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What are locked Transaction Outputs?

Last updated on Apr 21, 2026

On the Transaction Output page you might have seen the Output Locked column and wondered what it means.

When an UTXO is locked, it means that it is unavailable for coin selection e.g. when creating a new channel or sending bitcoin on-chain. So if you have an UTXO representing funds which you (temporarily) don't want to be used by your lightning node, you can lock them.

Other software can also lock outputs. For example, LND can lock an output when it opens a channel. We mark these as Locked By External. You can choose to unlock an output locked by an external source, however you should know what you are doing and make sure you do not break other software in doing so.

External locks are synced hourly with Torq. If you need to immediately sync, you can use the Sync UTXO Locks button. You can find this button in the Views panel.

The terminology used in various lightning node implementations can be different. In LND it is called to lease an output. In CLN it is called to reserve an input. If you want to know more about it, you can study the documentation of the following API methods provided, which are also used by Torq.

LND (documentation):

  • LeaseOutput

  • ReleaseOutput

  • ListLeases

CLN (documentation):

  • utxopsbt

  • reserveinputs

  • unreserveinputs

  • listfunds

For locks the following additional columns are available:

  • Output Locked At (only for locks created by Torq)

  • Output Locked Until

  • Output Lock ID: Lease ID (LND) or PSBT (CLN)