How much of a swap quote actually reaches your wallet after all deductions

05 September 2026

The amount that reaches your wallet is the quoted output minus the spread, minus the network fee, and minus any platform fee the exchanger applies. In typical trades, you receive between 95% and 99% of the quoted amount, but that range narrows or widens depending on the size of the trade and the liquidity of the pair.

The quoted figure you see before you confirm a swap is not a guarantee. It is a snapshot at a specific moment. Several things happen between that snapshot and the final transfer to your wallet.

Spread is the first deduction. The exchanger's pricing engine takes the mid-market rate (the average of buy and sell prices across the venues it routes through) and adds a margin. That margin is how the exchanger makes money. For liquid pairs like ETH/USDC, the spread is usually tight - often below 0.5%. For obscure tokens traded in thin pools, the spread can exceed 3%. You never see the mid-market rate; the quote already includes the spread.

Network fees are the second deduction. Every swap that settles on a blockchain requires gas. The quoted amount normally assumes a standard gas price. If the network is congested when your transaction lands, the actual gas fee can be higher than what was estimated at quote time. The exchanger does not control this. It passes the cost through. On Ethereum mainnet during peak hours, a single swap can cost $10 - $50 in gas. On a low-fee chain like Polygon or Arbitrum, the same trade costs a few cents. The quote does not always show the network fee separately; many interfaces bundle it into a "total fee" line or hide it in the final output number.

Platform fee is the third deduction. The exchanger charges a small percentage (often 0.3% to 0.5%) on each swap. This fee funds the service, covers the routing infrastructure, and pays for the liquidity aggregators it uses. Unlike spread, this fee is usually stated explicitly in a breakdown before you confirm.

There is also a fourth, less visible cost: slippage. If your trade is large relative to the pool's depth, the price moves while the transaction is pending. The quoted output assumes the price holds. It often does not. Slippage protection limits how much worse the rate can become, but that limit is set by you. A tight slippage tolerance (0.5%) may cause the transaction to fail if the market moves against it. A wide tolerance (5%) means you accept a worse rate. Either way, the final amount can differ from the quote.

So the simple answer: you get the quoted output minus spread, minus network fee, minus platform fee, minus any slippage that occurs during execution. For a typical trade on a liquid pair during calm market conditions, you might lose 1 - 2% total. For an illiquid token during volatile conditions, the loss can reach 5% or more.

If you want to see the full picture of where each piece of your money goes, the hub page titled "What a crypto swap actually costs" breaks down every component - spread, fees, slippage, and hidden costs - in plain numbers.

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