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Getting started with Koinly

A brief overview of what Koinly does and the main steps to take to generate a tax report

Jack avatar
Written by Jack
Updated this week


Think of Koinly as an intelligent Excel sheet that's super easy to use! All you need to do is import your transaction data (deposits, withdrawals, trades, etc.) and Koinly will automatically:

  • Fetch market rates of your tokens

  • Match transfers between wallets, trades, identify staking, LPing, etc.

  • Calculate profits on your transactions

Once the calculations are done, you can go ahead and generate your tax reports 🚀

This article outlines the main steps you need to take for Koinly to calculate your crypto taxes for you.

☝️ Accuracy of Koinly's reports
Koinly's calculations are only as accurate as the data you import. If the data you add is incomplete or incorrect, the reports generated will reflect those errors. To ensure your reports are accurate, always review your data carefully before generating reports.

✅ Prepare your tax reports in 4 steps

1️⃣ Import your data

In Koinly every crypto exchange, mobile/browser wallet, hardware wallet, service, etc. are referred to as "Wallets". To create a wallet in Koinly:

  • To create a wallet, go to the Wallets page and click on Add Wallet.

  • Search using the name of the exchange/wallet you want to add and click on it

  • Choose how you want to import your transactions: using API or CSV

  • Follow Koinly's on-screen instructions to import the data

  • Repeat for every exchange/wallet that you used

You can also check our integration pages for a list of supported exchanges/wallets, including detailed step-by-step instructions and an instructional video for most 🔥

ℹ️ Unsupported wallets
Even if you cannot find the exchange/wallet you're using in Koinly, you can still add it by creating a custom wallet. For details, see How to import data from unsupported exchanges/wallets/services/coins

2️⃣ Wait for calculations to finish

Once all the wallets are added, Koinly needs to process the data imported. This may take some time depending on the number of transactions imported and the complexity of the transactions. What Koinly does here is:

  • Match transfers between own wallet

  • Merge avalanche trades (multiple trades happening in the same time) into one

  • Fetch market value of deposits, staking rewards, etc.

  • Identify special activities like staking, liquidity providing, etc.

  • Identify issues with the data, like disposals of an asset with no history of acquisition

  • Track the cost of acquisition (cost basis) of your assets

  • Calculate capital gains on each disposal

You will see an indicator saying "Updating" in the top-right corner and you'll receive a popup once the calculations are finished ⏱️

3️⃣ Review your transactions

After the calculations are done, it's good to review all the transactions imported to see if the data is plausible. Usual checks include:

  • Confirming all wallets were added

  • Checking end balances calculated by Koinly against what is actually on the exchange

  • Addressing "Missing purchase history" warnings

For a detailed framework of how to check the data for completeness and resolve any outstanding issues, see How to ensure your tax report is accurate.

4️⃣ Download tax reports

Once you reviewed your transactions, go to the Tax Reports page to see a brief summary of your capital gains and income for any tax year. You may see a "Review needed" section here if you didn't resolve all the data issues Koinly identified (see We have assumed a cost of zero for some assets).

If you don't have any outstanding issues or consider them negligible, it's time to generate your reports:

  1. Check that you have the correct tax year selected

  2. Scroll down the page

  3. Pick the report you want to download

  4. Click "Download report"

  5. Repeat if you want to download other reports as well (Koinly offers a lot of different reports to choose from 🎁)


Check How to generate tax reports for detailed instructions. Remember that you need to have a paid plan for the year to generate a report.

ℹ️ Unlimited revisions

With a paid plan, there’s no limit to how many reports you can download for that year. If you need to update your imported data, simply make the changes and download a new report with the updated information.

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