Slippage is the price change that happens between the moment you hit “swap” and the moment the trade confirms onchain. Slippage is a normal part of DeFi, but when you’re trading with size or swapping long-tail tokens, these small shifts can add up fast.
Your slippage tolerance determines how much the price can move before your swap executes. By adjusting this setting yourself, you can balance between price protection and execution reliability, helping you avoid failed transactions and keep prices close to your quote.
Understanding your slippage tolerance
Slippage tolerance is the maximum price difference you're willing to accept between the time you submit a swap and when it actually executes.
If the market moves beyond your set tolerance, the trade won’t execute, protecting you from getting filled at an unexpected price.
The right setting depends on the trade:
- If your slippage is too low, even small price shifts can cause a transaction to revert or fail.
- If your slippage is high, you might get filled far from your quoted price — especially in volatile or illiquid pairs.
You can customize this setting directly before swapping. In the Uniswap Web App and Wallet, your slippage tolerance is called “Max slippage.” You can adjust it in the app’s Settings.
Slippage adjustment scenarios
Different trading situations can affect how slippage tolerance behaves. Below are two scenarios illustrating how pool depth and trade size might lead users to adjust their slippage settings.
Scenario 1 — New token with low liquidity: A user swaps 1 ETH for 10 ABC (a fictional token), a token with only $50K in its pool. Because the pool is shallow, the price can move significantly as orders fill. In this situation, the user may set a higher slippage tolerance (for example, 1% or more) so the transaction still goes through if the pool price shifts during execution.
Scenario 2 — Large stablecoin trade in deep pools: A user swaps $100K in USDC for USDT, both stablecoins, through a liquidity pool with a depth exceeding $10M. Given minimal expected price movement, the user may choose a tighter slippage tolerance (for example, 0.05 %) but should be aware that very low tolerances can increase the chance of transaction failure if market conditions change slightly.
More ways to manage slippage
The Uniswap Web App and Wallet calculate estimated slippage on each swap. You can also set your own max slippage tolerance before confirming a trade, giving you more control over how much price movement you’re willing to accept.
Here are a few considerations for managing your slippage tolerance manually:
1. Assess pool depth before swapping
Before you hit swap, check how much liquidity is in the pool to get a sense for whether or how your trade could affect the price. On the Uniswap Web App, visit the Pools page to view pool sizes and market-depth charts. Thin liquidity could indicate a higher slippage risk.
If you’re trading a large amount, you can split your swap into smaller chunks. That way, each chunk taps the deepest pools without drastically shifting prices.
Example: Trading $10K in a pool with $200K will shift the price more than trading $10K in a pool with $20M.
2. Trade during non-peak times
Slippage tends to spike during periods of high volatility or gas congestion. Trading during calmer hours — when markets are less reactive or gas fees are lower — can help you get more stable pricing.
Tools like Blocknative’s Gas Estimator help you gauge network conditions and decide if it’s the right time to swap.
3. Use limit orders when available
Limit orders let you set the exact price you're willing to trade at, rather than accepting whatever the current market price is. This helps you avoid getting filled at worse prices during sudden price movements. The Uniswap Web App supports limit orders for select pairs.
4. Route swaps through AMMs with deep liquidity
Automated market makers (AMMs) like the Uniswap Protocol aggregate billions in liquidity across thousands of token pairs, helping reduce slippage and improve pricing consistency for swaps of all sizes. With deep liquidity across networks, AMMs help make every swap more efficient.
Take control of your swaps
Trade with precision on Uniswap apps. Adjust your slippage tolerance, access deep liquidity, and execute swaps how you want — all in the Uniswap Web App and Wallet.
