Maybe a swap failed and still cost you SOL, or you've added up what a year of trading spent on fees. Either way, you want to know if any of it comes back. The network fees don't. But when a transaction opened a new token account, it also set aside a deposit hundreds of times larger than the base fee, and that deposit can come back to you.
Can you claim Solana transaction fees back?
No. A network fee is spent once its transaction lands in a block: half the base fee is burned, and the validator keeps the rest. That holds even if the transaction failed. What you can claim back is the SOL deposit held by token accounts you no longer use.
Solana has no mechanism that returns a network fee. Each signature on a transaction costs a 5,000-lamport base fee (0.000005 SOL), a priority fee can be added on top, and the total leaves the fee payer's balance before the transaction runs. Our guide to Solana Transaction Fees: How Gas Works and What It Costs walks through how that total is worked out.
What comes back and what doesn't
| What you're looking at | Comes back? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Base and priority fees on a confirmed transaction | No | Half the base fee is burned; the block's validator gets the other half and the whole priority fee |
| The fee on a failed transaction | No | The fee is charged whether the transaction succeeds or fails |
| What a failed transaction tried to move | It never left | A failed transaction reverts all of its changes |
| A transaction that expired before reaching a block | Nothing was charged | It was never processed |
| Priority fee for compute you requested but didn't use | No | The priority fee is priced on the requested limit, not on actual use |
| The deposit in an empty token account | Yes | Closing the account sends its whole balance to your wallet |
| SOL above today's reserve in an older account | Yes, and the account stays open | Eligible surplus can be withdrawn without closing |
| Pump cashback on cashback-enabled coins | Yes, where it has accrued | Pump sends the coin's creator fee to traders instead of the creator |
Can you get the fee back on a failed transaction?
Solana takes the fee from the fee payer before any instruction runs, and keeps it whatever happens next. If an instruction then fails, the whole transaction is rolled back. That's worth knowing when a swap fails: you lost the fee, but the SOL or tokens the swap was trading never left your wallet.
Expiry works differently. If a transaction expires without landing in a block, Solana never processed it, so it was never charged, and you can safely sign a new one.
The SOL you can get back: account deposits
When a trade opens a token account for a coin you didn't hold before, the transaction often funds that account's deposit from your wallet. That's why buying a new token can cost noticeably more than the fee. The deposit isn't spent: it stays in the account as its rent-exempt reserve. Selling or sending the whole balance can leave the empty account open, still holding it, and closing the account pays the deposit out.
Airdropped tokens work the same way, except the sender usually funded the deposit. Once the account is yours, so is the deposit.
| Account | Opened under the original rent setting | Opened at the current rate |
|---|---|---|
| Standard SPL token account (165 bytes) | 0.00203928 SOL | 0.00148844 SOL |
| Token-2022 account (170 bytes) | 0.00207408 SOL | 0.00151384 SOL |
We checked the current rate on mainnet on October 7, 2026. Solana lowered rent in two steps in September 2026, so accounts opened between the cuts hold an amount in between. All amounts are before fees.
Surplus in accounts you want to keep
Solana's rent cuts on September 3 and September 11, 2026 left older accounts holding more than they now need. A standard token account opened before the cuts holds 0.00203928 SOL against today's 0.00148844 SOL reserve, so 0.00055084 SOL of it is surplus, before fees.
You don't have to close the account to get that back. In Fun Mode we withdraw eligible surplus while the account stays open and its tokens stay put. How to Reclaim Excess SOL Without Closing Token Accounts explains which accounts qualify.
Cashback: a real refund, paid by the app
An app can choose to pay part of its own fees back, and Pump.fun's cashback does exactly that. On coins created with cashback turned on, the coin's creator fee goes to traders as cashback on their trading volume instead of to the creator. Pump's documentation says no new cashback coins can be created, but existing ones keep accruing and their balances stay claimable.
That's Pump's trading fee coming back; the Solana network fee on each trade isn't part of it. Our scan looks for supported Pump cashback alongside your deposits, and our Pump.fun cashback guide covers the details.
Can a website refund your gas fees?
No website can pull a spent network fee back from the network: the burned half no longer exists, and the rest was paid to a validator. A rent-recovery tool only returns deposits from accounts your wallet owns, and nothing moves until you approve it in your wallet. Read what each request will do before you approve: a wallet drainer needs only one approval to move your assets. Never type your recovery phrase or private key into any website. If you already have, follow Connected Phantom to a Scam Site? What to Do Now.
Get your deposits back with Sol Incinerator
- Open Sol Incinerator and connect your wallet. The scan is read-only, so you don't sign anything to see what's there.
- Stay in Fun Mode, the default. It closes empty token accounts, withdraws eligible surplus and claims supported rewards, and it can't burn anything.
- Check the preview and approve in your wallet. Larger selections can take more than one approval.
For deposits and surplus, our 2% base fee means you keep most of what you recover. Closing a token account also carries a minimum fee, set higher for Token-2022, which raises the effective rate on newer accounts and Token-2022 accounts. Cashback claims have their own, separate fee. Before you approve, the preview lists what's expected to land in your wallet once our fees and the network fee are paid.
Wallet too empty to pay the network fee? Gasless Pay is automatic! If your cleanup qualifies, we pay the upfront network fee for you and take the Gasless Pay charge from the SOL it recovers.
Sol Incinerator
Scan your wallet for deposits in old token accounts and claim that SOL back.