Indicative rate

An indicative rate answers the question “roughly what is one unit worth right now?” by dividing one pool reserve by the other. If a pool holds two assets, the ratio of the output reserve to the input reserve is the marginal exchange rate for an infinitesimally small trade. It is the number market pages display as the current rate.

It is called indicative because no real trade executes at it. Any actual swap has size, and size moves an AMM's price: your own trade shifts the reserve ratio as it executes, so the average rate you receive is always somewhat worse than the marginal rate you saw. Fees and network costs widen the gap further. The bigger your trade relative to the reserves, the more the executed rate diverges from the indicative one.

The honest workflow is the one OneSwap's pages follow: use the indicative rate to orient yourself, then request a live quote for your exact amount before submitting. The quote prices in trade size, pool fee, and price impact, and it can still drift between quoting and settlement if other swaps land first, which is what slippage tolerance protects against.