Pick 6 decimals unless you have a reason not to: every Pump.fun coin, USDC and USDT use 6, and wallets, pools and charts handle it well. SOL itself uses 9. Use 0 only for things that should never be split, like tickets or points. Decimals are fixed forever at creation, and because supply is stored as a 64-bit count of the smallest unit, more decimals means a lower maximum supply.
What decimals are
Decimals set how finely a token can be split. A token with 6 decimals can be divided into millionths, so 1 token is stored on chain as 1,000,000 units. Wallets, explorers and DEXs read the decimals from the mint and do the conversion for you.
| Decimals | Smallest unit | 1 token is stored as |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 0.01 | 100 |
| 6 | 0.000001 | 1,000,000 |
| 9 | 0.000000001 | 1,000,000,000 |
Maximum supply at each setting
A Solana token's supply is a 64-bit unsigned number of smallest units, so the largest possible supply is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 units divided by 10 to the power of the decimals.
| Decimals | Maximum supply in whole tokens |
|---|---|
| 0 | 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (about 18.4 quintillion) |
| 2 | 184,467,440,737,095,516 |
| 6 | 18,446,744,073,709 (about 18.4 trillion) |
| 9 | 18,446,744,073 (about 18.4 billion) |
A token creator rejects or fails on a supply above this limit. If you want a supply in the trillions, you need 6 decimals or fewer.
What popular tokens use
| Token | Decimals | Supply |
|---|---|---|
| Every Pump.fun coin | 6 | Fixed 1 billion |
| USDC, USDT | 6 | Minted on demand |
| SOL (wrapped SOL) | 9 | Not a fixed supply |
| BONK | 5 | About 88 trillion |
Read any token's decimals and supply in a Solana explorer: open the mint address and look at the token overview.
How to choose
| If your token is | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A meme coin | 6 | Matches Pump.fun and most traded coins; supply up to 18.4 trillion |
| A community or utility token | 6 or 9 | 9 matches SOL; 6 allows a larger supply |
| A huge supply (trillions) | 6 or fewer | 9 decimals caps supply at about 18.4 billion |
| Tickets, votes or items | 0 | Whole units only |
Supply is mostly a presentation choice. A billion tokens at 0.001 dollars and a million tokens at 1 dollar are the same market cap. Many meme coins use 1 billion so the price has several zeros, the same as Pump.fun.
What you can change later
| Setting | After creation |
|---|---|
| Decimals | Never |
| Supply, more tokens | Only while you hold the mint authority |
| Supply, fewer tokens | Any holder can burn their own tokens |
| Name, ticker, logo | Only while you hold the update authority |
Once you revoke the mint authority, the supply is fixed for good. Buyers and rug checkers expect that for a traded token, see mint, freeze and update authority explained.
Mistakes to avoid
- Typing supply in units, not tokens. On the CLI,
spl-token minttakes whole tokens, but raw program calls take smallest units. A token with 9 decimals minted with 1,000,000,000 raw units has a supply of 1 token. - 9 decimals with a trillion supply. It cannot fit, and the mint transaction fails.
- 0 decimals for a traded coin. Pools and traders cannot buy fractions, which makes small trades and pricing awkward.
- Changing your mind after launch. Decimals cannot change, so a new setting means a new token.
How we checked
Maximum supplies are computed from the 64-bit amount field in the SPL Token and Token-2022 mint layout. Decimals and supply of the listed tokens were read from their mint accounts on Solana mainnet on 3 November 2026; Pump.fun's fixed 1 billion supply and 6 decimals come from its coin creation parameters.