own record of a transaction, including which block carried it and how far past confirmation it is. You do not need one for normal trading, because ripr shows your fills on the coin page and your holdings on your profile, but it is the independent second opinion when you want one.

## What the clock means for your next ripr trade

The clock on your next ripr trade is short, and most of it is not yours to manage: a block about every 400 milliseconds, a confirmation a second or two in, finality roughly thirteen seconds after the block. The minute the app spends following a trade is the outer edge, not the normal case.

What is worth doing is small. Send once, read the accept-the-new-price prompt when it appears, and keep a little SOL spare for the network fee and for the refundable deposit your first buy of a coin opens. On iOS and Android, the trade sheet lists the network fee, any router fee and that refundable deposit before you confirm.

None of this says anything about whether a coin is worth buying — a transaction that confirms quickly can still be a poor trade, so [how to spot a risky meme coin](https://ripr.trade/blog/how-to-spot-a-risky-meme-coin) is the check that matters more. If the buy sheet itself is new to you, start with [how to buy a Solana meme coin on ripr](https://ripr.trade/blog/how-to-buy-a-solana-meme-coin). Then open a coin in ripr and watch its trade list for a minute: the pace you see there is the clock your own trade runs on.

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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.*