You signed a swap, waited, and got a red "failed" badge. The token balance didn't move, but your ETH balance did. That's not a bug, and no support ticket will recover it. On Ethereum and every EVM chain, a reverted transaction still consumes the gas it burned before reverting, and that gas is gone. The only thing that comes back is the part of your gas limit the transaction never touched.
Why a reverted transaction still costs you
Nodes do the work before they know the outcome. They check balances, execute contract logic step by step, and only revert when a condition fails. Gas meters that work, and the network charges for work performed, not for the result you hoped for.
Take a DEX swap with a 0.5% slippage tolerance. The pool price shifts 0.9% before your transaction lands. The contract walks the swap path, hits the slippage check, and reverts. Every step up to that check was paid for.
What the refund actually covers
Only the unspent portion of your gas limit. Set a limit of 200,000 gas and revert after 90,000; you're charged for 90,000, and the remaining 110,000 was never deducted. Calling that a "refund" is generous, since nothing was taken in the first place.
Where the base fee goes
Since EIP-1559, the base fee portion of your gas price is burned, and the priority fee goes to the validator. Neither is recoverable by anyone, Coinbase included. If a support agent claims they can reverse a failed transaction fee, they are wrong.
The three ways people lose gas on failures
Most of the money lost here comes from settings, not bad luck.
- Gas limit set too low. The transaction runs dry mid-execution and reverts, and you pay for everything it did before stopping. Complex contract calls are the usual culprit, because wallet estimates can be optimistic.
- Slippage too tight. The swap reverts on the price check. Predictable, and avoidable by widening tolerance slightly on volatile pairs.
- Racing a deadline. Many swaps carry a deadline parameter. If your transaction sits in the mempool too long and lands after it, the contract rejects it and you've still paid.
A concrete case: someone swapping a volatile token sets a gas limit of 150,000 because that worked last week. The pool's routing has since grown more complex. The transaction burns all 150,000 gas and reverts. At 30 gwei, that's roughly 0.0045 ETH gone for nothing. Small on its own; repeat it five times in a week and you've burned real money.
How to check what you actually paid
Open the transaction on a block explorer using the hash from your wallet's activity view. Three fields matter: gas used, gas limit, and effective gas price. Multiply gas used by effective gas price for your actual cost. If the status reads "failed," that cost is still there.
Coinbase's activity screen shows the fee charged, and the explorer confirms it. Compare the two if you're unsure whether a fee was taken. They should match.
| Transaction state | Gas charged | Unused limit returned |
|---|---|---|
| Success | Yes, for gas used | Yes |
| Reverted | Yes, for gas used | Yes |
| Out of gas | Yes, full limit | No |
| Dropped from mempool | No | N/A |
Reducing the odds you pay for nothing
Failed transactions can't be eliminated. They can be made rarer and cheaper.
Before you sign
Read the gas estimate and add a buffer instead of trusting the minimum. On volatile pairs, give slippage a little room. Check the deadline field if the interface exposes it, and shorten it when you're not in a hurry. Skip submitting during congestion spikes, when base fees climb and transactions linger.
When something fails repeatedly
Stop resubmitting. A contract that reverts three times in a row will usually revert a fourth. Check whether the pool has enough liquidity for your size, whether your approval is still valid, and whether the token has transfer restrictions. Each retry costs gas.
Frequently asked questions
Does Coinbase refund gas on a failed transaction?
No. The gas went to the network, not to Coinbase, and it can't be clawed back. Coinbase Wallet may show the fee in your activity history, but that's a record, not a charge they control. On-chain fees are final once a block confirms.
Why did my gas limit get fully consumed on a failure?
That happens when the transaction runs out of gas rather than reverting cleanly. The EVM keeps executing until the limit is hit, then halts. You're charged for every unit of the limit you supplied, which is why an over-generous limit costs more in this specific case.
Can I get back the gas I didn't use?
You never paid it. Wallets deduct based on gas used, and the unused portion of your limit stays in your balance. There's no claim process and nothing to request from anyone.
Next time a transaction fails, pull the hash and check gas used before you retry. That number tells you whether to adjust your settings or walk away.