Library · Crypto, word by word · Inside Bitcoin
What is dust in Bitcoin?
Dust is an amount of bitcoin so small that spending it would cost a large share of, or more than, its value in fees. Bitcoin nodes using the standard relay policy refuse to pass on transactions that create outputs below a dust limit, which for common older address types is 546 satoshis.
What it means for you
Dust in your wallet may not be worth spending at normal fee rates, and adding it as an input to a payment can cost more in fees than it contributes. Because the threshold is tied to the cost of spending, coins that were worth moving when fees were low can become uneconomic when fees rise.
How it works
The dust rule compares an output's value with the fee it would take to spend it: the developer guide states it as outputs receiving fewer than one third as many satoshis as it would cost to spend them. For standard P2PKH or P2SH outputs that works out to 546 satoshis. This is relay policy for standard transactions, not a consensus rule, so such transactions are not invalid, but nodes following the policy do not relay them. Data-carrying OP_RETURN outputs are exempt because they are provably unspendable.
Source: Bitcoin Developer Guide: Transactions (standard transactions, dust) · checked 4 October 2026
Related words
Educational content, not financial advice. Written by hand and checked against the source named above. Something wrong? Tell us and we reply within two business days.