Solana's rent cuts and the SOL above the new minimum
A Solana token account is not free to store. When it is created, it must hold a deposit, called the rent-exempt minimum, that stays locked for as long as the account exists. Close the account and the deposit comes back. If the deposit idea is new to you, read what is Solana rent first; this page is about what changed in 2026 and how it can pay you back.
What changed in 2026
Solana is cutting the rent rate in five steps. The change is proposal SIMD-0437, Incrementally Reduce lamports_per_byte to 696, and each step is switched on by its own feature gate: there is no fixed calendar, and the network only proceeds to the next step after its own risk review. The rate started at 6,960 lamports per byte and steps down through 6,333, 5,080, 2,575, 1,322, to a final 696.
Two steps are live as this page is written. The first went live on mainnet on September 4, 2026. The second followed within days; this site re-read the resulting minimum straight from the chain on September 14, 2026. Three steps remain scheduled by the proposal but not yet switched on.
What that means for a token account
The deposit equals 128 bytes of fixed overhead plus the account's data size, times the rate. A standard token account holds 165 bytes of data, so 293 bytes in total. That makes the arithmetic easy to check: 293 times the rate.
| Rate | Standard account deposit | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 6,960 | 2,039,280 lamports (0.00203928 SOL) | Old minimum, before September 4, 2026 |
| 6,333 | 1,855,569 lamports | Step 1, live September 4, 2026 |
| 5,080 | 1,488,440 lamports (0.00148844 SOL) | Step 2, current (chain-verified September 14, 2026) |
| 2,575 | would be 754,475 lamports | Step 3, not yet switched on |
| 1,322 | would be 387,346 lamports | Step 4, not yet switched on |
| 696 | would be 203,928 lamports | Step 5, not yet switched on |
The would-be figures are arithmetic from the proposal's own formula, not promises: each step needs its feature gate, and the network can pause between steps.
Why older accounts now hold excess SOL
Your deposit was set when the account was created, at that moment's rate. The rate has since fallen, but the account still holds what it was funded with. The difference between what the account holds and today's lower minimum is called excess lamports. It is not a fee and not new money: it is your own SOL, sitting above a line that moved. A token account created before September 4, 2026 holds about 0.00055 SOL more than the network now requires. When the next steps land, the same accounts will hold more again.
Two ways to get it back
Close the account. If the account is empty, closing returns the entire balance, deposit and excess together, in the same transaction. This works for both token programs, the classic SPL Token Program and Token-2022. The steps are in how to close empty token accounts.
Withdraw just the excess, and keep the account. If you still use the account, you do not have to lose it. The Token-2022 program has an instruction for exactly this, WithdrawExcessLamports: it moves every lamport above the current minimum to your wallet and leaves the account open with exactly its new deposit. The classic Token Program has no such instruction. For accounts on the classic program, the excess is only reachable by closing the account, which requires an empty one.
That program distinction matters, and most explanations blur it. It is the difference between reclaiming something and being told a feature exists that your account cannot use.
What this site supports today
- Closing empty accounts on both token programs, with the revoke and unwrap cases handled in the same repair.
- Withdrawing excess lamports from Token-2022 accounts, leaving the account open. No fee on this one: the lamports are your own principal and nothing closes.
- Wrapped-SOL accounts are handled by the unwrap flow rather than excess withdrawal, because the program rejects native accounts for that instruction.
- On closes, the fee is 1 percent of the recovered rent, only when the recovery succeeds, and every fee ever collected is on the public fee ledger.
The scan finds both paths
Connect your wallet and the scan lists closable empty accounts and Token-2022 accounts holding excess, each with its own number, and you choose what runs. Read-only first is also fine: the wallet health report shows the same picture without any action.
Watch for claim sites
Anything advertising a rent payout you can claim should be read slowly. There is no airdrop here: the only SOL involved is your own deposit, and getting it back is a transaction you sign in your own wallet. A legitimate flow shows you the exact instruction before you approve it. No honest tool asks for your seed phrase, ever.