Photon Sol: Fees, Features and How It Works
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Photon Sol is a browser-based trading terminal for Solana tokens, and it charges a 1% fee on every buy and sell, according to its official docs. You connect a Phantom wallet, Photon creates a separate trading wallet for you, and you trade new tokens from live feeds with one click. On top of the 1% you pay a priority fee and a Jito "bribe" that you set yourself, plus normal Solana network costs.
Unlike Telegram bots such as BONKbot, Photon runs in a web page with charts and token lists. This guide covers what Photon costs, how it works, its main features and the safety points that matter most.
Photon Sol fees
| Cost | Amount | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Photon fee | 1% of every buy and sell, collected in SOL | Photon |
| Priority fee | A tip so validators confirm your trade faster | You |
| Bribe | Paid to Jito validators to pick up your trade | You |
| Solana network fee | Small, paid in SOL | Solana |
So is Photon free? Photon's docs list no sign-up or subscription fee. The cost comes per trade: every buy and sell pays the 1% fee, with the priority fee and bribe on top.
A worked example
Photon's docs give this example: you spend 5 SOL on a buy. The 1% fee is 0.05 SOL, so 4.95 SOL actually goes into the token. Later you sell and the trade returns 1 SOL; the fee on that sale is 0.01 SOL.
Now add your own settings. Say you use a 0.001 SOL bribe on each trade. The round trip then costs about:
- Photon fees: 0.05 + 0.01 = 0.06 SOL
- Bribes: 2 × 0.001 = 0.002 SOL
- Plus your priority fee and network fees on both trades.
On small trades, the fixed parts (bribe and priority fee) take a bigger share. A 0.1 SOL buy with a 0.001 SOL bribe loses 1% to the fee and roughly another 1% to the bribe before the price moves at all.
How Photon works: setup and login
- Go to photon-sol.tinyastro.io, the address Photon's docs point to, and connect a Phantom wallet.
- On first login, click Generate to create your Photon trading wallet.
- Save the private key when it appears. Photon's docs say it is revealed only once.
- Deposit SOL from your Phantom wallet into the trading wallet, then click Check Balance.
- Set your slippage, priority fee and bribe before your first trade.
On a phone, Photon's docs recommend using it inside the Phantom app's browser. To move funds in and out on mobile, they tell you to import the trading wallet's private key into Phantom.
Key Photon features
- Live pairs feed: newly launched tokens with liquidity, FDV, volume, buy/sell counts and audit results, with a Quick Buy button so you can buy in two clicks.
- Trending page: the top 100 tokens people are trading, sorted over 1, 5, 30 or 60 minutes.
- Memescope: custom dashboards for Pump.fun and Moonshot tokens, filtered by top-10 holders, dev holding, bonding progress, holders, liquidity and volume.
- Limit orders: buy dip, stop loss and take profit, set by market-cap drop, exact market cap or a line on the chart, with an expiry of up to 72 hours. If both a stop loss and a take profit cover 100% of your tokens, the other order cancels when one fills.
- DCA orders: split a buy or sell into several orders over time within a market-cap range.
- Multi-wallet: up to 5 active trading wallets, and buy or sell with several of them at once.
- Trading presets: three profiles (S1, S2, S3) for slippage, priority, bribe and MEV settings.
- Token data and security: mint authority, share of LP burned, top-10 holder share, deployer and open-trading time. Photon marks LP burned under 50% and top-10 holders above 15% in red.
Smart-MEV protection: Fast vs Secure
Photon calls its MEV protection Smart-MEV. Where your trade is sent depends on the mode and on your bribe:
| Mode | Bribe below threshold | Bribe above threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Fast | Under 0.001 SOL: sent directly to Jito | Over 0.001 SOL: sent via bloXroute |
| Secure | Under 0.002 SOL: sent directly to Jito | Over 0.002 SOL: sent via bloXroute |
You can also pick Default Speed (your global settings) or Auto Speed, where Photon adjusts priority and bribe based on recent successful trades. Auto Speed is convenient, but check what it is spending, because those costs come on top of the 1% fee.
For a broader explanation of slippage, priority fees and sandwich attacks, see our Trojan sniper settings guide; the ideas are the same on any Solana terminal.
Is Photon Sol safe?
Photon's docs and terms put wallet security on you. The terms say you are solely responsible for your keys, and they limit the company's liability for trading losses. The main risks:
- Look-alike sites. When we searched "photon sol" on Google, an unofficial Google Sites page using the Photon name showed up in the results. Only use photon-sol.tinyastro.io, which is the address Photon's own docs link to.
- The one-time private key. If you skip saving it, you lose your only easy way to import the trading wallet elsewhere. Never paste it into any other site or share it with "support" in a DM.
- Double clicks. Photon's FAQ warns that if you see "transaction executing" and click Quick Sell again, both orders can go through. Selling 50% twice means you sold everything.
- The tokens themselves. Most new memecoins lose most of their value. Photon's red flags (mint authority on, little LP burned, concentrated holders) help, but Photon's docs say this data is constantly updated and tell you to do your own research before buying.
Photon vs BONKbot vs Trojan
| Photon | BONKbot | Trojan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading fee | 1% per buy and sell | 1% per successful swap | 1% per successful trade |
| Main interface | Web terminal (Phantom login) | Telegram bot plus Telemetry web terminal | Web terminal plus Telegram bot |
| Cashback in official docs | Not described | 5% to 25% by volume tier | 10% to 35% by Arena rank |
| Perpetuals | Not covered in Photon's docs | Not covered in BONKbot's docs | Yes, powered by Hyperliquid |
All three charge the same headline fee. The difference is how you like to trade: Photon is built around charts and live token feeds in a browser, BONKbot around Telegram. See BONKbot fees and features and what Trojan is for the details. A Photon vs Axiom comparison is planned once we have checked Axiom's docs.
FAQ
How much does Photon cost?
1% of every buy and sell, collected in SOL, per Photon's docs. Priority fees, bribes and network fees are extra.
Is Photon free?
Photon's docs list no sign-up or subscription fee, but trading is not free: each buy and each sell pays the 1% fee.
Is Photon a Telegram bot?
Photon's docs describe a web terminal you use in a browser after connecting a Phantom wallet, not a Telegram trading bot. The Telegram link on its site (@photonlounge) is a community channel.
What is Photon Memescope?
A customizable feed of Pump.fun and Moonshot tokens that you filter by holders, dev holding, bonding progress, liquidity, volume and market cap.
Does Photon work on Ethereum?
Photon's docs include a separate "Photon on ETH" section with its own 1% fee. This guide covers the Solana version only.
Keep learning
- Photon fact sheet
- BONKbot fees and features
- What is Trojan?
- Trojan sniper settings: slippage, fees and MEV
Fees and features come from Photon's official documentation (linked from photon-sol.tinyastro.io), checked on the update date above. Photon's docs pages are not dated, so confirm current settings in the app. This is not investment advice.