Price impact and slippage
Your trade moves the price; the world can also change between a quote and execution. These are different effects.
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A USEFUL DISTINCTION
Price impact vs slippage tolerance
One describes how a trade moves a market. The other constrains acceptable execution.
| Look at | Price impact | Slippage tolerance |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | The effect of the order itself on the execution price. | A configured bound relative to a quote or minimum output. |
| Cause or control | A consequence of trade size and available liquidity. | An execution instruction chosen by the user or interface. |
| Known at quote time | Can be estimated from the current pool or order book. | Can be applied to the quoted output. |
| What it changes | Larger relative trades often receive worse average prices. | A wider tolerance permits a wider execution range. |
| What it cannot do | It does not predict all changes before execution. | It does not erase impact, guarantee inclusion, or fix a bad quote. |
Uniswap developer documentation contributors · How Uniswap Works ↗Checked 13 Nov 2026Uniswap developer documentation contributors · Uniswap Protocol Glossary ↗Checked 13 Nov 2026Hayden Adams, Noah Zinsmeister and Dan Robinson · Uniswap v2 Core ↗Checked 13 Nov 2026Uniswap developer documentation contributors · Fees across Uniswap versions ↗Checked 13 Nov 2026ethereum.org contributors · Maximal extractable value (MEV) ↗Checked 13 Nov 2026
THE KEY DISTINCTION
What to carry forward
A transaction can have large expected price impact even with a tight slippage tolerance. The tolerance is measured against a quote that may already include that impact.
MAKE IT CONCRETE
A worked perspective
If the current quote is 90 units out, a 1% output tolerance sets a floor of 89.1 units. That says nothing about whether an infinitesimal trade would have received 100.
Open the scenarioFollow the underlying mechanisms
Automated market makers
A liquidity pool quotes exchanges from its reserves and a pricing rule instead of waiting for a matching order.
Transaction ordering and MEV
The ability to choose transaction inclusion and order can create value beyond ordinary fees, with different effects on users.