{
  "$schema": "https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/schemas/article-v1.json",
  "schemaVersion": "1.0.0",
  "id": "lightning-payment-status",
  "canonical": "https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/lightning-payment-status/",
  "collection": "bitcoin",
  "title": "Lightning payment pending, failed or succeeded: when to retry",
  "description": "Interpret pending, failed and successful Lightning payments without treating a dispatch timeout as final failure.",
  "aliases": [
    "lightning payment pending failed",
    "lightning payment pending failed explained"
  ],
  "dates": {
    "published": "2026-10-02",
    "modified": "2026-10-02",
    "verified": "2026-10-02T19:29:20.637Z",
    "dataAsOf": "2026-10-02"
  },
  "authorship": {
    "publisher": "Degrees of Satoshi editorial project",
    "process": "AI-assisted research and drafting with a separate automated source-verification pass; no external expert or named human review is implied."
  },
  "quickAnswer": {
    "text": "A Lightning payment can be in progress, successful or finally failed. Several route attempts may belong to one payment, and an interface timeout does not always resolve funds already committed along a route. In LND, the dispatch timeout limits time spent trying to send; it is not a guarantee that the complete payment settles within that time. Check the recorded final status before sending a separate replacement payment.",
    "claimId": "lightning-payment-status-quick-answer",
    "sourceIds": [
      "x425-btc-ln-payments"
    ]
  },
  "keyFacts": [
    {
      "label": "In flight",
      "value": "The payment remains unresolved",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ],
      "id": "in-flight",
      "claimId": "lightning-payment-status-fact-in-flight"
    },
    {
      "label": "Succeeded",
      "value": "The payment reached a successful final state",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ],
      "id": "succeeded",
      "claimId": "lightning-payment-status-fact-succeeded"
    },
    {
      "label": "Failed",
      "value": "The documented payment has a final failure state",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ],
      "id": "failed",
      "claimId": "lightning-payment-status-fact-failed"
    }
  ],
  "prerequisites": [
    "lightning-inbound-liquidity",
    "lightning-routing-fees"
  ],
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "attempts",
      "heading": "A failed route need not mean a failed payment",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "A route can fail because a node is offline, liquidity is insufficient or the allowed fee cannot support the path. The sender may try another route within the same payment operation. Routing nodes’ usable balances are not all publicly known in advance.",
        "Once a conditional payment is locked along a route, it must resolve through success or timeout. The sender cannot always immediately treat those funds as available for another attempt."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "example",
      "heading": "A short timer can coexist with a longer pending payment",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "Suppose an application allows 30 seconds for dispatch. A payment dispatched during that period may still be waiting for settlement after the timer ends. Displaying a spinner for longer than 30 seconds does not prove the software violated that particular timeout setting.",
        "Use the payment record and its identifier to track the same operation. Starting an unrelated second payment before the first resolves can lead to paying twice if both eventually succeed."
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "evidence",
      "heading": "Keep the request, status and payment evidence together",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments",
        "x425-btc-bolt11",
        "x425-btc-bolt12"
      ],
      "paragraphs": [
        "In LND, TrackPaymentV2 reports In Flight, Succeeded or Failed. A final failure means that payment operation will not automatically be attempted again; a separate retry is a new decision made after understanding the failure.",
        "For an invoiced payment, retain the invoice and available payment evidence. A preimage matching the invoice supports that it was paid, but does not on its own identify the human payer."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "faq": [
    {
      "question": "Does invoice expiry automatically cancel an in-flight payment?",
      "answer": "No. The deadline for starting an invoice payment and resolution of an already committed payment are different. Inspect its final status rather than using invoice expiry as proof of failure.",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-bolt11",
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Can one payment try more than one route?",
      "answer": "Yes. The sender can attempt different paths, and supported multi-part payments can split an amount. A route attempt and the overall payment should not be confused.",
      "sourceIds": [
        "x425-btc-ln-payments"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "lightning-payment-status-quick-answer",
      "articleSlug": "lightning-payment-status",
      "statement": "A Lightning payment can be in progress, successful or finally failed. Several route attempts may belong to one payment, and an interface timeout does not always resolve funds already committed along a route. In LND, the dispatch timeout limits time spent trying to send; it is not a guarantee that the complete payment settles within that time. Check the recorded final status before sending a separate replacement payment.",
      "sourceIds": [
        "source-1906b56694566cb0"
      ],
      "sourceLocators": [
        {
          "sourceId": "source-1906b56694566cb0",
          "locator": "Pathfinding; Dispatching Payments; Payment Fees; Monitoring Payments"
        }
      ],
      "scope": {
        "collection": "bitcoin",
        "dataAsOf": "2026-10-02",
        "blockHeight": null
      },
      "qualification": "Educational explanation. Product-specific behavior is scoped to the cited documentation, checked 2026-10-02.",
      "evidenceStatus": "documented",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "method": "independent automated source review",
        "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T19:29:20.637Z",
        "reviewer": "Independent automated verification — Codex /root/verify_ethereum_100, separate from the Bitcoin drafting agent",
        "notes": [
          "Read LND pathfinding, dispatch timeout and Monitoring Payments in full. InFlight/Succeeded/Failed and route attempts versus whole payment are accurately represented; a30-second dispatch budget is not a settlement guarantee."
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "lightning-payment-status-fact-in-flight",
      "articleSlug": "lightning-payment-status",
      "statement": "In flight: The payment remains unresolved",
      "sourceIds": [
        "source-1906b56694566cb0"
      ],
      "sourceLocators": [
        {
          "sourceId": "source-1906b56694566cb0",
          "locator": "Pathfinding; Dispatching Payments; Payment Fees; Monitoring Payments"
        }
      ],
      "scope": {
        "collection": "bitcoin",
        "dataAsOf": "2026-10-02",
        "blockHeight": null
      },
      "qualification": "",
      "evidenceStatus": "documented",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "method": "independent automated source review",
        "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T19:29:20.637Z",
        "reviewer": "Independent automated verification — Codex /root/verify_ethereum_100, separate from the Bitcoin drafting agent",
        "notes": [
          "Read LND pathfinding, dispatch timeout and Monitoring Payments in full. InFlight/Succeeded/Failed and route attempts versus whole payment are accurately represented; a30-second dispatch budget is not a settlement guarantee."
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "lightning-payment-status-fact-succeeded",
      "articleSlug": "lightning-payment-status",
      "statement": "Succeeded: The payment reached a successful final state",
      "sourceIds": [
        "source-1906b56694566cb0"
      ],
      "sourceLocators": [
        {
          "sourceId": "source-1906b56694566cb0",
          "locator": "Pathfinding; Dispatching Payments; Payment Fees; Monitoring Payments"
        }
      ],
      "scope": {
        "collection": "bitcoin",
        "dataAsOf": "2026-10-02",
        "blockHeight": null
      },
      "qualification": "",
      "evidenceStatus": "documented",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "method": "independent automated source review",
        "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T19:29:20.637Z",
        "reviewer": "Independent automated verification — Codex /root/verify_ethereum_100, separate from the Bitcoin drafting agent",
        "notes": [
          "Read LND pathfinding, dispatch timeout and Monitoring Payments in full. InFlight/Succeeded/Failed and route attempts versus whole payment are accurately represented; a30-second dispatch budget is not a settlement guarantee."
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "lightning-payment-status-fact-failed",
      "articleSlug": "lightning-payment-status",
      "statement": "Failed: The documented payment has a final failure state",
      "sourceIds": [
        "source-1906b56694566cb0"
      ],
      "sourceLocators": [
        {
          "sourceId": "source-1906b56694566cb0",
          "locator": "Pathfinding; Dispatching Payments; Payment Fees; Monitoring Payments"
        }
      ],
      "scope": {
        "collection": "bitcoin",
        "dataAsOf": "2026-10-02",
        "blockHeight": null
      },
      "qualification": "",
      "evidenceStatus": "documented",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "method": "independent automated source review",
        "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T19:29:20.637Z",
        "reviewer": "Independent automated verification — Codex /root/verify_ethereum_100, separate from the Bitcoin drafting agent",
        "notes": [
          "Read LND pathfinding, dispatch timeout and Monitoring Payments in full. InFlight/Succeeded/Failed and route attempts versus whole payment are accurately represented; a30-second dispatch budget is not a settlement guarantee."
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "x425-btc-ln-payments",
      "label": "Sending Payments",
      "publisher": "Lightning Labs",
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lightninglabs/docs.lightning.engineering/0456e1627b2579ac18108cb921fe609f87c8b009/lightning-network-tools/lnd/payments.md",
      "locator": "Pathfinding; Dispatching Payments; Payment Fees; Monitoring Payments",
      "note": "LND initiated/in-flight/succeeded/failed statuses and safe retry semantics.",
      "version": "Pinned Lightning Labs documentation revision; LND/Loop implementation scope",
      "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T18:53:57.437Z",
      "contentSha256": "b60ed4c76affc6a05feaaf3ec960f40d5039a3d53aae3c35046e6fc125279d7b",
      "recordId": "source-1906b56694566cb0"
    },
    {
      "id": "x425-btc-bolt11",
      "label": "BOLT 11: Invoice Protocol for Lightning Payments",
      "publisher": "Lightning specification contributors",
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lightning/bolts/1aadb719b4007c4cea0ba6e36b08c4fb53788dee/11-payment-encoding.md",
      "locator": "Human-Readable Part; Data Part; Tagged Fields; Payer / Payee Interactions; Payer / Payee Requirements",
      "note": "Invoice amounts, payment hashes, expiry, signing and feature constraints.",
      "version": "Pinned BOLTs revision",
      "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T18:53:57.096Z",
      "contentSha256": "d2ede88b25ca3017e8cce7cc313a88d3b6a780d34ded2d403b996b2a8c7e9810",
      "recordId": "source-e70fcc81fb7aecfd"
    },
    {
      "id": "x425-btc-bolt12",
      "label": "BOLT 12: Negotiation Protocol for Lightning Payments",
      "publisher": "Lightning specification contributors",
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lightning/bolts/1aadb719b4007c4cea0ba6e36b08c4fb53788dee/12-offer-encoding.md",
      "locator": "Limitations of BOLT 11; Payment Flow Scenarios; Offers; Invoice Requests; Invoices; Payer Proofs",
      "note": "Reusable offers produce separate invoice requests and authenticated invoices.",
      "version": "Pinned BOLTs revision",
      "checkedAt": "2026-10-02T18:53:57.136Z",
      "contentSha256": "0fa23def72465c7c31dcff2c90c0139e988c502b42f103c0e0b945b752837b69",
      "recordId": "source-cc1932d4fd39f8dd"
    }
  ],
  "related": {
    "articles": [
      "lightning-inbound-liquidity",
      "lightning-routing-fees",
      "lightning-force-close",
      "lightning-submarine-swaps"
    ],
    "dossiers": [],
    "wallets": []
  },
  "revisionHistory": [
    {
      "date": "2026-10-02",
      "kind": "published",
      "summary": "First publication after primary-source research and separate automated verification."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "Degrees of Satoshi editorial project. “Lightning payment pending, failed or succeeded: when to retry.” Published 2026-10-02; updated 2026-10-02. https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/lightning-payment-status/"
}