Monero Transaction Lookup: Check or Prove a Payment

A Monero transaction lookup works like on any chain: paste the transaction ID (tx ID) into a blockexplorer and it shows whether the payment exists, which block holds it and how many confirmations it has. What it will not show is the sender, the receiver or the amount, because Monero hides those by default. To prove a payment, you share the tx ID, the receiving address and a transaction key. This guide covers both, and how to do it without leaking your privacy.

The short answer

On Bitcoin an explorer tells you everything about a payment. On Monero it tells you almost nothing about the people and the amount, on purpose. So there are two different jobs: checking that a transaction happened (an explorer or your wallet does this) and proving what it was (this needs a key that only the sender or the receiver has).

What an explorer can and cannot show

A block explorer reads the public blockchain. For Monero, the public part is limited by design. The popular open-source Onion Monero Blockchain Explorer lists things like ring signatures, ring member details, output indices and total miner fees, because those are the parts that are public.

• Visible: the transaction ID, the block it is in, the number of confirmations, the fee, the size and the timestamp.
• Ring members: the decoy outputs mixed in with the real one. They are listed, but nobody can tell which is real. See ring signatures.
• Hidden: sender, receiver and amount. See is Monero traceable for why.

If someone tells you a Monero explorer can reveal who paid whom, they are wrong, or they are selling something. The exceptions are proofs, covered below, which only work when the sender or recipient hands over a secret.

Find a transaction by its ID

Every transaction has an ID, a 64-character string of letters and numbers. You can get it from your own wallet.

1. Open your wallet's transaction history
   Find the payment in the list. Select it to see the details.
2. Copy the transaction ID
   It is the long string, also called the tx ID or tx hash. Copy all of it.
3. Paste it into a block explorer's search
   The result shows the block, confirmations and fee. A page that says the transaction is in the pool means it is waiting to be mixed into a block.

One neutral public option is the explorer at xmrchain.net. It describes itself as having no JavaScript, no cookies, no web analytics trackers and no images, and it is open source. Other public explorers exist, and the project's README lists several. Whichever you use, remember the privacy limits below.

Reading the status

For timing detail, read how long a Monero transaction takes.

Prove you paid someone

Sometimes you need to show a payment was made, for example to a merchant who says they did not receive it. Monero lets the sender do this without revealing their wallet. The official prove-payment guide says you give the other party three pieces of information: the transaction ID, the recipient's address and the transaction key.

How to prove a Monero payment, step by step

1. Find the payment. Open your wallet's history and select the payment you sent.
2. Copy the transaction ID and the address you paid. Copy each one exactly, all characters.
3. Get the transaction key. In MonkStash, choose Prove this payment in the payment's details. In the Monero GUI, click P on the transaction. In Feather, use Show details and copy the transaction secret key.
4. Send the three items to the person checking. Only to them.
5. They check it. In the Monero GUI they open Advanced, Prove/Check and paste the three items into the Check section. In MonkStash they use Check a payment proof. The result shows the amount sent to that address and how many confirmations it has.

Get the transaction key

In the Monero GUI, per the guide, open the history page, select the transaction and click P to get the payment proof. In the command line wallet, run:

get_tx_key TXID

The command line wallet only has the key if it was saving transaction keys. If the command returns nothing, the guide says to check the setting with set and, if store-tx-info is 0, turn it on with set store-tx-info 1. That only helps for future payments, so turn it on before you need it.

Other kinds of proof

The command line reference also lists get_tx_proof and check_tx_proof, and get_spend_proof, which proves that you made the payment. The reference notes that the plain transaction key approach has been superseded by the spend proof for proving a payment. Which you use depends on whether you want to prove an amount went to an address, or prove that you were the spender. Check the wallet CLI reference for the exact syntax of your version.

Guard the key

A transaction key is tied to one payment, so sharing it does not expose your whole wallet. But it does let the holder confirm that payment, so only send it to the person who needs it. It is a different thing from your view key, which shows all incoming payments for a wallet, and from your recovery words, which control the funds. Never share those.

Verify a payment you received

If you are the recipient, you usually do not need an explorer. Your own wallet is the authority.

• Check your wallet. After it syncs, an incoming payment shows with its amount and confirmations. If it does not, see fixing a wallet that is not syncing.
• Use a payment proof. If a sender gives you a tx ID, your address and a key, the guide says the CLI command is check_tx_key TXID TXKEY ADDRESS and the GUI has Advanced, Prove/Check. The result shows the amount sent to that address and the confirmations.
• Use a view-only wallet. A view-only wallet can see incoming payments with no power to spend.

You should also confirm that the address the sender used is really yours. The same guide advises confirming with the recipient that an address belongs to them.

Privacy of using an explorer

A public explorer is a website, and websites see visitors. When you search for a transaction, the operator can see your IP address and the transaction ID you looked up. If that transaction is yours, you have told them you are interested in it. They still cannot see the amount or the parties, but the link between you and that payment exists.

Some explorers offer features that take your address and view key to list your outputs. That works, but it hands your view key to a third party, which then sees every incoming payment to that wallet. Prefer your own wallet or a self-hosted explorer for that.

If you use a public explorer anyway, reduce the exposure: use Tor Browser, avoid logging in or linking it to your name, and do not combine it with other identifying activity. Our guide to remote nodes explains the same trade-off for wallets.

Run your own explorer

For regular lookups, the best answer is your own tools. The Onion Monero Blockchain Explorer is open source (BSD-3 licence) and its README describes building it with CMake or running it with Docker, and pointing it at your local blockchain or at a daemon URL. It describes itself as built to avoid JavaScript, image-based tracking and web analytics. Run it next to your own Monero node and no outside server learns what you look up.

That is more effort than most people need. If you only check an occasional payment, your wallet history is enough, and a public explorer over Tor is a reasonable compromise. If you want a wallet to start from, open the MonkStash web wallet, an early preview that is not yet independently audited.

When a transaction is missing

• Check the ID. A single wrong character returns nothing. Copy it again from the wallet.
• Wait a few minutes. A new transaction can take a short while to appear.
• Check your wallet is synced. A wallet that is behind may not show a payment yet. See the syncing guide.
• Look at your node. A node that is out of date or on the wrong network can disagree with the explorer.
• Ask for the ID from the sender. If you never saw it, they can read it from their own history.

If you are still stuck, our support page and FAQ are the place to go. For sending in the first place, see how to send Monero.