Pause, Edit or Close: Three Buttons, Different Outcomes
Editing a bot changes its rules and keeps it running. Stopping it cancels its orders, and the closing option you pick decides whether you keep coins, sell them or hold a futures position. Here's what each choice does, bot by bot.
Last updated: October 6, 2026.
Editing a running bot changes its rules without closing it: open orders stay, and the new settings apply from that point. Stopping a bot cancels all of its open orders, and the closing option you pick decides what's left: coins on your balance, a full conversion to the quote currency, or, on futures, an open position the bot no longer manages. There is no separate pause. You pause by stopping with a "keep" option and restarting the bot later from History.
Most people hesitate over the stop button for the wrong reason. They worry the bot will take their money with it. It won't: funds sit on your exchange the whole time, and stopping only changes who manages the orders. The real decision is what you want to be holding one minute after you press it.
Key facts at a glance
- Edit keeps the bot alive. Take profit, stop loss, trailing and, on grid bots, the range and number of levels can change while it runs.12
- Stop always cancels open orders. What happens to the coins depends on the closing option.13
- "Keep" options sell nothing. Coins or a position stay where they are, unmanaged.
- "Convert" options sell at market or at a limit price, so fees and, at market, slippage apply.
- A closed bot isn't gone. It moves to the History tab, and Restart relaunches it with the same or adjusted settings.1
- Stopping is routine. Across Q3 2026, half of all bots on the platform ran 1.2 days or less before they were closed.4
What each action does to your orders and coins
| Action | Open orders | Coins or position | Bot profit so far | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit (Modify bot) | Stay; new settings apply going forward | Unchanged | Kept, bot keeps running | The idea still holds, one setting is off |
| Stop → Keep currencies | Cancelled | Stay on your balance as they are | Locked; open coins carry their unrealized PNL | You want out of the bot's logic without selling into the market |
| Stop → Convert at market | Cancelled | Sold or bought back right away | Locked, including the gain or loss from the conversion | The setup is invalid and you want to be flat now |
| Stop → Convert at limit | Cancelled | Sold at the price you set, if the market reaches it | Locked once the order fills | You want out, but not at any price |
| COMBO: close position | Cancelled | Futures position closed | Realized | The directional idea failed or hit its target |
| COMBO: keep position | Cancelled | Position stays open with its leverage | Unrealized until you close it | You'll manage the position by hand |
| Restart (from History) | New orders placed from the current price | Uses the balance you assign | A new run starts | Conditions match the setup again |
What happens when you stop a GRID bot
A spot grid on BTC/USDT with $1,000 invested, a range of $80,000 to $88,000 and 20 levels. Price is at $84,000, the middle of the range. The bot holds roughly half its capital in BTC from the buys it made on the way down, and half in USDT sitting in buy orders below the price.
Keep gives you a pause without a trade. Convert at market ends the exposure but locks in whatever the BTC is worth right now. The limit order sits between the two: you exit, but only at a price you chose. On a thin order book or in a fast move, the market option can fill several levels below the last price, which is why Your Bot Didn't Get That Price matters here.
What happens when you stop a DCA bot mid-cycle
A long DCA bot on ETH/USDT with a $200 base order and four $200 safety orders spaced 2% apart. Price dropped, the base order and two safety orders filled, and $600 is now in ETH at an average entry about 2% below the first buy. Two safety orders and the take-profit order are still open.
- Keep currencies. The three filled buys stay as ETH on your balance; the two unfilled safety orders and the take-profit are cancelled. You hold $600 of ETH at your averaged price, with no bot watching it.
- Convert to quote at market. The ETH is sold immediately. If price is still below your average entry, that loss becomes realized.
- Close position by market. This DCA-only action exits the averaged position at the current price.5 It's the same outcome as converting, reached from the position side.
- Before stopping, two DCA actions may solve the problem. Manual averaging adds to the position by hand, and Add Funds increases the bot's budget, so you can extend the ladder instead of closing it.56
A DCA bot stopped halfway through a ladder is the most common case of "I closed at the bottom." If the reason for stopping is that the ladder is too short, extending it is often the better answer. What Is a DCA Bot? covers sizing it before launch.
What happens when you stop a COMBO bot
A long COMBO bot on BTC/USDT perpetual futures at 10x, cross margin. DCA orders filled on a dip and pulled the average entry down to $75,240. The liquidation price sits at about $73,080, roughly 2.9% below the average entry.7
- Close position. All orders are cancelled and the futures position is closed at market. PnL is realized, and the liquidation risk is gone.
- Keep position. Orders are cancelled, and the position stays open with the same 10x and the same liquidation price. The bot stops adding DCA orders on dips and stops taking grid profits on rallies. A 2.9% move down closes the position for you.8
On futures, "keep" is the option that needs the most care. If you choose it, set your own stop-loss on the position in the futures interface straight away. Bot orders can't be cancelled one by one there; the only way to remove them is to close the bot.8
What you can edit without stopping
| Bot | Editable while running |
|---|---|
| GRID | Range and grid levels (add or remove buy and sell levels), trailing up and down, take profit, stop loss12 |
| DCA | Take profit, stop loss, base order placement conditions; add funds; manual averaging356 |
| COMBO | Take profit, stop loss, margin9 |
| LOOP | Price target take profit. Stop loss, trailing and adding funds aren't available10 |
Adding grid levels needs spare balance: new buy levels take more quote currency, new sell levels take more base. If the balance is short, the system suggests the maximum you can add.2
How long bots actually run before someone stops them
Platform data. Bitsgap bot launches, July 1 to September 24, 2026, real-funds and demo accounts.4
| Median run time | Mean run time | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 1.2 days | 9.5 days |
| September 2026 | 1.1 days | 4.2 days |
Half of all bots were closed within about a day. The mean is eight times higher because a smaller group runs for weeks. For most traders, stopping and relaunching is part of how a bot gets used: test a setting, see how it trades, close it, adjust, restart. A stop isn't a failure. Every closed bot keeps its settings in History, so the next launch starts from what you learned.
Edit, stop or restart: how to pick
Edit when one setting is wrong and the market still fits the bot. You launched without a stop loss, the take profit sits too close, or volatility widened and the grid now trades noise. Fix the parameter and let it run.
Don't edit just because price moved. Shifting a grid range up after a breakout pushes a range strategy into a trend. Why Your GRID Bot Stops Working Outside the Range shows when moving the range makes sense and when it doesn't.
Stop and keep when you want a pause. Before a data release you'd rather the bot not trade through, or when you're unsure and don't want to sell at the current price. The coins stay on your balance, and you restart later. They still move with the market while nobody manages them.
Stop and convert when the reason for the bot is gone. Support broke under a grid, a DCA ladder ran out of safety orders in a slide, or a COMBO short meets a trend reversal. Being flat is a position too.
Restart when conditions are back. Restart opens the same configuration, so check the range and investment against today's price before you confirm.
Five mistakes people make when stopping a bot
- Converting at market in a wick. A sharp spike thins the order book, and a market sale fills far below the last price. A limit close or a few minutes' wait usually costs less.
- Keeping a futures position without a stop. The bot no longer defends it, and the liquidation price hasn't moved.
- Restarting the old settings blindly. A range built for last week's price can sit entirely above or below today's.
- Stopping a DCA bot to "cut losses" halfway down the ladder. If the plan allowed for the drop, the ladder was doing its job. If it didn't, the fix belongs in the sizing before the next launch.
- Editing every few hours. A bot that changes its rules constantly never runs the strategy long enough to show whether it works.
A 30-second check before you press stop
- What do I want to hold afterwards: coins, stablecoins or a futures position?
- Is the order book thin right now? If yes, a limit close beats a market close.
- Is unrealized PNL large? Converting turns it into a realized result, gain or loss.
- Will I restart this? If yes, note why you stopped so you know what has to change first.
- Futures only: if I keep the position, where is my stop?
Press every button before real money depends on it. Launch a demo bot, change its settings mid-run, stop it with "keep" and with "convert," then restart it from History. The 7-day Bitsgap PRO trial needs no card, and demo bots trade live prices with no funds at risk.
Frequently asked questions
Can I pause a crypto trading bot? There's no separate pause toggle. To pause, stop the bot with a "keep" option so nothing is sold, then restart it from the History tab when you're ready. A grid bot's pump protection also pauses it automatically during a sudden price spike.
What happens to my coins when I stop a grid bot? All open orders are cancelled. With "keep base and quote currencies" the coins stay on your exchange balance. With "convert to quote currency" the base coin is sold at market, and with a limit order it's sold at the price you set.
Does editing a bot close my open orders? No. Modifying a bot keeps it running; the new take profit, stop loss, trailing or range settings apply from that point. Adding grid levels needs extra balance in the matching currency.
What does "keep position" mean on a COMBO bot? The bot cancels its orders but leaves the futures position open with its leverage and liquidation price. It stops adding DCA orders and taking grid profits, so you need to set a stop or close the position yourself.
Can I restart a bot after closing it? Yes. Closed bots move to the History tab. Select the bot, click Restart, adjust the settings if needed and start it again. Check the range against the current price first.
Should I stop a DCA bot when price keeps falling? Only if the setup no longer fits the market. A DCA bot is built to buy into drops, so stopping mid-ladder often locks in the loss the ladder was meant to average out. Adding funds or averaging manually extends the ladder instead.
How long do trading bots usually run? On one multi-exchange platform, the median bot in Q3 2026 ran 1.2 days before it was closed, and the mean was 9.5 days. Most traders stop, adjust and relaunch bots regularly.
