The stuck transaction (your wallet or a block explorer shows these)
Replace it (RBF)
The sender signs a new version that pays more. Only the sender can do this.
New total fee–
Relay rule used
A replacement must pay at least the old fee plus its own size at the node's minimum relay fee (BIP 125, rules 3 and 4). 1 sat/vB is the long-standing default and the safe choice; some newer nodes accept less.
Pull it through (CPFP)
Spend one of its outputs in a new "child" transaction that pays for both. The receiver can do this, or the sender using the change.
Child fee needed–
How to do it
- Sender: open the transaction in your wallet and look for Bump fee, Speed up or Replace. Enter the new rate. The coins go to the same place; the old version drops out.
- Receiver, or sender with change: spend the unconfirmed output to an address of your own, using the child fee above. Some wallets call this CPFP or Speed up.
- Or wait: when blocks get less busy, a low-fee transaction can still confirm. Nodes may drop it after about two weeks, and the coins then show as unspent again.
Never pay a website or a stranger to "unstick" a transaction. Nobody needs your seed phrase or keys to speed one up.
A transaction that paid too low a fee rate can sit in the mempool while miners fill blocks with better-paying ones. Nothing is lost: the coins have not moved yet. There are two ways to speed it up.
Replace by fee (RBF): the sender signs a new version of the same payment with a higher fee. The network accepts it only if it pays at least the old fee plus its own size at the node's minimum relay fee, which is why the new fee is a little more than "size times the new rate" when the gap is small.
Child pays for parent (CPFP): anyone who receives an output of the stuck transaction, including the sender's change, can spend it in a new transaction with a high fee. Miners take both together, so the child has to pay enough to lift the average of the pair to the rate you want.
Type the stuck transaction's size and the rate it paid; your wallet shows both, or paste its ID into a block explorer. The target rate fills in from live data.
Related lessons: Fees and the mempool, Managing UTXOs, Sending and receiving, without mistakes.
Education only, not financial, tax or legal advice. Results are estimates from what you enter and from public data that can be late or wrong; check anything important before you act on it. Fee estimates come from public mempool data that can change within seconds. Replacing or speeding up a transaction is done in your own wallet and cannot be undone; check every detail there before you sign. By using this tool you accept the Terms of Use and Disclaimer.
