Bitcoin Swap Pending Time: Expect 10 Minutes to Several Hours

I usually expect an on-chain Bitcoin swap to be pending anywhere from a few minutes up to several hours. With a reasonable fee it often confirms within 10–60 minutes, but low fees or network congestion can stretch that to many hours or longer.

I know pending time depends on the fee rate (sats/vByte), current mempool congestion, the number of confirmations the recipient requires, and whether the swap is on-chain, over Lightning (near-instant), or handled internally by an exchange (minutes to hours).

I check the transaction ID on a block explorer to view fee rate and confirmations. If unconfirmed and the fee is low I consider RBF or CPFP; if an exchange shows pending for more than ~24 hours I contact support to escalate.