How long does Bitcoin take to send?

The Bitcoin base layer mines a new block roughly every 10 minutes. Your transaction is "sent" the moment you broadcast it, but most recipients (exchanges, merchants) consider it final only after a number of confirmations:

• 1 confirmation — ~10 min. Acceptable for small amounts.
• 3 confirmations — ~30 min. Most exchanges credit deposits here.
• 6 confirmations — ~60 min. The classic "irreversible" threshold.

The Lightning Network sidesteps block time entirely. Payments hop through pre‑opened payment channels and settle in milliseconds, with fees typically under a cent regardless of amount. The catch: the recipient also needs a Lightning wallet.

Lightning Pay Wallet routes Lightning automatically — you tap send, the payment settles, no block wait.

The 10‑minute block time is a deliberate security parameter set by the difficulty algorithm. It gives blocks time to propagate to every node on the planet before the next one is mined, which is what makes Bitcoin resistant to reorganisations and double‑spends. Faster would mean less secure.

Stuck transactions almost always mean the fee was too low for current mempool demand. In Lightning Pay Wallet, on‑chain fees are auto‑selected based on real‑time mempool data, and you can bump a stuck transaction with Replace‑By‑Fee from the transaction details screen.

Download Lightning Pay Wallet, fund it once, and every outgoing payment to another Lightning user settles in under a second. For on‑chain recipients (exchanges, hardware wallets), expect 10–60 minutes — same as everyone else.