Solana rent is a refundable SOL deposit that every account must hold to stay on-chain, sized by how much data the account stores. A standard token account created before September 2026 holds 0.00203928 SOL, and you get a full rent refund when the account is closed. Solana's 2026 rent reduction (SIMD-0437) is cutting that deposit in steps, so new accounts now need less.
Risk notice: Crypto trading is high risk and memecoins can go to zero in minutes. Trading bots use hot wallets. This page is not financial advice; only trade what you can afford to lose.
What Solana rent and rent exemption mean
Solana stores every wallet, token balance and program as an account, and storage has a cost. Solana's docs put it simply: "Every account must hold a refundable minimum lamport balance proportional to its data size to remain onchain" (Solana docs).
That minimum is the "rent-exempt" balance. An account holding at least this much is rent-exempt and stays on-chain. The SPL Token docs say every token account, mint or multisig "must contain enough SOL to be considered rent exempt" (Solana Program docs). The old per-epoch rent charge is effectively gone: the account's rent_epoch field is now listed as deprecated (Solana docs).
Think of it as a deposit, not a fee. Transaction fees are spent; rent sits in the account until it's closed.
How Solana account rent is calculated
Solana's accounts docs give the formula (Solana docs):
Minimum balance = (account size in bytes + 128) × 3,480 lamports per byte-year × 2 years
The 128 bytes cover account overhead, and 3,480 × 2 = 6,960 lamports per byte. A standard token account is 165 bytes (Solana Program docs), so:
- (165 + 128) × 6,960 = 2,039,280 lamports
- 1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports, so that's 0.00203928 SOL
That's the "about 0.002 SOL" you'll see quoted by reclaim tools, and the number Sol Incinerator lists as the legacy token account rent (Sol Incinerator).
The 2026 Solana rent reduction (SIMD-0437)
In January 2026, Solana merged SIMD-0437, which cuts the per-byte constant from 6,960 to 696 lamports, a 90% reduction, in five steps with separate feature gates (SIMD-0437). As of September 26, 2026:
| Step | Lamports per byte | Token account rent (165 bytes) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before SIMD-0437 | 6,960 | 0.00203928 SOL | Legacy |
| Step 1 | 6,333 | ~0.00185557 SOL | Live on mainnet September 3, 2026 |
| Step 2 | 5,080 | ~0.00148844 SOL | Live on mainnet September 11, 2026 |
| Step 3 | 2,575 | ~0.00075448 SOL | Not yet active |
| Step 4 | 1,322 | ~0.00038735 SOL | Not yet active |
| Step 5 | 696 | ~0.00020393 SOL | Not yet active |
Token account figures are our calculation using the formula above; Sol Incinerator lists the same step 2 and final numbers (Sol Incinerator). Step dates come from Solana, Solana Compass and Crypto Briefing. Solana's upgrade page lists steps 3 to 5 as expected with Agave 4.4, and Solana Compass notes there is "no fixed schedule between gates". Solana's accounts docs still show the original 3,480 × 2 formula.
What it means for old accounts: the cut applies to new minimums, not to deposits already paid. Solana says that when an account closes, "the lamports are returned in full to whoever closes it" (Solana). So an empty token account opened in 2025 still returns about 0.00204 SOL when you close it. Crypto Briefing reports that existing accounts can also withdraw the surplus above the new minimum through the WithdrawExcessLamports instruction without closing, and estimates about 612,000 SOL of such surplus after step 2.
Why trading bot wallets pile up empty token accounts
Each token you hold needs its own token account. Trading bots such as Trojan, BONKbot, Photon, Axiom and GMGN open one the first time you buy a token, funded with a rent deposit. When you sell the full position, the account usually stays open with a zero balance (Sol Incinerator).
Memecoin traders often touch hundreds of tokens. At the legacy rate:
- 100 empty accounts ≈ 0.204 SOL locked
- 500 empty accounts ≈ 1.02 SOL locked
One detail from Solana's docs: "The account that paid to create an ATA does not automatically receive the recovered balance." The owner chooses where the SOL goes when closing (Solana docs).
How to get a Solana rent refund
An account must have a zero token balance before it can close, except wrapped SOL accounts (Solana docs). Then you either use a reclaim tool or the free spl-token CLI.
- Check first with our read-only SOL reclaim estimator. Paste an address; no wallet connection.
- Close the accounts with a tool from our best SOL reclaim tools list (about 2% at the cheapest; see our Sol Incinerator review) or the CLI. Step-by-step: how to reclaim SOL.
Safety: rent is a scammer's favorite story
Because "unclaimed SOL" is real, drainers use it as bait. PCrisk has documented fake reclaim sites, such as refundyoursol[.]io and solreclaimer[.]xyz, that empty wallets once connected (PCrisk). Scam Sniffer has tracked Solana drainers using phishing NFTs airdropped with fake links (Scam Sniffer).
- Check the URL yourself and use bookmarks; ignore links in DMs, replies, ads or token names.
- Ignore surprise airdrops that tell you to "claim" SOL or tokens.
- Test on a burner wallet or close a few accounts first.
- Read what you sign. Closing should only send SOL to you; reject anything that transfers assets elsewhere or changes ownership.
- Never share your seed phrase or private key.
- Know the math. Your rent is about 0.002 SOL per empty account at most. A site promising far more is lying.
For more on keeping a trading wallet safe, see are Solana trading bots safe? or browse our Solana trading bot ranking.