How much XLM do I need in my wallet?

Stellar Lumens, or XLM, is the native token of the Stellar network. To learn more about XLM generally, see this page from the Stellar Development Foundation.

Within the context of Freighter, XLM is needed for two reasons:

1. Transaction fees: to execute a transaction on the Stellar network, Stellar accounts must pay a fee in XLM. This fee is not "paid" to anyone, but is instead sent to a fee pool managed by the network itself. Click here to learn about how transaction fees work. As a Freighter user, you will execute transactions to send or swap tokens, for example, or take some action when connected to a third-party application.
2. Base reserves: some actions require Stellar accounts to "reserve" XLM until the effect of that transaction is reversed. A unit of reserved XLM is called a base reserve, which is 0.5 XLM. As a Freighter user, two base reserves (or 1 XLM) must be reserved in your Stellar account(s) in order for the account(s) to exist on the network. Some tokens, called Stellar assets, require an additional base reserve in your account before you can receive them. When these tokens are removed from your account, that XLM is available for other uses. Click here to to learn more about base reserves.

So to use Freighter effectively, we recommend funding your account with at least 2 XLM to start. 1 XLM for the 2 base reserves needed to create your account, another 0.5 XLM or 1 base reserve for your first stellar asset, and another 0.5 XLM for transaction fees. As you use Freighter, signing transactions and adding more tokens, you may need to increase your XLM balance.

To learn how to add XLM to your wallet, see Add a token.