A Sui transaction can fail at its intended operation yet still consolidate the coin objects used to pay for it. That is how coin-based gas payment works, not evidence that the failed operation secretly succeeded.
| What you need to know |
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| Gas smashing automatically combines multiple SUI coin objects supplied as gas payment. |
| The first supplied gas coin receives the merged balance, less gas costs and plus any storage rebates. |
| A transaction execution error does not reverse the merging of its gas coins. |
| Storage rebates cannot fund the gas charge within that same transaction. |
Follow the gas objects, not just the error
Consider an illustrative payment with three SUI coin objects, A, B and C. All three are supplied as gas. Under the mechanism described in Sui’s gas-smashing documentation, their balances are combined into the first coin, A. Objects B and C are deleted. The gas charge and any applicable storage rebate are reflected in the remaining balance.
Now suppose the application operation encounters an execution error. The object count can still fall from three to one: gas smashing is performed regardless of execution success. Looking for B and C afterwards therefore asks the wrong question. Their former balances have been consolidated; the application result must be checked separately.
This separation explains an otherwise puzzling wallet display. A user may see an error, fewer coins and a balance change in the same transaction. Those observations describe different parts of processing. An error does not promise that gas payment leaves every input object untouched.
There is another accounting wrinkle. Deleting the extra gas coin objects can produce a storage rebate. In an out-of-gas case, that rebate can exceed the gas consumed, according to the documentation. A positive net balance change is consequently not a reliable shortcut for deciding whether the requested application action worked.
The rebate nevertheless cannot fund the gas charge within that same transaction. The transaction needs adequate gas under the applicable payment rules; a later rebate does not remove that requirement.
The scope is coin-based payment
Sui also supports address-balance gas payment, which does not require choosing and merging gas coin objects. The three-object example applies to coin-based payment, not to every possible Sui transaction. Mixing those two payment paths would make the explanation less accurate precisely where a developer needs it to be concrete.
For a failed application call, the useful record is thus twofold: the execution outcome establishes what the application did, while the surviving gas object explains where the payment balances went. One transaction record can legitimately contain both a failed operation and completed gas consolidation.
