Monetize Your App on Solana

Introduction

Integrate in-app swaps to let users trade seamlessly and at the best prices across Solana’s top DEXs. As your app grows, you can monetize those trades with volume-baesd fees (aka affiliate fees, trading fees, or commision) to generate revenue and build a sustainable business. Available on all pricing plans.

See our Monetization Report to learn how top DeFi apps are turning trading activity into millions.

Collect volume-based fees

The 0x Solana Swap API supports one or more volume-based fees within a single swap request. This lets you route fees to multiple recipients with independently specified amounts and sides — perfect for multi-product apps, partner revenue-share setups, or flexible monetization strategies.

To apply volume-based fees, include the following fields in the body of your /solana/swap-instructions request:

swap_fee_ppm — the fee amount(s) in parts per million (ppm).
swap_fee_recipient — the account(s) to receive the fees.
swap_fee_side — (optional) the side each fee is charged on: buy (the output token) or sell (the input token).

Fees on Solana are expressed in parts per million (ppm), not basis points. 1000000 ppm = 100%, so a 1% fee is 10000 ppm and a 5% fee is 50000 ppm.

Multiple fees and recipients

Each comma-separated position defines one fee entry, so a single request can charge several fees to several recipients across both sides:

1 {
2   "swap_fee_ppm": "50000,25000,10000",
3   "swap_fee_recipient": "recipient1,recipient2,recipient3",
4   "swap_fee_side": "buy,buy,sell"
5 }

In this example, a 5% and a 2.5% fee are collected on the buy token for two different recipients, and a 1% fee is collected on the sell token for a third.

Fees on the same side are applied sequentially: each entry is charged on the amount remaining after the previous entries on that side have been deducted, not on the original amount. For example, two buy-side fees of 50000 and 25000 ppm produce an effective fee of 7.375%, not 7.5%. Each fee amount is rounded up to the next base unit when needed.

Buy-side vs sell-side fees

buy — the fee is taken from the output token. This reduces the amount_out returned in the quote.
sell — the fee is taken from the input token before the swap is routed. This reduces the amount routed into the swap.

Fee recipient accounts

If a fee recipient is the taker’s own token account for that side, the fee is treated as absent (not a self-transfer) and is omitted from the quote and the returned instructions. See Important Integration Notes for details on fee recipient token accounts, including why 0x does not create them for you.

Displaying fees

The fee you charge is fully determined by the values you send in the request, so you can display it in your UI directly from those: each swap_fee_ppm rate, the token it is charged in (the output token for a buy fee, the input token for a sell fee), and its swap_fee_recipient.

The quote already reflects any buy-side fees: the returned amount_out is net of them, so the value you show the user as the amount received is correct as-is. Sell-side fees reduce the amount routed into the swap before the quote is produced.

For the complete request and response schema, see the API Reference.

Pricing considerations

When deciding how much to charge, set your pricing in a way that strengthens your bottom line while aligning with the value you provide to customers. The volume-based fee impacts the price for the end user, so find the sweet spot where your solution remains competitive.

Be aware that swap_fee_ppm has a default per-app limit of 100000 ppm (10%). The cap is enforced per fee entry, not on the combined total: each fee in the list is validated individually against the limit. For example, two sell-side fees of 60000 ppm (6%) each are both accepted under a 100000 ppm cap, even though they sum to 12%, because neither individual entry exceeds the cap. If your application requires a higher per-entry value, please reach out to us.