OpenBook Market ID: What It Is and How to Create One

An OpenBook market ID identifies an on-chain orderbook market on OpenBook, the community successor of Serum. Creating one is expensive: about 3 SOL with the default OpenBook plus Raydium preset, or about 0.55 SOL with the smaller Only Raydium preset. Almost all of that is Solana network rent for the market accounts, paid to the network rather than to DexLab, and it is not recoverable, because a created market cannot be canceled or refunded.

Check whether you need one at all before you spend anything. A DexLab liquidity pool does not require an OpenBook market ID and goes live as soon as the pool transaction confirms. You need a market ID only for orderbook trading or for a venue that requires one, and a Raydium legacy AMM pool (AMMv4) is the best-known case.

If you do need a market, rehearse on devnet first. The DexLab OpenBook tools site can publish a test market on devnet, which costs nothing real and lets you confirm your mints, order size, and price tick before you spend mainnet SOL.

Opens the DexLab OpenBook tools site in a new tab. Publish a test market on devnet there first: a created market cannot be canceled or refunded.

How to Create an OpenBook Market ID

  1. Confirm you actually need a market ID

    A DexLab liquidity pool does not need one, so if your goal is simply to make your token tradable, stop here and create a pool instead. Continue only if you want orderbook trading or a venue that requires a market ID, such as a Raydium legacy AMM pool.

  2. Open the DexLab OpenBook tools site

    Use the button above to open the market creation tool directly, or go through the DexLab Token Listing page, where the Orderbook Market card opens the same tool in a new tab. That card is marked for Raydium AMMv4, the main venue that requires a market ID.

  3. Rehearse on devnet

    The tool can publish a test market on devnet. Do this first. Created markets cannot be canceled or refunded, so a devnet rehearsal is the only cheap way to catch a wrong mint, order size, or price tick before the same mistake costs you SOL on mainnet.

  4. Set the base and quote mints

    The base mint is your token address and must use the classic SPL Token program; the tool notes that Token-2022 does not yet support market creation. For the quote mint, the DexLab documentation lists USDC, USDT, and wrapped SOL as the supported options.

  5. Set the minimum order size and price tick

    The minimum order size controls the smallest tradable unit and the price tick controls the displayed price decimals. Per the DexLab documentation, the minimum order size cannot exceed the base token decimals, the price tick cannot exceed the quote token decimals, and the sum of both cannot exceed the quote token decimals.

  6. Choose a Quick Select preset to control the cost

    The preset decides how large the market accounts are, and account size is what you are paying rent for. OpenBook + Raydium is the default and costs about 3 SOL. Only Raydium uses a much smaller event queue and smaller orderbook accounts and costs about 0.55 SOL, which is enough when your goal is a Raydium legacy AMM pool. Advanced Options lets you set the sizes yourself, and larger sizes cost more rent.

  7. Fund the wallet, review the estimate, and sign

    The tool shows a Total Rent + Fee Estimate before you sign. Wait for it to finish loading, because the tool shows Calculating until every rent lookup answers and only then displays a real total. With the default preset the total is about 3 SOL: roughly 2.78 SOL of Solana rent for the market accounts, a 0.22 SOL platform fee, and a few thousandths of a SOL for the vault accounts. Keep a margin above the estimate in your wallet, because an insufficient balance can fail the transaction and still charge a fee.

OpenBook market ID FAQ

What is an OpenBook market ID?

It is the on-chain address of an orderbook market on OpenBook. Venues that build on OpenBook orderbooks reference this ID; creating one registers the accounts the orderbook needs.

How much does an OpenBook market ID cost?

About 3 SOL with the default OpenBook plus Raydium preset, and about 0.55 SOL with the Only Raydium preset. In the default setup roughly 2.78 SOL is Solana network rent for the market accounts, 0.22 SOL is the platform fee, and the remainder is vault account rent. The rent is paid to the Solana network, not to DexLab.

Why is it so expensive?

Because the market needs permanently leased storage on Solana, and one account dominates the bill. The event queue is a 256 KB account and costs about 1.83 SOL of rent on its own. The two orderbook accounts add about 0.91 SOL, and the market and request queue accounts add about 0.04 SOL. Smaller presets are cheaper for exactly this reason: they lease less space.

Can I get the SOL back later?

No. A created market cannot be canceled or refunded, so treat the full amount as spent the moment you sign. This is the single best reason to publish a test market on devnet first and confirm every field before you do it on mainnet.

Is there a cheaper option?

Yes, two of them. The Only Raydium preset costs about 0.55 SOL instead of about 3 SOL and is sufficient if you only need a Raydium legacy AMM pool. Better still, if you only want your token tradable, a DexLab liquidity pool needs no market ID at all and costs network fees plus the liquidity you deposit yourself.

Create a liquidity pool

Do I need a market ID to list my token on DexLab?

No. A DexLab liquidity pool does not require an OpenBook market ID. You need the ID only for orderbook trading or venues that require it, such as Raydium AMMv4 pools.

Create a liquidity pool

Which quote tokens can the market use?

The DexLab documentation lists USDC, USDT, and wrapped SOL as supported quote mints.

Where do I create the market ID?

On the DexLab OpenBook tools site, which you can reach directly or through the Orderbook Market card on the DexLab Token Listing page. Per the DexLab documentation, markets created on third-party sites cannot be supported by DexLab.

OpenBook market ID creation toolToken listing options

Should I create a pool or an orderbook market first?

Most tokens start with a liquidity pool because it works at any liquidity size, needs no market ID, and costs a small fraction of a market ID. Add an OpenBook market later if you target a venue that requires one.

Create a Solana token

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