Both charge 1% per trade. So how do you choose? GMGN is a copy-trading and wallet-tracking powerhouse. Photon is a pure-speed web trading terminal. The right pick depends entirely on how you trade.
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GMGN surfaces tokens through the lens of what smart money is doing — new buys from high-win-rate wallets, trending tokens among your tracked wallets, KOL activity feeds. If you trust the smart money signal, this is a powerful filter.
Photon surfaces tokens through a screener with MC, volume, liquidity, and momentum filters. You're applying your own criteria to the full universe of tokens, not a curated signal.
Neither approach is objectively better — it depends on whether you have a view of your own or you're trading off someone else's. And if you're still weighing whether to automate at all, our breakdown of Solana bots versus manual trading covers when each approach actually wins.
Both platforms are custodial for Telegram use. The web terminals offer non-custodial options (you connect a wallet and sign transactions yourself). For larger positions, the non-custodial path is lower risk.
GMGN stores copy-trade configurations server-side but doesn't require your seed phrase for its copy system. Photon's web terminal operates on a connect-wallet model.
GMGN is the stronger analytics tool. You can look up any wallet's full PnL breakdown, see their best and worst trades, track how their strategy has evolved over time, and benchmark them against the broader universe of tracked wallets.
Photon shows your own portfolio's PnL clearly, but it doesn't offer deep analytics on other wallets.
At 1% fees each, the decision comes down entirely to workflow. GMGN wins on copy trading and wallet intelligence. Photon wins on trade execution UX and charting. They're barely competing for the same user.
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Open the KOL TrackerGMGN and Photon both charge 1% per trade on Solana. That's where the similarities mostly end. GMGN is built around following smart money — copy trading, wallet tracking, PnL analytics. Photon is built around speed and a clean trading terminal. They attract different kinds of traders and solve different problems.
This comparison breaks down which one fits which workflow.
Pick GMGN if: you want to copy-trade wallets, track KOL PnL, or discover tokens based on what smart money is buying.
Pick Photon if: you want a fast, chart-integrated web terminal for executing your own trades with a professional-grade UI.
| GMGN | Photon | |
|---|---|---|
| Trading fee | 1.0% per trade | 1.0% per trade |
| Fee rebate | None | None |
| Monthly cost at $10K volume | $100 | $100 |
| Monthly cost at $50K volume | $500 | $500 |
Fees are identical. Neither offers revenue sharing. If fee minimization is your priority, Trojan (0.9%) or Banana Gun (0.5%) are cheaper alternatives.
GMGN's interface is organized around wallets and tokens — you can browse a KOL leaderboard, click into any wallet's trade history, and set up copy-trade rules in a few taps. The home screen is a token feed filtered by smart money activity. It's designed for a trader who starts by asking "what are the best wallets buying right now?" rather than "which token do I want to trade?"
Photon's interface is organized around the trade. You get a live chart, order panel, token screener, and portfolio sidebar. The workflow is: find token → analyze chart → set parameters → execute. It's closer to a traditional trading terminal than any other Solana bot.
| Feature | GMGN | Photon |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram bot | ✅ | ✅ |
| Web terminal | ✅ | ✅ Full-featured |
| Live charts | ✅ Basic | ✅ Full charting |
| Copy trading | ✅ Core feature | ❌ |
| ✅ Deep |
| ❌ |
| Smart money feed | ✅ | ❌ |
| Token screener | ✅ | ✅ |
| Limit orders | ✅ | ✅ |
| DCA | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-buy (new launches) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Anti-MEV / Jito bundles | ✅ | ✅ |
| Multi-wallet management | ✅ | ✅ |
| PnL analytics | ✅ Per-wallet | ✅ Your portfolio |
| Fee rebate | ❌ | ❌ |
GMGN's copy-trading system is the most polished of any Solana bot. You can browse a ranked list of wallets by win rate, PnL, or ROI, inspect their recent trades, set a copy amount and max position size, and enable real-time following. When the tracked wallet buys, your buy executes within ~1–2s.
You can filter wallets by win rate, exclude tokens above a certain MC (to avoid late entries), set a max copy size per trade, and cap how many positions you're running simultaneously.
In practice, expect 2–5 seconds from the tracked wallet's trade to your execution under normal conditions (signal processing + network propagation + confirmation). GMGN's Lightning Mode reduces this by ~2 seconds. For tokens where entry price moves fast, even a 2-second delay can mean a materially worse fill.
Photon has no copy-trading feature. If following smart money is any part of your strategy, GMGN is the only choice between the two — and our Nansen vs GMGN vs Cielo smart money comparison weighs GMGN against the dedicated wallet-tracking platforms.
Both bots use Jito bundles and support priority fee configuration. Photon has invested heavily in execution infrastructure and is consistently fast on regular swaps and new-token snipes. Fast entries matter little without a plan to get out — our Solana memecoin exit strategy guide walks through scaling out and locking in gains. GMGN is also fast but its snipe engine is a secondary focus compared to Photon's.
For pure speed on Pump.fun launch sniping, the community consensus puts Photon and Trojan ahead of GMGN. For copy-trade execution (where a few hundred milliseconds on the copy side matter), GMGN's signal-to-execution pipeline is purpose-built for that use case.
If you're not sure, run both with small amounts for a week — they both have enough free functionality to evaluate before committing to either as your main platform.
If Photon's speed edge is what's drawing you, our Photon vs BullX vs Axiom sniping comparison puts it head-to-head against two other speed-focused terminals.
Photon is generally considered faster for pure launch sniping. GMGN is optimized for copy-trade execution speed rather than raw new-token sniping.
GMGN offers a referral program but no fee rebate on your own trades. Photon similarly has no trading fee rebate.
No — they're separate platforms. Copy trading is exclusive to GMGN.
Both have comparable security records with no major reported incidents. Both are custodial by default for Telegram use. For non-custodial trading, use the web terminal versions.
Use GMGN for discovery and copy trading, and Photon for your manual executions. Many active traders run multiple bots simultaneously.
For the wider field — Axiom, Padre, BullX, MevX, and Light Terminal alongside these two — see our full trading terminal comparison.