Unconfirmed Bitcoin Transaction Checker

Why is my bitcoin transaction unconfirmed?

A transaction is unconfirmed until a miner puts it in a block. Until then it waits in the mempool, the queue of transactions every node keeps. A new block comes about every 10 minutes and has room for roughly 1 million virtual bytes (vB), so miners take the transactions that pay the most per vbyte first.

So the speed of a transaction depends on its fee rate, in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), not on the amount sent or the total fee. If the mempool is busy and your wallet chose a low fee rate, newer transactions that pay more keep jumping ahead of yours. Right now wallets recommend about 1.57 sat/vB for a fast confirmation.

Your bitcoin isn't lost while it waits. The transaction either confirms, or, if it never does, nodes eventually drop it and the coins stay in the wallet that sent them.

How long does a bitcoin transaction take?

With a fee rate the next block accepts, the first confirmation takes about 10 minutes on average. Blocks are random, so sometimes it's 1 minute and sometimes 30 or more. Each later block adds one more confirmation.

• 1 confirmation: enough for most small payments and many wallets.
• 3 to 6 confirmations: what most exchanges wait for before crediting a deposit. 6 confirmations take about an hour.
• Low fee rate: anything from an hour to several days, depending on how busy the mempool gets. The checker above shows how many blocks of better-paying transactions are ahead of yours.

How to speed up a stuck bitcoin transaction

1. Replace-by-fee (RBF), if you sent it. Your wallet sends the same payment again with a higher fee, and the new version replaces the old one in the mempool. It gets a new transaction ID. The replacement must pay a higher fee rate and a higher total fee than the original. Wallets usually offer this only for transactions that signal RBF, although since Bitcoin Core 28 most nodes accept replacements of any unconfirmed transaction.
2. Child pays for parent (CPFP), if one of its outputs is yours. The receiver, or the sender through their change output, spends the stuck coins in a new transaction with a high fee. Miners can only take the child together with its parent, so they look at the fee rate of both together. The child's fee has to cover the parent's shortfall too; the checker above works out about how much.
3. Wait. When the mempool empties out, low-fee transactions confirm too. If it never confirms, most nodes drop it after 2 weeks, and the sender's wallet can spend the coins again.
4. An accelerator. Some services, such as the mempool.space Accelerator, are paid to get mining pools to include a transaction. They're an option when you can't use RBF or CPFP, for example for a withdrawal from an exchange.

A withdrawal from an exchange or a custodial app is the exchange's transaction: you can't bump its fee yourself. Ask their support, or, if it's coming to your own wallet, use CPFP on the output you receive.

Fee bumping in popular wallets

• ElectrumIn the History tab, right-click the unconfirmed transaction and choose "Increase fee" (RBF). To pay for a transaction you received, choose "Child pays for parent".
• SparrowIn the Transactions tab, right-click the unconfirmed transaction and choose "Increase Fee (RBF)". For CPFP, choose "Increase Effective Fee (CPFP)".
• Trezor SuiteOpen the account's transactions, click "Speed up" on the pending transaction, and pick a higher fee.
• BlueWalletTap the pending transaction you sent and choose "Speed Up" (or "Cancel"). These only appear for sends that signal RBF, not for payments you received.
• Ledger Live and other walletsOpen the pending transaction and look for "Speed up", "Bump fee" or "Accelerate". If there's none, the receiver can use CPFP, or you can wait.
• Exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken…)You can't change the fee of an exchange's withdrawal. Contact the exchange's support with the transaction ID.

Menu names change between versions. If you can't find the option, look in the transaction's details screen.

Unconfirmed transactions: questions

Can I cancel an unconfirmed bitcoin transaction?

Only by replacing it before it confirms: a "cancel" in wallets such as BlueWallet or Sparrow is an RBF replacement that sends the coins back to your own wallet, with a higher fee. It works only if the replacement gets mined first. Once a transaction has one confirmation, it can't be cancelled.

Why does the transaction ID disappear after a fee bump?

RBF makes a new transaction with a new ID, and the old one is dropped. Look up the new ID in your wallet's transaction list. If you check the old ID here, it will say "not found".

What does "not found" mean?

Neither the blockchain nor the mempool has the transaction. It may have been replaced, dropped after waiting too long, never broadcast, or it may be a testnet transaction or a mistyped ID. If it was dropped or never broadcast, the coins are still in the sending wallet.

What is sat/vB?

Satoshis per virtual byte: the transaction's fee divided by its size. A typical payment (one input, two outputs, Native SegWit) is about 141 vB, so at 5 sat/vB it costs about 705 sats. Transactions with many inputs are bigger and cost more at the same fee rate.

How many confirmations do I need?

It's up to whoever receives the payment. Many wallets show a payment as settled after 1 confirmation; most exchanges credit deposits after 1 to 6. Each confirmation makes reversing the payment much harder.

Where does the data come from?

From public Bitcoin block explorers (Blockstream and mempool.space), fetched by our server, and the current fee rates from mempool.space. While a transaction is unconfirmed, the page checks it again each time a new block is found.