A swap quote expiry is the time limit on an offered estimate of what you will receive for a crypto swap. It matters most when prices or route conditions can change before your transaction is submitted and confirmed.
What does an expiring quote mean?
A quote is a snapshot: it describes a proposed trade using current prices, available liquidity, fees, and the route chosen to move the assets. Its expiry says how long that snapshot should be treated as current; it does not necessarily mean your wallet or funds expire.
Before signing, check the quote’s timestamp or countdown, the asset and network you are sending from, and the minimum amount you are promised to receive. For a cross-chain swap, confirm the source and destination networks too; checking the Manta bridge supported networks helps ensure the route matches where you intend the funds to go.
Quote expiry and a transaction deadline are related but different. A quote can become stale before a transaction is signed, while a deadline is a condition some swap transactions enforce on-chain: after that time, the transaction reverts instead of executing.
What can change between the quote and the swap?
Prices move as traders buy and sell, and a route may use one or more liquidity pools. If the price moves against your trade, the amount you receive can fall; if available liquidity changes, the proposed route may no longer work. Cross-chain routes also depend on activity and execution across more than one network.
The key protection to understand is slippage tolerance, the amount the final result may differ from the quoted result. A swap may encode a minimum output: for example, with a 1% tolerance on a quote of 1 ETH worth of output, the transaction might accept as little as about 0.99 ETH worth, depending on the exact assets and calculation. A tighter tolerance limits that difference but can make a transaction fail more often.
Expiry alone does not guarantee a particular outcome. If an old quote is submitted, the service may reject it, the transaction may revert, or the swap may execute at a worse price if the transaction still satisfies its minimum-output condition. Some aggregator API documentation recommends refreshing quotes older than 30 seconds, but that is guidance, not a universal expiry rule.
What should you check before signing?
Imagine you are swapping ETH on Ethereum for an asset on Arbitrum. You receive a quote, then pause to compare it with another option. Before signing, refresh the quote if its timer has run out or the displayed terms have changed, and verify that the destination is still Arbitrum and the minimum received still makes sense to you.
Read the wallet’s transaction summary as well as the quote. Confirm the token, amount, destination, and network, and make sure the transaction is the swap you intended to authorize. A wallet signature authorizes a transaction; on Ethereum, a submitted transaction is executed by the network, and a failed on-chain transaction can still use gas. Simply letting an unsigned quote expire does not itself submit a transaction.
If the quote has expired, request a fresh one and compare the new minimum output and route with the old terms before signing. Ethereum’s transaction documentation explains how signed transactions are broadcast and executed, while swap API documentation describes quote refresh and deadlines; together, they show why the quote’s age and the transaction’s actual conditions both matter.
Use an unexpired quote, check its minimum output and destination, and sign only when those terms still match your intent.
Top comments (0)