TL;DR
Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual price you receive when the transaction executes. It occurs because pool prices shift between the time you submit a trade and when it confirms on-chain.
On Solana DEXs, prices are determined by the ratio of tokens in a liquidity pool. Between the moment you see a price quote and the moment your transaction lands in a block, other trades may have changed that ratio. If someone buys the same token before you, the price moves up and you get fewer tokens than expected. The faster the chain and the more volatile the token, the more slippage can vary from trade to trade.
Every DEX and trading bot lets you set a slippage tolerance — the maximum price difference you’ll accept. If the actual price deviates more than your tolerance, the transaction reverts and you only lose the gas fee. Common defaults range from 0.5% to 1% for stable pairs, but volatile meme tokens may need 5–15% or higher. Setting it too low causes failed transactions; setting it too high means you accept worse prices and become vulnerable to sandwich attacks.
Price impact and slippage are related but different. Price impact is the guaranteed change in price your trade will cause based on pool depth — larger trades in shallow pools cause bigger impact. Slippage is the unexpected difference caused by other trades landing before yours. Jupiter and other aggregators show both: price impact is predictable, slippage is not. Splitting large orders across multiple pools reduces price impact.
Use DEX aggregators like Jupiter that route across multiple pools for better execution. Trade during lower-volatility periods when fewer people are competing for the same tokens. Use MEV-protected transaction modes to prevent sandwich bots from frontrunning your trades. For large orders, consider limit orders instead of market swaps. Trading bots on MadeOnSol often include auto-slippage features that dynamically adjust tolerance based on current conditions.