PancakeSwap is no doubt the most popular decentralized exchange on the Binance Smart Chain network with over $87m worth of crypto assets traded on the platform daily.
With the increasing number of transactions on the PancakeSwap exchange comes some issues making users prone to facing errors while using the platform.
One of the most popular errors reported by many users is the “cannot estimate gas” error on PancakeSwap.
Are you currently facing this issue when trying to buy or sell a token on PancakeSwap? Then you’re not alone for sure as many users have also reported (and are still reporting) this error which shows up quite often on PancakeSwap.
Thankfully, there are some solutions for this problem and in the article, you will learn the meaning and how to fix the “cannot estimate gas” error on PancakeSwap easily.
What Does “Cannot Estimate Gas” Mean On PancakeSwap?
The meaning of the “cannot estimate gas” error is pretty clear. It simply means that PancakeSwap could not estimate the amount of gas (fees) required to execute a particular transaction.
In most cases, you might encounter an error saying “The transaction cannot succeed due to error: cannot estimate gas; transaction may fail or may require manual gas limit.” because the number of tokens you want to buy (or sell) has too many decimal places.
How To Fix “Cannot Estimate Gas” Error On PancakeSwap (Step By Step Guide)
To fix the error on PancakeSwap, you need to do two things. The first will be to reduce the decimal places in the number of tokens you want to trade and the second is to adjust the slippage tolerance.
To fix “cannot estimate gas” on PancakeSwap, follow the steps outlined below.
Step 1: Load up the PancakeSwap Exchange website and choose the tokens you want to trade
The first step would be to load up the correct PancakeSwap Exchange website (pancakeswap.finance/swap) on a DApps-compatible browser on your device if you don’t have it loaded up already.
After that, connect your wallet and select the tokens you want to trade/swap.
Step 2: Reduce the number of tokens you want to trade
One of the major reasons why you might see the “cannot estimate gas” error on PancakeSwap has to do with the number of tokens involved in the transaction.
To solve this, you need to reduce the number of tokens you want to trade by getting rid of all the numbers after the decimal point.
To reduce the decimal places on the number of tokens to be swapped, just replace all the numbers after the decimal point with 00.
For example, if you wanted to trade 18998.567 worth of MetaPets tokens for BNB on PancakeSwap, remove all the numbers after the decimal point, then add 00. The amount should now be 18998.00 MetaPets tokens for BNB.
If you wanted to swap BNB for another token, say “BabyDoge”, enter the amount of BNB you’re willing to spend in the top section. After this, PancakeSwap should show an estimated amount of “BabyDoge” tokens you will receive from the transaction, change the numbers after the decimal point to “00”.
It’s as easy as that. If the amount you wanted to swap is not a decimal figure like say 2800679, just add .00 after the last number.
Step 3: Adjust the slippage tolerance
The next step would be to adjust the slippage tolerance for the transaction to the lowest available percentage for the trade.
To adjust your slippage tolerance on PancakeSwap, click on the [Settings] icon on the top right corner of the exchange tab.
After that, set the slippage tolerance to 0.1% by tapping on the button that says “0.1%” on the dialog.
Finally, tap on the [X] button to close the dialog. Click on [Swap] to execute the transaction and authorize the transaction on your wallet.
The error saying “The transaction cannot succeed due to error: cannot estimate gas” should be gone by now and your trade should go through.
Note: If the 0.1% slippage tolerance does not work, try increasing it little by little until the transaction goes through. Lower slippage tolerance will help you get more tokens from your trade.
Also, some tokens like SafeMoon have a fixed slippage tolerance because of fees associated with the token so this is worth taking note of if you are trying to swap a token with fees (not network fees).
Still Not Fixed? Try These Other Solutions
In most cases, adjusting the number of tokens you want to trade and gradually increasing your slippage tolerance will make the “cannot estimate gas” error disappear but in rare cases where this doesn’t fix the problem, try some other fixes listed below.
1) Increase Transaction Speed
The transaction speed on PancakeSwap is how fast your transaction would go. There are three levels of transaction speed on PancakeSwap – Standard, Fast and Instant.
To increase your transaction speed, tap on [Settings] and then tap on “Fast” or “Instant” to increase the transaction according to your needs.
The faster your transaction speed, the higher the network fees so if you don’t mind paying higher fees for your transaction go through, go ahead and increase the transaction speed to “Instant” which will ensure the trade is executed as soon as possible.
2) Contact the token developers
If any of the above solutions still didn’t fix the “cannot estimate gas” error on your end, try contacting the token devs and explain to them that the token’s contract might have an issue in its code.
Twitter, Reddit (via the token’s subreddit) and Telegram chat are some of the best ways to contact the developers of a particular token.
If you don’t have a way to reach out to the token’s developers and community, just hop on CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko and search for the token by typing in the name in the search box, then tap on the token and navigate to the Socials tab, there you will find the contact details of that specific token.
Wrapping Up
PancakeSwap like many decentralized exchanges and DApps is still in its early stages and users are bound to face errors like the one discussed in the article from time to time, especially for new investors in the Defi space.
Thankfully, these errors are not that hard to fix since they just require a few tweaks to get things working properly again.
If you were looking for a way to solve the PancakeSwap cannot estimate gas error, we hope this article helped you do just that and more!
