XRP account reserve: why you can't send all your XRP
Every account on the XRP Ledger has to hold a minimum amount of XRP that it cannot send. This is the account reserve. On Mainnet it is currently 1 XRP for the account itself, plus 0.2 XRP for each item the account owns in the ledger, such as a token. If you have moved XRP from an exchange to your own wallet and found part of it locked, this is the reason.
The reserve also explains why a new address must receive at least 1 XRP before it exists. This guide sets out the rules, quoting the XRP Ledger's documentation at xrpl.org as it read in October 2026, and then shows how OnWallet displays them.
The short answer
The reserve is XRP that the ledger keeps locked in your account. The base reserve on Mainnet is 1 XRP, and each object you own, such as a trust line for a token, adds an owner reserve of 0.2 XRP. You can send everything above the reserve. Removing an object releases its 0.2 XRP. The base reserve can only be partly recovered, by deleting the account.
Why the XRP Ledger has a reserve
The Reserves page on xrpl.org says the requirement exists "to protect the shared global ledger from growing excessively large as the result of spam or malicious usage."
The XRP is locked, not spent. "You cannot send the reserved XRP to others," the page says, but "You can use your reserves to pay transaction fees."
Base reserve and owner reserve
The requirement has two parts:
- The base reserve is "a minimum amount of XRP that is required for each address in the ledger."
- The owner reserve is "an increase to the reserve requirement for each object that the address owns in the ledger."
xrpl.org gives the current Mainnet values as a base reserve of 1 XRP and an owner reserve of 0.2 XRP per item, and adds: "Reserves on other networks may vary."
Objects that count include trust lines, offers, escrows, checks, payment channels, tickets and signer lists. Trust line tokens, the XRP Ledger's original kind of token, are held in trust lines, and "Most often, the token holder owes a reserve and the issuer does not."
The total is the number of objects the account owns times the owner reserve, plus the base reserve. So an account holding two trust line tokens needs 1 + 2 × 0.2 = 1.4 XRP.
Activating a new address
The XRP Ledger has no sign-up step. As the Accounts page puts it, "There is not a dedicated "create account" transaction." An account comes into existence when a payment sends enough XRP to a new address. This is called funding the account, and "No other transaction can create an account."
That is what activating an XRP wallet means: until a new address receives at least the base reserve, the ledger has no account there. A smaller first payment fails with the code tecNO_DST_INSUF_XRP: the receiving account "does not exist, and the transaction is not sending enough XRP to create it." The sender still pays the network fee, because a failure of this kind "destroys the XRP paid as a transaction cost."
Exchanges work differently. The Accounts page explains that they "usually hold all their customers' XRP in a few shared XRP Ledger accounts, so customers don't have to pay the reserve for individual accounts at the exchange." That is why many people first meet the reserve when they withdraw to an address of their own.
The reserve can change
According to xrpl.org, "The reserve requirement changes from time to time due to the Fee Voting process, where validators can agree to new reserve settings." Applications can look up the current values with the server_info or server_state method.
Getting the reserve back
Owner reserves come back on their own: "When objects are removed from the ledger, they no longer count against the reserve requirement." A trust line is deleted automatically once its balance is 0 and both sides' settings are back to the default.
The base reserve is harder to recover. The account has to be deleted with an AccountDelete transaction, which sends most of the remaining XRP to another account. That transaction "must destroy at least the owner reserve amount, currently 0.2 XRP", and objects such as open escrows or checks can block it. In the words of the Deleting Accounts page, "You can recover some of an account's 1 XRP reserve by deleting the account, but you must still destroy at least 0.2 XRP to do so." OnWallet does not delete the accounts in your wallet.
How OnWallet shows the reserve
OnWallet is a self-custodial XRP Ledger wallet that runs as a Firefox extension. The ledger sets the reserve; OnWallet keeps it in view:
- The XRP page, opened by clicking XRP on the home screen, splits your balance into Available and Locked for account reserve, with a note that the reserved part cannot be sent.
- The base and owner reserve are read from the XRP Ledger's public servers, so the figures follow any change made by validator vote.
- Until your address is funded, the wallet marks it This account is not active yet and says how much it needs to receive.
- If you send XRP to an address that does not exist yet, the wallet warns that the amount must cover the base reserve, and will not continue with less.
- Max sends your balance minus the reserve and the network fee.
- Adding a token creates its trust line, and the wallet tells you this locks 0.2 XRP until you remove the token. A token can be removed once its balance is 0, which releases that reserve.
FAQ
How much XRP do I need to activate an XRP wallet?
At least the base reserve, which xrpl.org gives as 1 XRP on Mainnet. Each token you add then needs another 0.2 XRP.
Why can't I send all my XRP?
The reserve stays in the account for as long as the account exists, and only the XRP above it can be sent. An account that holds less than its reserve cannot send XRP to others until it receives more.
Is the reserve a fee?
No. The reserve stays in your account. The network fee is separate: the transaction cost "is not paid to any party: the XRP is irrevocably destroyed." The minimum for a standard transaction is currently 10 drops, which is 0.00001 XRP.