Fee Abstraction

Every Solana transaction requires SOL to pay network fees. But users coming to your payment application expect to transact in stablecoins—not manage a second token balance. Fee abstraction removes this friction by having someone else pay the fees.

This guide covers two levels:

How fee sponsorship works — the underlying Solana primitive
Fee abstraction at scale with Kora — a production-ready fee abstraction service

How Fee Sponsorship Works

Solana transactions have a designated fee payer—the account that pays the network fee. By default, this is the first signer. But you can specify a different account as the fee payer, allowing a third party (the "sponsor") to cover fees on behalf of the sender.

Both the sender and sponsor must sign the transaction:

The sender signs to authorize the transfer of their tokens
The sponsor signs to authorize payment of the network fee

See How Payments Work on Solana for core payment concepts.

The steps below show the core flow. See the Demo for complete runnable code.

Create a Sponsor Account

Generate a separate keypair for the sponsor who will pay transaction fees. The sponsor needs SOL for fees but doesn't need to hold the tokens being transferred.

Sponsor Transaction Fee

const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

Create Transfer Instruction

Create the token transfer instruction with the sender as authority. The sender owns the tokens and must sign the transfer.

Sponsor Transaction Fee

const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

const transferInstruction = getTransferInstruction({
  source: senderAta,
  destination: recipientAta,
  authority: sender, // Sender signs for the transfer
  amount: 250_000n // adjusted for the mint's decimals
});

Send with Sponsor as Fee Payer

Use prepareAndSend with both authority (the sender who signs the transfer) and feePayer (the sponsor who pays fees). Both must sign the transaction.

Sponsor Transaction Fee

const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

const transferInstruction = getTransferInstruction({
  source: senderAta,
  destination: recipientAta,
  authority: sender,
  amount: 250_000n
});

const signature = await client.transaction.prepareAndSend({
  authority: sender, // Signs the transfer instruction
  feePayer: sponsor, // Pays the transaction fees
  instructions: [transferInstruction],
  version: 0
});

Create a Sponsor Account

Generate a separate keypair for the sponsor who will pay transaction fees. The sponsor needs SOL for fees but doesn't need to hold the tokens being transferred.

Create Transfer Instruction

Create the token transfer instruction with the sender as authority. The sender owns the tokens and must sign the transfer.

Send with Sponsor as Fee Payer

Use prepareAndSend with both authority (the sender who signs the transfer) and feePayer (the sponsor who pays fees). Both must sign the transaction.

Sponsor Transaction Fee

const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

Demo



// Generate keypairs for sender, recipient, and sponsor (fee payer)
const sender = (await generateKeypair()).signer;
const recipient = (await generateKeypair()).signer;
const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

console.log("Sender Address:", sender.address);
console.log("Recipient Address:", recipient.address);
console.log("Sponsor Address (Fee Payer):", sponsor.address);

// Demo Setup: Create client, mint account, token accounts, and fund with initial tokens
const { client, mint } = await demoSetup(sender, recipient, sponsor);

console.log("\nMint Address:", mint.address);

// Derive the Associated Token Accounts addresses (ATAs) for sender and recipient
const [senderAta] = await findAssociatedTokenPda({
  mint: mint.address,
  owner: sender.address,
  tokenProgram: TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ADDRESS
});

const [recipientAta] = await findAssociatedTokenPda({
  mint: mint.address,
  owner: recipient.address,
  tokenProgram: TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ADDRESS
});

console.log("Sender Token Account:", senderAta.toString());
console.log("Recipient Token Account:", recipientAta.toString());

// =============================================================================
// Sponsored Token Payment Demo
// =============================================================================

// Create instruction to transfer tokens from sender to recipient
// Transferring 250,000 base units = 0.25 tokens (with 6 decimals)
const transferInstruction = getTransferInstruction({
  source: senderAta,
  destination: recipientAta,
  authority: sender, // Pass signer, not just address
  amount: 250_000n // 0.25 tokens
});

// Prepare and send transaction with sponsor as fee payer using @solana/client
// The sponsor pays transaction fees, sender signs for the transfer
const signature = await client.transaction.prepareAndSend({
  authority: sender, // Sender signs the transfer instruction
  feePayer: sponsor, // Sponsor pays the transaction fees (different account)
  instructions: [transferInstruction],
  version: 0
});

console.log("\n=== Sponsored Token Payment Complete ===");
console.log("Transaction Signature:", signature.toString());

// Fetch final token account balances using @solana/client SPL token helper
const splToken = client.splToken({
  mint: mint.address,
  tokenProgram: "auto"
});

const senderBalance = await splToken.fetchBalance(sender.address);
const recipientBalance = await splToken.fetchBalance(recipient.address);

console.log("\nSender Token Account Balance:", senderBalance);
console.log("Recipient Token Account Balance:", recipientBalance);

// Fetch transaction details
const transaction = await client.runtime.rpc
  .getTransaction(signature, {
    encoding: "jsonParsed",
    maxSupportedTransactionVersion: 0
  })
  .send();

const feePayer = transaction?.transaction.message.accountKeys?.[0];
console.log("\nNote: The first account in accountKeys is always the fee payer");
console.log("Fee Payer Address:", feePayer);

// =============================================================================
// Demo Setup Helper Function
// =============================================================================

Console

Click to execute the code.

Demo



// Generate keypairs for sender, recipient, and sponsor (fee payer)
const sender = (await generateKeypair()).signer;
const recipient = (await generateKeypair()).signer;
const sponsor = (await generateKeypair()).signer;

console.log("Sender Address:", sender.address);
console.log("Recipient Address:", recipient.address);
console.log("Sponsor Address (Fee Payer):", sponsor.address);

// Demo Setup: Create client, mint account, token accounts, and fund with initial tokens
const { client, mint } = await demoSetup(sender, recipient, sponsor);

console.log("\nMint Address:", mint.address);

// Derive the Associated Token Accounts addresses (ATAs) for sender and recipient
const [senderAta] = await findAssociatedTokenPda({
  mint: mint.address,
  owner: sender.address,
  tokenProgram: TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ADDRESS
});

const [recipientAta] = await findAssociatedTokenPda({
  mint: mint.address,
  owner: recipient.address,
  tokenProgram: TOKEN_2022_PROGRAM_ADDRESS
});

console.log("Sender Token Account:", senderAta.toString());
console.log("Recipient Token Account:", recipientAta.toString());

// =============================================================================
// Sponsored Token Payment Demo
// =============================================================================

// Create instruction to transfer tokens from sender to recipient
// Transferring 250,000 base units = 0.25 tokens (with 6 decimals)
const transferInstruction = getTransferInstruction({
  source: senderAta,
  destination: recipientAta,
  authority: sender, // Pass signer, not just address
  amount: 250_000n // 0.25 tokens
});

// Prepare and send transaction with sponsor as fee payer using @solana/client
// The sponsor pays transaction fees, sender signs for the transfer
const signature = await client.transaction.prepareAndSend({
  authority: sender, // Sender signs the transfer instruction
  feePayer: sponsor, // Sponsor pays the transaction fees (different account)
  instructions: [transferInstruction],
  version: 0
});

console.log("\n=== Sponsored Token Payment Complete ===");
console.log("Transaction Signature:", signature.toString());

// Fetch final token account balances using @solana/client SPL token helper
const splToken = client.splToken({
  mint: mint.address,
  tokenProgram: "auto"
});

const senderBalance = await splToken.fetchBalance(sender.address);
const recipientBalance = await splToken.fetchBalance(recipient.address);

console.log("\nSender Token Account Balance:", senderBalance);
console.log("Recipient Token Account Balance:", recipientBalance);

// Fetch transaction details
const transaction = await client.runtime.rpc
  .getTransaction(signature, {
    encoding: "jsonParsed",
    maxSupportedTransactionVersion: 0
  })
  .send();

const feePayer = transaction?.transaction.message.accountKeys?.[0];
console.log("\nNote: The first account in accountKeys is always the fee payer");
console.log("Fee Payer Address:", feePayer);

// =============================================================================
// Demo Setup Helper Function
// =============================================================================

Console

Click to execute the code.

When you create a token account for an end user, they can close it and reclaim the SOL used for rent. Consider charging users for account creation in stablecoins, or factor this cost into your product economics.

Fee Abstraction at Scale with Kora

The fee payer primitive is powerful, but building a production gasless system requires more: managing sponsor wallets, handling token conversions (so users can "pay" fees in USDC), rate limiting, and security controls.

Kora handles this complexity. It's a JSON-RPC server that provides fee abstraction so users never need SOL. You can fully sponsor fees or accept fee payment in any token.

Deploy Kora with a single command:

cargo install kora-cli
kora --config path/to/kora.toml rpc start --signers-config path/to/signers.toml

Then use the Kora client to sign and send transactions:

pnpm add @solana/kora

import { KoraClient } from "@solana/kora";

const kora = new KoraClient({ rpcUrl: "https://your-kora-instance" });

const { signature } = await kora.signAndSendTransaction({
  transaction: base64EncodedTransaction
});

Fee Abstraction

How Fee Sponsorship Works

Create a Sponsor Account

Create Transfer Instruction

Send with Sponsor as Fee Payer

Create a Sponsor Account

Create Transfer Instruction

Send with Sponsor as Fee Payer

Demo

Fee Abstraction at Scale with Kora

Kora Resources

Kora Quick Start

Full Transaction Demo

API Reference

Node Operator Guide

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