How to export your Photon wallet's private key

Photon’s own docs say the private key for your Photon trading wallet is revealed only once, on the screen right after you generate the wallet. Save it there, import it into Phantom, and from then on Phantom can show it again whenever you need it.

By the Raven team · Updated 2 November 2026 · 5 min read

The short answer

Photon gives you the private key for your trading wallet one time. Its Solana guide says it plainly: “Your private key will be revealed ONLY ONCE at this step.” You move a slider to reveal it, and the guide asks you to save it somewhere safe before you click Continue.

Photon’s docs do not describe a settings page or button that shows the key again later. So the export is really a one-off copy at sign up. The good news is what comes after: once that key is inside a wallet app like Phantom, Phantom will show it to you again any time.

Two wallets, not one

This trips people up. When you use Photon on Solana there are two wallets:

Wallet	What it is	Where its key lives
Your funding wallet	The wallet you connect to log in, such as Phantom	In that wallet app, under its own phrase or key
Your Photon trading wallet	A new wallet Photon generates for you to trade from	Shown to you once by Photon, then yours to keep

The key you are looking for is almost always the second one. Your funding wallet’s key never came from Photon, so you get it from the app that holds it. For Phantom, see import and export Phantom private keys.

Step 1: save the key when Photon shows it

Photon’s guide walks through it like this:

Go to Photon’s address, photon-sol.tinyastro.io, the one its docs link, and connect your wallet.
On the welcome screen, click Generate. Photon makes a new trading wallet.
Use the slider to reveal the private key.
Write it down or copy it somewhere safe and offline before you click Continue.

Do this with nobody watching your screen. A private key is a long string of letters and numbers, so check each character if you copy it by hand.

Step 2: import it into Phantom

Photon’s own mobile sign up guide tells you to put the key into the Phantom app. It says you must complete this step “in order to transfer SOL or other coins in/out of your Photon trading wallet.” Its steps, for a phone that already has Phantom:

Reveal and copy the private key in Photon.
Open Phantom and tap the Wallet tab.
Tap the drop-down at the top to see your accounts.
Tap Add/Connect Wallet, then Import Private Key.
Paste the key, give the wallet a name and tap Import.

On a fresh install, Phantom’s help centre gives the same route from the welcome screen: More Options, then Import Private Key, pick the network, paste and tap Import. In the browser extension it is I Already Have a Wallet, then Import Private Key. Pick Solana as the network.

Get Phantom only from phantom.com or your phone’s official app store.

Step 3: show the key again from Phantom

Once the Photon wallet is in Phantom, this is your export button from now on:

Where	Steps
Phone	Profile avatar, Settings, Manage Accounts, the three dots next to the account, Show Private Key, pick a network
Browser extension	Profile avatar, the gear, Manage Accounts, the account, Show Private Key, pick a network

Phantom notes that a wallet imported by private key does not sync to your other devices. The key is only shown on the device where you imported it, so to use the wallet on a second phone or computer you import the key there too.

If you never saved the key

Photon says the key is shown only once, and its docs give no way to show it again. Its terms also say each user is “solely responsible” for keeping their private keys safe.

If you lost it, the safest move is to empty that trading wallet into one you hold the keys to:

Log in to Photon the usual way.
Use Withdraw: enter the amount of SOL and the address of a wallet you control, such as your Phantom wallet, and click Withdraw.
Keep trading from a wallet whose key you have saved, or generate a new Photon wallet and save its key this time.

Photon’s withdraw steps are written for SOL. Coins left in the trading wallet stay tied to that one key, so do not leave anything there you would mind losing. And if someone offers to “recover” your Photon key for you, it is a scam. Nobody can rebuild a lost private key.

More than one Photon wallet

Photon’s Multi-Wallet page says you can have up to 5 active wallets at a time. You make more on the Wallets page with Generate Wallet, and you can archive one to take it off the list. The docs do not say whether each new wallet shows its key, so if a key appears, save it right away, and treat each wallet as its own key to keep. A recovery phrase does not come into it here: each Photon wallet is a single private key, which is why the seed phrase vs private key difference matters.

Keep it safe

The key is the wallet. Phantom puts it this way: “Anyone with access to either has full control of your wallet.” Nobody can undo a transfer made with your key.
Never share it. No real support team asks for it. Phantom says its support “will never ask for your recovery phrase or private key.”
Type it only into the wallet app you are moving to, opened from its official address or app store, never into a site you reached from a link, a DM or a search ad.
Keep the copy offline. Paper beats screenshots, notes apps and cloud drives.

If you think someone already has your key, read what to do in the first hour after a wallet is drained.

If you trade from many wallets

Photon wallets, Axiom wallets and a few burner keys add up fast. Raven Wallet is a Solana wallet manager that holds many wallets in one place. You can bring wallets in with a private key or a seed phrase, and a picker shows what each account holds before you add it. Keys are locked in your browser with your password, and Raven’s server keeps only that locked copy. Raven is invite only for now: join the waitlist. More in about Raven.

Questions

Can I see my Photon private key again in settings?

Photon’s docs say the key is revealed only once, when the wallet is generated, and describe no way to show it again. If you imported it into Phantom, Phantom can show it any time.

Why does Photon want me to import the key into Phantom?

Photon’s mobile guide says importing the trading wallet into Phantom is needed to move SOL or other coins in and out of it from the Phantom app.

I lost my Photon key. Is my money gone?

Not if you can still log in. Withdraw the SOL to a wallet you control, then keep using wallets whose keys you have saved.

Is the Photon key the same as my Phantom recovery phrase?

No. Your Phantom phrase belongs to your funding wallet. The Photon trading wallet is a separate wallet with its own private key.

Sources

Raven takes a private key or a seed phrase, and shows what each wallet holds before you add it.

Join the waitlist

See how Raven does it: How keys are kept, Backup and recovery, Import.