Key Takeaways
- In most cases, Bitcoin transactions need 1 to 1.5 hours to complete.
- Bitcoin transactions will usually be confirmed with one confirmation within 10 minutes.
- If several hours have passed without your Bitcoin transaction being confirmed, just wait.
How Long Do BTC Transactions Take?
- How Long Do BTC Transactions Take?
- How Long Does It Take to Transfer Bitcoin in Between Wallets?
- Recent Developments on Scaling
- Why Was 10 Minutes Picked as the Block Time?
- Why Is My Bitcoin Transaction Taking So Long?
- Conclusion
Bitcoin transactions will usually get 1 confirmation within 10 minutes.
If you sent too low of a fee, it could be longer than 10 minutes.
- If several hours have passed without your Bitcoin transaction being confirmed, just wait.
- If more than 72 hours have gone by without confirmation, resend your transaction.
In general, Bitcoin transactions will be confirmed between 10 minutes and over a day later.
The two biggest influences on the confirmation time are the amount of transaction fees and the activity on the network.
On average, a confirmation will take about an 10 minutes, however some merchants require many confirmations before they consider the money sent.
Average confirmation time (Jan 2018 - April 2020).
How Long Does It Take to Transfer Bitcoin in Between Wallets?
The amount of time it takes to transfer between wallets will vary with each transaction.
Each Bitcoin transaction needs to be network-approved before completion.
The standard set by the Bitcoin community is six transfer confirmations before it is complete. Each confirmation can be expected to take about 10 minutes, thus getting an average of one transaction per hour.
For most transactions, one confirmation is enough to know that the transaction went through.
Transactions are prioritized by miners according to the fee they receive when confirming them.
If you pay a higher fee, you are more likely to secure a miner to process it, therefore decreasing the processing time.
Recent Developments on Scaling
The Bitcoin community is a bit divided on how best to handle the issues with scaling. Some, mainly Bitcoin Cash fans, believe a larger block size is the solution. This would allow for more transactions per block.
There is also some debate about such improvements as Lightning Network and Segregated Witness (SegWit), specifically their potential to increase network speed without increasing block sizes.
Two major upgrades to Bitcoin tx throughput.
Why Was 10 Minutes Picked as the Block Time?
Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, chose 10 minutes as the block time with efficiency in mind.
Satoshi felt 10 minutes was a good balance between speed, but also giving time for the network to see the new block.
If blocks were to be faster than 10 minutes, more miners would waste their verification work.
Why Is My Bitcoin Transaction Taking So Long?
Bitcoin is sometimes experiencing spikes in network traffic because of the higher demand for transactions.
If your transaction is stuck, the best thing to do is wait.
If you need the transaction sent urgently and want to speed things up, try RBF.
Conclusion
On average, a Bitcoin transaction will take around an hour to complete. However, this figure can easily increase to over a day, depending on the network congestion.
You can reduce the time it takes for your transaction by paying a higher miner fee or choosing to conduct your transactions when the network is experiencing less congestion.
As a bonus, times with less congestion tend to result in lower transaction fees.
FAQs
Understanding Bitcoin transaction time is crucial for any trader. While Bitcoin's transaction speed can vary, it generally takes around 10-60 minutes to get completed. However, factors like network congestion, transaction fees, and many others can influence it.
How long do Bitcoin transactions take to complete? ›
In general, Bitcoin transactions usually take from one to one and half hours to complete. On occasion, a high volume of transactions taking place on the Blockchain could lead to transaction delays.
Why do Bitcoin transactions take so long to confirm? ›
Why do some bitcoin transaction confirmations take so long? Each block can only contain a certain number of transactions, and that number is determined largely by the space available in each block, or the 'block size,' which is 1MB.
How long does it take to solve a Bitcoin? ›
How Long Does It Take to Mine 1 Bitcoin? The reward for mining is 3.125 bitcoins. It takes the network about 10 minutes to mine one block, so it takes about 10 minutes to mine 3.125 bitcoins.
What is the longest pending Bitcoin transaction? ›
What is the longest unconfirmed transaction possible in a blockchain? The longest unconfirmed transaction possible in a blockchain is indefinitely. A transaction can remain unconfirmed if the miner prioritizes transactions with higher fees, causing low-fee transactions to remain unconfirmed.
What's the longest a Bitcoin transaction can take? ›
Bitcoin's transaction times can vary greatly, ranging anywhere from ten minutes to one day. However, it will usually take between thirty minutes and two hours to complete the process. It is worth keeping in mind that the average transaction time tends to be around one hour.
Can a Bitcoin transaction be unconfirmed forever? ›
How Long Can A Bitcoin Transaction Stay Unconfirmed? If you set your Bitcoin Transaction Fee too low it can remain unconfirmed for days or even months.
How can I speed up my Bitcoin confirmation? ›
If you have sent a transaction that is taking a long time to confirm, you can speed it up by using our increase fee feature. This resends your unconfirmed transaction with a higher fee. Bitcoin miners prioritize transactions with higher fees when selecting transactions to include in a block.
Why is my bitcoin transaction received but not confirmed? ›
This is normal, and confirmation time depends mostly on current network traffic. You can check the status of your transaction on any blockchain explorer by looking up the transaction ID, sending address, or receiving address.
Can a Bitcoin transaction take days to confirm? ›
Bitcoin transactions are generally considered completed once they have been confirmed in 1-6 blocks. As each block on average takes 10 minutes to be confirmed into a new block by the Bitcoin Mining process, this means your transaction will take anywhere from 0-60 minutes on average to be completed.
But in practice, since the computational power thrown into the bitcoin mining improved vastly, the time takes to mine a block is kept at a constant number (which is 10minutes), by increasing the level of difficulty. During the first five years of bitcoin, the difficulty level increased from 1 to 50 billion.
Can you cash out Bitcoin right away? ›
Cash out at a Bitcoin ATM
Bitcoin ATMs are a way to get immediate access to cash using your bitcoins. Bitcoin ATMs do not operate like traditional ATMs. In order to make a cash withdrawal and sell your Bitcoin from the ATM, the machine provides a QR code to which you send your Bitcoin.
Is Bitcoin hard to cash out? ›
One of the easiest ways to cash out your cryptocurrency or Bitcoin is to use a centralized exchange such as Coinbase. Coinbase has an easy-to-use “buy/sell” button and you can choose which cryptocurrency you want to sell and the amount.
Why is my Bitcoin transaction taking so long? ›
Sometimes there's a high volume of digital currency being sent globally, and there are more transactions than there is space available in each new block to include the transaction. High demand for block space can delay your send.
How to check BTC transaction status? ›
Go to https://blockstream.info/, https://www.blockchain.com/en/, or https://mempool.space/ and type or paste the transaction ID into the search field. If you're receiving BTC in your NoOnes wallet, the funds should arrive after 3 confirmations.
What delays Bitcoin transaction? ›
Occasionally, a high volume of transactions on the blockchain could lead to transaction delays. You can check if this is the case by viewing the volume of pending transactions. You can check on your transaction in any Bitcoin blockchain explorer by searching the Bitcoin address where your funds were sent.
How long does a Bitcoin trading transaction take? ›
On the Bitcoin network, the average confirmation time for a BTC payment is about 10 minutes. However, transaction times can vary wildly. This is because it is affected by factors such as the total network activity, hashrate and transaction fees.
How long does it take to get money out of Bitcoin? ›
Q: How long does it take to transfer Bitcoin to a bank account? A: The transfer time for Bitcoin to a bank account varies but typically takes 4-6 days. It can depend on the exchange, bank, network congestion, and other factors.
Do Bitcoin transactions get stuck? ›
If you set your custom fee too low or there is a sudden spike in network fees, your transaction might get stuck pending. If this happens, you can accelerate the transaction with either replace-by-fee (RBF) or a child-pays-for-parent (CPFP) transaction.
How long does a Bitcoin cash transaction take? ›
However, on average, BCH transactions typically take approximately 10 to 20 minutes to receive the first confirmation.
