The XRP Ledger requires every account to hold a minimum reserve of XRP to remain active. This is not a transaction fee — it is a deposit that prevents unnecessary address creation and keeps the ledger healthy. The reserve is refundable if you ever close your account.

Current Reserve Amount

Following a network vote, the minimum base reserve was reduced from 10 XRP to 1 XRP. Similarly, the reserve cost for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other on-ledger objects was cut significantly. These reductions were designed to lower the barrier for new users, developers, and businesses joining the XRP Ledger ecosystem.

Owner Reserve

In addition to the base reserve, each object you own on the ledger (such as open offers, trust lines, or escrows) requires an additional owner reserve of 0.2 XRP per object. This scales to reflect the resources your account uses on the network.

Difference Between Reserve and Transaction Fee

The reserve is locked collateral, not a cost. The transaction fee (0.00001 XRP) is destroyed. You can think of the reserve as a security deposit and the transaction fee as a minimal usage charge. New users often confuse the two, assuming sending XRP to a new wallet is "free" — it requires the recipient's wallet to already hold at least 1 XRP to activate.