What are the different types of Zcash addresses?

Transparent addresses (t1…, t3…) are public like Bitcoin addresses. Shielded Sapling addresses (zs1…) hide sender, recipient and amount. Unified Addresses (u1…) bundle several receivers in one string. TEX addresses (tex1…) are a transparent-only variant for exchanges. Legacy Sprout addresses also exist but are long deprecated.

What is a Zcash Unified Address?

A single address string, starting with u1 on mainnet, that combines one or more receivers such as Orchard, Sapling and transparent. It lets one address work across pool types. The sender's wallet picks the most preferred receiver it supports, with Orchard preferred over Sapling and Sapling over transparent.

Is a Zcash Unified Address private?

It can be, but not automatically. A payment sent to the shielded receiver is private. If the sender's wallet or service only supports the transparent receiver inside the address, the payment uses it and is publicly visible on the blockchain. A Revision 0 Unified Address must contain at least one shielded receiver.

What does a Zcash address starting with t1 mean?

It is a transparent address of the pay-to-public-key-hash type. Balance and transaction history are publicly visible to anyone, as with Bitcoin. Addresses starting with t3 are the script-hash (P2SH) variant, also transparent.

What does a Zcash address starting with zs1 mean?

It is a shielded Sapling address. Transactions to and from it hide the sender, recipient and amount from the public blockchain and can carry an encrypted memo. Sapling addresses are the older shielded format that Unified Addresses can also contain.

What is a TEX address in Zcash?

A TEX address (tex1…) is a Bech32m re-encoding of a transparent address, defined by ZIP 320. It tells a wallet that the address accepts funds only from transparent sources, so shielded funds must first be moved to a transparent address before sending. It exists mainly for exchanges that need transparent deposits.

Can I send ZEC from a shielded address to a transparent address?

Yes, but the transaction reveals that a transparent address received the funds and the amount, since the receiving side is public. Sending to a Unified Address that contains a shielded receiver avoids the exposure.

Which Zcash address type should I use?

For receiving from people and apps, use the Unified Address your wallet shows by default. Use a transparent address only when a service explicitly requires it, such as some exchange deposits, and a TEX address when the service provides one. For privacy, keep long-term balances in shielded pools.

Do transparent Zcash addresses support memos?

No. The encrypted memo field exists only for shielded receivers (Sapling and Orchard). A transparent receiver cannot carry a memo, so memo-based references only work when the payment goes to a shielded receiver.

Zcash Address Types: t1, zs1, u1 & tex1 Explained

Q: What changes in the draft ZIP 316 Revision 2?

Revision 2, still a Draft, adds support for MUST-understand typecodes and address expiration metadata and introduces new prefixes such as zu for shielded-only and tu for transparent-enabled addresses. Revision 0, the current active version, uses the u prefix.

Zcash has several address types, and the first characters tell you which one you are looking at. Addresses starting with t1 or t3 are transparent and publicly visible, zs1 is shielded Sapling, u1 is a Unified Address that bundles several receivers, and tex1 is a transparent-only variant for exchanges. Only shielded receivers hide who paid whom and how much.

This guide explains each prefix, how a Unified Address decides where your payment goes, and which type to use in practice. It is based on the Zcash specifications; where a standard is still a draft, we say so.

Zcash address prefixes at a glance

Prefix	Name	Visible on the blockchain?	Memos?	Typical use
t1…	Transparent (P2PKH)	Yes, balance and history are public	No	Exchange deposits, mining payouts, simple transfers
t3…	Transparent (P2SH)	Yes	No	Script-based or multi-signature setups
zs1…	Shielded (Sapling)	No, sender, recipient and amount hidden	Yes	Private payments, older wallets
u1…	Unified Address	Depends on the receiver used	Only for shielded receivers	The default receiving address in modern wallets
tex1…	TEX (transparent-source-only)	Yes	No	Exchange deposit addresses that must be funded from transparent sources

Test networks use different prefixes (for example utest1…), which is why a testnet address will not work on mainnet.

Why does Zcash have so many address types?

Each generation of Zcash's shielded technology came with its own address format. Sprout, the original shielded pool, was followed by Sapling in 2018 and Orchard in 2022, and the newest pool, Ironwood, arrived with the NU6.3 upgrade. Transparent addresses have existed since launch because Zcash started as a fork of Bitcoin's design.

For users, this became confusing: a payment could fail or lose its privacy simply because the sender and recipient wallets understood different formats. Unified Addresses were created to hide that complexity behind one string.

Transparent addresses: t1 and t3

Transparent addresses work like Bitcoin addresses. Anyone can look up their balance and full transaction history, for example in the ZecZcash Explorer. A t1 address is the common pay-to-public-key-hash type; a t3 address is the script-hash variant. Neither supports encrypted memos.

They are still widely used because many exchanges and services only accept or send transparent funds. If privacy matters, treat a transparent address as public information and read our guide to shielded vs transparent transactions.

Shielded Sapling addresses: zs1

A zs1 address is a shielded Sapling address. Payments to it hide the sender, the recipient and the amount, and can carry an encrypted 512-byte memo. Sapling addresses remain valid, and a Sapling receiver can also sit inside a Unified Address. For the privacy model, see how Zcash works and the glossary entry on shielded addresses.

Unified Addresses: u1

A Unified Address (UA), specified in ZIP 316, "combines one or more Receivers". Each receiver is a separate way of getting paid, identified by a typecode: 0x00 transparent P2PKH, 0x01 transparent P2SH, 0x02 Sapling and 0x03 Orchard. On mainnet the address starts with u1. The Ironwood pool is built on Orchard's design, as covered in our Ironwood article; ZIP 316 itself was written before Ironwood and does not mention it.

How the sender's wallet chooses a receiver

ZIP 316 sets a fixed preference order: Orchard over Sapling, and Sapling over a transparent receiver. A sender "MUST use the Receiver of the most preferred Receiver Type that it supports". In plain terms, the sender's wallet automatically uses the most private option that both sides understand.

A Unified Address is not automatically private

This is the detail most guides skip. A Revision 0 Unified Address must contain at least one shielded receiver, but it may also contain a transparent one. If the sender's wallet or exchange only supports transparent receivers, the payment goes to the transparent part and is publicly visible like any other transparent payment. The privacy of a UA therefore depends on what the sender supports, and also on whether your wallet includes a transparent receiver in the address it shows you.

Revision 2 is still a draft

ZIP 316 Revision 0 is the active version. Revision 1 was withdrawn after community opposition, and Revision 2 is marked Draft. It adds MUST-understand typecodes and address expiration metadata and introduces new prefixes such as zu for shielded-only addresses and tu for transparent-enabled addresses. Until it is finalised and deployed, treat these formats as proposals; the addresses wallets hand out today are the Revision 0 u1… kind.

TEX addresses: tex1

A TEX address ("transparent-source-only"), defined by ZIP 320 and marked Active, is a Bech32m re-encoding of a transparent address. It begins with tex1 on mainnet. It was motivated by exchange deposits: according to the ZIP, Binance needed deposits to come from transparent sources so it could return funds when needed. When you send to a TEX address, the transaction "MUST ensure that only transparent … UTXOs are spent", so a wallet that holds shielded funds first moves them to an ephemeral transparent address and sends from there. In practice that means the final hop is publicly visible.

Which Zcash address type should you use?

Receiving from people or apps: use the Unified Address your wallet offers. It lets the sender pick the best option automatically. Check that your wallet's UA contains a shielded receiver.
An exchange asks for a transparent address: use exactly the type the exchange shows, whether t1 or tex1. Do not send to a shielded address if the exchange does not state that it supports it.
Long-term savings: keep them in shielded pools, ideally Ironwood, rather than on transparent addresses. See our Zcash wallets guide for how to choose a wallet.
Memos or references: only shielded receivers can carry a memo, so give the payer a Unified or Sapling address.
Avoid reuse: do not post the same address repeatedly if you care about linkability; wallets can generate fresh addresses for the same account.

Before you send a large amount, send a small test payment and confirm it arrives. Zcash transactions cannot be reversed. If something goes wrong with a wallet or an address format, see Zcash wallet troubleshooting.

Common questions

Why does my wallet show several addresses? Many wallets can show a Unified Address and the individual transparent or Sapling receivers inside it. They are linked to the same account.

Can I convert one address type into another? Not in the sense of changing a string, but moving funds between transparent and shielded pools is a normal transaction called shielding (transparent to shielded) or deshielding. See the glossary entry on shielding.

Sources and methodology

Checked on October 10, 2026 against the primary specifications: ZIP 316: Unified Addresses and Unified Viewing Keys (Revision 0 Active, Revision 1 Withdrawn, Revision 2 Draft), ZIP 320: TEX Addresses (Active), ZIP 173: Bech32 Format (Final) and the Zcash Protocol Specification for the Sapling and transparent address formats and the memo field. Wallet behaviour differs between apps and versions, so confirm the address you are about to use inside the wallet itself. The network side is tracked in the Zcash Network Upgrade Tracker. New articles first appear in the ZecZcash Telegram channel.