Polygon bridge withdrawals back to Ethereum start with a burn in Polygon Portal from Polygon PoS, provided you have POL for Polygon gas and ETH reserved for the later Ethereum claim. Each network charges gas separately, so start the Polygon bridge withdrawal only when both balances are ready and you have confirmed that your token belongs on that route.
Which tokens can go back through the Polygon bridge?
Use the Polygon PoS to Ethereum route for tokens that came through the PoS bridge. A familiar name or ticker does not establish that a token can return this way: different tokens on Polygon can display the same ticker while having different contract addresses.
The bridge from Ethereum to Polygon associates an Ethereum token with its Polygon PoS representation. If Portal shows no balance for the token you selected, even though your wallet displays one, examine the Polygon contract address of the token you hold. A matching ticker is not a reason to select a different asset in Portal. If another bridge supplied your token, its own return route is the one to use.
This distinction matters before you sign. The burn removes the selected representation from your Polygon balance; it does not turn a different token with the same name into a valid Ethereum withdrawal. Resolve a missing or unexpected Portal balance before submitting a transaction.
What gas balances do you need before the burn?
You need enough POL in your Polygon wallet to pay for the burn and enough ETH available for the later claim on Ethereum. The token being withdrawn does not pay either network’s gas fee. If you are withdrawing POL itself, leave some out of the withdrawal amount so the wallet can pay for the transaction.
Use the wallet’s gas estimate when submitting the burn, since the required POL varies with the transaction. Reserve ETH in the wallet you will use for the Ethereum claim; that fee will depend on Ethereum gas conditions when you claim. There is no single fixed amount to set aside for every withdrawal.
A wallet with POL but no ETH may complete the burn successfully, then be unable to complete the Ethereum claim until it receives ETH. That is why I would confirm both balances while the tokens are still spendable on Polygon, even though Portal only charges the Polygon fee at this stage.
How do you start the burn and know it worked?
Open Polygon Portal with your wallet on Polygon, choose Polygon PoS to Ethereum, select the supported token, enter the amount, and sign the burn transaction. Review the token and amount in the wallet prompt before confirming. If Portal first requests a token approval, let that transaction confirm and then submit the withdrawal: approval permits the bridge contract to use the token, but it does not start the withdrawal.
Save the transaction hash from the confirmed burn, rather than the hash of any earlier approval. It identifies the withdrawal if you need to find it in Portal history or a block explorer. Before the burn, the amount is in your Polygon wallet. After confirmation, that amount has left the Polygon balance, while the corresponding Ethereum asset remains unavailable until the withdrawal can be claimed.
Portal history listing the withdrawal as “waiting for checkpoint” is the expected result of a successful start. The checkpoint carries the Polygon withdrawal state to Ethereum; waiting for it does not mean you need to burn again. Keep the burn hash, then use the reserved ETH for the separate claim once the checkpoint is ready.