© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.
Here's the deal: Minting NFTs on Solana is stupid cheap and fast compared to Ethereum- we're talking like $0.05 to $0.50 per NFT on average, thanks to those tiny gas fees around 0.00045 SOL per transaction. If you're just dipping your toes in, you can crank this out in under an hour with a Phantom wallet and a marketplace like Solsea or Magic Eden. I usually start with Solsea 'cause it's beginner friendly, but I'll throw in Magic Eden tips too. Sound good?
Okay, step one, no skipping. Download Phantom if you don't have it. It's like MetaMask but for Solana-super simple browser extension. Hit phantom.app, add it to Chrome or Brave, whatever you're on.Click that fox icon up top, create a new wallet. Write down your 12-word seed phrase somewhere safe-lose that and you're toast. I always screenshot mine and stash it in an encrypted note, but don't @ me if you get hacked.
Now fund it. Buy some SOL on Coinbase or Binance, copy your Phantom deposit address (that long string under the SOL tab), and send like 0.5 SOL over. Takes 30 seconds. Fees? Negligible, maybe 0.000005 SOL. Why so little SOL? Minting a collection might run you 0.01-0.03 SOL total, listing another 0.001 or so. Check your balance in Phantom-boom, ready.
Solsea's my go to for first timers. Head to solsea.io, smack "Connect Wallet" top right, pick Phantom. It'll pop up asking permission-approve it. They see your balance, sure, but you control the spends.
Sign in with email and password after. Check your inbox for the confirmation link. Done? You're in. Magic Eden's similar-magiceden.io, connect Phantom, no email nonsense. Exchange.Art's another quick one if you want auctions right away.
Pro tip: Use a burner wallet for mints. In Phantom settings, add a new one via those three lines. Send a tiny bit of SOL there. Why? Mints can glitch, and you don't wanna risk your main stack. In my experience, saves headaches.
Now the fun part. On Solsea, hit "Create" tab, then "Collection." Give it a name like "My Laser Potato Squad," slap in a description: "Potatoes with vibes. Limited drop."
Upload header image (big banner, like 1400x400 PNG) and icon (square, 500x500). Add Twitter, Discord links if you got 'em-helps hype. Click "Create Collection," sign the tx in Phantom. Might say "failed"-bug city. Wait 30 secs, check Phantom tx history or solscan.io with your wallet address. It's there 99% of the time.
Cost? About 0.002 SOL for the collection mint. See it in "My Collections" under Wallet tab. Magic Eden skips collections sometimes for single mints, but same idea.
Check Phantom's NFT tab next to the SOL icon. There it sits. On Magic Eden, it's "Create" > upload > metadata > pay SOL fee (like 0.00045 SOL x3 txs). Exchange.Art? Upload art, add traits, pay and it's live in seconds.
What's next? List it. Wallet > "NFTs in My Wallet" > "List NFT." Set price in SOL, say 0.1 SOL. Sign again. Now it's shoppable. Sell? Funds hit your wallet minus 2-2.5% platform cut.
| What | Solana Cost (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wallet Setup | Free | Just download Phantom |
| Fund Wallet | 0.5 SOL (~$75 at $150/SOL) | Buy extra for safety |
| Create Collection | 0.002 SOL | One time |
| Mint Single NFT | 0.001-0.005 SOL | 3 txs @ 0.00045 SOL each + priority |
| List for Sale | 0.0005 SOL | Gas only |
| Platform Fee on Sale | 2-2.5% | Solsea/Magic Eden cut |
| 50 NFTs Batch | ~0.2 SOL total | Scales cheap |
Honesty hour: Fees spike if network's jammed-add priority fee (like 0.0001 SOL extra) in advanced settings. Still under $1 usually. Free mints? Lazy minting on some spots means buyer pays gas, but Solana's so cheap, who cares.
Want a 10k collection? Skip marketplaces, use Metaplex Candy Machine. It's CLI heavy, but pros do it. First, install Node.js, Rust, Solana CLI. Create wallet, switch to Devnet for testing (free fake SOL via faucet.solana.com).
Fork sugar repo on GitHub (Metaplex's tool). Run npm install, set up Postgres Docker for metadata. Upload assets to Arweave or IPFS-images as numbered PNGs (1.png, 2.png). Config JSON with traits: {"name": "Potato #1", "image": "1.png", "attributes": [{"trait_type": "Hat", "value": "Cowboy"}]}
Deploy: solana keygen new, fund with airdrop on Devnet. candy machine cli deploy. Costs ~0.1 SOL on Mainnet for setup. Buyers connect Phantom to your mint site, pay say 1 SOL each, NFT drops to them. Glitches? Tx fails if RPC lags-use Helius or QuickNode RPC.
In my experience, test on Devnet 3x first. One wrong JSON and your drop's borked.
Got your NFT? List on Solsea: Wallet > My NFTs > List. Fixed price or auction (start 0.05 SOL, 24-168 hours). Magic Eden shines here-auctions pull crowds. Set royalties 7.5%, get cut on resales forever.
Buyers see it, bid, SOL hits you minus fees. Transfer to main wallet? Phantom > Send > paste address. Watch gas-tiny, but do it off peak.
Issue: NFT vanishes from wallet on list? Normal. Relists pull from marketplace view.
Why Solana? Speed-tx in 400ms. Ethereum? $50+ gas nightmare. But network outages happen-rare now, check solana.status.
Scaling up? Prep 100 images in folder, JSONs auto generated via tools like NFTPort or custom script. Upload to bundlr.network (Arweave cheap, ~0.01 SOL/GB). Candy Machine v3 handles it-generate, upload, deploy. Cost for 100? Under 1 SOL total.
One time I batched 50 potatoes. Sold 20 in a day at 0.2 SOL each. Profit after fees? Solid.
Stuck on traits? Use free generators-backgrounds, eyes, hats randomize.
Pop ups blocked? Allow in browser. Tx pending forever? Solana beach mode-refresh explorer. Wrong chain? Back to Mainnet.
Honestly, first mint's shaky, but by #2 you're flying. Costs stay low 'cause base fee's 5000 lamports (~$0.0007) per sig, half burned, half to validators. Priority bumps it if busy.
Go mint something dumb today. Potato? Meme? Your face as pixel art. Report back how it goes. You've got this.
© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.