How to close Token-2022 accounts and get the rent back

The short answer

You close a Token-2022 account the same way as a classic SPL token account: empty it, then send CloseAccount to the Token-2022 program, and the full rent deposit comes back. A typical one returns 0.00151 to 0.00158 SOL, or 0.00207 to 0.00216 SOL if opened before Solana lowered rent. Two extra conditions apply: withheld transfer fees must be harvested to the mint first, and confidential balances must be empty.

How is closing a Token-2022 account different from closing an SPL token account?

The instruction and the outcome are the same; the differences are where the accounts live and what can block them. Token-2022 is a separate program at TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb, next to the classic SPL Token program at TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA. Each token account belongs to one of them for life, and a close instruction has to go to the program that owns the account.

Reading the Token-2022 source, its CloseAccount checks everything the classic program checks, plus three extension conditions:

1. The token balance is zero, except for wrapped SOL. Same as the classic program.
2. The signer is the owner, or the close authority if one is set. Same as the classic program.
3. Withheld transfer fees are zero, for tokens with the transfer fee extension.
4. The confidential balance is zero, for accounts configured for confidential transfers, including any confidential withheld fees.
5. CPI Guard allows it. If you enabled CPI Guard on the account, a program calling the close on your behalf must send the rent to you. A close you sign directly is not affected.

If those hold, the account is deleted and every lamport in it goes to the destination you name. The general safety picture is the same as for any token account, covered in is it safe to close Solana token accounts.

Why do Token-2022 accounts hold more rent?

Token-2022 accounts hold more rent because they are larger. Rent is (128 + bytes) x 5,080 lamports at today's rate, and 6,960 lamports per byte before Solana lowered it. A classic SPL token account is always 165 bytes. A Token-2022 account adds one byte for the account type and then a 4-byte header plus the data for each extension. Associated token accounts always carry the immutable owner extension, which is why the smallest common Token-2022 account is 170 bytes.

Some extensions on the mint force a matching extension onto every holder's account. The sizes below follow from the Token-2022 source for associated token accounts:

Account	Size	Rent if opened recently	Rent if opened before the change
Classic SPL token account (for comparison)	165 bytes	0.00148844 SOL	0.00203928 SOL
Token-2022, no mint extensions that touch accounts	170 bytes	0.00151384 SOL	0.00207408 SOL
Non-transferable or pausable token	174 bytes	0.00153416 SOL	0.00210192 SOL
Token with a transfer hook	175 bytes	0.00153924 SOL	0.00210888 SOL
Token with a transfer fee	182 bytes	0.0015748 SOL	0.0021576 SOL
Configured for confidential transfers	about 469 bytes or more	about 0.0030 SOL or more	about 0.0042 SOL or more

The difference per account is small, a few hundred thousand lamports at most for common cases, but closing returns whatever the account actually holds. For any other size, the free rent calculator gives the deposit from a byte count, and the rent-exempt minimum for every account type includes Token-2022 mints too. Totals across a whole wallet are worked through in how much SOL you can recover from token accounts.

How do you find your Token-2022 accounts?

You find them by querying the Token-2022 program for your address, not only the classic program. That sounds obvious, but it is the most common reason Token-2022 accounts are missed. A script or tool that calls getTokenAccountsByOwner with only the classic program ID will never see them.

Three ways that work:

• A block explorer. Open your wallet address and look at its token accounts. Explorers generally show both programs and include zero-balance accounts, which wallet apps tend to hide.
• The CLI. spl-token accounts in current versions lists accounts from both programs. If your installed version shows only classic accounts, run spl-token accounts --program-2022.
• A scan that covers both programs. Connect your wallet to the SOLTidy Token Account Closer. The scan only reads: it queries the SPL Token and Token-2022 programs in parallel and labels each account with its program, and nothing is signed until you press Claim.

Wallet apps are built to show what you hold, so an empty account usually disappears from the token list while its rent deposit stays on chain. That applies to both programs, but Token-2022 accounts for unusual extensions, such as non-transferable or confidential tokens, are also the ones wallets are least likely to display well.

How do you close a Token-2022 account with withheld transfer fees?

Harvest the withheld fees to the mint, then close; both can go in one transaction. On a transfer-fee token, every transfer you receive leaves the fee sitting in a withheld field of your account. Those tokens are not yours to spend; they belong to the token's fee mechanism. The program refuses to close the account until the field is zero, with the error "An account can only be closed if its withheld fee balance is zero, harvest fees to the mint and try again".

The fix is HarvestWithheldTokensToMint. It is permissionless: any wallet can call it for any accounts of that mint, because it only moves the withheld amount into the mint's own withheld field and cannot redirect it. Once harvested, the account closes normally.

• With the CLI, spl-token close --address <ACCOUNT> already does this. Reading the CLI source, if the account has withheld fees it sends a harvest transaction first and then the close.
• With SOLTidy, the closer adds the harvest instruction in front of CloseAccount for any account that holds withheld fees, in the same transaction. You do not need to do anything extra.

If you created a transfer-fee token yourself, collecting those fees as the withdraw authority is a different job, done with the Claim Transfer Fees tool or spl-token withdraw-withheld-tokens, and covered step by step in how to set and claim Token-2022 transfer fees. As a holder you only need the harvest.

Can you close frozen, non-transferable or confidential Token-2022 accounts?

Mostly yes, with conditions that depend on the extension. The cases:

• Frozen accounts. A frozen account with a balance is stuck: burning and transferring both fail with "Account is frozen", and only the freeze authority can thaw it. An empty frozen account is a different matter. Neither token program's CloseAccount checks the frozen flag in the current source, so the owner should be able to close it with spl-token close --address. Tokens with the default account state extension create every new account frozen, so this case is more common on Token-2022. SOLTidy does not list frozen accounts at the moment, and spl-token gc skips them.
• Non-transferable tokens. These cannot be sent or sold, but the program lets the holder burn them. Burn, then close. Burning is permanent.
• Paused tokens. A mint with the pausable extension can pause transfers, minting and burning. While paused, a balance cannot be burned, so a non-empty account cannot be emptied. An already empty account still closes.
• Confidential transfer accounts. The encrypted balance and any pending balance must be zero before closing. Emptying them means spl-token apply-pending-balance and spl-token withdraw-confidential-tokens, which generate zero-knowledge proofs. Few tools support this, and SOLTidy currently skips any account configured for confidential transfers.
• Transfer hooks and permanent delegates. Neither blocks closing. A hook runs on transfers, not on burns or closes.

If a balance has any value, sell it before burning. Sell Dust for SOL quotes through Jupiter, and a transfer-fee token's quote already reflects the fee. Before buying a Token-2022 token in the first place, a rug check shows its extensions, and the extensions themselves are explained in Token-2022 explained for traders.

How do you close Token-2022 accounts with the spl-token CLI?

The CLI is free beyond network fees and handles Token-2022 well, provided you know which commands look at which program. It needs your key as a keypair file, which most browser-wallet users do not have and should not create casually. The general walkthrough for both programs, including setup, is in closing Solana token accounts with the CLI.

1. List accounts: spl-token accounts (add --program-2022 if your version shows only classic ones).
2. Close one account: spl-token close --address <ACCOUNT>. The CLI reads the owning program from the address and harvests withheld fees first if there are any.
3. Close all empty associated accounts for Token-2022: spl-token gc --program-2022 --close-empty-associated-accounts. Without --program-2022, gc only looks at classic accounts. Without --close-empty-associated-accounts, it does not close associated accounts at all.
4. Recover excess rent from older accounts you keep: spl-token withdraw-excess-lamports <ACCOUNT> <RECIPIENT>.

One caveat from reading the source: gc closes empty accounts directly and does not harvest withheld fees first, so an account of a transfer-fee token with withheld fees will fail inside gc. Close those individually with spl-token close.

How does SOLTidy handle Token-2022 accounts?

I built the closer to treat both programs as one list, because that is how wallets look to their owners. Specifically, from the code:

• One scan queries SPL Token and Token-2022 together and reads each account's real lamport balance, so the figure shown is what the extension-sized account actually holds.
• Empty accounts are pre-selected. Non-empty ones can be added by hand, which burns the balance before the close.
• Withheld transfer fees are harvested to the mint in the same transaction as the close.
• Accounts you keep that were opened before the rent change get their excess withdrawn with WithdrawExcessLamports, about 0.00056 to 0.00059 SOL per Token-2022 account, without closing them. That is covered in getting SOL back without closing token accounts.
• Frozen accounts, accounts with someone else as close authority, and confidential transfer accounts are left out, because they would fail.
• Up to 12 items go in a transaction, every batch is simulated before you sign, and anything that changed since the scan is dropped.

The fee is 5% of the rent recovered, charged per transaction inside that transaction, and nothing if nothing is recovered. It asks for no token approvals and works with any Solana wallet. For a few accounts, the CLI does the same job for network fees alone. When a close fails for a reason not covered here, why you can't close a Solana token account lists the exact errors and fixes.

Bottom line

Closing a Token-2022 account is the classic close with a little more to check. Query the Token-2022 program so you actually find the accounts, harvest withheld transfer fees before the close, empty any confidential balance, and burn non-transferable leftovers if you do not want them. Each account returns its full deposit, slightly more than a classic token account because extensions make it bigger. Use spl-token close or gc with --program-2022 if you live in a terminal, or let the Token Account Closer scan both programs and handle the harvest for you.