How to Receive Monero (XMR): Addresses, QR Codes and Privacy

Receiving Monero is simple: you give the sender an address from your wallet, and the money arrives there. The small extra step that protects your privacy is using a different address for each person. This guide covers the whole thing in plain language, from copying your first address to knowing when a payment is truly yours, so you can get paid without second-guessing.

The basics

Your wallet has a main address, a long string that starts with 4. Anyone can send Monero to it. Handing out your address is safe: it only lets people pay you, not see your funds. Your wallet also shows a QR code of the address, which is the easiest way to receive on a phone, since the sender just scans it with their camera.

Think of an address like an email address for money. People can write to it, but they cannot read your inbox. If you do not have a wallet yet, create one first.

How to receive, step by step

1. Open your wallet and go to the Receive tab.
2. Create a fresh subaddress for this sender if you want to keep payments separate (recommended).
3. Copy the address, or show the QR code for the sender to scan.
4. Send it to the person paying you. They paste or scan it into their own wallet.
5. Wait a few minutes. The payment appears in your wallet once the network confirms it.

Make sure your wallet is synced so it can see new payments. If it falls behind, the payment is still safe on the network, and it shows up once the wallet catches up.

Address types explained

You may see a few kinds of Monero address. They all lead to your wallet, but they have different uses.

For most people, a main address plus subaddresses is all you ever need.

Use a fresh address for each sender

Your wallet can create extra addresses, called subaddresses, that all belong to you. Giving each person a different one is a small habit with a real benefit: it keeps your payments organized and avoids tying different senders to a single public address. It also makes bookkeeping easier, since you can tell at a glance which address a payment came through.

What the sender can see

Monero uses one-time addresses behind the scenes. When someone pays you, the network records a unique, single-use destination for that payment, so outsiders looking at the blockchain cannot tell which public address received it. Apart from the sender, only you, with your wallet's keys, can recognize the payment as yours.

So the sender knows the address you gave them, and nothing more. They cannot see your balance, your other payments, or where you spend. To learn why, see how Monero works. No system is magic, so remember that privacy can still leak through how you behave, such as posting an address publicly next to your name.

When is the money really mine?

A payment usually shows up within a couple of minutes, then needs a short time to settle. New Monero needs about 10 confirmations, roughly 20 minutes, before it is fully spendable. For small amounts, seeing it arrive is usually enough. For larger amounts, wait for it to confirm before you treat it as done.

• Pending: your wallet has seen the payment but no block includes it yet.
• Confirmed: a block includes it. Each new block adds another confirmation.
• Unlocked: after about 10 confirmations, you can spend it.

Do you need a payment ID?

Older Monero payments used a separate payment ID to tell customers apart on a shared address. This is mostly obsolete. Subaddresses do the same job better and more privately. You may still meet a payment ID when you deposit into an exchange that asks for one. In that case, follow the exchange's instructions exactly, because a missing ID can delay your deposit. For receiving into your own wallet, you can ignore payment IDs.

Stay safe when sharing

Sharing your address is safe. What is not safe is anything that asks for more than the address.

• Copy your address from your own wallet each time, rather than from an old message.
• Be wary of anyone who sends you a small payment and then asks you to pay a fee to claim more. This is a scam.
• If you publish an address publicly, such as for donations, use a dedicated subaddress for it.

If a payment does not show up

First, make sure your wallet has finished syncing, since a wallet that is behind will not show recent payments. If it still does not appear, work through these checks:

1. Ask the sender for the transaction ID and confirm their payment went through.
2. Check they used the exact address you gave them, not an older or mistyped one.
3. Wait a few more minutes. Busy periods can delay confirmation.
4. If you restored the wallet, check the restore date was not set too late.

A stuck or slow sync is the most common cause, and fixing a wallet that will not sync covers that in detail.

What to do next

Once money arrives, the best next step is to make sure it is safe. Back up your recovery words if you have not already, using this backup guide. When you are ready to spend, the other half of the picture is sending Monero. Need a refresher on the basics? Read what Monero is. Getting paid for work or sales? See how to accept Monero payments.