Fees & Limits

Fee Structure

Swaptain aims to be transparent about costs. Every swap quote shows a single "Fees" line that includes all charges — what you see is what you pay.

Platform Fee

Swaptain charges a 1% platform fee on each swap. This fee is split as follows:

| Recipient | Share | Notes | |-----------|-------|-------| | Swaptain | 0.8% | Funds development and operations | | SwapKit | 0.2% | Infrastructure and routing provider |

If you were referred by a partner, 0.3% of the 0.8% Swaptain share goes to your referrer — at no extra cost to you.

The platform fee is already included in the quote you see. The output amount shown is the amount you'll receive after all fees.

Network Fees (Gas)

Every blockchain transaction requires a network fee (gas) paid to the chain's validators. These fees vary by chain and network conditions:

| Chain | Typical Gas Fee | Notes | |-------|----------------|-------| | Bitcoin | ~0.0001 BTC | Varies with mempool congestion | | Ethereum | Variable | Depends on gas price (can spike during high demand) | | BNB Chain | ~0.0005 BNB | Generally very low | | Avalanche | ~0.01 AVAX | Low and consistent | | Polygon | ~0.01 MATIC | Very low fees | | Arbitrum | Variable | Lower than Ethereum mainnet | | Base | Variable | Lower than Ethereum mainnet | | Litecoin | ~0.001 LTC | Consistently low | | Cosmos | ~0.01 ATOM | Low fees |

Cross-chain swaps involve gas fees on both the source and destination chains. These are included in the quote shown to you.

Liquidity Fee (Slip)

THORChain uses a slip-based fee model. The liquidity fee depends on your swap size relative to the pool's depth:

Small swaps relative to pool depth → very low liquidity fees
Large swaps relative to pool depth → higher liquidity fees

This mechanism protects liquidity providers and ensures the protocol remains sustainable. For most retail-sized swaps, the liquidity fee is minimal.

To reduce liquidity fees on large trades, use Best Price mode in your settings. This enables streaming swaps, which break your trade into smaller pieces for better execution.

Deposits & Withdrawals

| Action | Platform Fee | Network Fee | |--------|-------------|-------------| | Deposit | Free | Standard gas fee on the sending chain | | Withdrawal | Free | Standard gas fee on the destination chain |

Swaptain does not charge any platform fee for deposits or withdrawals. You only pay the standard blockchain gas fee.

Transaction Limits

Minimum Swap

Each chain has a minimum swap amount, determined by THORChain based on current network fees. The minimum exists because very small swaps would have most of the output consumed by gas fees.

Swaptain will inform you if your amount is below the minimum and suggest the minimum required.

Maximum Swap

There is no hard maximum. However, very large swaps will experience higher slippage due to the CLP fee model. For large trades:

Use Best Price mode — streaming swaps significantly reduce price impact
Consider splitting into multiple smaller swaps if the quoted slippage is too high

Viewing Fees

Every swap quote in Swaptain includes the total fee amount. You'll see:

Expected output amount (after all fees)
Total fees in a single line
Estimated completion time
Minimum received (accounting for your slippage tolerance)

If you're comparing rates with other platforms, remember that Swaptain's quoted output already includes all fees. Some platforms show pre-fee amounts, which can be misleading.