Sending Monero

Sending Monero is straightforward: paste an address, enter an amount, pick a priority, and confirm. But understanding what each step does will help you avoid mistakes and send with confidence. In this lesson you will walk through a Monero payment from start to finish and learn how to know for sure that it arrived.

What You Need to Send

To send a payment you need three things:

• The recipient's address — a long string starting with 4 (primary), 8 (subaddress), or an integrated address they provided.
• An amount in XMR.
• Enough spendable balance to cover the amount plus a small network fee.

One thing to check first: your unlocked balance. Funds you recently received are locked for 10 blocks (~20 minutes) before you can spend them, as covered in Block Confirmations and Locks. Your wallet shows both a total and an unlocked/available balance — you can only send from the unlocked portion.

Step 1: Enter the Address Carefully

Open the Send tab and paste the recipient's address, or scan their QR code. Always copy-paste or scan — never retype. A good practice is to glance at the first and last few characters to confirm they match what the recipient gave you. Malware that swaps a copied address for an attacker's is a real threat we discuss in Phishing and Scams.

Step 2: Enter the Amount

Type the amount of XMR to send. Monero is highly divisible (down to tiny fractions called piconero), so you can send precise amounts. Many wallets let you toggle a local-currency estimate, but the actual transaction is always in XMR.

Step 3: Choose a Fee Priority

Monero fees are small, and your wallet usually picks a sensible default. You can often choose a priority level:

• Higher priority — a slightly larger fee, so miners include your transaction a little sooner.
• Lower / default priority — cheaper, and almost always fine when the network is not busy.

Monero's fees stay low thanks to its dynamic block size, which lets blocks grow when demand rises. For everyday payments the default is the right choice. Learn more in Fees and Dynamic Block Size.

Step 4: Review and Confirm

Before sending, your wallet shows a summary: recipient, amount, and fee. Pause and check it:

1. Does the address match the one you were given?
2. Is the amount correct?
3. Is the total (amount + fee) within your unlocked balance?

When you confirm (and enter your wallet password if prompted), the wallet signs the transaction with your private spend key and broadcasts it to the network. Monero transactions are irreversible — there is no undo, so this review step matters.

Step 5: Confirm It Arrived

After broadcasting, the transaction appears in your history as pending, then confirms as it gets buried under new blocks. The recipient's funds will be spendable after the standard 10-block lock.

Because Monero hides amounts and addresses on-chain, the recipient cannot simply "look it up" the way they might with a transparent coin. If you need to prove you paid — for a merchant or a dispute — Monero provides cryptographic payment proofs you can generate from your wallet. We cover that in Payment Proofs. You can also review your own outgoing history any time, as shown in Checking Your Transactions.

Sending Safely: A Checklist

• Verify the address by scanning or pasting, then eyeballing the ends.
• Send a tiny test amount first when paying a new, important recipient.
• Confirm you have enough unlocked balance for amount plus fee.
• Double-check everything on the confirmation screen — it cannot be reversed.

The official using Monero guide mirrors these steps across the official wallets.

You can now move Monero in both directions — a complete, self-custodied user. The habits here (verify the address, test first, review before confirming) will protect you for years. Next, let's tie your safety together with the essential daily routines in Wallet Security Basics.