How to send a zap on Nostr: step by step

You have a Nostr account, you have seen zaps on other people's posts, and you want to send your first one. This is the practical walk-through.

Three prerequisites, a short setup, and the actual send flow.

TL;DR. Open a Lightning wallet. Fund it with a few thousand sats. Connect the wallet to your Nostr client (or use a client with a built-in wallet). Tap the lightning-bolt icon under any post, pick an amount, confirm. The zap appears within seconds.

When you are ready, grab your @nostr.blog address →

What you need before your first zap

Three things.

A Nostr identity. You already have one if you are using any Nostr client. If not, our how-to-use-nostr guide covers the two-minute signup.

A Lightning wallet with sats in it. The wallet is what pays the invoice; your Nostr identity is what signs the zap request. They are separate, and you need both.

A connection between the two. This is either a client with a built-in wallet (nostr.blog) or a pairing called Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC) that links your client to an external wallet.

If all three are set up, sending a zap is one tap. If any is missing, the zap button will appear grayed out or will fail silently.

Setting up a Lightning wallet

If you already have one, skip this section. If you do not, the quickest path for a new zap-sender:

Wallet of Satoshi (custodial, easiest). Install the app, the wallet generates itself. Give it a nickname. You now have a Lightning address shaped like happyowl123@walletofsatoshi.com. Fund it with sats by buying them in the app (in supported regions) or by having a friend send you a zap to get started.

Phoenix (non-custodial, still easy). Install, create wallet, back up the seed phrase. Phoenix handles channel management in the background. First funding costs a small on-chain fee to open a channel; after that, zap sending is free.

The nostr.blog built-in wallet. If you are signing up on nostr.blog, the wallet comes with the account. No separate install.

For zap sending, any of these works. Custodial is fastest; non-custodial is cleaner for privacy and self-custody.

Connecting the wallet to your Nostr client

Two patterns exist depending on which client you use.

Built-in wallet. Some clients include a wallet. The nostr.blog client and Primal's mobile apps are the common examples. No connection step; the client just knows.

Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC). Most other clients use NWC to talk to an external wallet. The pairing is a one-time operation:

1. In your wallet app, generate an NWC string. It looks like nostr+walletconnect://abc123... and is usually displayed as a QR code.
2. In your Nostr client, go to settings, find "Lightning wallet" or "Zap settings," choose "Connect via NWC."
3. Scan the QR code or paste the NWC string.
4. The client verifies the connection and saves the pairing.

After pairing, your client can send payments through the wallet without you typing invoices.

Our NWC guide has the full technical explanation.

Funding the wallet

A zap costs sats, which are fractions of a Bitcoin (1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats). A few thousand sats is enough for dozens of small zaps.

How to get sats into a Lightning wallet:

• Buy them in the wallet app. Wallet of Satoshi, Strike, and others let you buy sats with a credit card or bank transfer in supported regions. Funds land instantly as Lightning balance.
• Receive from a friend. Share your Lightning address with someone who has sats; they can send you any amount in seconds.
• Withdraw from an exchange. Most Bitcoin exchanges support Lightning withdrawals (Kraken, Coinbase since 2023, Bitfinex, Binance where available, River). Buy Bitcoin, withdraw a portion over Lightning to your wallet.

For your first zap, 1000 to 10,000 sats (about $0.60 to $6 at current prices) is plenty.

Sending your first zap

With wallet funded and connected, the actual send is simple.

1. Find a post to zap. Something you found useful, entertaining, or thoughtful.
2. Tap the lightning-bolt icon. Every mainstream Nostr client puts it under posts, usually next to the like, reply, and repost icons.
3. Pick an amount. Most clients show a row of preset amounts (21, 100, 420, 1000, custom) and a field for a custom value. Pick one.
4. Optionally add a comment. Some zaps carry a short message that appears next to the amount. Keep it short; clients often truncate comments.
5. Confirm. Your client creates the zap request, your wallet pays the invoice, the zap receipt gets published.
6. See the zap appear. Within a few seconds the post's zap count and total sats update. Your own zap is now visible in the receipt stream.

Total elapsed time: three seconds on a good day, up to ten on a slow one.

What if the zap does not land

Three specific failure modes, with what to do about each.

The zap button is grayed out. Your client cannot find a wallet. Check that the wallet is connected (NWC pairing live) or that your client's built-in wallet is funded. If you see a "connect wallet" prompt, you have not paired yet.

You tapped but nothing happened. The payment failed silently. Most common causes: the recipient's Lightning address does not support zaps (the money cannot route because the recipient's wallet has no inbound liquidity), or the invoice expired before your wallet paid it. Try again; if it still fails, the recipient's wallet is the issue, not yours.

Zap went through but did not appear on the post. The payment worked but the zap receipt did not publish. This is a recipient-side problem: their Lightning address is not zap-compatible. The money is in their wallet; it just does not show as a zap on Nostr. No refund available, because the payment succeeded.

Zap etiquette

Three patterns the active Nostr community has settled on.

Zap things you actually find valuable. A zap is a direct signal. Spreading small zaps everywhere dilutes the meaning. Small zaps for small positive reactions, medium zaps for posts you genuinely liked, large zaps for content that changed your day.

Custom amounts are welcome. Nothing forces you to use preset amounts. Sending 77 sats because 77 is your lucky number is perfectly normal. Sending 1312 sats because the post was about a topic where 1312 means something specific is also normal.

Adding a one-line comment makes the zap more memorable. "Great thread" or "Made my morning" goes a long way. Recipients read these; they are how zaps stand out from each other.

Keeping the wallet topped up

Zapping is a regular, low-friction activity if you let it be. Two tips for keeping it that way.

• Keep a small float of sats in a custodial wallet for quick zaps. 10,000 to 50,000 sats is enough to zap actively for a few weeks.
• Refill periodically rather than every time. Fewer on-chain moves means lower total fees.

Once the wallet is set up and connected, you stop thinking about the mechanics and just zap. Which is the point.