Slippage vs Price Impact
These terms are often confused but mean different things:Slippage
Price movement that happens between when you submit a trade and when it executes—caused by other traders and market activity.
Price Impact
Price movement caused by your trade itself—larger trades in smaller pools have higher price impact.
Orca displays price impact in the swap interface before you trade. Always review this before submitting large swaps.
Slippage Tolerance Settings
Slippage tolerance is the maximum price difference you’re willing to accept. If the price moves more than your tolerance, the transaction fails instead of executing at a bad price.Example Slippage Settings
These are illustrative examples only, not recommendations. Appropriate slippage depends on your specific trade, token, pool, and market conditions.
Default slippage setting
The current default trade slippage setting on Orca is 0.5%. This default reflects a review of industry norms and observed user behavior under normal market conditions. It is intended to balance two risks: setting slippage too low may cause a trade to fail if prices move before execution, while setting slippage too high may allow a trade to execute at a meaningfully worse price than expected. The default may not be appropriate for every token, pool, or market condition. A 0.5% setting may be too low during volatile conditions, in low-liquidity pools, or when transactions take longer to process. It may also be higher than necessary for some stable or highly liquid pairs. Orca may update default slippage settings over time. The slippage setting shown in the Orca interface when you submit a transaction is the setting that applies to that transaction.Wave Break and bonding-curve trades
Wave Break bonding-curve trades use a 20% default slippage setting because liquidity conditions can differ from standard pool-based trades. This higher default is intended to reduce failed transactions during bonding-curve trading, but it also allows the trade to execute farther from the quoted price. Once a token graduates from the bonding curve, the standard 0.5% trade slippage default applies unless you change it. Always review the slippage setting shown in the Orca interface before submitting a transaction.How to Adjust Slippage
Open settings Click the gear icon (⚙️) in the swap interface Set your tolerance Enter your desired slippage percentage or select a preset Save and trade Your setting applies to your current and future trades Orca may use separate slippage settings for trades and liquidity operations. Liquidity operations can have different slippage considerations and risks than trades.Risks of Your Slippage Settings
Your slippage setting affects whether your trade succeeds and the minimum amount you are willing to receive. If your slippage setting is too low for current conditions, such as high volatility, low liquidity, or congestion, your trade may fail if the price moves beyond the default tolerance before execution. Tighter slippage can limit unwanted price movement, but increases the chance of failed transactions. Looser slippage may help a trade execute, but can allow execution at a meaningfully worse price than the quote shown before submission. Setting slippage too high can expose you to: Front-running attacks What it is: A bot sees your pending transaction and places trades before and after yours, profiting from the price movement. Sandwich attack: Your trade gets “sandwiched” between two attacker transactions:- Attacker buys → price goes up
- Your trade executes at higher price
- Attacker sells → profits from your trade
When to Increase Slippage
Sometimes higher slippage is necessary:
If you don’t need to trade immediately, waiting for volatility to settle is often better than increasing slippage.
Avoiding Poor Value Trades
Even with proper slippage settings, you can get receive worse prices if you are not careful:Always Check Before Trading
Verify the quoted price Does the rate match what you expect? Compare with price aggregators like CoinGecko. Check price impact High price impact (>1%) means you’re significantly moving the market. Consider splitting the trade. Look at pool liquidity Low liquidity pools have worse prices and higher volatility. Verify the token Confirm you’re trading the correct token by checking the mint address.Red Flags to Watch For
- Price significantly different from other markets — The pool may be stale or manipulated
- Very high price impact — Your trade is too large for the available liquidity
- New or unfamiliar tokens — Higher risk of scams or extreme volatility
- Pools with very low TVL — Prices can swing wildly
Summary
Set Appropriate Slippage
Start with 0.5% for most trades, adjust only if needed
Check Price Impact
Always review before making any large trades
Verify Prices
Compare with external price sources
Be Cautious
When in doubt, start with a small test trade
Next Steps
How to Swap
Step-by-step trading guide
Range Orders
Advanced order types