Why is transaction sending hard on Solana?
Every interaction with Solana — trading on a DEX, minting an NFT, transferring tokens, or calling a program — requires a transaction that lands onchain. During network congestion, unoptimized transactions are frequently dropped before reaching a leader. Helius provides direct routing to leaders, priority fee optimization, and enterprise-grade redundancy so your transactions confirm quickly and reliably. This page helps you choose the right sending method for your use case. There are two paths:Basic sending
For apps where reliability matters more than raw speed — payments, wallets,
social apps, and most program interactions. Billed per send from your plan’s
credits.
High-performance sending
For latency-sensitive trading — propAMMs, snipers, copy traders, liquidation
bots, arbitrage. Routed through Helius Sender
and paid for with SOL tips instead of credits.
Which option should I choose?
Start with the question that matters most: is latency critical to your business?| Your use case | Recommended method | Cost model |
|---|---|---|
| Payments, wallets, social apps, general program calls | Basic sendTransaction | 1 credit per send |
| Atomic, all-or-nothing execution (no latency requirement) | Basic sendBundle | 1 credit per send |
| Competitive trading needing the fastest landing (transactions or bundles) | Sender Max | 0.001 SOL min tip (priority tip buffer) |
| Atomic, all-or-nothing execution with the fastest landing | Sender Max — bundles | 0.001 SOL min tip (priority tip buffer) |
| Cost-optimized trading on a single fast path | Sender — SWQOS-only | 0.000005 SOL min tip |
Basic sending
Basic sending is the right choice when reliability matters more than shaving off milliseconds. Transactions route directly to current and upcoming block leaders through a priority lane, bypassing the public queue. Each send is billed as 1 credit from your plan.Send transactions
Build, optimize, and confirm a
sendTransaction with compute-unit
tuning, priority fees, and a robust confirmation loop.Send bundles
Submit up to 5 transactions for atomic, all-or-nothing execution via
sendBundle, proxied directly to Jito.Basic sending is most appropriate when latency is not critical to your
business (payments, wallets, social apps, and similar). For the lowest possible
latency, use Helius Sender.
High-performance sending
For latency-sensitive trading, Helius Sender submits your transaction across all pathways (Helius, Jito, Harmonic, Rakurai, etc.) for the fastest possible inclusion. Sender does not consume API credits — you pay with a SOL tip on each transaction, and it is available on every plan including the free tier. Sender offers two tiers. Pick based on how competitive your transactions need to be:Sender Max (fastest landing)
Routed across every high-speed pathway and entered into a priority tip
buffer, with a minimum 0.001 SOL tip. Handles both transactions and
bundles — best for highly contested submissions.
SWQOS-only (cost-optimized)
Routes through a single fast SWQOS path with a minimum 0.000005 SOL tip.
Best when you want low-latency sending at the lowest tip.
Key concepts for reliable transactions
Regardless of the method you choose, understanding these concepts is key to success on Solana.Optimizing Transactions
Learn best practices for setting priority fees and compute units to maximize
your transaction’s chances of landing quickly.