“Insufficient balance”
The bot compares the free funds on the Bybit account with what the strategy needs and refuses in advance — before the exchange starts rejecting orders.
What it means
The full texts of the refusals:
- Grid: “Insufficient balance for the Grid. Required: ~1100 USDT (with 10% safety buffer for fees and slippage) for the whole grid, available: 800 USDT. Top up balance or reduce parameters (investment per level/level count/leverage).”
- DCA: “Insufficient balance. Required: ~110 USDT (with 10% safety buffer for fees and slippage), available: 90 USDT. Top up balance or reduce parameters (leverage/amount/order count).”
- A signal trade or a manual one: “Not enough available balance on the exchange to place the order. Top up your account or reduce the trade size/leverage.” or “Insufficient funds: available margin is 0.”
How the required amount is counted:
| Bot | Formula |
|---|---|
| Grid | amount per level × number of levels (on futures ÷ leverage) × 1.1 |
| DCA | cycle amount (on futures ÷ leverage) × 1.1 |
Example: a Grid bot on spot, 10 levels of 100 USDT — you need 10 × 100 × 1.1 = 1100 USDT. The same grid on futures with leverage 5 — 1000 ÷ 5 × 1.1 = 220 USDT. A DCA cycle of 300 USDT with leverage 3 — 300 ÷ 3 × 1.1 = 110 USDT.
Why it happens
- The funds are taken by other positions and orders — the free balance is smaller than the total one.
- In the Grid wizard the amount is entered per level, not for the whole grid.
- DCA presets set the leverage and the number of orders themselves — the cycle amount may turn out larger than expected.
What to do
- Top up the account on Bybit.
- Or reduce the parameters: the amount per level or the number of levels (Grid), the cycle amount or the number of orders (DCA), the leverage on futures.
- For signal trades — reduce the entry amount or the percentage of the balance in the trading settings.
Separate cases while the bot is running:
- DCA: “Insufficient balance to place order. Order skipped — will be re-placed once balance is restored.” — this is not an error, the bot waits; after a top-up the order is placed at the next fill.
- Grid: a lack of balance counts as an error; three in a row mean a pause with the reason “3 consecutive order placement errors”. Top up the account and tap ▶️ Resume.
- Grid with trailing: “⚠️ Grid BTCUSDT — range expansion skipped. Insufficient balance: ~120 USDT required. Bot continues running in the current range.” — the grid did not expand, but keeps trading.
If the refusal reads “The order value is below the exchange minimum (usually ≈5 USDT)” or “The amount per level (4 USDT) is less than the exchange minimum order (5 USDT). Increase the amount per level.” — the balance is not the problem: every trading pair has its own minimum order. Increase the amount per level or reduce the number of orders.
When to contact support
If the free funds on the exchange are clearly larger than the required amount and the refusal keeps repeating — write to support with the text of the message and a screenshot of the balance.