How to Pay a Bitcoin Invoice With Monero in 2027 (XMR.to Alternatives)

By the SecureShift Team · Updated November 12, 2026

Disclosure: SecureShift offers XMR to BTC swaps, which is one of the methods covered here. We also cover options that don't involve us. Educational content, not legal or financial advice.

You hold Monero. The VPN, the hosting provider, or the small shop you want to buy from only takes Bitcoin. That's an awkward spot. You could cash out XMR on an exchange, buy BTC and send it, but that's three steps, at least one account, and a paper trail that defeats the reason you held XMR in the first place.

The cleaner route is to pay the Bitcoin invoice directly from Monero, with a swap whose BTC output goes straight to the merchant. It's what XMR.to did for years, and it still works without XMR.to. You just need to understand two things that catch people out: invoice timers and exact amounts.

Why Pay BTC Invoices With XMR at All?

Bitcoin is public by design. Every payment you make shows where the coins came from. If you paid a merchant from a wallet you also used to withdraw from a KYC exchange, that merchant (or anyone watching the chain) can often connect the dots. We break down how in how crypto wallets get linked.

Monero hides sender, receiver and amount by default. When you swap XMR to BTC and have the BTC sent straight to the merchant, the merchant gets ordinary bitcoin. On the Bitcoin chain, the payment starts at the swap service's wallet, not yours. Your Monero history stays on Monero. For more on what Monero hides (and what it doesn't), read Is Monero traceable?

There's a convenience angle too. If XMR is what you keep as savings or get paid in, converting only at the moment you spend means you don't hold BTC you didn't want.

What Happened to XMR.to

XMR.to was a popular service that let Monero users pay any Bitcoin address. You pasted a BTC address and amount, it gave you an XMR amount to send, and it paid the merchant. In 2019 it stopped serving US customers. On February 1, 2021, it announced it would close, keeping its infrastructure running for a few more months so users and integrations could move elsewhere.

Since then, the job has moved to general-purpose instant swap services and to merchants accepting Monero directly. The workflow below is the closest one-to-one replacement.

Step by Step: Pay a BTC Invoice With Monero

1. Open the invoice and note three things: the BTC address, the exact BTC amount, and the expiry timer. Many checkouts, including BTCPay Server's default setup, give you about 15 minutes.
2. Open a swap for XMR to BTC in another tab. Choose the fixed rate. On SecureShift the fixed rate is locked for 20 minutes, so what you see is what's delivered, even if the market moves.
3. Size your XMR send so the BTC output covers the invoice amount plus a small buffer (see the next section). Adjust the XMR amount until the "you receive" figure is at or slightly above what the invoice asks.
4. Paste the merchant's BTC address as the recipient. Copy-paste it, never retype it, and check the first and last 5 characters.
5. Add your own XMR refund address. If anything goes wrong, the refund comes back to you instead of being stuck.
6. Send the exact XMR amount from your wallet to the deposit address the swap gives you.
7. Wait. The swap waits for Monero confirmations, then sends the BTC. The merchant's page usually updates as soon as the Bitcoin transaction is broadcast, even before it confirms.

The whole thing usually takes a few minutes, and most of that time is the Monero confirmations. If it's slower than you expect, our explainer on why swaps get delayed covers the common causes.

Getting the Amount Right (the Part That Fails Most Often)

Bitcoin invoices are strict. Pay even slightly less and many checkouts mark the invoice "partially paid" and wait for the rest. If the timer runs out first, you end up in a support ticket. Overpay a little and most merchants will either credit you or refund the difference. So it's better to slightly overpay than to fall short.

Here's how we size it:

• Start with the invoice amount in BTC, for example 0.00412 BTC.
• Add a buffer of around 1–2%. This covers rounding and any network fee taken from the output. On 0.00412 BTC, that's roughly 0.0042 BTC.
• Adjust the XMR send until the fixed-rate quote shows you'll receive at least that much.

Small invoices have their own problem: the Bitcoin network fee is fixed-ish per transaction, not a percentage. On a $10 invoice, network costs can be a meaningful share of the payment, as we explain in why crypto network fees are so high. If you pay the same merchant often (monthly VPN, hosting), consider topping up a balance with them instead of paying many tiny invoices.

Other Ways to Do It

Our honest take: if the invoice timer is short, or it's your first time, swap into your own BTC wallet first. Then pay the invoice from there with a fresh timer. You lose a little to one extra Bitcoin fee, and you lose nothing to stress. Once you've done it a couple of times, sending the swap output straight to the merchant is faster and cheaper.

And if it's a merchant you use often, it's worth sending them a polite message. Plenty of shops on BTCPay Server can switch on Monero with a plugin, and they often don't realize customers want it.

What About Lightning Invoices?

A growing number of merchants only show a Lightning invoice (a long string starting with lnbc). You can't paste that into a normal on-chain BTC swap. Instead:

1. Swap XMR to BTC on-chain into a Lightning-capable wallet you control.
2. Once the BTC is in that wallet, pay the Lightning invoice from it.

It's one extra hop, but Lightning payments themselves are near-instant and cheap, so the invoice timer stops being an issue once you've funded the wallet.

Mistakes We See All the Time

• Using a floating rate on an invoice. If BTC moves against XMR while your deposit confirms, you'll receive less BTC than the invoice needs. Use fixed rate for anything with an exact amount.
• Starting the swap, then opening the invoice. Do it the other way around. Get the invoice details first, then start the swap.
• Letting the invoice expire mid-swap. If the merchant's timer runs out after you've paid, contact them with the transaction ID (here's how to find and track it). Most will honor or refund it, but it's a hassle.
• Reusing an old invoice address. Merchants generate a fresh address per invoice. Paying an old one usually means a manual support case.
• No refund address. It takes five seconds to add, and it saves a lot of back-and-forth if anything fails.

The Bottom Line

XMR.to is gone, but the idea behind it is easy to reproduce: a fixed-rate XMR to BTC swap with the merchant's address as the recipient. Get the invoice details first, add a small buffer, use a fixed rate, and keep an eye on the timer. If you're nervous or the timer is tight, route through your own BTC wallet. If you're still building up your XMR stack, our guide to buying Monero without KYC is a good next read.

FAQ

Is there still an XMR.to?

No. XMR.to announced its shutdown in February 2021. Today the same result comes from an XMR to BTC swap with the BTC sent to the merchant's address.

Will the merchant know I paid with Monero?

Usually not. They receive a normal Bitcoin transaction from the swap service's wallet. Only the timing and amount match your invoice.

What if I underpay the invoice?

Most checkouts mark it partially paid and ask for the remainder before the timer ends. If it expires, contact the merchant with the transaction ID. To avoid this, add a 1–2% buffer.

Can I pay a Lightning invoice with XMR?

Not directly through an on-chain swap. Swap XMR to BTC into your own Lightning-capable wallet, then pay the invoice from there.

Should I use fixed or floating rate?

Fixed. Invoices need an exact amount. On SecureShift, the fixed rate is locked for 20 minutes after you start the exchange.