How to use pump.fun (2026): the app tutorial

How to use pump.fun: download the official app, sign up with email, Google or Apple, add money by card, Apple Pay or SOL, then open a coin and tap buy. The app creates a self-custodial Solana wallet for you, and a trade on the bonding curve costs 1.65% with a referral code. Pump.fun is our best overall memecoin app because it is the most fun and the most social; our pump.fun review has the full score.

Locke trades in the pump.fun app every day. This tutorial follows the official pump.fun help center (opens in a new tab), the fees page (opens in a new tab) and the terms (opens in a new tab), all checked on 24 October 2026. Buttons move between app versions; if a screen looks different, check in app.

The pump.fun app at a glance

Sources: pump.fun fees (opens in a new tab), Depositing Funds on the Mobile App (opens in a new tab), Withdrawing Funds on the Mobile App (opens in a new tab). The Solana network fee comes on top of every row.

Step 1: download the official app

The pump.fun app is on iPhone and Android. On the US App Store it is “pump.fun - speculate on trends” by Maius Imperium Limited, rated 4.7 stars from about 4,000 ratings (App Store (opens in a new tab)). On Google Play (opens in a new tab) it has 500K+ downloads and 4.4 stars, both checked on 24 October 2026.

Fake apps copy the name and the logo. Check the developer name before you install, and open pump.fun links only from our official links page or the store listing.

You must be 18 or older. Pump.fun is not available in the UK, Russia or comprehensively sanctioned countries, per the terms (opens in a new tab). On 24 October 2026 the iPhone app was not listed in the UK, Russian or Chinese App Store.

Step 2: sign up with a referral code

You sign up with an email address or a social login such as Google or Apple. The app then creates a Solana wallet for you, built on Privy. The App Store listing calls it self-custodial: pump.fun says that it cannot access or freeze your funds.

1. 1

   Open the app and choose a login

   Tap sign up and pick email, Google or Apple. One login covers the app and the website, per pump.fun’s wallet login page (opens in a new tab).
2. 2

   Type the referral code

   Our pump.fun referral code is lockein. The join page at pump.fun/join/lockein says “Enter it when you sign up”, so type it yourself: the link alone does not apply it.
3. 3

   Accept the terms

   Confirm that you are 18 or older and accept the terms.

With code lockein you pay a 0.40% app fee (pump.fun calls it the Platform Fee) instead of 0.45% on every app and web trade (fees page (opens in a new tab)). New app users can get up to $50 matched on their first card deposit if they type the code in the app before that deposit and trade on 5 days within 10 days, while the budget lasts. The match is not available in the UK (Referral Rewards terms (opens in a new tab)).

Already signed up? The terms (opens in a new tab) (§4.9) let you apply one code per wallet, even if you used pump.fun before. Pump.fun does not document where that setting is, so check in app. The $50 match is for new users only.

Step 3: deposit money

Open your wallet in the app and choose how to add funds. The deposit guide (opens in a new tab) lists three ways:

• Card or Apple Pay: buy with “Cash” through the built-in provider. Pump.fun added MoonPay in 2025 for cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay and Google Pay (MoonPay (opens in a new tab)). Check the total on the quote screen.
• SOL transfer: tap Receive, copy your wallet address and send SOL from an exchange or another wallet on the Solana network.
• Other crypto: send USDC, ETH or USDT through “other network” (Ethereum, Polygon or Solana).

For the $50 match, only a card or fiat purchase counts, and the code must already be in the app. A crypto transfer does not qualify (Referral Rewards terms (opens in a new tab)).

Pick the right network. The help center says that crypto deposits below the minimum are not processed and not refunded.

Step 4: find coins to trade

The home feed shows trending coins and live updates on new narratives, which the App Store listing calls trends “forming in seconds”. You can also follow top callers and friends and see what they buy.

To open one exact coin, search for its contract address, not its name. Many fake coins copy the name and picture of a popular coin. Copy the address from the project’s official X account or website.

If a coin does not show when you search, the help center has an article for that case in its mobile app collection (opens in a new tab).

How to buy a coin in the pump.fun app

Pump.fun coins start on a bonding curve: the price rises as people buy. When the curve fills, the coin moves to PumpSwap, pump.fun’s own exchange. Our PumpSwap guide explains that step.

1. 1

   Open the coin’s page

   Check the contract address, the chart, the holders and the market cap.
2. 2

   Tap the buy button

   Enter the amount (Making a Trade on the Mobile App (opens in a new tab)).
3. 3

   Read the fee line

   Before you confirm, the app shows the app fee as a separate line: 0.40% with a code, 0.45% without (fees page (opens in a new tab)).
4. 4

   Approve the trade

   The coin goes to your wallet. You cannot reverse a trade after you submit it.

On the bonding curve, a $100 buy with a code costs $1.25 in curve fees plus $0.40 in app fees, plus the network fee. Tiny trades lose a larger share to the network fee. Our pump.fun fees guide has every fee tier.

How to sell and set limit orders

Sell a coin

Open the coin’s page, tap the red sell button, enter the number of coins and approve. The SOL goes back to your pump.fun wallet. Selling pays the same fees as buying (fees page (opens in a new tab)).

Keep a little SOL in your wallet at all times. Without SOL for the network fee, you cannot sell or withdraw.

Limit and take-profit orders

The app has limit orders and take-profit orders, which pump.fun calls conditional orders. The order runs when the coin reaches your price. The terms (opens in a new tab) (§9.3) say that execution is not guaranteed: in a fast drop, the order can fill at a worse price or not at all.

A conditional order pays the app fee that was valid when you placed it. Pump.fun does not publish a screen-by-screen guide for orders, so check in app for the exact button.

Use the social features

The social layer is why we rank pump.fun as the best overall memecoin app. Trading bots focus on speed; the app adds a feed of friends, callers, competitions and live streams.

Callouts and Callout Rewards

A callout is a post in which you share a coin with your followers. Callout Rewards pay callers daily and exist only in the app (pump.fun on X (opens in a new tab), 13 August 2026). From 10 October 2026, rewards depend on how your followers’ trades do, per Crypto Briefing (opens in a new tab).

Rewards are not guaranteed, and pump.fun can change the formula. A caller can also be paid to push a coin. Read what a KOL is before you copy a caller’s trades.

Squads and trading competitions

The app runs Solo and Squad trading competitions with reward pools. In a Squad, you compete as a team. The rules, dates and pools change per event, so read the app competition terms (opens in a new tab) (updated 23 October 2026) before you join.

Live

The Live tab shows livestreams by creators and traders. Pump.fun turned livestreams off in November 2024 after abusive content; today they run under a livestream moderation policy (opens in a new tab). To stream yourself, the help center explains how to get an RTMP key.

Create a coin in the app

Tap Create, fill in your coin’s details and launch it. Pump.fun charges no platform fee to create a coin: you pay only the Solana network fee and a rent deposit. If you buy your own coin at launch, that first buy pays the app fee (fees page (opens in a new tab)).

Every step, the costs and the risks are in our guide on how to make a meme coin.

Withdraw and cash out

Tap your profile, the card icon, the gear and then Withdraw. Pick the coin, paste a wallet address, enter the amount and tap Send. Each withdrawal costs 0.005 SOL, and it cannot be reversed (help center (opens in a new tab)).

The app has no bank button. To get cash, sell for SOL, send it to an exchange account in your name and withdraw there. If you got the $50 match, withdrawing the bought assets before the last payment cancels the rest. Our guide on how to withdraw from pump.fun has every step.

Phantom login changed: how to sign in now

On 25 September 2026, pump.fun retired browser-wallet sign-in on the website: Phantom, Solflare and Ledger no longer log you in. You now sign in with email, Google, Apple or GitHub, per the wallet login page (opens in a new tab). Your funds, callouts, followers and username stay the same.

You have two ways to keep using an old Phantom wallet:

1. Send the funds: copy your new pump.fun wallet address from Receive and send SOL from Phantom. Your key stays in Phantom.
2. Link the wallet: in the app, open Settings › Link email & socials and import the old wallet with its private key.

Many guides from 2024 and 2025 still show the old “connect Phantom” flow. They are out of date.

Fees to expect

Sources: pump.fun fees (opens in a new tab) (updated 17 October 2026), Withdrawing Funds on the Mobile App (opens in a new tab).

Some news sites reported “0% fees” in the app in October 2026. The official fees page shows the 0.45% or 0.40% app fee on every app trade, so plan with those numbers.

Safety checklist before your first trade

1. Download from the store listing: check the developer, Maius Imperium Limited on iPhone.
2. Check the contract address: compare it with the project’s official X account before you buy.
3. Expect most coins to fail: in July 2026, only 2.5% to 6.7% of new coins per day graduated from the curve, per The Block (opens in a new tab).
4. Keep SOL for fees: a wallet with zero SOL cannot sell or withdraw.
5. Never share your private key: pump.fun support never DMs you first, and “recovery” services that contact you after a loss are scams.
6. Size small: use money you can lose in full. Read is pump.fun safe and our rug pull guide for the red flags.

When to move to BasedBot

The pump.fun app is the best place to start and to have fun. If you trade every day on a desktop or in Telegram and want more control, BasedBot is our best pick for pros. Some App Store and Google Play reviewers report a lag between the tap and the fill on mobile; a bot gives you manual settings and automation for those moments.

BasedBot is a Telegram bot and web terminal on 18 networks. It has limit orders, take profit and stop loss, DCA and copy trading, and it charges 1% per trade with 10–50% cashback through code START (our partner terms with BasedBot). Our BasedBot tutorial shows the setup, and the best memecoin trading platforms ranks both tools. Locke works with BasedBot; it is scored with the same methodology.

Pump.fun also owns a pro terminal, formerly Padre, with no app fee. Our Padre review covers it.

Bottom line

To use pump.fun, install the official app, type a referral code at sign-up, deposit a small amount, check the contract address and tap buy. A trade on the curve costs 1.65% with a code, and most coins fail, so size small. For the full verdict, read our pump.fun review.

Changelog

• 2026-10-24: first version published.