# Swap Cost Notes > What the conversion actually took Swap Cost Notes covers onramp, offramp, swap, corporate wallet, custody, acquiring, stablecoin payments, bitcoin payments, otc, licensing, cards, industries, exchange and nothing else. Every article is written by Lena Virtanen. Keeps a running record of what conversions actually cost, measured rather than quoted. The intended reader is people who convert between assets often enough that the spread adds up. No price predictions, no investment advice and no paid placements: articles explain how something works so the reader can decide for themselves. Where a number matters, the article states where it came from and when it was measured. 20 articles, published 2026-08-29 to 2026-10-26. Every article is also served as plain Markdown: replace the trailing slash with `.md` — https://swapcostnotes.com/repeatable-method-for-comparing.md ## Exchange - [Building a Repeatable Method for Comparing Swap Costs](https://swapcostnotes.com/repeatable-method-for-comparing/): The whole method in one page: what to record, when to record it, and which conclusions the data can support. - [What a Zero-Fee Swap Charges Instead](https://swapcostnotes.com/what-a-zero-fee-swap-charges/): No venue converts for free. If the fee line says zero, the cost is in the rate, and it can be measured. - [Weekend Spreads Against Weekday Spreads, Pair by Pair](https://swapcostnotes.com/weekend-spreads/): Captures across four weekends on three pairs. The widening is consistent in direction and uneven in size. - [Tracking One Pair for Thirty Days: What the Spread Did](https://swapcostnotes.com/tracking-one-pair-thirty-days/): A month of daily captures on a single pair, and the three patterns that survived the noise. - [Minimum Sizes Where the Fixed Fee Stops Mattering](https://swapcostnotes.com/minimum-sizes-fixed-fee/): Below a certain amount, flat costs make a conversion pointless. The threshold is one division and worth knowing for your own venue. - [How Long a Quote Holds, and What Happens When It Expires](https://swapcostnotes.com/how-long-a-quote-holds/): Quote windows run from a few seconds to a minute. What the venue does at the end of that window is the part worth knowing. - [Same Swap, Five Venues: What the Difference Looks Like](https://swapcostnotes.com/same-swap-five-venues/): One pair, one size, five places, measured within the same ten minutes. The spread between best and worst was larger than any fee. - [Slippage on Thin Pairs, Measured Rather Than Estimated](https://swapcostnotes.com/slippage-on-thin-pairs/): How much a given order size moves the price, and why the book depth matters more than the fee schedule. - [Quoted Rate Versus Executed Rate: A Month of Observations](https://swapcostnotes.com/quoted-versus-executed/): Thirty paired measurements of what was promised and what arrived, and what the gap depended on. ## Swap - [Failed Swaps: What You Pay for a Transaction That Reverts](https://swapcostnotes.com/failed-swaps/): A conversion that does not complete is not free. What is charged, by whom, and which failures are recoverable. - [Gas Estimates Versus Gas Paid: A Reconciliation](https://swapcostnotes.com/gas-estimates-versus-gas-paid/): The estimate shown before a transaction and the amount actually deducted are different numbers. How different, and why. - [Hidden Conversion Steps Inside a Single Swap](https://swapcostnotes.com/hidden-conversion-steps/): One button can contain three conversions. Each crosses a spread, and the receipt shows one number. - [Bridge Fees Compared Against Simply Selling and Rebuying](https://swapcostnotes.com/bridge-fees-versus-sell-and-rebuy/): Moving an asset between chains has two routes. The cheaper one depends on amount, and the crossover is calculable. - [Aggregators Versus Direct Venues on Identical Pairs](https://swapcostnotes.com/aggregators-versus-direct/): An aggregator searches several venues and adds its own margin. Measurements of when the search is worth the margin. - [Round-Trip Cost: Converting Back Is Not Free](https://swapcostnotes.com/round-trip-cost/): Every conversion has a return leg, and the return leg costs the same as the outbound one. What that does to short holding periods. - [The Cost of Swapping During a Volatile Hour](https://swapcostnotes.com/cost-of-swapping-in-a-volatile-hour/): Spreads widen exactly when people most want to transact. Measurements of how much, and what the delay would have cost instead. - [Network Fee or Spread: Which Dominates at Which Size](https://swapcostnotes.com/network-fee-or-spread/): One is flat and one is proportional. The crossover point decides which one to optimise, and it is lower than most people assume. - [Measuring the True Cost of a $1,000 Swap](https://swapcostnotes.com/true-cost-of-a-thousand-dollar-swap/): A method for finding what a conversion actually took, rather than what the confirmation screen reported. ## Stablecoin payments - [Stablecoin to Stablecoin: The Swap People Assume Is Free](https://swapcostnotes.com/stablecoin-to-stablecoin/): Both sides are worth a dollar, so the conversion should be costless. Measurements say otherwise, and the reason is instructive. ## Otc - [Why Splitting a Large Swap Sometimes Costs More](https://swapcostnotes.com/splitting-a-large-swap/): Splitting reduces slippage and multiplies flat costs. Where the two effects cross depends on depth, not on preference. ## About this site - [About](https://swapcostnotes.com/about/): what the site covers, who writes it and how articles are checked. - [Author](https://swapcostnotes.com/author/): Lena Virtanen. Keeps a running record of what conversions actually cost, measured rather than quoted. - [Contact](https://swapcostnotes.com/contact/): corrections and questions. - [Privacy](https://swapcostnotes.com/privacy/): what the site does and does not collect. ## Machine-readable - [https://swapcostnotes.com/llms-full.txt](https://swapcostnotes.com/llms-full.txt): full text of every article in one file. - [https://swapcostnotes.com/sitemap-index.xml](https://swapcostnotes.com/sitemap-index.xml): every indexable URL. - [https://swapcostnotes.com/rss.xml](https://swapcostnotes.com/rss.xml): feed of new articles.