Skip to article
Degrees of SatoshiFollow the connections.
SearchTrace an address
Degrees of Satoshi/ Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia Ethereum · Entry 248

NFT operator approvals: what does “approve all” allow?

AI-assisted research · separate automated verificationCorrections

Theme
Ethereum
Sources
2 cited records
Reading time
About 3 minutes
Automated verification
Substantive update
In this article

At a glance

Key facts

Key facts for NFT operator approvals: what does “approve all” allow?
FactDetailSource
Collection scopesetApprovalForAll applies within the contract where it is called.[1][2]
Single tokenERC-721 approve can authorize a specific token ID.[1]
RevocationAn operator can be disabled with setApprovalForAll using false.[1][2]
01

Read both the contract and the operator

The contract receiving the approval identifies which collection is affected. The operator address identifies who receives transfer authority. A marketplace brand shown by an interface is not a substitute for checking these two values.

ERC-1155 can group many token IDs and quantities in one contract, so an operator approval may cover a wider set of holdings than one item displayed on a sale page.

02

Approving one collection does not approve every NFT

Suppose you own three tokens in Collection A and one in Collection B. An operator approval in A can authorize movement of all three A tokens. It does not by that operation authorize B’s separate contract.

If you intended to list just one A token, inspect whether the marketplace requires collection-wide approval and how it uses a separately signed sale order. The approval and order impose different boundaries.

03

Change the onchain permission when it is no longer needed

Revoking an operator approval requires changing the relevant contract state. Removing a website from a connected-app list does not call this function. Read the resulting permission on the correct chain after the revocation is included.

Revocation cannot reverse transfers already completed. An ERC-721 token-level approval and collection-wide approval are separate permission paths, so inspect both when applicable.

Direct answers

Questions people ask

Does an NFT approval authorize spending all my ETH?

The standard NFT operator permission concerns tokens in that NFT contract. Other transactions or signatures may grant different authority and should be inspected separately.

Will sending one ERC-721 token clear every operator approval?

No. The token’s individual approval is cleared on transfer, but collection-wide operator permissions are separate contract state.

Inspect the evidence

The answer and key facts have stable claim links. These records retain the scope and qualification when reused.

An NFT operator approval can authorize another address to transfer all of your tokens within a particular NFT contract. ERC-721 also supports approval for an individual token; ERC-1155 uses its operator model across token IDs in that contract. The scope is the collection contract, not every asset in the wallet, and disconnecting a website does not revoke it.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T19:27:58.939Z.

Link to this claim
Collection scope: setApprovalForAll applies within the contract where it is called.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T19:27:58.939Z.

Link to this claim
Single token: ERC-721 approve can authorize a specific token ID.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T19:27:58.939Z.

Link to this claim
Revocation: An operator can be disabled with setApprovalForAll using false.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T19:27:58.939Z.

Link to this claim
Revision history
  1. — First publication after primary-source research and separate automated verification.

Source register

Sources and references

Retrieval dates and locators are recorded individually.
  1. ERC-721 NFT standardEthereum Improvement Proposals

    Ownership, receiver checks, token-level and operator approvals, mint/burn event semantics.

    Locator: safeTransferFrom; approve; setApprovalForAll; Transfer; metadata · Version / scope: ERC-721 · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T18:55:25.399ZOpen source
  2. ERC-1155 multi-token standardEthereum Improvement Proposals

    Receiver acceptance, collection-wide operators, balance accounting and burn events.

    Locator: Safe transfer rules; operator approvals; minting and burning · Version / scope: ERC-1155 · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T18:55:25.400ZOpen source
How this article was made

Research and drafting use AI assistance. A separate automated review checks claims against primary sources; no external expert or named human review is implied. Publication, substantive editing, source retrieval and verification are recorded separately. This version was independently checked by an automated reviewer on 2 October 2026.

Editorial method and corrections

Degrees of Satoshi editorial project. “NFT operator approvals: what does “approve all” allow?.” Published 2026-10-02; updated 2026-10-02. https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/nft-operator-approvals/