SQL Server Error 3902

Error number

3902

Severity

16 (user-correctable error)

State

1

Product

Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine

Versions

All supported SQL Server versions (2016 to 2025), Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance

Category

Transactions

Last reviewed

23 October 2026

What it means

Error 3902 means COMMIT ran when no transaction was open (@@TRANCOUNT was 0), usually because an error or an earlier ROLLBACK had already ended the transaction.

COMMIT TRANSACTION decreases @@TRANCOUNT by one and makes the work permanent when it reaches 0. If @@TRANCOUNT is already 0, there is nothing to commit and SQL Server raises 3902 at severity 16. The error itself is harmless: no data changes because of it. What matters is why the transaction was gone.

Most often the transaction was rolled back earlier without the script noticing: an error under SET XACT_ABORT ON, a CATCH block that rolled back, a procedure that ran ROLLBACK, or a deadlock victim. In those cases the work you expected to commit was undone, so look for the first error above 3902 in the output. The ROLLBACK counterpart is error 3903.

Common causes

• COMMIT run twice for one BEGIN TRANSACTION, for example once in a procedure and once in the script that calls it.
• An error under SET XACT_ABORT ON rolled the transaction back and ended the batch; the COMMIT in the next batch finds nothing open.
• A CATCH block, or an IF branch such as IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0 ROLLBACK, rolled back, and the script then continues to an unconditional COMMIT.
• A procedure rolled back the caller's transaction (see Previous count = 1, current count = 0 in error 266), and the caller then commits.
• A session chosen as a deadlock victim (error 1205), which rolls back its transaction before the script reaches COMMIT.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read metadata and dynamic management views. They do not change data, permissions or configuration, so they are safe to run first.

SELECT @@TRANCOUNT AS trancount, XACT_STATE() AS xact_state;

SELECT CASE WHEN (@@OPTIONS & 16384) = 16384 THEN 'ON' ELSE 'OFF' END AS xact_abort;

SELECT st.session_id, at.transaction_id, at.name, at.transaction_begin_time
FROM sys.dm_tran_session_transactions AS st
JOIN sys.dm_tran_active_transactions AS at ON at.transaction_id = st.transaction_id
WHERE st.session_id = @@SPID;

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRANSACTION;
    INSERT INTO dbo.Payments (id, amount) VALUES (2, 50);
    COMMIT TRANSACTION;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    IF XACT_STATE() <> 0 ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
    THROW;   -- report the real error instead of continuing
END CATCH;

IF XACT_STATE() = 1
    COMMIT TRANSACTION;
ELSE
    PRINT 'Nothing to commit: the transaction was rolled back earlier. Check the errors above.';

:on error exit
SET XACT_ABORT ON;
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
-- ... deployment steps ...
COMMIT TRANSACTION;

Examples

COMMIT run twice

SET NOCOUNT ON;
CREATE TABLE dbo.Payments (id INT PRIMARY KEY, amount DECIMAL(10,2));
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO dbo.Payments VALUES (1, 100);
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
COMMIT TRANSACTION;   -- @@TRANCOUNT is already 0

Msg 3902, Level 16, State 1, Line 4
The COMMIT TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION.

A conditional ROLLBACK followed by an unconditional COMMIT

SET NOCOUNT ON;
CREATE TABLE dbo.Payments (id INT PRIMARY KEY, amount DECIMAL(10,2));
INSERT INTO dbo.Payments VALUES (1, 100);
GO
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
UPDATE dbo.Payments SET amount = amount - 50 WHERE id = 2;   -- payment 2 does not exist
IF @@ROWCOUNT = 0
    ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;   -- nothing updated: undo and... carry on
COMMIT TRANSACTION;

Msg 3902, Level 16, State 1, Line 5
The COMMIT TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION.

A CATCH block rolled back, then the script commits anyway

SET NOCOUNT ON;
CREATE TABLE dbo.Payments (id INT PRIMARY KEY, amount DECIMAL(10,2) CHECK (amount > 0));
GO
BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRANSACTION;
    INSERT INTO dbo.Payments VALUES (1, -5);   -- breaks the CHECK constraint
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;   -- error 547 lands here and is swallowed
END CATCH;
COMMIT TRANSACTION;   -- runs on both paths

Msg 3902, Level 16, State 1, Line 8
The COMMIT TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION.

How to prevent it

Write transactions in one consistent shape: BEGIN, the work and COMMIT inside a TRY block, and a CATCH block that rolls back and rethrows. Then a COMMIT is never reached after a failure. Avoid splitting one transaction across several batches separated by GO.

When 3902 appears, treat the earlier error as the real problem, because the work it rolled back is gone. For how BEGIN, COMMIT and ROLLBACK interact, see managing transactions and concurrency.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• Managing transactions and concurrency
• SQL transactions and ACID explained
• Transactions and concurrency

Official documentation

• COMMIT TRANSACTION (Transact-SQL)
• SET XACT_ABORT (Transact-SQL)
• sqlcmd utility (Microsoft Learn)
• Database Engine events and errors 3000 to 3999

Last technically reviewed 23 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on SQL Server 2025 (17.0.1145.4). Message text checked against the engine's sys.messages catalogue.