Fees and Pricing

Lexe aims to be transparent about what you pay. During beta, most fees are waived so you can try Lexe for free. This page explains Lexe's fees and what to expect after beta.

All rates listed here may change in the future.

Summary

Node hosting

Lexe hosts your Lightning node for free. There is no monthly subscription or hosting fee. Lexe has no plans to change this in the foreseeable future.

Routing fees

When you send a payment over the Lightning Network, Lexe charges a small routing fee.

• Sending to other Lexe users: 0.3% of the payment amount (after beta: 0.5%).
• Sending to non-Lexe users: 0.425% + network fee (after beta: 0.5% + network fee). The network fee is typically very small (around 0.075%) and goes to Lightning nodes that route your payment.
• Receiving payments: Free (after beta: 0.5%).

Channel and liquidity fees

A few concepts and terms are helpful for understanding the fees below.

• Payment channels are bilateral relationships between Lightning nodes. Together, they form the Lightning Network. Once a payment channel is open, payments can flow through, settling instantly and off-chain.
• An LSP (Lightning Service Provider) is like an ISP for Lightning: your gateway to the broader network. Your Lexe node connects to the Lightning Network through Lexe's LSP.
• Inbound liquidity is your capacity to receive payments: capital that Lexe allocates to your channel, ready to flow toward you. Since the total channel size is fixed, this determines how much you can receive. Lexe adds extra liquidity with each inbound channel: ₿50,000 for your first inbound channel, doubling each time up to a maximum of 0.1 BTC.
• An inbound channel (also called a JIT or just-in-time channel) is opened by Lexe's LSP when a payment arrives but you don't have enough liquidity to receive it. This happens seamlessly: you receive the payment as if you had liquidity all along. However, opening a channel incurs an on-chain cost. Lexe's LSP fronts the on-chain cost, and you cover it by paying a channel fee.
• An outbound channel is one you open yourself by depositing on-chain Bitcoin into your wallet and using the funds to open a channel to Lexe's LSP.

Channel fees

During beta, channel fees are waived. After beta, inbound channels cost up to 100% of on-chain costs (covering both open and close), with discounts for higher-volume wallets. Outbound channels cost the miner fee only.

Liquidity fees

During beta, liquidity fees are waived. After beta, Lexe charges up to 12% APR on your inbound liquidity, paid weekly, with discounts for higher-volume wallets. Your node calculates and pays this automatically; Lexe cannot pull funds from your wallet. The fee stops when your inbound liquidity is used up or your balance goes to zero.

Example: In a ₿250,000 channel where your balance is ₿150,000, your inbound liquidity is ₿100,000 (calculated as ₿250,000 - ₿150,000). At 12% APR, that's ₿12,000/year or about ₿230/week. No liquidity fees are paid if your balance is 100% of the channel (you have zero inbound liquidity) or if you spend your balance down to zero.

On-chain fees

Receiving on-chain: Free.

Sending on-chain: Miner fee only. Lexe does not charge any fee for on-chain sends.

Partner fees

If you use Lexe through a third-party app or integration, the developer may charge additional fees. These partner fees are set by the developer, not Lexe.

For details on partner fees, see the developer documentation.