7 min read · Nov 9, 2023
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Worried about loosing the fees you paid for that failed transaction? Fear not; your fees aren’t lost. Let’s take a look at what happens to the fees when a bitcoin transaction fails.
Bitcoin transactions involve sending bitcoin from one wallet address to another. Let’s see how transaction fees work.
When you make a bitcoin transaction, you can choose to pay a transaction fee to the bitcoin miners. This fee serves as an incentive for miners to process your transaction. The higher the fee you include, the faster your transaction will get picked up.
Bitcoin fees are calculated based on the size of your transaction data in kilobytes (KB) as well as market demand for block space at the time. Fees are entirely optional on the bitcoin network. However, including a fee incentivizes miners to confirm your transaction faster.
Here are some key points about bitcoin transaction fees:
- Fees are paid to bitcoin miners, not the bitcoin network itself.
- Fees help prioritize transactions when there’s a lot of traffic on the network.
- The median bitcoin transaction fee is around $2-$3 currently.
- Fees have varied widely over bitcoin’s history, from under $0.10 to over $50 per transaction.
A bitcoin transaction can fail or get “stuck” for a variety of reasons:
- Insufficient fees — If the fee you include is too low, miners may ignore your transaction and it won’t confirm.
- Double spend — If you try to send the same bitcoin to two different wallets simultaneously, this double spend will cause one transaction to get rejected.
- Technical errors — Bugs in your wallet software or errors in the transaction details can cause technical problems that prevent confirmation.
- Block size limits — Bitcoin’s block size limits how much transaction data can be included in each block. During times of heavy use, your transaction may get left out if blocks are full.
When a bitcoin transaction fails, it is not included in a block on the blockchain. Instead, it remains unconfirmed in the mempool, which is like a waiting room for pending transactions.
What happens to the fees?
Importantly, just because a bitcoin transaction fails initially does not mean the fees are lost forever. There are two possibilities:
- The transaction will eventually confirm, and the fees will go to the miner that confirms it.
- The transaction will never confirm, and the fees will eventually get returned to the sender’s wallet.
But this does not happen instantly. Failed transactions can remain in limbo for several days before the fees are returned.
Let’s look at these two scenarios in more detail:
If your transaction fails due to an insufficient fee, it still has a chance of confirming if you wait long enough. Miners may pick it up eventually if block congestion reduces and space becomes available.
In this case, the fees will simply go to whichever miner ends up including your transaction in a block and confirming it. The fees essentially go “on hold” until the transaction processes.
For example, if you paid a fee of $2 for a transaction that initially failed to confirm, those fees will still go to the eventual miner that confirms your transaction, even if it takes a few days.
What if your bitcoin transaction with a fee never confirms at all? Perhaps there was a technical error, or insufficient miners’ fees to ever confirm it.
Bitcoin transactions that fail to confirm will eventually get purged entirely from the mempool.
When this happens, the fees for that transaction will get credited back to the original sender’s wallet.
So you won’t totally lose the fees forever if your transaction never processes. The fees get returned to your balance after an unsuccessful transaction is abandoned.
Depending on network conditions, this can take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. The fees are not lost — they are eventually sent back to the sender if the transaction fails to go through.
To summarize, here are some tips to avoid failed bitcoin transactions with lost fees:
- Pay sufficient miner fees — Check fee estimators to ensure your fee is high enough for timely confirmation. Paying insufficient fees is a primary cause of stuck transactions.
- Double check transaction details — Make sure you copied the right wallet address, amount, and other details before sending. Human error can result in failed transfers.
- Use optimal transaction size — Keep the data size small by avoiding unnecessary inputs and outputs to minimize fees.
- Be patient — Give your transaction some time to process before assuming it failed. Fees will ultimately be returned if it never confirms.
While failed bitcoin transactions can be annoying, your fees won’t disappear forever. With proper precautions, you can minimize errors and ensure your transfers process smoothly.
So the fees basically go “on hold” until the transaction either confirms later or gets returned to the sender if it never confirms. Pretty simple, right?
But I know there are still probably some common questions bouncing around in your head about what happens when crypto transactions don’t go through. Let’s tackle some of those queries:
Don’t panic. I know it’s annoying when your bitcoin transfer gets stuck in limbo. But give it some time before taking action.
Many stuck transactions end up confirming within a few days without you having to do anything. Bitcoin miners just need some time to pick it up.
If it’s been over a week, you can try resending the transaction with a higher fee. This might “unstick” it by giving miners more incentive. But don’t double spend by sending those same coins somewhere else at the same time!
It typically takes 1–2 weeks for a stuck bitcoin transaction to get purged from the mempool entirely. Once it drops out, the fees associated with it will get returned to the original sender’s wallet.
Of course, this timeframe varies depending on the fee amount and overall bitcoin network activity. With a high enough fee, a stuck transaction shouldn’t really go unconfirmed for that long anyway.
Nope — there’s no way to speed up the return of fees from a failed bitcoin transfer. You just have to wait it out.
Think of it like ordering food at a restaurant, but then deciding you don’t want it when it comes out. You can’t demand your money back instantly — you’ll get the refund back in due time after the order is cancelled.
The blockchain doesn’t have a “return fees now” button. The best solution is just being patient until the fees get credited back automatically.
Hope this clears up some common questions and misconceptions about stuck bitcoin transactions! The key is being patient, not panicking, and avoiding double spends. The fees will revert back to you eventually if the transfer fails.
So in most cases, you shouldn’t stress too much if a bitcoin transfer gets stuck for a bit. The fees aren’t vanishing into thin air. You’ll get them back eventually.
But there are a few scenarios where you should start worrying about unconfirmed transaction fees:
If the Fees Are Extremely High
Let’s say you paid a $500 fee on a transaction that ended up failing. That would really hurt! Waiting weeks to get that big fee returned to your wallet means losing access to a lot of capital.
In cases where the stuck fees represent significant money, it’s normal to feel anxious and want to “do something” to recover your funds faster. But sadly the waiting game is inevitable.
If You Have Other Time-Sensitive Payments
Maybe the stuck transaction itself wasn’t that expensive, but you urgently need to make another payment for something important.
Not having access to those coins and fees for days or weeks could cause problems in time-sensitive situations where you need to send more transactions right away.
If the Stuck Transaction Was Important
Sure, no big deal if a random $10 transaction gets stuck. But what if the failed transfer was for something extremely important that now can’t be completed?
Like you needed to wire money to your business partner to fund a big project investment by a certain date. A stuck transaction here could be devastating.
When You Need the Money Right Now
This should be obvious. If the bitcoin from a stuck transaction was meant to pay your rent or some other urgent expense coming due, failure can put you in a tight spot.
Even though the fees and coins aren’t permanently gone, you need access to those funds ASAP! Having them hang in limbo is not ideal.
To avoid such tight situations, it’s always better to make sure that such failures do not occur due to any errors from your side.
Failed bitcoin transactions require patience. But they are worrying when fees are big, you have urgent payments, or the transfer was time sensitive. Prior proper planning prevents poor performance!
Hopefully this article has helped explain what happens when crypto transactions go wrong. Now you know not to panic if a transfer gets stuck for awhile. The fees will revert back — you just have to wait it out!
