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How Does Gem Wallet Earn from Swaps?

How Gem Wallet Makes Money​

Gem Wallet is free to download and use. Creating wallets, holding, sending, and receiving crypto cost nothing beyond the blockchain's own network fee, which goes to the network, not to Gem Wallet.

Gem Wallet earns mainly from a small fee on swaps made in the app. When a swap provider fills your swap, a share of the swap amount goes to Gem Wallet. Swap providers call this a referral, affiliate, or integrator fee. It's how most self-custodial wallets fund their development.

How Much Is the Swap Fee?​

RouteGem Wallet's fee
Most swap providers, same-chain and cross-chain0.5% of the swap amount
Chainflip0.45%
OKX (DEX)0.7%, or 1.5% on TRON
Hyperliquid spot swapsA builder fee of up to 0.045%

This is the fee Gem Wallet receives. The provider, liquidity pools, and blockchain have their own fees on top. See What are Gem Wallet Swap Fees? for the full breakdown.

How the Fee Is Collected​

You never pay Gem Wallet's fee as a separate payment. It's part of the swap itself:

  • Built into the quote. The amount shown under You Receive already has the fee taken out. What you see before you confirm is what you get, within your slippage setting.
  • Paid by the swap, in the same transaction. Depending on the provider and network, the fee comes from the token you pay or the token you receive. The provider or the swap's smart contract sends Gem Wallet's share to Gem Wallet's fee address as part of the same swap.
  • Recorded on-chain. Because the fee is part of the swap transaction, you can see it on the block explorer, often as a small transfer to Gem Wallet's address or as an affiliate field in the swap.

Gem Wallet never holds your funds during a swap. The swap runs through the provider's protocol, and you sign it from your own wallet. See What are Swap Providers?

Does Gem Wallet Pick the Provider That Pays It the Most?​

No. Gem Wallet asks the available providers for a quote at the same time and shows the one that gives you the most of the token you're receiving, after all fees, including Gem Wallet's.

When two quotes are almost the same, Gem Wallet may prefer a provider that trades directly on-chain, with no third-party service in between, because it's simpler and usually settles faster. You can always open Providers on the swap screen and choose another quote yourself. See How to Select a Swap Provider in Gem Wallet.

What Gem Wallet Doesn't Charge For​

  • Receiving crypto
  • Sending crypto (you only pay the network fee)
  • Staking (you pay network fees, and the validator takes a commission on rewards)
  • Buying or selling with a card or bank (the fiat provider sets its own fees)
  • Connecting to dApps with WalletConnect

For every action, see Does Gem Wallet Charge Fees?

warning

Gem Wallet never asks you to pay a fee to "unlock", "verify", or "release" your funds, and support never asks you to send crypto. Anyone who does is a scammer.