Explore & calculate
SOL ↔ Lamports converter
Type a SOL amount or a lamports amount and see the other instantly. 1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports.
How it works
- 1
Type a SOL amount
Enter any amount with up to nine decimal places in the SOL field, and the lamports field updates as you type.
- 2
Or type lamports
Enter a whole number of lamports, with or without thousands separators, and the SOL field shows the equivalent without trailing zeros.
- 3
Copy the value you need
Use the lamports figure in code, RPC calls and CLI flags, and the SOL figure anywhere a person will read it.
How many lamports are in one SOL?
One SOL is exactly 1,000,000,000 lamports — ten to the ninth power, or one billion. A lamport is therefore 0.000000001 SOL, and it is the smallest amount that can exist on Solana; there is no fraction of a lamport in an account balance. The name honours Leslie Lamport, whose research on clocks and consensus in distributed systems underlies how blockchains agree on the order of events.
Converting is a matter of moving the decimal point nine places. To go from SOL to lamports, multiply by 1,000,000,000: 0.5 SOL is 500,000,000 lamports and 0.001 SOL is 1,000,000. To go from lamports to SOL, divide: 5,000 lamports is 0.000005 SOL and 2,039,280 lamports is 0.00203928 SOL. For comparison, Bitcoin's satoshi is a hundred-millionth of a coin and Ethereum's wei is a billionth of a billionth of an ether.
Why Solana stores amounts in lamports
Inside the protocol every SOL amount is an unsigned 64-bit integer count of lamports. Integers are exact. Floating-point decimals are not: in most programming languages 0.1 plus 0.2 does not equal 0.3, and a ledger cannot tolerate rounding that creates or destroys value. Working in whole lamports means balances, fees and rent always add up to the last unit, on every validator, in every language.
SOL with a decimal point is a display convention applied by wallets and explorers. Anything closer to the chain speaks lamports: the getBalance RPC method, transaction metadata, the lamports field of a System Program transfer, program logs and the amounts in on-chain programs. A 64-bit integer can count up to about 18.4 billion SOL in lamports, far more than the total supply, so overflow is not a practical concern.
Lamport amounts worth recognising
A few numbers come up constantly. 5,000 lamports is the base fee for a transaction with one signature. 890,880 lamports is the rent-exempt minimum for an account with no data, which is the least a new wallet address can hold after receiving funds. 2,039,280 lamports is the rent deposit for a standard 165-byte token account, and 1,461,600 lamports is the deposit for an 82-byte token mint.
Recognising them makes raw data readable. A wallet whose balance rose by 2,039,280 lamports closed a token account and got its deposit back; a transaction that cost 5,000 lamports paid no priority fee. If you want to work out the deposit for other account sizes, use the rent calculator, and to see these values inside a real transaction, paste its signature into the transaction decoder.
Lamports in code: LAMPORTS_PER_SOL and safe conversion
The @solana/web3.js library exports the constant LAMPORTS_PER_SOL, equal to 1,000,000,000, and the usual pattern is to multiply a SOL amount by it before building a transfer and divide by it before displaying a balance. The Solana CLI mostly takes SOL on the command line and prints SOL, with a --lamports flag on commands such as solana balance to show the integer value instead.
Two pitfalls are worth knowing. First, multiplying a decimal by a billion in floating point can land a hair below the intended integer, so round the result rather than truncating it, as this converter does. Second, JavaScript numbers are exact only up to 9,007,199,254,740,991, which is about 9 million SOL in lamports. Below that, plain numbers are fine; for larger values or token amounts with many decimals, use BigInt or a big-number library.
Questions & answers
What is a lamport?
A lamport is the smallest unit of SOL on the Solana blockchain. 1 SOL = 1,000,000,000 lamports (10⁹). Lamports are named after Leslie Lamport, the computer scientist whose work underpins much of distributed-systems theory.
Why does Solana use lamports?
On chain, all values are stored as integers — fractional SOL doesn't exist at the protocol level. Lamports give Solana enough precision to represent rent fees, network fees, and tiny transfers without floating-point errors. Wallets and explorers convert to SOL only for display.
How accurate is this converter?
Conversion is exact for any value below ~9 quadrillion lamports (about 9 million SOL), which covers every realistic transaction. Above that you start hitting JavaScript's safe-integer limit; the converter rounds appropriately.
How do I convert lamports to SOL?
Divide the number of lamports by 1,000,000,000, which is the same as moving the decimal point nine places to the left. For example, 250,000,000 lamports is 0.25 SOL and 5,000 lamports is 0.000005 SOL. To convert SOL to lamports, multiply by 1,000,000,000 instead. The converter above does both as you type.
How much is 5,000 lamports in SOL?
5,000 lamports is 0.000005 SOL. It is the number people look up most often because it is Solana's base transaction fee: every transaction pays 5,000 lamports per signature before any priority fee. At that rate, one SOL covers the base fee of 200,000 single-signature transactions. Use the SOL to USD converter to see what it is worth in dollars today.
Is the lamports converter free, and is it safe?
It is free and there is nothing to put at risk. The converter is arithmetic running in your browser: it does not connect to a wallet, does not contact the blockchain and does not send the numbers you type anywhere. There is no fee because there is no transaction. It works the same whether or not you have a Solana wallet at all.
Are lamports the same as token decimals?
No. Lamports are the base unit of native SOL only, and SOL always has nine decimal places. SPL tokens each define their own decimals on the mint: USDC uses six, many community tokens use six or nine, and NFTs use zero. A raw token amount must be divided by ten to the power of that token's decimals, not by a billion.
What is the smallest amount of SOL I can send?
One lamport is the smallest transferable unit. In practice there is a floor set by rent: an account that would be left holding less than the rent-exempt minimum, 890,880 lamports for a plain wallet account, is rejected. So the first transfer to a brand-new address must be at least about 0.00089 SOL, while transfers to funded addresses can be any number of lamports.
Is this tool free?
The SOL to lamports converter is free. It runs entirely in your browser, needs no wallet and sends no transaction.
Guides that go deeper
Built and maintained by Jacob, a Solana trader who uses these tools daily. Content reviewed . Every transaction is built in your browser and signed in your own wallet — see the terms for fees.