Photon Sol: fees, private key and setup
Photon is a browser trading terminal for Solana tokens. It charges 1% of every buy and every sell, collected in SOL. There are no volume tiers, no cashback and no referral discount in its documentation, so the price is the same for everyone. The one thing you must get right is saving the private key, because Photon shows it only once.
What Photon is
Photon runs at photon-sol.tinyastro.io. You connect a wallet such as Phantom to log in, and Photon creates a separate trading wallet for you. Trades from that wallet go through without a wallet pop-up for each one, which is why buying feels immediate.
The terminal has a live feed of new pairs, a trending page, and Memescope, a customizable feed for filtering new tokens by the metrics you care about. Trading tools include quick buy and sell, limit orders that you can set by dragging a line on the chart, DCA orders, trading from several wallets at once and Smart-MEV protection. Each token page flags basic risks, for example an enabled mint authority or unburned liquidity.
The documentation also has a section for Ethereum. It does not describe copy trading or a Telegram bot.
Photon fees
Photon's fee page gives one rule: 1% of the initial amount on every buy and every sell. Transfers between your own wallets are free.
On top of that you pay the Solana network fee, plus the priority fee and the bribe you set. The bribe goes to Jito validators so they pick up your transaction sooner. Photon's documentation stresses that limit orders need a high enough priority fee and bribe, or they may land late. The pool or launchpad also charges its own fee, for example 1.25% on a Pump.fun bonding curve.
Is there a Photon referral code discount?
No discount appears in Photon's documentation. Referral links feed Photon Points: you earn points for your own trades and for the trades of people you refer, and the top 100 point earners each week share a points jackpot. Pages that promise a percentage off Photon's fee are not supported by the documentation.
Because the fee is flat, Photon costs more than terminals with cashback once your volume is high. On $100,000 of monthly volume, 1% is $1,000, 0.90% is $900 and 0.75% is $750.
Is Photon safe?
- The private key is shown once. When Photon creates your trading wallet, you reveal the private key with a slider and it is never shown again. If you do not save it, you can still trade and transfer funds out through Photon, but you cannot import that wallet anywhere else. Photon's documentation asks new users to save the key and import it into Phantom straight away.
- The trading wallet is a hot wallet. Trades from it do not wait for a confirmation in your wallet app, which is the point of the product and also the risk. Keep in it only what you are actively trading.
- The team is not named. The documentation we read names no founders or team members, and its terms refer only to "the Company". Photon has been running since at least early 2024, but you are trusting an operator you cannot identify.
- Clone sites. The address is long and easy to imitate. Type it or use a saved bookmark, and be careful with search ads.
- Token flags are hints. A token with burned liquidity and no mint authority can still collapse.
How to start on Photon
- Open Photon and connect a walletUse Phantom or another Solana wallet. This wallet is your login and the source of your deposits.
- Generate the trading wallet and save the keyReveal the private key, store it offline and confirm you can read it back. You get one chance.
- Import the key into PhantomThis gives you a second way into the trading wallet that does not depend on Photon's site.
- Deposit SOLTransfer from your connected wallet. You can split a deposit across several trading wallets.
- Set slippage, priority fee and bribeUse the settings page for defaults. You can override them for a single trade on the token page.
- Make a small first tradeCheck the 1% fee and the amount received before you increase size.
Who Photon suits
Good fit
- You want a simple, fast terminal and a flat fee you do not have to think about.
- You set limit orders from the chart.
- You trade from several wallets at once.
Less of a fit
- You trade high volume. Cashback programs elsewhere lower the fee and Photon's stays at 1%.
- You want copy trading or a Telegram bot.
- You are not confident you will store a private key safely on the first try.
Questions
What fee does Photon charge?
1% of every buy and every sell, collected in SOL. Transfers between your own wallets are free. Network fees, priority fees and bribes are extra.
Does a Photon referral code lower the fee?
Not according to Photon's documentation. Referral links are part of the Photon Points program and do not change the 1% fee.
I did not save my Photon private key. What now?
Photon reveals the key only once, at wallet creation. You can keep using the wallet inside Photon and transfer your funds to another wallet, but you cannot export that wallet later.
Does Photon have copy trading?
Photon's documentation does not describe copy trading or a Telegram bot. It covers the web terminal, including its mobile browser version.
Does Photon work on a phone?
Yes, in a mobile browser. The documentation has sign-up and trading instructions for mobile traders.
Sources
- Photon documentation: Photon fees, Photon Points Leaderboard, Settings, Limit Orders, DCA Orders, Memescope, Multi-Wallet, Mobile Traders, Terms of Use (Photon's GitBook), read on 10 November 2026.
- Pump.fun fees page (pump.fun/docs/fees), last updated 17 October 2026.
Fees checked November 2026. Platforms change pricing without notice, so the fee on your order preview is the one that counts.