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: 0.1-0.5% 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 0.50% (slider max; 0-0.20% typical for tier-1 exchanges); 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 slider below is capped at a 0% floor, so the Intent-based card in this calculator can only tie the better of the other two at solver efficiency = 0%; it never shows a loss. 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 ($)
- Spread/2 — half-spread: effective cost of crossing one side (market order crosses only the half-spread)
- Exchange_fee_% — taker fee on the exchange (0-0.50% slider range, 0-0.20% typical; default 0.10%)
AMM_slippage = Trade / (Pool/2 + Trade)
- AMM_slippage — slippage in the AMM pool (computed)
- Trade — trade size ($)
- 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; the slider is capped at a 0% floor, so Intent_cost can only tie min(OB_cost, AMM_cost) here, never exceed it. 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—that scenario is outside what this slider can show. Treat this as an idealized ceiling, not a guarantee.