Deadlines

Overview

Every payment request has two deadlines. You set both. The gateway never changes them and never fills them in. The SDK and CLI fill them in only when you leave them out.

Payment timeline (conceptual)

Request
submitted

Quote window
ends

Delivery
deadline

Payment
completed

Quote window

Delivery

Finalizing

Not to scale.

Quote window: settlement operators send quotes, each with an expiry they set when they quote. A quote can be selected only before it expires.
Delivery: the selected operator pulls your funds into the settlement vault on the source chain using the authorization you signed (Permit2 on EVM and Tron), waits for that deposit to be confirmed (longer for a large payment), then pays your recipient on the destination chain. The payout transaction must be mined by the delivery deadline.
Finalizing: as soon as the payout is mined you get its transaction hash, and the payment is completed once the payout is final on the destination chain. This step does not count against the delivery deadline.

Field	What it means	SDK and CLI default
`quote_deadline`	End of the quote window: the time settlement operators have to send a quote for your payment.	3 seconds
`fulfillment_deadline`	The delivery deadline: the payout to your recipient must be mined on the destination chain by this time.	5 minutes

Quote expiry

Every quote carries its own expiry, award_deadline. The settlement operator that makes the quote chooses it, based on its own risk, capital and delivery speed. You cannot set it. Once it passes, the quote can no longer be selected.

How a payment uses them

Quote window. Settlement operators send quotes until quote_deadline. By default the gateway waits for the whole window, even if a quote arrives early, then selects the best valid quote: the best one that has not expired. With auto accept, it selects the first valid quote instead.
Delivery. The selected operator moves your funds into the settlement vault, waits until that deposit is confirmed on the source chain, then pays your recipient. The payout must be mined on the destination chain before fulfillment_deadline.
Finality. Once the payout is mined the status is finalizing. It becomes completed when the payout is final on the destination chain. This step does not count against fulfillment_deadline. See Finality.

Choosing values

Quote window

The quote window is the time between the request submission and quote_deadline (set by the payment originator). Widening this window will only result in a slower payment. Keep the default. Make it longer only when you sign now, and submit later. For example, with send-payment --prepare-only: a signed request can only be submitted while its quote window is open. Add seconds, not minutes. A settlement operator declines a window that ends after its quote would expire (QUOTE_WINDOW_TOO_LONG). If you lengthen the quote window, lengthen the delivery deadline by the same amount. Both count from when you build the request, so a longer quote window leaves less time for delivery. The SDK refuses a quote window of 5 minutes or more unless you also pass a fulfillmentDeadlineSeconds that ends after it.

Accept the first valid quote

To start delivery sooner, add the query parameter auto_accept=true to POST /v1/payments: POST /v1/payments?auto_accept=true. It is not a field of the request body. The gateway then selects the first valid quote at or under your max_source_amount as soon as it arrives, instead of waiting for the quote window to close.

You give up comparing quotes, so set max_source_amount to the price you accept. A request with auto_accept and no max_source_amount is refused.
quote_deadline still applies. If no valid quote arrives by then, the payment fails as usual.
auto_accept is not part of the signed request. Sending the same request again returns the original payment, with the setting it was first sent with.

Delivery deadline

fulfillment_deadline is the latest time the payout to your recipient can be mined on the destination chain. If no payout is mined by then, your funds are refunded. The payout does not have to be final by then. See Finality. It is set when you build the request, the same way as quote_deadline, so the time left for delivery is what remains after the quote window. The deadline is a limit, not the time a payment takes. Most payments are delivered within seconds, long before it. What its length changes:

A longer deadline never slows a successful payment. Settlement operators deliver as soon as they can.
A longer deadline delays a refund. If a payment is not delivered after your funds reach the settlement vault, the refund waits for the deadline. See When a refund can start.
A deadline that is too short gets no quote. Settlement operators decline with DEADLINE_TOO_SHORT, and the payment fails before your funds move.

Choosing a delivery deadline

Your payment	Delivery deadline
Everyday amounts	Keep the SDK default (5 minutes). This covers most payments: they are usually delivered within seconds, and 5 minutes leaves room for the deposit wait on every supported source chain.
Large amounts	At least the source chain’s time to finality, plus a few minutes. An hour fits every chain. See Large payments.
Signed now, submitted later	Add the extra quote window time to the delivery deadline too.

If you accept payments with x402 or MPP, you set fulfillmentDeadlineSeconds for your corridors yourself. Choose it the same way.

Large payments

Before it pays your recipient, the settlement operator waits for your deposit to be confirmed on the source chain. For a large payment, an operator may wait until the source chain has finalized your deposit. On Ethereum and its rollups that takes tens of minutes. What counts as large is each operator’s choice. See Finality. If your delivery deadline cannot cover that wait, operators decline with DEADLINE_TOO_SHORT and the payment fails with NO_QUOTES_RECEIVED. Your funds do not move. Send the payment again with a longer deadline and a new request_id. For a large payment, set the delivery deadline yourself:

const paymentRequest = await client.preparePaymentRequest({
  // ...your payment fields
  fulfillmentDeadlineSeconds: 3600, // 1 hour: fits every source chain
});

send-payment <sender> <amount> <source asset> <receiver> <destination asset> \
  --fulfillment-deadline-seconds 3600

Waiting for the result

How long POST /v1/payments waits for the result, and how to follow the payment after that: Track a payment. A quote request answers straight away with a quote_request_id, which you poll with GET /v1/payments/quote-requests/{quote_request_id}. Pass wait=true to keep the connection open until the quote window ends, for up to 5 seconds. See Get a price quote.

Deadline errors

`error.code`	What happened	What to do
`NO_QUOTES_RECEIVED`	The quote window closed without a usable quote. Nothing was delivered.	Read `decline_summary` below.
`QUOTES_EXPIRED`	Quotes arrived, but none could be selected when the window closed, usually because they had expired.	Use a shorter quote window.
`NO_SETTLER_FOR_CORRIDOR`	No settlement operator serves this source and destination pair.	Choose another pair.
`QUOTE_DEADLINE_NOT_FUTURE`, `FULFILLMENT_DEADLINE_NOT_FUTURE`	The deadline had already passed when the gateway received a new payment, often a prepared request sent too late.	Build and sign a new request.
`FULFILLMENT_DEADLINE_ORDER`	`fulfillment_deadline` is not later than `quote_deadline`.	Fix the order. The SDK and CLI check this before sending.
`SETTLEMENT_FAILED`	Delivery started but did not finish. Your funds may be in the settlement vault: see A failed payment with a deposit.	Reconcile by `payment_id` before you retry.

After a payment has failed, its request_id is used up: sending it again returns the same failure. Use a new request_id for the next attempt. See Idempotency.

Why nobody quoted

When a payment fails with NO_QUOTES_RECEIVED, the status response tells you why:

requested_count: how many settlement operators were asked.
decline_summary: how many declined, grouped by decline reason.

`decline_summary`	Meaning	Change on the next payment
`QUOTE_WINDOW_TOO_LONG`	Your quote window ends after their quote would expire.	Shorter quote window.
`DEADLINE_TOO_SHORT`	Not enough time left to deliver before `fulfillment_deadline`.	Later delivery deadline. See Choosing a delivery deadline.
`MAX_SOURCE_AMOUNT_TOO_LOW`	Your `max_source_amount` is below their price.	Higher `max_source_amount`. See Get a price quote.
`INTERNAL`	The operator hit an unexpected error. Some operators also send it for a `max_source_amount` below their price.	Check `max_source_amount` covers the price, then retry.
Any other reason	See that reason on Decline reasons.	Follow that page.
Empty	Nobody declined. Operators were asked and did not quote before the window closed.	Retry with the default quote window.
Missing	The breakdown could not be read. This is not the same as empty.	Retry.

Next steps

Topic	Guide
Check a corridor’s prices without moving funds	Get a price quote
Build and sign a payment	Prepare a payment
How long each chain takes to finalize	Finality
Track a payment and read its status	After submission
Every error code	Error codes

Overview

Start building

Payment lifecycle

Support

Reference

Overview

Quote expiry

How a payment uses them

Choosing values

Quote window

Accept the first valid quote

Delivery deadline

Choosing a delivery deadline

Large payments

Waiting for the result

Deadline errors

Why nobody quoted

Next steps

​Overview

​Quote expiry

​How a payment uses them

​Choosing values

​Quote window

​Accept the first valid quote

​Delivery deadline

​Choosing a delivery deadline

​Large payments

​Waiting for the result

​Deadline errors

​Why nobody quoted

​Next steps

Overview

Quote expiry

How a payment uses them

Choosing values

Quote window

Accept the first valid quote

Delivery deadline

Choosing a delivery deadline

Large payments

Waiting for the result

Deadline errors

Why nobody quoted

Next steps