By Abdullah Al-Janoubi. Published 29 October 2026. Numbers checked the same day.
"It costs almost nothing" is the usual answer. That is close to true on Solana, but "almost nothing" hides four separate charges, one of which changed twice in September 2026 and is expected to change again soon. This guide lists every line of the bill for a standard SPL token with Metaplex metadata, explains where each number comes from, and shows how to check it yourself.
Not financial advice. These are costs of creating a token, not a forecast of what a token will be worth. Most new tokens end up worth nothing.
The short answer
For a classic SPL token with Metaplex metadata on Solana mainnet, created in one transaction, the network cost in late October 2026 is about 0.0163 SOL. At the SOL price we saw on CoinGecko on 29 October 2026 at 08:50 (Asia/Riyadh time), about 100.50 US dollars, that is roughly 1.64 US dollars.
If you use a launch tool, add its fee. For example, the WorldScope launcher charges a flat 0.05 SOL on mainnet and nothing on devnet, which puts a full mainnet launch at about 0.0663 SOL.
Creating a liquidity pool so the coin can trade is a separate step with separate costs, covered at the end.
Line 1: Rent deposits for three accounts
Solana charges for storage through "rent". The Solana Foundation's own explanation is that rent is not really a fee: it is a deposit that every account must hold, sized to its data, and the lamports are returned when the account is closed. In practice, the mint and metadata accounts of a coin that people hold stay open, so most creators should treat this money as spent.
A standard launch creates three accounts:
| Account | Size | Deposit on 29 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Mint account (original Token Program) | 82 bytes | 1,066,800 lamports = 0.0010668 SOL |
| Your Associated Token Account | 165 bytes | 1,488,440 lamports = 0.00148844 SOL |
| Metaplex metadata account | depends on name, symbol and URI length | about 0.0037 SOL in our test, at most about 0.0041 SOL |
We read these numbers directly from Solana mainnet on 29 October 2026 with the getMinimumBalanceForRentExemption RPC method. You can do the same; any public RPC answers it.
Why rent is cheaper than older guides say
Older guides quote about 0.00146 SOL for a mint account and about 0.00204 SOL for a token account. Those numbers were correct for years, but they are now out of date. SIMD-0437 reduces the lamports_per_byte constant from 6,960 down to 696 in five separate steps. According to the Solana Foundation's reduced-rent page, steps 1 and 2 went live on mainnet in September 2026, bringing the constant to 5,080 lamports per byte, which is 27 percent below the original level. That matches what we measured: (82 + 128 bytes of account overhead) × 5,080 = 1,066,800 lamports.
Steps 3 to 5 are expected with the Agave 4.4 release, planned for November 2026, and each step can be paused. If all five land, a mint account deposit would fall to 146,160 lamports and a token account to 203,928 lamports. Always check the live number rather than trusting a blog post, including this one.
Line 2: The Metaplex Token Metadata fee
Name, ticker and image do not live in the mint account. For classic SPL tokens they usually live in a Metaplex Token Metadata account. Metaplex charges a protocol fee for that. Its public fee schedule (last updated 29 September 2026) lists:
| Program | Instruction | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Token Metadata | Create | 0.01 SOL |
This is the single largest network-side cost in the launch, bigger than all three rent deposits combined. Metaplex says half of protocol fees are converted to MPLX for the DAO treasury and half are kept by the Metaplex Foundation. The schedule can change, so check the source before you launch.
Line 3: Signature and priority fees
The Solana docs list a base fee of 5,000 lamports per signature. A launch transaction needs two signatures, one from your wallet and one from the new mint keypair, so the base fee is 10,000 lamports, or 0.00001 SOL.
You can also add a priority fee, calculated as compute unit price times compute unit limit. When the network is quiet it can be zero; at busy moments it helps your transaction land. When we sampled recent priority fees on mainnet on 29 October 2026, the median was zero. A good launcher reads the current level and shows it on the bill.
Line 4: The launcher's fee (if you use one)
Doing everything yourself with the Solana CLI has no extra fee, only the lines above. Launch websites charge for convenience in different ways: some take a flat fee, some take a share of trading, some charge for extra options such as revoking authorities. Read the fee line carefully and look for anything that keeps an authority with the platform.
The WorldScope launcher uses a single flat fee, shown on the bill before you sign:
- Mainnet: 0.05 SOL launch fee + network cost (about 0.0163 SOL) = about 0.0663 SOL
- Devnet: no launch fee; you only use free test SOL
In a mainnet simulation we ran on 28 October 2026 (the transaction was simulated, not sent), the total balance change was 66,300,290 lamports: exactly 50,000,000 for the launch fee and 16,300,290 for the network side.
Putting it together
| Line | Mainnet, late Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Mint account deposit | 0.0010668 SOL |
| Token account deposit | 0.0014884 SOL |
| Metadata account deposit | about 0.0037 SOL |
| Metaplex Create fee | 0.0100000 SOL |
| Signatures (2 × 5,000 lamports) | 0.0000100 SOL |
| Priority fee | 0 to a few thousand lamports |
| Network total | about 0.0163 SOL |
| Optional launcher fee (WorldScope) | 0.05 SOL |
| Total with WorldScope | about 0.0663 SOL |
What is not included: liquidity
A token with no pool cannot be traded. Creating a pool on a decentralized exchange needs the SOL and tokens you deposit as liquidity, plus that exchange's own pool creation and account costs. Those vary by exchange and pool type, so read the exchange's fee page. Remember that whoever holds the LP tokens can remove the liquidity later; buyers watch for that.
How to check the cost yourself
- Ask any public RPC for
getMinimumBalanceForRentExemptionwith 82 and 165 bytes. - Check the current Metaplex fee schedule.
- Run your launch on devnet first and compare the balance before and after.
- On mainnet, use a tool that simulates the exact transaction and shows the balance change before you sign. The WorldScope launcher does this and blocks signing if your balance is too low.
After launch, paste your mint into the free WorldScope token analyzer to see how the coin reads to a buyer once it has a trading pair: mint authority, freeze authority, liquidity and holder concentration.
FAQ
Is it really under two dollars? The network side was about 0.0163 SOL on 29 October 2026, roughly 1.64 US dollars at a SOL price of 100.50 dollars. The dollar figure moves with the SOL price.
Will it get cheaper? The rent part should, if SIMD-0437 steps 3 to 5 activate. The 0.01 SOL Metaplex fee is set by Metaplex and is not part of that change.
Can I get the rent back? Rent comes back when an account is closed. A mint in the original Token Program cannot be closed, so for a live coin that part is effectively spent.
Sources
- Solana Docs, Fees: https://solana.com/docs/core/fees
- Solana Foundation, Reduced Rent (SIMD-0437): https://solana.com/upgrades/reduced-rent
- Solana Docs, Tokens on Solana: https://solana.com/docs/tokens
- Metaplex protocol fee schedule: https://github.com/metaplex-foundation/disclosures/blob/main/protocol-fees.md
- Metaplex Docs, Token Metadata overview: https://www.metaplex.com/docs/smart-contracts/token-metadata
- SOL price: CoinGecko, read 29 October 2026, 08:50 Asia/Riyadh time
Educational content, not financial, legal or tax advice. Figures were checked on 29 October 2026 and will change.
#Solana #SolanaFees #SPLToken #TokenLaunch #CryptoEducation #SIMD0437 #Web3
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