What is Limit order?
An order to buy or sell at a specific price or better — it waits on the order book until the market comes to it. Usually earns the cheaper "maker" fee.
A limit order names your price: buy at $X or lower, sell at $Y or higher. It rests on the order book until the market meets it — which may be in seconds, or never. In exchange for that patience you typically pay the cheaper maker fee and, more importantly, you set the price rather than accepting whatever the market shows the instant you click.
Limit orders are the antidote to two costs this site measures repeatedly: the spread baked into instant-buy screens, and slippage in thin markets. The discipline dividend is real too — deciding your price in advance is a small structural defence against buying the spike. The trade-off is execution risk: markets can run away from an unfilled order, and "I saved 0.3% by never getting filled" is its own kind of expensive.
See it in practice
Related terms: Market order · Maker/taker fees · Spread · full glossary
FAQ
Why didn't my limit order fill?
The market never traded through your price with enough volume to reach your place in the queue. Orders at the same price fill in time priority — being early matters, and being unrealistic means waiting forever.
Limit or market order — which should a beginner use?
For non-urgent buys of liquid coins, a limit order at or near the current price usually gets a fair fill at lower fees. Market orders are for when execution certainty matters more than the last fraction of a percent.
General information only, not financial advice. Definitions are maintained in our fact database and reviewed with the daily rebuild.