Wait while your order is still within its expiry time and its price conditions are unmet; cancel only if you no longer want it. A pending label usually means no trade has settled yet, not that your tokens are gone. Check the order’s status, remaining amount, and expiry before you submit it again.
A pending order is waiting for a valid settlement
A CoW Swap order is a signed instruction that can be considered in repeated auctions until it fills, is cancelled, or expires. In each auction, solvers—programs that find trades—look for a way to match orders or use on-chain liquidity while meeting each order’s price limits.
If your case is simply “still waiting,” the cowswap interface can help you find the order and its activity. On cowswap, a pending order may remain open because the market has not reached its limit, or because no available trade meets its conditions. The signed order does not itself move your tokens; settlement does.
Settlement is the on-chain transaction that completes a trade. Until it confirms, the order can still appear pending even after a solver has found a possible match. A short wait can therefore be normal, while a long wait calls for checking the order’s details.
Check the order before taking action
Use these steps to find out whether the order can still fill and what to do next.
- Open the order in your activity list. Check which network you used, then look at the order’s status and activity. A transaction that is pending on one network will not show as settled on another.
- Read the expiry and price terms. Expiry is the time after which the signed order is no longer valid. A limit order also sets the worst price you will accept. For a sell order, for example, an order to sell 100 tokens for at least 50 of another token will wait if available trades offer less than 50.
- Check how much remains. A partially fillable order can trade in pieces across auctions. If 80 of your 100 tokens have been sold, the order may stay open for the last 20. That small remainder can be harder to fill if its settlement cost outweighs the value of completing it.
- Use the status to choose your next move. If it is open and the terms still suit you, keep waiting. If the price is wrong or you no longer want the trade, cancel it in the interface and follow your wallet’s prompt. Cancellation can race with settlement: a solver may fill the order before the cancellation takes effect.
- Check before trying again. If the order says filled, cancelled, or expired, do not submit the same trade again until you confirm the token balances and order history. A duplicate can create a second live order if the first one is still open.
A common mistake is treating “pending” as a failed swap and immediately placing another. First check whether the original order is still open. If it is, cancel it and wait for the cancellation to register before creating a replacement.
Answers to common order questions
Does a pending order mean my tokens have left my wallet?
For a regular signed order, the order itself does not transfer tokens. The trade transfers them when settlement succeeds. Check the order details and wallet activity to confirm what happened. Some special flows can involve an on-chain transaction before the order is placed, so check that flow’s transaction history too.
Why did my limit order not fill at the price I saw?
A displayed market price does not guarantee that a trade can settle at that price. Your limit sets the worst exchange rate you will accept, and the available trade must also cover applicable network costs. If the price moves or costs make the trade uneconomic, the order can remain open until conditions improve or it expires.
What should I do if an order says failed?
Open its activity and check whether the order itself failed or a transaction failed. If it remains open, review the price and expiry before deciding whether to wait or cancel. If it is no longer open, confirm your balances and status before placing a replacement; use the displayed error to identify what needs correcting.
- Check the network, status, expiry, and remaining amount.
- Wait if the order is open and its terms still suit you.
- Cancel unwanted orders, then confirm their status before retrying.