What is the difference between a token account and a wallet on Solana?

Your wallet is a keypair whose public key is a system account that holds SOL. Every other token you own sits in a separate token account owned by that wallet, one per token, usually at an associated token account address. A standard token account is 165 bytes and holds 0.00148844 SOL of refundable rent, so a wallet that has touched 40 tokens owns 40 token accounts even if their balances are now zero.

What is the difference between a lamport and a micro-lamport?

A lamport is the smallest unit of SOL: 1 SOL equals 1,000,000,000 lamports, and fees and rent are counted in it. A micro-lamport is one millionth of a lamport and exists only to price compute units for priority fees. A compute unit price of 10,000 micro-lamports on a 200,000-unit limit costs 2,000 lamports, or 0.000002 SOL.

Is rent on Solana a fee?

No. Rent is a refundable deposit that every account must hold, sized at (128 + data bytes) x 5,080 lamports as of November 2026. It stays in the account and comes back to you when the account is closed. Fees, by contrast, are spent: the 5,000-lamport base fee per signature and any priority fee go to the network and validator and never return.

What is the difference between an epoch and a slot?

A slot is the short window in which one leader validator may produce a block. An epoch is a fixed run of 432,000 slots, about 26 hours at November 2026 slot times. Leader schedules, staking rewards and stake activation or deactivation all change only at epoch boundaries, which is why unstaking SOL waits for the current epoch to end.

What is the difference between SPL Token and Token-2022?

Both are Solana programs that create mints and token accounts. SPL Token is the original program, with fixed features. Token-2022, also called Token Extensions, has a different program ID and lets each mint enable optional extensions such as transfer fees, transfer hooks, permanent delegates and on-mint metadata. Token-2022 accounts are slightly larger, 170 bytes or more, so they hold a little more rent.

Who controls a Solana program derived address?

No private key exists for a program derived address (PDA), because it is deliberately derived off the ed25519 curve from seeds and a program ID. Only the program it was derived from can sign for it, through a cross-program invocation. Your associated token accounts are PDAs of the Associated Token Account program, but the token account inside records your wallet as owner, so you still control the tokens.

Solana glossary: 68 terms for wallets, tokens and fees

The short answer

This Solana glossary defines 68 terms people run into when using a wallet, trading tokens or launching one: accounts and rent, tokens, transactions and fees, staking, wallet security, token launches and trading, and programs. The numbers that tie most of them together are simple: 1 SOL is 1,000,000,000 lamports, every account holds refundable rent of (128 + data bytes) x 5,080 lamports, and each transaction pays a 5,000-lamport base fee per signature plus an optional priority fee. Terms are alphabetical within each section, and each links to the deepest SOLTidy guide or tool on the subject.

I built SOLTidy, a set of Solana wallet cleanup and token tools, and wrote this as the page I wished existed when people asked me what a "token account" or a "volume accumulator" was. The rent and fee figures are current as of November 2026.

What are the key Solana numbers to know?

These are the figures most definitions below refer to, as of November 2026:

Quantity	Value	Where it comes from
Lamports per SOL	1,000,000,000	Fixed by the protocol
Micro-lamports per lamport	1,000,000	Compute Budget program pricing unit
Rent rate	5,080 lamports per byte, incl. 128-byte account overhead	Current rent-exempt rate
Plain wallet (0 bytes)	0.00065024 SOL	(128 + 0) x 5,080
SPL token account (165 bytes)	0.00148844 SOL (older accounts 0.00203928)	(128 + 165) x 5,080
Mint (82 bytes)	0.0010668 SOL	(128 + 82) x 5,080
Stake account (200 bytes)	0.00166624 SOL	(128 + 200) x 5,080
Base fee	5,000 lamports per signature	Paid by the fee payer
Default compute limit	200,000 CU per instruction, 1,400,000 per transaction max	Agave compute budget
Epoch	432,000 slots, about 26 hours	October 2026 slot times

To turn any of these into SOL or back, use the lamports converter. To size an account yourself, use the rent calculator.

Accounts and rent

Account

An account is a record on Solana that holds lamports, an owner program and optional data, identified by a 32-byte address. Wallets, token balances, programs and stake are all accounts, and each one must hold rent; what Solana rent is explains why.

Address

An address is the 32-byte public key that identifies an account, written in base58 as 32 to 44 characters such as So11111111111111111111111111111111111111112. Addresses are public, but scammers copy their first and last characters, which is the basis of address poisoning.

Excess rent

Excess rent is the SOL an account holds above its current rent-exempt minimum, which exists because accounts opened before the rent cut were funded at the old rate. A standard SPL token account opened then holds 0.00055084 SOL of excess that the WithdrawExcessLamports instruction can return without closing the account.

Lamport

A lamport is the smallest unit of SOL, one billionth of a SOL, so 5,000 lamports is 0.000005 SOL. Fees, rent and balances are all stored in lamports on chain; the lamports converter translates either way.

Nonce account

A nonce account is an 80-byte System Program account that stores a durable nonce, letting a transaction be signed now and submitted later without its blockhash expiring. It holds 0.00105664 SOL of rent, listed with other sizes in the rent-exempt minimum by account type table.

Program derived address (PDA)

A program derived address (PDA) is an address computed from seeds and a program ID that deliberately falls off the ed25519 curve, so no private key exists and only that program can sign for it. Associated token accounts, pump.fun bonding curves and volume accumulators are all PDAs. See the Solana docs on PDAs.

Rent

Rent is the refundable SOL deposit every Solana account must hold in proportion to its size, currently 5,080 lamports per byte including a 128-byte overhead. It is returned in full when the account is closed, which is what reclaiming Solana rent means.

Rent-exempt minimum

The rent-exempt minimum is the exact lamport balance an account of a given size must hold to exist, calculated as (128 + data bytes) x 5,080 lamports. A 165-byte token account needs 1,488,440 lamports (0.00148844 SOL); the rent calculator works it out for any size.

SOL

SOL is Solana's native currency, used to pay transaction fees, fund rent and stake to validators, and divisible into 1,000,000,000 lamports. Native SOL lives directly in your wallet's system account, unlike other tokens, which need a token account.

System Program

The System Program is the built-in Solana program, at address 11111111111111111111111111111111, that creates accounts, transfers SOL and assigns accounts to other programs. A plain wallet is an account owned by the System Program with 0 bytes of data and 0.00065024 SOL of rent.

Tokens

Associated token account (ATA)

An associated token account (ATA) is the default token account for a given wallet and mint, at a PDA derived from the wallet address, the token program and the mint. Wallets and apps send tokens to the ATA automatically, which is why one token account per token piles up in active wallets.

BurnChecked

BurnChecked is the SPL Token instruction that destroys tokens from an account and lowers the mint's supply, requiring the caller to state the mint's decimals as a safety check. A real LP burn shows a BurnChecked on the LP mint, as explained in burned vs locked liquidity.

Close authority

The close authority is the address allowed to close a token account and collect its rent, which defaults to the account's owner. A token account can only be closed with a zero balance (wrapped SOL excepted); can't close a token account covers the errors.

Compressed NFT (cNFT)

A compressed NFT (cNFT) is an NFT stored as a leaf in an on-chain Merkle tree via Metaplex Bubblegum instead of in its own mint and token account, which makes minting millions of them cheap. Because a cNFT holds no rent, burning one returns no SOL, as covered in what to do with spam NFTs.

Delegate

A delegate is an address that a token account's owner has approved to transfer or burn up to a set amount of that token without further permission. Leftover approvals are a drainer risk, and revoking token approvals takes one Revoke instruction per account.

Freeze authority

The freeze authority is the address on a mint that can freeze any holder's token account so its tokens cannot move until thawed. Traders check that it is revoked before buying; see mint vs freeze authority.

Metadata (Metaplex)

Metadata (Metaplex) is the account, owned by the Metaplex Token Metadata program, that stores a token's name, symbol and URI pointing to its logo and JSON, at a PDA of the mint. A current metadata account is 607 bytes and holds 0.0037338 SOL; a wrong URI is the usual reason a token logo isn't showing.

Mint

A mint is the 82-byte account that defines a token: its supply, decimals, mint authority and freeze authority, holding 0.0010668 SOL of rent. Every token account points to exactly one mint; what it costs to create a token breaks down the full launch.

Mint authority

The mint authority is the address allowed to create new supply of a token. Once set to None it can never be restored, which fixes the supply forever; mint vs freeze authority explains what "revoked" means.

Permanent delegate

A permanent delegate is a Token-2022 extension that gives one address unlimited, irrevocable power to transfer or burn tokens from any holder's account of that mint. Holders cannot revoke it, which is why it heads the risk list in Token-2022 explained for traders.

SPL token

An SPL token is a token created by Solana's original SPL Token program, TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA, which defines mints and 165-byte token accounts. USDC, most memecoins and most NFTs use it.

Token account

A token account is the account that holds one wallet's balance of one token, recording the mint, owner, amount and any delegate. A standard one is 165 bytes and holds 0.00148844 SOL of rent, or 0.00203928 SOL if opened before the rent cut; what a Solana token account is covers the details, and the token account closer closes empty ones.

Token-2022

Token-2022, also called Token Extensions, is the second Solana token program, TokenzQdBNbLqP5VEhdkAS6EPFLC1PHnBqCXEpPxuEb, which adds optional extensions such as transfer fees, transfer hooks and permanent delegates. Its token accounts start at 170 bytes (0.00151384 SOL); closing Token-2022 accounts has extra steps.

Transfer fee

A transfer fee is a Token-2022 extension that withholds a set percentage of every transfer, in basis points up to a maximum amount, inside the recipient's token account for the fee authority to collect. A 100-basis-point fee keeps 1 of every 100 tokens sent; see setting and claiming transfer fees.

Transfer hook

A transfer hook is a Token-2022 extension that makes every transfer of a token call a program chosen by the issuer, which can run checks or block the transfer. Its accounts are 175 bytes, and the hook program can change, which is why traders read it before buying.

Wrapped SOL (wSOL)

Wrapped SOL (wSOL) is native SOL held in a token account of the special mint So11111111111111111111111111111111111111112, so programs built for tokens can use it one-for-one. Unwrapping closes the account and returns the SOL plus its rent; what wSOL is explains both directions.

Transactions and fees

Base fee

The base fee is the fixed 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) charged per signature on a transaction, half burned and half paid to the block's leader. It is charged even when the transaction fails; Solana transaction fees explained separates it from priority fees and rent.

Blockhash

A blockhash is the hash of a recent block that every transaction must include, proving it is fresh and preventing replay. A transaction expires about 150 blocks after its blockhash, roughly a minute, which causes the "blockhash not found" failures in why Solana transactions fail.

Compute unit

A compute unit (CU) is Solana's measure of the processing work a transaction does, similar to gas. The default limit is 200,000 CU per non-builtin instruction, capped at 1,400,000 per transaction, and priority fees are priced per CU.

Compute unit price

The compute unit price is the bid, in micro-lamports per compute unit, that a transaction sets through the Compute Budget program's SetComputeUnitPrice instruction. Multiplied by the compute unit limit it gives the priority fee; how much priority fee to pay has current ranges.

Fee payer

The fee payer is the first signer of a transaction, the account whose SOL pays the base and priority fees. It is usually your wallet, but apps can sponsor fees by signing as fee payer themselves.

Inner instruction

An inner instruction is an instruction a program issues during execution through a cross-program invocation, rather than one listed in the transaction itself. A swap typically shows token transfers as inner instructions, which the transaction decoder lists under each top-level step.

Instruction

An instruction is a single call to a program inside a transaction, naming the program, the accounts it touches and its input data. A transaction can hold many instructions and they succeed or fail together; for example one transaction can close a dozen token accounts.

Lookup table (ALT)

An address lookup table (ALT) is an account that stores up to 256 addresses so a versioned transaction can reference each with a 1-byte index instead of 32 bytes. A full table holds 0.04255008 SOL of rent, which its authority can recover by deactivating and closing the lookup table.

Micro-lamport

A micro-lamport is one millionth of a lamport, the unit used to price compute units. A price of 10,000 micro-lamports on a 200,000-CU limit costs 2,000 lamports, or 0.000002 SOL.

Priority fee

A priority fee is an optional extra fee, equal to the compute unit limit times the compute unit price, that raises a transaction's chance of landing when the network is busy, and goes entirely to the leader validator. Quiet transfers often need none; the priority fee tracker shows live levels.

Signature

A signature is the 64-byte ed25519 proof that a keypair approved a transaction, and the first signature also serves as the transaction ID you paste into an explorer such as Solscan. Each signature adds 5,000 lamports to the base fee.

Slot

A slot is the short window, a fraction of a second, in which one scheduled leader validator may produce a block. Slots are numbered from genesis, and 432,000 of them make an epoch.

Transaction

A transaction is a signed bundle of one or more instructions, plus a recent blockhash and the list of accounts it touches, that executes atomically and must fit in 1,232 bytes. You can read any confirmed one in plain language with the transaction decoder.

Versioned transaction (v0)

A versioned transaction (v0) is the newer Solana transaction format that can load extra accounts from address lookup tables, fitting far more accounts into the 1,232-byte limit than legacy transactions. Most swaps through Jupiter use v0 transactions.

Staking

Deactivation

Deactivation is the step that unstakes a stake account, after which it keeps earning until the current epoch ends and then becomes inactive and withdrawable. Lookup tables also have a deactivation step before closing. See how unstaking SOL works.

Epoch

An epoch is a fixed period of 432,000 slots, about 26 hours at November 2026 slot times, at whose boundary staking rewards are paid and stake activates or deactivates. Unstaking can therefore take from minutes to about a day.

Liquid staking token

A liquid staking token is an SPL token, such as jitoSOL or mSOL, that represents SOL deposited into a stake pool and rises in SOL value as the pool earns rewards. It is exited by swapping or by the protocol's own unstake, not by deactivating a stake account.

Stake account

A stake account is a 200-byte account owned by the Stake program that holds SOL delegated to one validator, with 0.00166624 SOL of rent. Forgotten inactive ones are common; finding and withdrawing old stake accounts covers the cleanup, and the stake account manager lists yours.

Stake authority

The stake authority is the address allowed to delegate, deactivate, split or merge a stake account. It is usually your wallet, and it can differ from the withdraw authority.

Validator

A validator is a node that verifies transactions, votes on blocks and, when it is the scheduled leader, produces blocks, earning fees and staking rewards. Delegating stake to a validator never gives it custody of your SOL.

Withdraw authority

The withdraw authority is the address allowed to withdraw SOL from a stake account and to change either authority. Whoever holds it controls the stake, so it should always be a key you keep.

Wallets and security

Address poisoning

Address poisoning is a scam in which an attacker sends a tiny transfer from an address whose first and last characters match one you recently paid, hoping you copy it from your history. The defense is checking the full address; see address poisoning on Solana.

Drainer

A drainer is a malicious site or script that tricks you into signing a transaction that transfers your tokens, approves a delegate or reassigns your account to an attacker. The Solana wallet security checklist lists what to check before signing.

Hardware wallet

A hardware wallet is a device, such as a Ledger, that keeps your private key offline and signs transactions on the device itself, so a compromised computer cannot sign for you. Cleaning up a Ledger Solana wallet covers its quirks.

Keypair

A keypair is an ed25519 private key and its matching public key; the public key is your address and the private key signs transactions. A Solana CLI keypair file stores the 64-byte secret key as a JSON array; the wallet generator creates one in your browser.

Seed phrase

A seed phrase is the 12 or 24 BIP39 words that regenerate your keypairs, which Solana wallets derive along the path m/44'/501'/0'/0' for the first account. Anyone with it controls the wallet, so it should never be typed into a website; see what to do if your wallet is drained.

Vanity address

A vanity address is an address that starts or ends with chosen characters, found by generating keypairs until one matches. Each extra base58 character makes the search about 58 times longer; see how long a vanity address takes.

Token launches and trading

Jito tip

A Jito tip is an ordinary SOL transfer to one of Jito's tip accounts that pays validators running the Jito-Solana client to include a transaction or bundle, with a minimum of 1,000 lamports per Jito's docs. It is separate from the priority fee and only helps when a Jito-running validator is leader.

Liquidity pool

A liquidity pool is a program account holding two tokens, such as a memecoin and SOL, that traders swap against at a price set by the ratio of the reserves. Raydium, Meteora, Orca and PumpSwap all run them.

LP token

An LP token is the token a liquidity pool mints to depositors as a claim on their share of the reserves. Burning LP tokens with BurnChecked makes that share permanently unwithdrawable; burned vs locked liquidity explains the difference.

MEV

MEV (maximal extractable value) is the profit a block producer or searcher makes by ordering, inserting or excluding transactions, most visibly by sandwiching a swap with trades before and after it. Tight slippage limits how much a sandwich can take.

pump.fun bonding curve

The pump.fun bonding curve is the per-coin PDA that sells a new token's supply along a fixed price curve until the coin graduates and its liquidity moves to PumpSwap. Trading there opens a token account per coin; reclaiming SOL after pump.fun trades covers what you can recover.

PumpSwap

PumpSwap is pump.fun's own AMM, where coins trade as liquidity pools after graduating from the bonding curve. Coin creators earn a share of trading fees there; see claiming pump.fun creator fees.

Rug pull

A rug pull is a token launch where insiders drain value from buyers, by pulling liquidity, minting new supply or dumping a concentrated holding. The rug pull checklist covers what to read before buying.

Slippage

Slippage is the gap between the price you are quoted and the price you get, and the slippage tolerance is the worst gap you accept before the swap fails. A 1% tolerance on a 1 SOL swap means you accept up to 0.01 SOL worse.

Volume accumulator

A volume accumulator is a 137-byte per-wallet PDA that pump.fun and PumpSwap each create to track trading volume for rewards, holding 0.0013462 SOL of rent. The owner can close it with close_user_volume_accumulator, though the next trade recreates it; see pump.fun cashback explained.

Programs and developers

Cross-program invocation (CPI)

A cross-program invocation (CPI) is one program calling another during a transaction, for example a swap program calling the token program to move funds. CPIs can nest four levels deep and appear as inner instructions in explorers.

Custom program error

A custom program error is a numeric error code returned by a specific program, shown as custom program error: 0x1 and meaning something different in every program. The Solana error codes reference decodes the common ones.

Devnet

Devnet is Solana's public test network, where SOL is free from faucets and has no value, used to try programs and token launches before mainnet. Accounts and tokens there do not carry over to mainnet.

Program

A program is Solana's term for a smart contract: an executable account holding compiled code, called by instructions, that stores its state in separate accounts. The System, Stake, SPL Token and Token-2022 programs are all built in or widely shared.

Program buffer

A program buffer is a temporary account that holds program bytecode during a deploy, funded with rent for the whole program, about 0.521 SOL per 100 KiB. Failed deploys leave buffers behind; see closing program buffer accounts or the program buffer closer.

Upgrade authority

The upgrade authority is the address allowed to replace an upgradeable program's code or close it. Setting it to None makes the program immutable, which users of a protocol may want to verify.

Bottom line

Most Solana jargon comes back to three ideas: everything is an account that holds refundable rent at (128 + data bytes) x 5,080 lamports, every action is an instruction inside a transaction that pays 5,000 lamports per signature plus an optional priority fee, and tokens live in token accounts separate from your wallet. If a term here describes SOL sitting in your own wallet, such as empty token accounts, excess rent or volume accumulators, the token account closer shows what is recoverable before you sign anything, and the transaction decoder explains any transaction you want to understand.