How can I check the number of UTXOs in my wallet

[Sally9256]

I recently spent some time learning about UTXO consolidation here and understand it to some extent but I still have a few questions I want to know about. I now understand  what UTXO consolidation is and why it is useful.

A UTXO (unspent transaction output): in simple terms is just a Bitcoin that is received and has not yet been spent. And what we all see as our wallet balance is not how our Bitcoin is stored, instead the balance is just the collection of different UTXO's combined which were received from previous transactions. It's also clear that the wallet does not spend directly from the balance shown but instead it select from the UTXO's and use them as input for the new transaction and if it is needed the wallet will have to add two or more UTXO's if the transaction cannot be covered with one UTXO and it adds to the size of the transaction so the more input a transaction has the more the size of the transaction and the costlier the fees get since the fees are determined based on the size of the transaction and not the amount to be sent. So by combining two or more small UTXO's into larger ones and spending them together to an address you own and control can help reduce the fees. I get it all but a few questions came to my mind and I need answers.

1. How can I check the number of UTXOs in my wallet since the wallets only shows the total balance. I have only used Bitcoin wallet on mobile and I haven't seen anything like that.

2. Is consolidation done automatically when spending Bitcoin or is it something users usually need to do manually?

3. One of the disadvantages of utxo consolidation is that it reveal privacy so is it that people who do it don't care about privacy or there's a way around it.

[Charles-Tim]

1. How can I check the number of UTXOs in my wallet since the wallets only shows the total balance. I have only used Bitcoin wallet on mobile and I haven't seen anything like that.

You can see the UTXOs on Bluewallet and mobile Electrum. But mobile Electrum only supports address freeze and coin freeze which still give you the opportunity of the coin control.

On Electrum, click on your wallet name at the upper left corner -> addresses/coins and click on show addresses and coins to see it.

On Bluewallet, when you are about to send coins, click on send, you will see three dots at the upper right corner, click on it, you will see the coin control there.

2. Is consolidation done automatically when spending Bitcoin or is it something users usually need to do manually?

You have to do it manually by sending the UTXOs to just a single address in a transaction and use just small amount of transaction fee for it. Best done when mempool is not congested and fee rate needed will be very low.

You can also use the wallet that supports replace-by-fee like Electrum or Bluewallet in case you want to increase the transaction fee

3. One of the disadvantages of utxo consolidation is that it reveal privacy so is it that people who do it don't care about privacy or there's a way around it.

If you know what you are doing, it will not affect your privacy.

[coinlary]

3. One of the disadvantages of utxo consolidation is that it reveal privacy so is it that people who do it don't care about privacy or there's a way around it.

It can affect your privacy, it doesn’t  directly affect your privacy per se.
From the source of your  learning it mentioned in quote "A poorly planned UTXO consolidation can undo your privacy efforts and reveal your total balance on the blockchain. " .

You should notice they included a pooly plan which means a perfectly planned consolidation pose no risk of exposing privacy if that's  your .concern. They aslo adde an inllustration which you can check out or let me help you with it :

Imagine you regularly buy Bitcoin and withdraw it to a new address each time. Over time, your wallet accumulates a few UTXOs that aren’t linked to each other, keeping your true balance private.

Now, suppose you also have a side hustle and take Bitcoin payments. Let’s say you run a YouTube channel where you post a Bitcoin address for donations, and some viewers have sent small amounts to that address. Each donation creates a separate UTXO, creating a single address with small amounts of BTC and a high number of UTXOs, which is not ideal for withdrawing in a high fee environment.

At some point, you may think about consolidating your UTXOs to save on transaction fees, especially after hearing about rising network fees. To do so, you wait for a low-fee period, then consolidate all your UTXOs into a single, large UTXO.

By consolidating all UTXOs at once, you inadvertently reveal your entire Bitcoin balance to the blockchain. Now, anyone who sent you a donation, or anyone interested in your YouTube channel’s address, can easily see your combined balance. This is an irreversible action and may lead to future privacy and security concerns once your holdings are publicly known.

This is self explanatory on it own, i don't  think there's anything to add to it but if you need further clearance on anything there you can point it out.

[Stalker22]

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2. Is consolidation done automatically when spending Bitcoin or is it something users usually need to do manually?

No, it is not done automatically when you spend Bitcoin.  If you want to consolidate UTXOs back to your wallet, you have to do it manually.  But if you really just want to spend Bitcoin right now, you do not need to do consolidation because it will only cost you more in transaction fees, and the goal of consolidation is exactly the opposite.

The trick is timing.  You should only do this manually when the Bitcoin network is quiet and transaction fees are rock-bottom.