Using carano-cli How Do I send All of the ADA from a wallet?

Question

I am trying to build a transaction with a wallet that has 6 ADA. The transaction fee is 165721 lovelaces. So 6000000 - 165721 = 5827019 lovelaces. But when i try to send 5827019 lovelaces I get an error saying I can't build the transaction because the Minimum UTxO threshold: Lovelace 999978. Is it possible to send all my ADA or do I have have to leave a balance of at least 1 ADA?

Here is my build command

cardano-cli transaction build --alonzo-era --testnet-magic 1097911063 --change-address <change_addr> --tx-in <tx_in> --tx-out <recpt_addr>+5827019 --out-file <build_file>

Answer 1

The problem is that your fee is probably not exactly 165721.

• You have 6000000 lovelace
• You want to send 5827019 lovelace to recpt_addr
• The fee is something like 165721 but not exactly (probably less)
• Some lovelace are left and the command tries to send them to change_addr

You can inspect the transaction using cardano-cli transaction view --tx-body-file <build_file> to see the problem, then you can adjust your command params accordingly.

Maybe it would also work if you simply set the change address to the same address as the recipient:

• --change-address <recpt_addr>

Answer 2

Cli commands to send all ada from an address to another :

cardano-cli transaction build-raw \
--tx-in a61c02<...>8848#0 \
--tx-out DdzFF<...>v2mEoo+2061351 \
--invalid-hereafter 000000 \
--fee 172233 \
--out-file tx.raw 

cardano-cli transaction calculate-min-fee \
--tx-body-file tx.raw \
--tx-in-count 1 \
--tx-out-count 1 \
--witness-count 1 \
--byron-witness-count 0 \
--mainnet \
--protocol-params-file ../../protocol.json

cardano-cli transaction sign \
--tx-body-file tx.raw \
--signing-key-file payment.skey \
--mainnet \
--out-file tx.signed

cardano-cli transaction submit \
--tx-file tx.signed \
--mainnet

Answer 3

As George and eddex mentioned, you should use the change field as your sole output. Since you are using the build endpoint rather than build-raw, and your input doesn't carry any tokens/NFTs, you don't need to worry about the fee either. Your build command should look like this:

cardano-cli transaction build $MAGIC \
  --tx-in <tx_in>                    \
  --change-address <recpt_addr>      \
  --out-file <build_file>

Sign and submit, and that's it!

Answer 4

I simply used build-raw command to send all ADA from first wallet to second. Here --tx-out-count will be 1 only. As there will be only one recipient

cardano-cli transaction calculate-min-fee \
 --tx-body-file tx.raw \
 --tx-in-count 1 \
 --tx-out-count 1 \
 --witness-count 1 \
 --byron-witness-count 0 \
 --mainnet \
 --protocol-params-file params.json

Command to build raw transaction

cardano-cli transaction build-raw \
 --tx-in <txn hash>#0 \
 --tx-out $(cat recipient.addr)+<all ada balance> \
 --invalid-hereafter 0 \ 
 --fee 0 \ 
 --out-file tx.raw

calculate min fee and manually calculate remaining ADA balance. Transaction with Fees

 cardano-cli transaction build-raw \
 --tx-in <txn hash>#0 \
 --tx-out $(cat recipient.addr)+<remaining ada balance>  \
 --invalid-hereafter $(( ${currentSlot} + 10000)) \
 --fee <Fee> \
 --out-file tx.raw