A volume session has six cost lines, not one. Base network fees, priority fees, optional block engine tips, refundable token account rent, the venue swap fee on every trade in both directions, and the tool fee. On PumpWave the tool fee is a flat 1% of the target volume you configure, which is 1 SOL on the smallest 100 SOL session. On a well configured session the Solana network side is a rounding error next to the venue fee, and the venue fee is the line most operators forget to budget.
Short version
- Six lines, one of which comes back. Token account rent is returned when the account closes.
- The venue swap fee is charged on both legs. A round trip pays it twice, and a session is thousands of round trips.
- Flat percentage pricing scales with the job. Subscriptions do not, which cuts both ways.
- Per-transaction pricing looks cheap on the quote and is the most expensive model on a wide session.
- Any quote that does not name the venue fee separately is either hiding it or does not know it is there.
The six lines
Every one of these is on chain and every one of them is checkable. The sizes below are the network constants, which do not change, and the shapes of the variable lines.
| Cost line | Paid to | Size | Comes back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base network fee | Solana validators | 0.000005 SOL per signature | No |
| Priority fee | Solana validators | Set per compute unit, varies with congestion | No |
| Block engine tip | Block engine and validator | Optional, a few thousand lamports up | No |
| Token account rent | Held in the account | 0.00203928 SOL per new account | Yes, on close |
| Venue swap fee | The launchpad or AMM | Charged on every swap, both directions | No |
| Tool fee | PumpWave | Flat 1% of target volume | No |
The important structural point is in the third row from the bottom. Token account rent is a deposit, not a fee. Each fresh wallet that touches a token needs an associated token account, and each of those locks 0.00203928 SOL until it is closed. On a 2,000 wallet session that is roughly 4 SOL sitting in accounts, and it comes back when the accounts close. A tool that treats that as a cost is either quoting you badly or not closing the accounts.
Working a real number
Take the smallest session we run: 100 SOL of routed volume across 500 wallets, orders between 0.10 and 0.30 SOL, spread over an hour. The tool fee is 1 SOL flat. A few thousand signatures at 0.000005 SOL each is a fraction of a SOL. Rent across 500 new accounts is about 1 SOL, held and returned. The venue fee is charged on both legs of every swap against the full 100 SOL of routed notional, so it is the second largest line after the tool fee and in some configurations the largest.
Scale that to 1,000 SOL of routed volume and the shape holds: the tool fee moves linearly, the venue fee moves linearly, the network fees move with the number of transactions rather than with the notional, and rent moves with the wallet count. That is why a wide, slow session and a narrow, fast one of the same size do not cost the same. Wallet count is what drives the rent and the signature count, and there is a full treatment of that trade-off in how many wallets a volume bot needs.
How the pricing models compare
There are three ways this is sold, and they fail in different places.
| Model | What you pay | Good when | Bad when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat percentage | A fixed share of target volume | You want the cost known before funding and scaling with the job | You run very large volume, where a percentage is a large absolute number |
| Monthly subscription | A fixed amount regardless of use | You run many sessions every month | You run one launch, where you pay for a month and use an hour |
| Per transaction | A fee on every trade | You run narrow sessions with few, large orders | You run wide sessions, where the transaction count is the whole point |
The per transaction model deserves a warning. It is quoted as a tiny number and a volume session is, by design, an enormous number of transactions. Multiply the quote by the number of orders your configuration actually produces before you compare it to anything, because a wide session is exactly the case where that model becomes the most expensive of the three.
What the quote should tell you
- The tool fee, as an absolute number in SOL, before you fund anything.
- Whether the venue swap fee is inside that number or on top of it. It is almost always on top.
- Whether token account rent is returned, and whether the accounts are actually closed.
- Whether the priority fee and any tip are configurable or fixed by the operator.
- What happens to unspent session capital when the run ends.
If a service will not answer the second and fifth of those in writing, that is the answer. PumpWave quotes the fee as a flat 1% of the target volume, shows it in the console before a single lamport is sent, and returns what is left of the session deposit to the wallet that funded it.
The cost nobody puts in the table
A session that produces volume and nothing else is a total loss, not a partial one. That is the real cost line, and it is not on any invoice. It is decided by whether anything is happening around the window the flow buys you, which is the argument made at length in do volume bots actually work.
The second unquoted cost is a misconfigured session: too few wallets, too short a run, orders all the same size. It pays every line in the table above and produces a tape that reads as one wallet. The fee is identical. The outcome is not.
Questions people actually ask
What is the cheapest a volume bot session can be?
On PumpWave the floor is a 100 SOL target, which is a 1 SOL tool fee, plus the venue swap fee on the routed notional, plus network fees, plus refundable rent. Below that size the fixed costs start to dominate and the tape is too thin to read as anything.
Is token account rent really refundable?
Yes, token account rent is refundable. The 0.00203928 SOL per associated token account is held by the network while the account exists and is returned to the owner when the account is closed. Whether you actually get it back depends on whether the tool closes the accounts it opened.
Do I pay the venue fee twice on a round trip?
Yes, a round trip pays the venue fee twice. The launchpad or AMM charges its fee on each swap, and a buy followed by a sell is two swaps. Any session that cycles in and out pays it on both legs, which is why the venue line scales with routed volume rather than with the number of wallets.
Why is a percentage fee better than a subscription?
A percentage fee is not better in general, it is better for a specific case: one launch, one session, a cost you want fixed before you commit. If you are running sessions continuously a subscription can be cheaper. Work out your monthly routed volume and compare the two numbers directly.
Does the priority fee matter for a volume session?
The priority fee matters less for a volume session than for a snipe. A volume session is not racing anybody, so it can sit at a modest priority fee and simply wait. Paying a high priority fee on thousands of routine swaps is a straightforward way to burn SOL for nothing.
What happens to the money that is not spent?
The session deposit funds the wallets that do the routing. What is left when the session ends, including the rent released by closing token accounts, goes back to the wallet that funded it. PumpWave never holds a balance for you and there is no withdrawal flow, because there is nothing to withdraw from.
Run one and watch it land
Paste a mint, shape the session, see the exact fee before you fund anything. Flat 1% from 100 SOL, no install, no seed phrase.
Builds and runs the PumpWave session engine at PumpWave Labs in Estonia. Writes about Solana launch mechanics from the operator side: what settles, what it costs, what the board does with it. Corrections and arguments to support@pumpwave.net.