Electrumwallet
Electrumwallet: transaction fee adjustments
Electrum, a Bitcoin wallet, can raise the fee on a replaceable transaction while it remains unconfirmed. Replace by fee (RBF) creates a new version of the spend with a higher fee. The replacement needs enough spendable value and fresh signatures before broadcast. Electrum 4.8.3 excludes Lightning channel funding transactions from its fee-bump action.
Updated ยท- Transaction layer
- Bitcoin on-chain payments.
- Desktop control
- The History tab's Increase Fee action, when the selected transaction qualifies.
- Recipient alternative
- Child pays for parent (CPFP), when the recipient controls a suitable unspent output from the unconfirmed payment.
Fee settings and eligibility
| Parameter | Value or condition | Where it applies | Limits and consequences |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replacement flag |
Replace by fee: True
|
Unconfirmed transaction details. | The flag doesn't override the Lightning funding restriction in Electrum 4.8.3. |
| New fee rate | Higher than the original rate. | Electrum 4.8.3 fee-bump construction. | A higher rate doesn't guarantee immediate confirmation. |
| Fee rate unit |
sat/vbyte
.
|
Fee-rate labels since Electrum 4.5.3. | The rate measures satoshis per virtual byte of transaction size. |
| Transaction size unit |
vbytes
.
|
Transaction-size labels since Electrum 4.5.3. | Size affects the total fee at a given rate. |
| Auto-connect setting | On: median of received server fee estimates. Off: main-server fee estimates only. | Dynamic on-chain fee estimates. | Low and high client sanity bounds apply in both modes. |
| Sender CPFP input | A suitable unspent wallet-owned output (such as change) from the unconfirmed transaction. | A child transaction that the sender creates. | This route needs an output that the sender can spend. |
| Cancellation state | Unconfirmed and replaceable. | The Cancel (double-spend) action. | Submitting a competing spend doesn't establish that cancellation succeeded. |
Signing and broadcasting a replacement
The Electrum 4.8.3 fee-bump logic removes the original signatures when constructing a replacement. The revised transaction needs fresh signatures before broadcast, so changing the fee setting alone doesn't update the network transaction.
Sign authorizes the replacement's new contents, while Broadcast submits the signed transaction to the network. Neither a fee estimate nor a broadcast action establishes confirmation; miners must include the transaction in a block.
When CPFP provides another route
CPFP spends an output from the unconfirmed parent in a new child transaction. A sufficiently high child fee can compensate for the parent's low fee and encourage miners to confirm both. The original transaction keeps its fee; the child pays an additional fee.
A recipient can use Child pays for parent for an incoming payment when they control a suitable unspent output. A sender can use a suitable unspent output that their wallet owns, such as change. In Electrum 4.8.3, the child output remaining after its fee must meet the wallet's dust threshold.
Cancelling an unconfirmed payment
Cancel (double-spend) creates a competing spend back to your wallet for an eligible unconfirmed transaction. Electrum 4.8.3 requires a higher fee rate for that replacement, too. The original can still confirm first, so broadcasting a cancellation doesn't prove that the payment stopped. Electrum can't undo a transfer that Bitcoin miners have already confirmed.
