What is the difference between confirmed, pending and locked balance?

Pending usually means your payment is still being processed or waiting for enough checks on the Monero network. Confirmed means the network has recorded the payment, while locked means you cannot spend it yet—even if it is already confirmed.

Why these labels can overlap

Your wallet holds the information you need to receive and spend Monero, or XMR. Its balance labels describe two different things:

• Payment progress: Has the network recorded the payment?
• Spending availability: Can you send those coins somewhere else yet?

A confirmation is a record that your transaction has been included in a block, a batch of transactions added to Monero’s shared payment history. Each additional block adds another confirmation.

This is why “confirmed” does not always mean “ready to spend.” A payment can be confirmed but still locked. Wallets and mining services also use these labels slightly differently, so check the explanation beside your balance.

What a pending balance means

In your wallet, pending often means a transaction has been sent to the network but has not yet appeared in a block. Some wallets also use “pending” for an incoming payment that has confirmations but is not yet spendable.

On a mining website, “pending balance” may mean something different: the service has credited mining rewards to your account but has not sent them to your wallet.

For example, you might be waiting for:

• A minimum payout amount.
• The service’s next payout run.
• A mining reward to become available for distribution.
• A transaction already sent to receive confirmations.

An account balance on a website is not the same as XMR received in your own wallet. If the service says it has paid you, look for a transaction ID, the reference that identifies the payment on the network.

What confirmed and locked mean

A confirmed balance generally includes payments recorded on the network. However, the app may reserve that label for payments that have passed its required confirmation count.

A locked balance is XMR your wallet recognizes but cannot spend yet. For a normal received payment, Monero requires 10 confirmations before you can spend it. With blocks arriving about every two minutes, allow roughly 20 minutes, though the actual wait varies.

Newly mined coins have a longer lock: 60 blocks, or roughly two hours. This applies to the original block reward paid by the network. If a mining pool later sends you an ordinary payout transaction, your received payout normally follows the usual 10-confirmation rule—not another 60-block wait.

You may also see some funds temporarily locked after sending XMR. This can be your change: the portion returned to your wallet when the amount used to make a payment exceeds what you sent.

The bottom line

For spending, sending to an exchange, or selling, look for available, unlocked, or spendable balance. That is more useful than the total or confirmed balance alone.

If funds stay pending or locked much longer than expected, check whether your wallet has finished updating and whether the mining service actually sent the payout. Never pay someone an extra “unlock fee” to release a normal Monero balance; confirmation-based locks clear through network progress, not a special payment.