Transaction finality on Polygon PoS occurs in approximately 5 seconds — the time from when a transaction is broadcast to when it is irreversibly included in the blockchain. This near-instant finality is one of Polygon's most important features for practical use cases.

Finality on a blockchain means a transaction cannot be reversed or altered. On Polygon, finality is achieved through its proof-of-stake consensus where a supermajority of validators must sign off on each block. Given the ~2 second block time, by the time two to three blocks have been produced (roughly 5 seconds total), a transaction is considered final for all practical purposes.

Polygon PoS chain typically features transaction finality of approximately 5 seconds, offering a significant speed advantage over Ethereum's base layer.

Chainspect

This 5-second finality window has profound implications for user experience in decentralized applications. Payment systems, gaming platforms, and trading interfaces can provide near-real-time feedback to users, creating an experience closer to traditional web applications.

It is worth noting that "checkpointed" finality to Ethereum mainnet takes longer — roughly 20–30 minutes for a checkpoint to be submitted and confirmed on Ethereum. However, for on-chain Polygon activities (trading, minting, gaming), the 5-second on-chain finality is what matters in practice.

Compared to Bitcoin's 10-minute blocks and the recommendation to wait for 6 confirmations (approximately 60 minutes), Polygon's finality represents a dramatic improvement in transaction throughput and user experience without sacrificing meaningful security guarantees for everyday transactions.