Tron Resource Delegation

Overview

TRON transactions consume two resources: Bandwidth (for transaction data size) and Energy (for smart contract execution, such as USDT transfers). Energy is not provided for free — it must be obtained by staking TRX. Resource delegation lets you assign the Energy or Bandwidth you've acquired through staking to other TRON addresses, enabling fee-less transactions on those addresses without consuming the underlying TRX.

Key Mechanics

• Delegation transfers usage rights only — the underlying frozen TRX stays in your wallet.
• Minimum delegation: 1 TRX (1,000,000 SUN). No minimum for undelegation.
• Undelegation is instant — unused delegated resources return to the delegator immediately. Used resources replenish gradually over 24 hours.
• Unfreezing requires undelegation first — you cannot unfreeze TRX that backs active delegations.
• TRX lockup period: 14 days after unstaking before TRX is spendable again.
• Fallback: if an address has insufficient Energy or Bandwidth, the network burns TRX from its balance to cover transaction fees.
• Account activation required: delegation to an inactive address fails — see Step 3 below.

Workflow

Step 1: Check available resources on the root address

Query the wallet root address to see its current Energy and Bandwidth balances and the maximum delegatable amounts.

Endpoint: Get account resources

export WALLET_ID="<YOUR_WALLET_ID>"
export ACCESS_TOKEN="<YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN>"
export ROOT_ADDRESS="<ROOT_ADDRESS>"

curl -X POST \
  https://app.bitgo-test.com/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/getaccountresources \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{ "addresses": ["'"$ROOT_ADDRESS"'"] }'

{
  "resources": [
    {
      "address": "<ROOT_ADDRESS>",
      "freeBandwidthAvailable": 125,
      "stakedBandwidthAvailable": 5742,
      "energyAvailable": 703580,
      "energyUsed": 0,
      "maxResourcesDelegatable": {
        "bandwidthSun": "45018665297",
        "energySun": "50000000000"
      }
    }
  ]
}

maxResourcesDelegatable shows the maximum SUN value you can delegate for bandwidth and energy from this wallet. Do not exceed these limits when delegating.

Step 2: Find energy and bandwidth deficits on receive addresses

Pass the receive addresses using the token coin type (e.g., ttrx:usdt) to get the resource deficit for that specific asset transfer. The response tells you exactly how much to delegate to enable a fee-less transfer.

Endpoint: Get account resources

curl -X POST \
  https://app.bitgo-test.com/api/v2/ttrx:usdt/wallet/$WALLET_ID/getaccountresources \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{ "addresses": ["<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_1>", "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_2>"] }'

{
  "resources": [
    {
      "address": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_1>",
      "freeBandwidthAvailable": 600,
      "energyAvailable": 0,
      "resourceDeficitForAssetTransfer": {
        "bandwidthDeficit": 0,
        "bandwidthSunRequired": "0",
        "energyDeficit": 28045,
        "energySunRequired": "1993019263"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Use energySunRequired and bandwidthSunRequired as the amount values in Step 4.

Step 3: Activate receive addresses (if needed)

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Important

Delegating resources to an inactive address will fail with: Receiver address <address> is not activated, please fund it with 0.01 TRX

A TRON address is inactive until it receives its first on-chain TRX deposit. Activate it before delegating resource to it.

There are two ways to activate an address:

Option A — Transfer TRX

Send any amount of TRX to the address using sendmany. TRON deducts a 1 TRX account activation fee and a 0.1 TRX bandwidth fee on first funding.

For multisig wallets, a multisig transaction fee of 1 TRX also applies.

curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:3080/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/sendmany \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "recipients": [{ "address": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS>", "amount": "1" }],
    "walletPassphrase": "<WALLET_PASSPHRASE>",
    "otp": "<OTP>"
  }'

Option B — Create account transaction

Use type: "createAccount" with amount: "0" to activate the address without transferring a TRX balance. Use the native coin type (ttrx or trx), not a token.

curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:3080/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/sendmany \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "type": "createAccount",
    "recipients": [{ "address": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS>", "amount": "0" }],
    "walletPassphrase": "<WALLET_PASSPHRASE>",
    "otp": "<OTP>"
  }'

Step 4: Delegate resources

Use delegateResources to delegate Energy or Bandwidth from the wallet root address to one or more receive addresses. You can batch multiple delegations in a single request.

Endpoint: Delegate resources

curl -X POST \
  http://localhost:3080/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/delegateResources \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "delegations": [
      {
        "receiverAddress": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_1>",
        "amount": "1993019263",
        "resource": "energy"
      }
    ],
    "walletPassphrase": "<WALLET_PASSPHRASE>"
  }'

Each successful delegation returns a signed transfer object. Delegation transactions appear on the activity page of the delegator wallet in the BitGo UI.

After delegating, re-querying getaccountresources on the receive address confirms the delegation: energyAvailable will equal the delegated amount and energyDeficit will be 0.

Step 5: View active delegations

Check all active delegations from the wallet, including the balance (SUN amount) delegated to each address. Use the balance value when undelegating.

Endpoint: Get resource delegations

curl -X GET \
  "https://app.bitgo-test.com/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/resourcedelegations?resource=energy" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN"

{
  "address": "<ROOT_ADDRESS>",
  "coin": "ttrx",
  "delegations": {
    "outgoing": [
      {
        "ownerAddress": "<ROOT_ADDRESS>",
        "receiverAddress": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_1>",
        "resource": "ENERGY",
        "balance": "1993019263",
        "updatedAt": "2026-04-07T13:48:39.000Z"
      }
    ],
    "incoming": []
  }
}

Step 6: Undelegate when done

Reclaim delegated resources back to the root address. Resources return to the delegator immediately.

Endpoint: Undelegate resources

curl -X POST \
  https://app.bitgo-test.com/api/v2/ttrx/wallet/$WALLET_ID/undelegateResources \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "undelegations": [
      {
        "receiverAddress": "<RECEIVE_ADDRESS_1>",
        "amount": "1993019263",
        "resource": "energy"
      }
    ],
    "walletPassphrase": "<WALLET_PASSPHRASE>"
  }'

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Note

You must undelegate all resources before unfreezing the TRX that backs them.

API Reference

See Also

• Tron
• Stake Assets
• Staking Overview
• Consolidate Account Balance