New to Bitcoin? Start at 1.1

3.7Lesson 7 of 11

Did my payment arrive?

5 min readChecked 26 Oct 2026

This lesson answers

  • Why is my bitcoin transaction pending or unconfirmed?
  • My bitcoin transaction is stuck. What can I do?
  • What is a transaction ID (txid)?
  • How long does it take for bitcoin to show up?
  • The payment is confirmed but my exchange hasn't credited it. Why?
  • I sent bitcoin to the wrong address. Can I get it back?

Every bitcoin payment has a transaction ID, a long code your wallet or exchange shows after sending. Paste it into any block explorer and you see exactly where the payment stands: waiting in the queue, confirmed, or not known to the network at all.

Live from the chain
The queue right nowLoading live figures…
Payments waiting
…
Fee for the next block
…
Low-priority fee estimate
…
Newest block added
…

If your payment pays less than the fees being taken now, it waits until the queue clears.

See it on satoshis.watch →

What you might see

Pending or unconfirmedThe payment is valid and waiting in the queue. Usually the fee is just lower than what miners are taking right now.
1 or more confirmationsIt is in a block: confirmed. Each new block on top makes it much harder to undo, which is why many services wait for several confirmations, often around six, for larger amounts. The receiver's app may take a moment to catch up.
Not foundThe network never got it, or computers dropped it from their queues: by default after two weeks, or sooner if queues are full and its fee is low. The coins never left. Depending on the wallet, they show as spendable again on their own, or after you cancel or "abandon" the old payment, and then they can be sent anew.

A stuck payment

If you sent it, many wallets offer a "speed up" or "bump fee" button. It replaces the waiting payment with the same one paying a higher fee. If you are receiving, some wallets can spend the waiting coins onward with a high fee, which pulls the original into a block with it. Otherwise, waiting works: when the queue shortens, low-fee payments confirm.

Confirmed, but not credited

Exchanges and services credit a deposit only after their own number of confirmations, often one to six, and sometimes more for large amounts. If it has more than that and still isn't credited, contact them with the transaction ID, the amount, the time and the deposit address. A deposit sent on the wrong network, or to an old deposit address, often needs their support team to recover.

Sent to the wrong address

If the address belongs to someone, only they can send the coins back. If it was an exchange's address, its support may be able to trace and return the deposit. Anyone who promises to "recover" or "reverse" a confirmed payment for a fee is running a scam; see if you've been scammed.

Check yourself

Practice, not a test. Think of your answer first, then reveal it.

1What does it usually mean when a payment has been pending for hours?Reveal

Its fee is lower than what miners are taking right now. It will confirm when the queue shortens, or it can be sped up.

2What do you need when you contact an exchange about a missing deposit?Reveal

The transaction ID, the amount and the time, plus the deposit address you used.

3Who can return bitcoin sent to the wrong valid address?Reveal

Only whoever holds that address's keys. If it belongs to an exchange, the exchange's support may be able to help.

Sources

  1. Bitcoin Core, mempool replacement policy: how a waiting payment can be replaced with a higher fee.
  2. Bitcoin Core default mempool expiry of 336 hours (two weeks).
  3. Bitcoin developer guide, payment processing: why services wait for several confirmations before treating a large payment as settled.
  4. Queue, fees and blocks: read from a Bitcoin node every few minutes.