How to use
- Trade size — the dollar amount you want to swap. Larger trades suffer more from AMM slippage.
- AMM pool liquidity — total pool size. Deeper pools mean less slippage.
- Order book spread — difference between best bid and ask. Typical: 0.05-0.50% for mid-cap pairs; majors (BTC/ETH/USDT) trade tighter at 0.01-0.05%.
- AMM fee — fee paid to liquidity providers (usually 0.30% for Uniswap v2).
- Exchange fee — taker fee on a centralized exchange. Ranges from 0 (maker rebates) to 0.20% (standard taker); default 0.10%.
- Solver efficiency — price improvement a solver-based intent protocol delivers to the user versus the best venue. Default 5% is an idealized ceiling; see warning below.
- Three cards compare total trade cost: order book (spread + exchange fee), AMM (slippage + LP fee), intent-based (best of two × (1 − solver efficiency)). The best option is highlighted.
Solver efficiency is an idealized ceiling
In practice solver efficiency varies widely: 0-10% is typical, and it can be negative when there is no competition among solvers or when solver fees plus gas exceed the savings. The × (1 − solver_efficiency) term assumes the solver always passes a fixed surplus to the user, which is an optimistic pedagogical simplification rather than a guarantee.Calculator
Trade Cost Comparison
Order book
$0
spread + fee
AMM (CPMM)
$0
slippage + fee
Intent-based
$0
~best of two
Formulas
OB_cost = Trade × (Spread/2 + Exchange_fee_%)
- OB_cost — order book trade cost ($) (computed)
- Trade — trade size ($)
- Spread/2 — half-spread: effective cost of crossing one side (market order crosses only the half-spread)
- Exchange_fee_% — taker fee on the exchange (0-0.50% typical, default 0.10%)
AMM_slippage = Trade / (Pool/2 + Trade)
- AMM_slippage — slippage in the AMM pool (computed)
- Trade — trade size ($)
- Pool/2 — half the pool (one asset’s reserve in CPMM)
AMM_cost = Trade × Slippage + Trade × Fee
- AMM_cost — AMM trade cost ($) (computed)
- Slippage — slippage (computed above)
- Fee — AMM fee (typically 0.30%)
Intent_cost = min(OB_cost, AMM_cost) × (1 − Solver_efficiency_%)
- Intent_cost — intent-protocol trade cost ($) (computed)
- Solver_efficiency_% — price improvement the solver delivers to the user versus the best venue (0-20%, default 5%)
- Note: by design, this formula makes intent-based always the cheapest since it’s min of the other two minus a positive surplus. In practice solver efficiency is 0-10% typical and can be negative when there is no solver competition or when solver fees plus gas exceed the savings. Treat this as an idealized ceiling, not a guarantee.