1inch vs CoWSwap
Neutral on-chain benchmarking of slippage, revert rates, and overall execution quality.
1inch shows tighter execution than CoWSwap on ClearTrace's on-chain slippage benchmark, 95.2 vs 88.6 out of 100 (a 6.6-point edge), measured across 19,409 and 15,189 benchmarked trades. Slippage, revert rate, and MEV exposure are scored separately. (data as of July 15, 2026)
Protocol Scorecard
| 1inch | CoWSwap | |
|---|---|---|
| Slippage Score (0-100) | 95.2 | 88.6 |
| Trades Analyzed | 19,409 | 15,189 |
1inch and CoWSwap are both DEX aggregators: rather than holding liquidity themselves, they split each order across many underlying pools to find the best available price. Because both compete on routing quality, the difference between them shows up in execution — realized slippage and MEV exposure — far more than in their headline rates.
Across the trades ClearTrace benchmarked, 1inch posted a slippage score of 95.2/100 versus 88.6/100 for CoWSwap — a clear edge of 6.6 points. The score reflects realized slippage only — derived from median slippage versus a 1-minute VWAP, where a higher number means lower slippage. MEV exposure and revert rates are tracked as separate metrics. 1inch was measured over 19,409 trades and CoWSwap over 15,189.
The other axis is reliability — but it is not one we will rank these two on. 1inch and CoWSwap settle differently, so their on-chain revert rates are not comparable: 1inch is a router venue, where the user signs and submits the swap transaction, so a failed swap fails on-chain and is counted; CoWSwap is a batch auction venue, where the user signs an order and a solver settles it in a batch, so orders that cannot be filled never become transactions at all. CoWSwap's on-chain revert rate is therefore structurally near zero regardless of how reliably it fills, and putting that number next to a router's would overstate its reliability rather than measure it. ClearTrace ranks revert rates only within an execution model. For a like-for-like reliability read, compare 1inch and CoWSwap each against venues that settle the way they do; the live aggregator leaderboard tags every venue with its execution model.
On this data, 1inch holds the stronger slippage score, but the gap reflects routing and slippage differences rather than one venue being universally better — results shift with trade size, token pair, and market conditions, and MEV exposure and revert rates are separate considerations. Scores update on each data refresh; see our methodology for the full approach.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which has better execution quality, 1inch or CoWSwap?
Based on ClearTrace's slippage score (median slippage vs a VWAP baseline), 1inch edges out CoWSwap, 95.2/100 versus 88.6/100 (a 6.6-point gap).
Does 1inch or CoWSwap offer better MEV protection?
ClearTrace publishes a slippage-based score and per-aggregator revert rates — not a per-aggregator MEV-protection score. On slippage, 1inch was tighter (~4.8 bps vs ~11.4 bps). For MEV specifically, the dashboard surfaces detected sandwich activity as a separate metric.
Is 1inch or CoWSwap better for large trades?
For large orders, aggregators such as 1inch can split a trade across multiple pools to reduce price impact, which often helps on size. The right venue still depends on the specific pair and amount — the live dashboard tracks current execution quality.
What is the revert rate of 1inch vs CoWSwap?
A revert is a swap transaction that fails on-chain — the trader pays gas but gets no fill. ClearTrace does not publish a revert-rate comparison for 1inch vs CoWSwap. 1inch and CoWSwap settle differently, so their on-chain revert rates are not comparable: 1inch is a router venue, where the user signs and submits the swap transaction, so a failed swap fails on-chain and is counted; CoWSwap is a batch auction venue, where the user signs an order and a solver settles it in a batch, so orders that cannot be filled never become transactions at all. CoWSwap's on-chain revert rate is therefore structurally near zero regardless of how reliably it fills, and putting that number next to a router's would overstate its reliability rather than measure it. ClearTrace ranks revert rates only within an execution model. Each venue's revert rate is published on the ClearTrace aggregator leaderboard alongside its execution model, and ranked only against venues that settle the way it does.