insufficient_balance

The signing account cannot cover the requested amount plus the transaction fee.

This covers several chain-side variants: the free balance is too low for a transfer, the stake being withdrawn is larger than what is actually staked, or the transfer would drop the account below the existential deposit and reap it.

Check the account with btcli wallet balance, then reduce the amount or fund the coldkey. for stake operations, btcli stake list shows what is actually staked per subnet.

Remediation

Fund the signing account or reduce the amount; check with btcli wallet balance

Chain errors

The exact chain error names (from the extrinsic receipt) that classify to insufficient_balance; the description says what triggered the failure and where to check. Each name has its own page:

Chain error	Description
BalanceLow	The sender's mapped account cannot cover the transaction's value plus maximum gas fee, detected during validation or when withdrawing the fee. Check the account balance against value plus gas_limit times the effective gas price.
BalanceWithdrawalError	The requested TAO could not be withdrawn from the coldkey's free balance, typically due to insufficient funds, the existential deposit, or frozen/reserved balance. Check the coldkey's balance with btcli wallet balance and reduce the amount or top up.
CannotAffordLockCost	The coldkey's free balance cannot cover the current dynamic subnet-creation lock cost. Compare btcli subnets create-cost (or btcli query subnet-registration-cost) against the coldkey balance from btcli wallet balance before registering a subnet.
ExistentialDeposit	The amount is too small to create the destination account: its resulting balance would sit below the existential deposit. Compare the transfer value plus the destination's current free balance against the ExistentialDeposit constant.
Expendability	The transfer or payment would drop the sender below the existential deposit and kill the account while keep-alive semantics are required. Compare the sender's free balance minus the amount and fees against ExistentialDeposit, or use transfer_allow_death if reaping is acceptable.
InsufficientAlphaBalance	A stake decrease asked to debit more alpha than the hotkey-coldkey pair holds on that subnet. Compare the requested amount against the pair's current stake on the netuid (btcli stake list or the Alpha storage entry).
InsufficientBalance	The caller's spendable balance is below what the operation needs, whether a plain transfer, a crowdloan deposit or contribution, or a swap. Compare the account's free balance in System.Account (net of holds, freezes, and fees) against the amount being moved.
InsufficientStakeForLock	The requested lock amount exceeds the coldkey's total alpha stake on that subnet (existing locked mass included). Compare the amount against the coldkey's stake on the netuid, e.g. via btcli stake list, and lock less or add stake first.
InsufficientTaoBalance	The coldkey's free TAO balance is below the amount a TAO-side operation needs: a transfer between coldkeys, a burn or recycle, or a subnet-registration lock. Check the coldkey's balance with btcli wallet balance against the amount being moved.
LiquidityRestrictions	The withdrawal is blocked by locks or freezes on the account even though the raw balance looks sufficient. Check the account's Locks and Freezes entries and compare the frozen amount against what would remain after the withdrawal.
NotEnoughBalanceToPaySwapColdKey	The coldkey's free TAO balance cannot cover the coldkey swap cost, which is recycled when the swap executes. Check the balance with btcli wallet balance against the swap cost and top up before scheduling the swap.
NotEnoughBalanceToPaySwapHotKey	The coldkey's free TAO balance is below the hotkey swap cost (a per-subnet cost applies when swapping on a single netuid). Check btcli wallet balance against the key swap cost and fund the coldkey before retrying.
NotEnoughBalanceToStake	The coldkey's free balance is less than the TAO required, either the stake amount in add_stake or the burn cost of a registration. Check btcli wallet balance against the amount or the current registration burn (Burn storage for the netuid).
NotEnoughStake	The caller's hotkey holds less stake than the action requires; a generic insufficient-stake failure on staking-related calls. Check the hotkey's stake on the relevant subnet, e.g. btcli stake list, against the amount the extrinsic needs.
NotEnoughStakeToSetChildkeys	Raised by set_children when the parent hotkey's total stake is below StakeThreshold and it is not the subnet owner hotkey. Compare the hotkey's total stake (btcli stake list) against the StakeThreshold storage value.
NotEnoughStakeToSetWeights	Setting or committing weights failed because the hotkey's stake weight on the subnet is below StakeThreshold (the weights-min-stake floor); the subnet owner hotkey is exempt. Check the hotkey's stake on that netuid against StakeThreshold.
NotEnoughStakeToWithdraw	An unstake, stake move, swap, or transfer requested more alpha than the hotkey-coldkey pair holds on that subnet. Compare the requested amount against the pair's current stake on the netuid (btcli stake list or the Alpha storage).
StakeTooLowForRoot	root_register when the root network is full and the hotkey's stake on netuid 0 does not exceed the lowest-staked current root member. Compare your hotkey's root stake against existing root validators (btcli subnets metagraph 0 or btcli query neurons --netuid 0).
StakeUnavailable	An unstake would dip into stake that is still locked: the requested alpha exceeds the coldkey's unlocked balance on that subnet. Check the Lock entry for the coldkey and netuid; only total stake minus the decaying locked mass can be unstaked.
StorageDepositNotEnoughFunds	The origin's free balance cannot cover the storage deposit limit specified or required for this call. Check the caller's withdrawable balance against the storage_deposit_limit argument and the dry-run's reported deposit.
TransferFailed	A balance transfer performed during the contract call failed, most likely because the sender lacks enough free balance. Check the transferring account's free balance against the value being sent, accounting for the existential deposit.
UnlockAmountTooHigh	An unlock requested more alpha than remains locked for the coldkey on that subnet. Check the lock's remaining decaying locked mass in the Lock storage entry and request at most that amount.
VestingBalance	The account's balance is locked under a vesting schedule, leaving too little usable balance to send the requested value. Check the account's Vesting schedules and its lock in Locks, and compare the unvested (still locked) amount against what the transfer needs.
WithdrawFailed	Withdrawing the transaction fee from the sender's mapped account failed even though the balance check passed, e.g. due to locks, holds, or existential deposit constraints. Check the account's locks and its free versus withdrawable balance.
ZeroBalanceAfterWithdrawn	Withdrawing TAO from the coldkey (e.g. paying a registration burn or adding stake) would leave the account at zero, below what keeps it alive. Check the coldkey's free balance and leave at least the existential deposit after the amount withdrawn.

The same explanation is available in the terminal: btcli explain insufficient_balance (or btcli explain <ChainErrorName> for one exact chain error).