Fees
This documentation refers to CoW Protocol fees. Builders connected to MEV blocker also pay a fee, which is discussed here.
CIP-34 directs the core team of CoW DAO to spend 6 months testing fee models for the purpose of generating revenue from CoW Protocol (starting January 16, 2024). It also directs the core team to keep the DAO up to date on the progress of the testing.
The purpose of this page is to let users know which fee models are active at any point in time, so they know what fees they will encounter when using CoW Protocol (either directly or through CoW Swap).
Current Fees
Surplus fee on out-of-market limit orders
Definition: 50% of surplus on out-of-market limit orders, capped at 1% of the total volume of the order
Eligible orders: the fee only applies to out-of-market limit orders and discrete TWAP orders where the order is not executable at the time it is generated
Fee calculation: surplus * 0.5 OR volume * 0.01 [whichever number is lower]
Quote improvement fee on market orders
Definition: 50% of positive quote improvement on market orders (aka swaps), capped at 1% of the total volume of the order
Eligible orders: all market orders (including in-market limit and TWAP orders) where the user receives a better price than they were quoted
Fee calculation: quote improvement * 0.5 OR volume * 0.01 [whichever number is lower]
Volume fee on Gnosis Chain and Arbitrum One orders (excluding stable-to-stable pairs)
Definition: 10 basis points on the total volume of the order
Eligible orders: all market orders, limit orders, and TWAPs made on Gnosis Chain and Arbitrum One, excluding the following stablecoins, when they are traded for each other:
- Gnosis Chain: sDAI, xDAI, wxDAI, EURe, GBPe, USDC, USDC.e, USDT (trading these stablecoins with each other on Gnosis Chain will incur zero fee)
- Arbitrum One: USDC, DAI, USDT, USDe, USDM, FRAX, MIM (trading these stablecoins with each other on Arbitrum One will incur zero fee)
Fee calculation: volume * 0.001
At first, only a subset of Arbitrum One orders will have the fee applied.
Surplus is defined as the difference between the executed price and the minimum execution price for an order
Quote improvement is defined as the difference between the executed price and the quoted price for an order, so long as the value is positive (if the value is negative, no fee is taken)
Partner fees
Partners may charge a fee when integrating CoW Protocol. See the Partner Fee section of these docs for details on how the partner fee is calculated, with examples and payment details.