Slippage and price impact
What slippage and price impact are, why the minimum-received figure is the number that matters, and how to set your tolerance.
WHAT SLIPPAGE IS
Slippage is the gap between the price you saw when you got a quote and the price you actually get when your transaction lands. Prices move. Other people trade the same pools you do. Between the moment you sign and the moment the chain confirms, the rate can shift.
roodswap runs best-route aggregation across dozens of DEXs and bridges to find the route with the most output after fees and gas. But no route can freeze the market. Slippage tolerance is the buffer you give a trade so it can still execute if the price drifts a little.
WHY MINIMUM RECEIVED IS THE NUMBER THAT MATTERS
Every quote shows a minimum received. That is the floor. It is the least you will get after the underlying DEX or bridge fee, network gas, and the flat 0.1% service fee, which is already included in the displayed rate.
The quoted output is an estimate. The minimum received is a limit enforced by the transaction itself. If the trade cannot deliver at least that amount, it does not go through. Read this number before you sign. It is the number you are actually agreeing to.
HOW TO SET TOLERANCE
- 1Open the quote
Get a quote for your swap, bridge, or sell. Look at the estimated output and the minimum received.
- 2Find the slippage setting
Adjust slippage tolerance in the trade settings. This is the percentage of price movement you will accept before the trade reverts.
- 3Set it to fit the pair
Deep, liquid pairs like major stablecoins tolerate a tight setting. Thin or volatile tokens need more room, or they will revert on you.
- 4Check the minimum received again
Raising tolerance lowers your minimum received. Confirm the floor is still acceptable before you sign.
PRICE IMPACT ON THIN TOKENS
Price impact is different from slippage. Slippage is the market moving around you. Price impact is you moving the market. When a token has shallow liquidity, your own order pushes the price as it fills. A large trade into a thin pool can execute far below the rate you expected.
The quote surfaces this. If price impact is high, the pool is too small for the size you are trading. Trade a smaller amount, or accept that you are paying a real cost to move that size through that pool.
High price impact is not a bug in the route. It is the pool telling you it is too shallow for your trade size. Split the order or reduce it.
WHY A TRANSACTION CAN REVERT
Your minimum received is written into the transaction as a hard limit. If the price moves past your tolerance before the transaction confirms, the trade cannot meet that limit, so it reverts instead of filling at a worse rate. This protects you from getting far less than you agreed to.
A revert on chain still costs gas, because the network did work to process and reject it. If your trades keep reverting, the market is moving faster than your tolerance allows. Widen tolerance to let it through, or wait for calmer conditions. Same-chain sends are a different case: they carry no service fee and are gas-only, and because they just transfer tokens to an address, there is no minimum-received check to revert against.