Photon charges a flat 1% of the input amount on every buy and every sell, collected in SOL, with no cashback, volume tiers or published referral discount. A 1 SOL round trip therefore costs 0.02 SOL in Photon fees, before the priority fee and Jito bribe you set, the launchpad or DEX fee, and a refundable rent deposit for each new token.
Risk notice: Crypto trading is high risk and memecoins can go to zero in minutes. Trading bots and wallet connections use hot wallets. This page is not financial advice; only trade what you can afford to lose.
Facts on this page were checked October 23, 2026, from Photon's own docs and the sources linked below. This is a research-based review built from published docs, not a hands-on trial. Features and safety are in our Photon review and is Photon safe?; this page is only about cost.
Photon's platform fee
Photon's fee page says: "Photon fees are collected in SOL and it is 1% of the initial token used for every buy and sell transaction." Its examples:
- Buy: a 5 SOL buy pays 0.05 SOL, leaving 4.95 SOL for the purchase.
- Sell: a sell that returns 1 SOL pays 0.01 SOL.
"Initial token used" matters. On a buy, the 1% comes off the SOL you put in, so you buy slightly fewer tokens. On a sell, it's charged on the SOL value. If a token doubles, your sell fee doubles too.
What the docs don't list (as of October 2026): cashback, volume tiers, a referee discount, or a separate fee for limit and DCA orders. We found nothing official to suggest any of these exist, so the effective rate is 1% for everyone. More on referrals: Photon referral code.
Every other cost on a Photon trade
Photon's settings docs describe two fees you set yourself, neither kept by Photon:
Priority fee. "The additional fee made to have your transaction completed faster", an incentive for validators to confirm your transaction first.
Bribe. "This fee goes directly to the JITO validators to incentivize them to pick up and confirm your transactions." Jito enforces a 1,000-lamport minimum per bundle (Jito).
Photon doesn't publish default values for either. You can save three presets (S1, S2, S3) with different MEV, priority, bribe and slippage settings.
Smart-MEV routing. Photon's Smart-MEV page ties routing to your bribe:
| Mode | Bribe below threshold | Bribe above threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Fast | Under 0.001: sent directly to Jito | Over 0.001: sent via Bloxroute |
| Secure | Under 0.002: sent directly to Jito | Over 0.002: sent via Bloxroute |
The docs don't state units; in context they read as SOL. An Auto Speed option adjusts priority and bribe "based on recent successful transactions", which is convenient but means you don't fix the cost in advance.
Base network fee. 5,000 lamports per signature (Solana docs).
Venue fees. Pump.fun charges 1.25% per trade on its bonding curve and 1.25%-0.30% on PumpSwap (Pump.fun, updated October 17, 2026). Raydium AMM v4 pools charge 0.25% (Raydium). See Pump.fun fees explained.
Rent. Each new token opens a token account with a refundable deposit, about 0.00149 SOL after Solana's 2026 rent cut versus 0.00204 SOL for older accounts (Sol Incinerator).
Worked example: a 1 SOL round trip
Photon publishes no default priority or bribe, so we assume 0.001 SOL each (0.002 SOL per trade), which keeps Fast-mode bribes on the direct Jito route. Our calculations, price unchanged:
| Cost | Pump.fun bonding curve | Raydium 0.25% pool |
|---|---|---|
| Photon fee (1% x 2) | 0.020 SOL | 0.020 SOL |
| Venue fee (x 2) | 0.025 SOL | 0.005 SOL |
| Priority + bribe (x 2, assumed) | 0.004 SOL | 0.004 SOL |
| Total | ~0.049 SOL (4.9%) | ~0.029 SOL (2.9%) |
| Rent deposit (refundable) | ~0.0015 SOL | ~0.0015 SOL |
If the token doubles before you sell, the sell-side Photon fee becomes 0.02 SOL, so the round trip's Photon fees rise to 0.03 SOL. Percentage fees scale with winners.
Worked example: 100 trades
100 trades of 0.5 SOL (50 buys, 50 sells, 50 tokens) in 0.25% pools, at the same assumed 0.002 SOL per trade:
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Photon fees (1% of 50 SOL) | 0.500 SOL |
| Venue fees | 0.125 SOL |
| Priority + bribe (100 trades) | 0.200 SOL |
| Total | 0.825 SOL |
| Rent locked (50 accounts) | ~0.074 SOL |
Raise the bribe to 0.003 SOL to route Secure trades through Bloxroute and the validator line grows to 0.4 SOL.
Photon fees vs other Solana bots
| Platform | Base fee | Documented discount | Net for a new user | 1 SOL round trip, platform fee only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photon | 1% | None | 1% | 0.020 SOL |
| Trojan | 1% | 20% cashback for all | ~0.8% | 0.016 SOL |
| Axiom | 1% | Cashback tiers + 10% referral | ~0.86% (referred) | ~0.017 SOL |
| BONKbot | 1% | Telemetry cashback tiers | ~0.95% at Iron (see page) | ~0.019 SOL |
| GMGN | 1% | None | 1% | 0.020 SOL |
Photon ties GMGN for the highest platform fee in this group. On 100 SOL of monthly volume, a switch to Trojan would save about 0.2 SOL in platform fees (our calculation). Rankings: Solana trading bot fees compared, cheapest Solana trading bot, Axiom vs Photon.
Hidden-fee gotchas on Photon
- No published defaults. Priority and bribe are whatever you, or Auto Speed, set. Check presets before trading.
- Limit orders need enough tip. Photon's limit order docs say to "set a sufficiently high Priority + Bribe amount", or orders may execute late.
- Fee on the sell value. A winning trade pays more on exit.
- Rent can be stranded. Photon shows your private key only once at wallet creation (Sol Incinerator); if you didn't save it, you can't move the wallet to an outside reclaim tool.
- Fake Photon sites. A February 2026 Recorded Future report found drainer pages impersonating Photon, and a drained wallet costs more than any fee. Use the official domain only.
How to lower your Photon costs
- Set presets deliberately: a low-tip S1 for normal buys, a higher one only for races.
- Keep bribes below the Bloxroute threshold unless you need that routing.
- Trade fewer, larger orders so fixed tips are a smaller share.
- Reclaim rent if you saved the key: how to reclaim SOL from trading bots and best SOL reclaim tool.
- Compare documented discounts elsewhere: Axiom referral code, Trojan referral code, GMGN referral code, BONKbot referral code. If Photon's 1% still suits you, our link is Visit Photon.