spl-token CLI

Create SPL Token mints, associated token accounts (ATAs), mint tokens, and transfer balances from the terminal.

Recipe

Quick-reference recipe card - copy-paste ready.

spl-token create-token
spl-token create-account <MINT>
spl-token mint <MINT> 1000
spl-token transfer <MINT> 50 <RECIPIENT_TOKEN_ACCOUNT>

When to reach for this:

• Spinning up a devnet test mint before client integration.
• Funding tester wallets with mock tokens.
• Verifying ATA derivation and decimals without TypeScript.
• Manual treasury transfers of SPL tokens.

Working Example

solana config set --url devnet
solana airdrop 2
 
# Create mint with 6 decimals (common for fungible tokens)
MINT=$(spl-token create-token --decimals 6 | grep "Creating token" | awk '{print $3}')
echo "Mint: $MINT"
 
# Create ATA for your wallet
spl-token create-account "$MINT"
ATA=$(spl-token accounts --token "$MINT" | grep -v "Token accounts" | awk '{print $1}')
echo "ATA: $ATA"
 
# Mint 1.0 token. The CLI takes UI amounts and scales by the mint's decimals,
# so this is `1`, NOT 1000000. Passing 1000000 here would mint a million tokens.
spl-token mint "$MINT" 1
 
spl-token balance "$MINT"
spl-token supply "$MINT"

What this demonstrates:

• create-token initializes a new mint with chosen decimals.
• create-account creates the ATA owned by your wallet for that mint.
• mint increases supply when your keypair holds mint authority.

Deep Dive

How It Works

• SPL Token program owns mint and token accounts with Borsh-encoded state.
• ATAs are PDAs derived from wallet + mint for deterministic addresses.
• Amounts in the spl-token CLI are UI amounts - it applies the mint's decimals for you. Raw base units appear only in instruction data.
• Mint and freeze authorities can be revoked after setup.

Common Commands

bash Notes

# Transfer to wallet pubkey (CLI resolves ATA)
spl-token transfer "$MINT" 100 <RECIPIENT_WALLET_PUBKEY> --fund-recipient
 
# Revoke mint authority (fixed supply)
spl-token authorize "$MINT" mint --disable

Gotchas

• Decimal confusion - spl-token mint <MINT> 1000 mints 1000 tokens, not 0.001. The CLI takes UI amounts. Fix: pass the human amount directly; never pre-multiply by 10^decimals for the CLI. Multiply only when building instruction data yourself.
• Missing ATA - transfer fails if recipient has no token account. Fix: --fund-recipient or create-account first.
• Wrong mint authority - only the authority keypair can mint. Fix: spl-token display to see authorities.
• Using solana transfer for tokens - moves SOL, not SPL balances. Fix: always spl-token transfer.
• Frozen accounts - freeze authority can block transfers. Fix: check freeze status with display.

Alternatives

FAQs

Related

• Airdrops & Balances - SOL for fees and rent
• Inspecting Accounts & Programs - raw account bytes
• SPL Token Basics - on-chain token model
• Sending SOL & Transactions - native SOL transfers

Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, anchor-lang 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, @solana/kit 7.0.0, Surfpool 0.12.0, and LiteSVM 0.6.x.