If your transaction is stuck, don't just wait. Your first move should be to find the "Speed Up" button in your wallet.
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Most mainstream wallets (MetaMask, imToken, Ledger, etc.) have this feature built in. Tap it, and the system will automatically raise the gas fee and rebroadcast the transaction. This is usually more reliable than adjusting it manually.
What to do: speed up a stuck transaction, or cancel it directly. The goal is to prevent one stuck transaction from holding up all later transactions in your account.
How it works: first understand one key concept: Nonce (transaction number). Ethereum numbers every transaction sent from the same address in order, starting at 0 and increasing by 1. If transaction number 5 is stuck, transactions 6, 7, and 8 must wait in line, no matter how high their gas fees are. This is why one stuck transaction can block a whole batch of transactions.
Case A: Speed Up, for when the transaction content stays the same and you just want faster confirmation.
Check the transaction status: Open your wallet's transaction history and find the transaction marked "Pending" or "Queued."
Click the Speed Up button:
MetaMask: On the pending transaction details page, click "Speed Up."
imToken: Find the pending transaction in the transfer history and tap "Speed Up Transaction."
Ledger Live (note): This feature is not available there yet. You need to connect your Ledger to a third-party wallet like MetaMask to do this.
Confirm the new gas fee: The wallet will automatically fill in a higher gas price (usually at least 10% higher than the original). Confirm it. The new transaction uses the same nonce to replace the original. If it succeeds, the original transaction is invalidated and the new one is confirmed. You only pay the gas fee for the new transaction, not twice.
Risk note: If the original transaction happens to be packed by a validator right when you click Speed Up, the speed-up will fail. Your wallet will notify you, but you won't be charged. If it is still stuck after speeding up, you can try again with a higher fee, but avoid raising it too aggressively to prevent unnecessary costs.
Case B: Cancel, for when the transaction details are wrong, or you no longer want to send it.
Click the Cancel button: It is usually next to the Speed Up button.
How it works: The wallet sends a new transaction to yourself (same address) for 0 ETH, using the same nonce, but with a higher gas fee. Once this "empty transaction" is confirmed first, the original transaction becomes invalid.
Key requirement: The new transaction's gas fee must be at least 30% higher than the original. Otherwise, validators may still pack the original first, and the cancellation will fail.
Completion standard: Once a transaction is stuck for 5–15 minutes without confirmation, you can speed up or cancel it. After confirmation, the block explorer (such as Etherscan) transaction details page will show Status as Success or Dropped & Replaced. If you used "Speed Up," the original transaction will be marked as "Replaced," with a final status of failed but no fee charged.
Common failure reasons: Why does nothing happen after I click Speed Up?
"I clicked Speed Up and confirmed it in my wallet. Why is it still pending?"
Possible problems are usually in these areas:
Nonce order is locked: If you have multiple pending transactions in your account, the Speed Up feature usually only works on the transaction with the lowest nonce (the earliest one). If that earliest transaction stays stuck, clicking Speed Up on later ones won't help. You need to handle the earliest one first.
Insufficient wallet balance: Speeding up or canceling costs ETH for gas. If your ETH balance is not enough for the new gas fee, the operation will fail, and the button may be grayed out.
Hardware wallet limitations: If the transaction was sent through Ledger Live, the Speed Up button in MetaMask won't work for it. You must manually resend a transaction with the same nonce using the same Ledger to replace it.
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FAQ
Q: Will speeding up charge gas fees twice? A: No. After the original transaction is replaced, it will not be packed, so you only pay the fee for the new transaction, not twice.
Q: What happens if I neither speed up nor cancel and just keep waiting? A: It will stay stuck until one of two things happens: 1) the network becomes completely uncongested and validators are willing to process your transaction at a low price (this could take hours or even days); 2) the transaction stays in the mempool too long (usually several days), gets automatically dropped by nodes, and returns to unconfirmed status. In the meantime, all later transactions are blocked. Make sure you accept that cost.
Q: Does canceling a transaction require a gas fee? A: Yes. Canceling is essentially sending a new on-chain transaction, except the content is "send 0 ETH to myself." That fee goes to validators for their work and is not refundable.
