> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cove.trade/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fees & Gas Sponsorship

> How Cove fees, minimums, and gas sponsorship work across every supported chain

Cove handles cross-chain execution behind the scenes so you can focus on trading. Every chain has different gas costs, so Cove uses a transparent fee model designed to keep small trades possible, protect against failed transactions, and make cross-chain trading feel seamless.

<Info>This page reflects the current fee structure. Cove is working on a simpler experience with tiers and cashback for active users.</Info>

***

## At a glance

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Platform Fee" icon="percent">
    **1%** on most chains
    <br />**1–2%** on Ethereum (tiered by order size)
  </Card>

  <Card title="Gas Sponsorship" icon="gas-pump">
    Up to **5 USD** in gas sponsored per trade — no need to hold native gas tokens
  </Card>

  <Card title="Minimum Trade" icon="arrow-down-1-9">
    From **1 USD** for buys
    <br />From **0.50 USD** for sells
    <br />From **2.50 USD** for Solana sells
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

## Buy fees

Cove charges a **percentage fee** above the threshold and a **flat minimum** below it.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Standard Chains">
    Applies to **Solana, Base, BNB, Tempo, MegaETH**, and most other supported networks.

    | Buy size      |            Fee applied |
    | ------------- | ---------------------: |
    | Below \$95    | **\$0.95** minimum fee |
    | \$95 or above |   **1%** of trade size |

    <Accordion title="See examples">
      | Buy size | You pay |
      | -------: | ------: |
      |     \$10 |  \$0.95 |
      |     \$50 |  \$0.95 |
      |     \$95 |  \$0.95 |
      |    \$100 |  \$1.00 |
      |  \$1,000 | \$10.00 |
    </Accordion>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Ethereum (Tiered)">
    Ethereum uses a **tiered fee model** based on order size, designed to match mainnet gas costs and optimized from real trading bot order-size data.

    | Buy size          | Fee rate |
    | ----------------- | -------: |
    | Under \$500       | **2.0%** |
    | \$500 – \$2,500   | **1.5%** |
    | \$2,500 and above | **1.0%** |

    <Note>Larger orders benefit from lower percentage fees. The tier is determined by the total order size — there is no split billing across tiers.</Note>

    <Accordion title="See examples">
      | ETH buy size | Fee rate | You pay |
      | -----------: | -------: | ------: |
      |        \$100 |     2.0% |  \$2.00 |
      |        \$400 |     2.0% |  \$8.00 |
      |        \$500 |     1.5% |  \$7.50 |
      |      \$1,000 |     1.5% | \$15.00 |
      |      \$2,500 |     1.0% | \$25.00 |
      |      \$5,000 |     1.0% | \$50.00 |
    </Accordion>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

***

## Sell fees

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Standard Chains">
    For most chains, Cove charges a **flat 1%** on sells.

    | Chain                                 | Sell fee |
    | ------------------------------------- | -------: |
    | Base, BNB, Tempo, MegaETH, and others |   **1%** |
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Ethereum (Tiered)">
    Ethereum sells use a **tiered model** that matches gas fees on mainnet.

    | Sell size         | Fee rate |
    | ----------------- | -------: |
    | Under \$2,500     | **1.5%** |
    | \$2,500 and above | **1.0%** |

    <Accordion title="See examples">
      | ETH sell size | Fee rate | You pay |
      | ------------: | -------: | ------: |
      |         \$100 |     1.5% |  \$1.50 |
      |         \$500 |     1.5% |  \$7.50 |
      |       \$1,000 |     1.5% | \$15.00 |
      |       \$2,500 |     1.0% | \$25.00 |
      |       \$5,000 |     1.0% | \$50.00 |
    </Accordion>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Solana (Tiered)">
    Solana sells use a **tiered model** so the minimum dollar fee stays around **\$0.25**, even on tiny positions.

    | Solana sell size | Fee rate |
    | ---------------: | -------: |
    |     \$2.50 – \$5 |      10% |
    |       \$5 – \$10 |       5% |
    |      \$10 – \$25 |     2.5% |
    |            \$25+ |       1% |

    <Accordion title="See examples">
      | Sell size | You pay |
      | --------: | ------: |
      |    \$2.50 |  \$0.25 |
      |       \$5 |  \$0.25 |
      |      \$10 |  \$0.25 |
      |      \$25 |  \$0.25 |
      |     \$100 |  \$1.00 |
    </Accordion>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

***

## DEX & aggregator fees

Cove's platform fee is **separate** from the fees charged by the underlying decentralized exchanges and aggregators that execute your swap.

Most trades are routed through multiple legs:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Your stablecoin enters the DEX">
    **USDC** is swapped for the chain's native wrapped token (e.g. WETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana) via a liquidity pool.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Native token swaps into your target">
    The native token is then swapped for the **target token** you're buying — again through a pool.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sells work in reverse">
    When you sell, the route flips: **token → native (WETH/SOL) → USDC**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Each leg of the swap pays a small **AMM pool fee** (typically 0.01%–1%) charged by the venue — Uniswap V2/V3/V4, DFlow, Jupiter, and others. These fees are **baked into the output amount** you receive and are paid directly to liquidity providers, **not** to Cove.

<Info>
  **TL;DR** — Cove's percentage fee (shown on this page) is the only fee Cove collects. Any additional price impact you see comes from the DEX pools themselves and goes to liquidity providers who make your trade possible.
</Info>

***

## Minimum order sizes

Minimums prevent spam, failed transactions, and trades that would cost more to execute than the trade itself.

| Trade type   | Minimum size |
| ------------ | -----------: |
| Buys         |      **\$1** |
| Sells        |   **\$0.50** |
| Solana sells |   **\$2.50** |

<Tip>Solana sells have a higher minimum because the tiered fee floor is designed to keep fees at roughly \$0.25.</Tip>

***

## Gas sponsorship

Cove sponsors gas so you never need to manually manage native gas tokens on each chain.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Buys" icon="cart-shopping">
    Up to **5 USD** sponsored per trade
  </Card>

  <Card title="Sells" icon="money-bill-transfer">
    Up to **5 USD** sponsored per trade
  </Card>

  <Card title="Withdrawals" icon="arrow-right-from-bracket">
    Up to **5 USD** sponsored per action
  </Card>

  <Card title="Transfers" icon="arrow-right-arrow-left">
    Up to **5 USD** sponsored per action
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

For **buys**, the platform fee helps offset the sponsored gas cost.

For **sells, withdrawals, and transfers**, gas can be harder to offset. If the estimated gas exceeds the \$5 cap, Cove asks you to approve a **gas surplus** before the transaction is submitted.

***

## EVM deposit bridge fee

When you deposit through an **EVM network**, Cove routes the funds into your unified balance. If that route requires bridging from EVM to Solana, a small bridge fee is deducted from the deposit to cover the underlying infrastructure cost.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="When it applies" icon="arrow-down-to-bracket">
    **Inbound EVM deposits** that must be bridged into Cove's unified balance
  </Card>

  <Card title="What it covers" icon="bridge">
    **Bridging infrastructure costs**, including the destination account creation cost
  </Card>

  <Card title="Typical amount" icon="coins">
    Around **\$0.19** per deposit; the exact cost can vary with the route and provider
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

This is a **pass-through infrastructure cost**, not an additional Cove trading fee. The amount credited to your Cove balance is the deposit amount after the bridging cost has been deducted.

<Accordion title="Example: a $100 EVM deposit">
  | Calculation          |      Amount |
  | -------------------- | ----------: |
  | Amount sent          |    \$100.00 |
  | Example bridging fee |     −\$0.19 |
  | **Amount credited**  | **\$99.81** |

  This example uses the typical fee. The actual amount may vary slightly depending on the route and current provider cost.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Why isn't this fee sponsored?">
  Cove subsidizes outbound traffic, but not inbound EVM-to-Solana deposits. Each inbound route can create a real account and bridging cost of roughly \$0.20.

  If Cove covered that cost for every deposit, automated accounts could repeatedly trigger new deposit routes and shift all of those costs to Cove. Passing through the small provider fee prevents this type of abuse while keeping deposits reliable.
</Accordion>

***

## Solana rent deposit

When you send a token to a wallet that **doesn't already hold that token**, Solana requires a one-time **rent deposit** (\~\$0.36 in SOL) to open the recipient's token account on-chain.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="When it applies" icon="circle-check">
    Only if the **recipient's token account is new** — existing accounts cost nothing extra
  </Card>

  <Card title="Which actions" icon="arrow-right-from-bracket">
    **Withdrawals** and **transfers** out of Cove
  </Card>

  <Card title="Deposits" icon="arrow-down-to-bracket">
    When you send tokens **in** to Cove, you pay the rent deposit yourself through your own wallet
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

Cove fronts the rent deposit on-chain and recoups it as part of the withdrawal or transfer fee.

<Accordion title="Why is this charged?">
  Solana's rent mechanism reserves a small SOL balance to keep a token account alive. Without recouping this cost, an attacker could repeatedly open and close token accounts to drain sponsored funds — effectively harvesting the rent deposit each time.

  By passing the cost through to the user, Cove keeps gas sponsorship sustainable and prevents abuse.
</Accordion>

<Tip>This is a **one-time cost per token per recipient**. Once the account exists, future transfers of the same token to the same wallet won't incur a rent deposit.</Tip>

***

## Gas surplus

A gas surplus is an extra amount you approve when network costs exceed Cove's sponsorship limit.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Cove estimates gas">
    Before submitting your transaction, Cove checks the current network gas price.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Surplus required?">
    If gas exceeds the \$5 sponsorship cap, Cove shows the extra cost — for example, a Telegram inline prompt like **"Pay \$X"**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="You approve or skip">
    If you approve, the trade is submitted. If you decline, the trade is rejected **before** it hits the chain — you pay nothing.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>If you have already set a `gasSurplusBudgetUsd`, trades within that budget are approved automatically without an extra prompt.</Warning>

You can configure this in **Settings → Gas Surplus Budget**. Choose a preset or set a custom per-trade limit.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/cove-8695a88b/KNYHG28FwcllEBDh/assets/gas-surplus-budget.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=KNYHG28FwcllEBDh&q=85&s=cc7c128a69792807a1ff540bea1cea43" alt="Gas Surplus Budget settings in Cove" width="594" height="463" data-path="assets/gas-surplus-budget.png" />
</Frame>

<Accordion title="High-gas scenario: 1,000 USD Ethereum buy">
  | Item                       |  Amount |
  | -------------------------- | ------: |
  | Trade size                 | \$1,000 |
  | Cove fee (1.5% — mid tier) |    \$15 |
  | Estimated gas              |    \$12 |
  | Net remaining after gas    |     \$3 |

  In this case, Cove can still support the trade because the fee offsets most of the gas cost.

  If gas were **higher** than the fee, Cove would ask you to cover the surplus. In extreme cases, the platform fee may be waived entirely so the transaction stays economical.
</Accordion>

***

## Bridging & consolidation

Cove may perform bridge or consolidation actions behind the scenes to keep cross-chain trading seamless. These are treated as **infrastructure operations**, not user trades.

| Detail            | Auto-bridge consolidation                        |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| User fee          | **\$0**                                          |
| User confirmation | Not required                                     |
| Sponsorship cap   | Bypassed                                         |
| Gas cost          | Covered by Cove as infrastructure                |
| Abuse protection  | 30-second cooldown per account, chain, and token |

<Note>Auto-bridge consolidation is separate from the EVM deposit bridge fee. Consolidation moves initiated by Cove remain free, while an inbound EVM deposit may include the pass-through bridging cost described above.</Note>

***

## Why this model?

On-chain execution has real costs — gas can spike, small trades can be abused, and some transactions cost more to process than the fee they generate.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Keeps small trades possible">
    The minimum fee structure means you can trade amounts as low as \$1 without being locked out by percentage-based fees.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Prevents abuse & spam">
    Minimum order sizes and tiered fees filter out transactions that would be unprofitable to execute or could be used to exploit the system.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Protects against gas spikes">
    The gas surplus system ensures no trade is submitted that would lose money for either side. You always see the cost before confirming.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Sustainable gas sponsorship">
    Platform fees help offset the gas Cove sponsors on your behalf, keeping the free-gas experience viable long-term.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

## Full summary

| Category                  | Current rule                                                                |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Standard buy fee          | 1% above \$95, \$0.95 minimum below                                         |
| Ethereum buy fee          | 2% under \$500 → 1.5% \$500–\$2,500 → 1% at \$2,500+                        |
| Standard sell fee         | 1%                                                                          |
| Ethereum sell fee         | 1.5% under \$2,500 → 1% at \$2,500+                                         |
| Solana sell fee           | Tiered: 10% → 5% → 2.5% → 1%                                                |
| Minimum buy               | \$1                                                                         |
| Minimum sell              | \$0.50                                                                      |
| Minimum Solana sell       | \$2.50                                                                      |
| Gas sponsorship           | Up to \$5 per trade / action                                                |
| EVM deposit bridge fee    | Pass-through bridging cost, typically \~\$0.19 for an EVM-to-Solana deposit |
| Solana rent deposit       | \~\$0.36 one-time per new token account (withdrawals & transfers only)      |
| Over-cap gas              | Requires gas surplus approval                                               |
| Auto-bridge consolidation | No user fee, gas covered by Cove                                            |