An Ethereum gas price is the amount of ETH you pay for each unit of computation your transaction uses. It is quoted in gwei, and one gwei is 0.000000001 ETH. Your total fee is the gas used multiplied by the price per unit. Since the London upgrade on 5 August 2021, that price has two parts: a base fee that the protocol sets and burns, and an optional priority fee (tip) that goes to the validator who includes your transaction. You pay the fee whether the transaction succeeds or fails.
Latest: what changed in late 2025 and 2026
- 22 October 2026: Ethereum core developers postponed the Glamsterdam upgrade on the Hoodi testnet, which had been set for 26 October 2026 (epoch 132,352). The decision came at the developers' execution-layer call, ACDE #248. They want more time to study how EIP-8037, a change to state-creation gas costs, interacts with smart contracts already on mainnet. The delay also cancels the planned rise of Hoodi's gas limit to 200 million. The Ethereum Foundation has set no new testnet date and no mainnet date, and says mainnet users and ETH holders need to do nothing.
- 3 December 2025: The Fusaka upgrade went live. Its main feature, PeerDAS (EIP-7594), lets nodes check blob data by sampling it instead of downloading all of it. That makes room for more blob space, the cheap data lane that layer-2 rollups use. Ethereum.org says Fusaka "does not lower gas fees on L1, at least not directly". The cheaper data mainly helps layer 2.
- Late November 2025: The block gas limit rose from 45 million to 60 million after validators signalled for the change. EIP-7935 made 60 million the client default.
How the fee is calculated
Ethereum's fee rules come from EIP-1559, which uses three numbers:
| Term | Who sets it | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Base fee per gas | The protocol, block by block | Burned (removed from supply) |
| Max priority fee per gas (tip) | You | Validator that includes the transaction |
| Max fee per gas | You | Ceiling on what you will pay per unit |
The price you actually pay per unit of gas is:
effective gas price = base fee + min(max priority fee, max fee − base fee)
If your max fee is above the base fee plus your tip, you are charged only the base fee plus the tip, and the rest is never taken. Gas your transaction did not use is also refunded.
How the base fee moves
Each block has a gas limit and a target of half that limit. When a block uses more gas than the target, the base fee for the next block rises. When it uses less, the base fee falls. The change is capped at 12.5% per block. Ethereum.org gives an example: after a block with a base fee of 202.7 gwei, the next block's base fee can be no higher than 228.1 gwei. Wallets can therefore estimate the next fee quite closely, which was not possible under the old first-price auction.
Gas limit: per transaction and per block
- Your transaction's gas limit is the most gas you allow it to use. A plain ETH transfer needs exactly 21,000 gas. A token swap or contract call needs more, depending on the code it runs.
- Per-transaction cap: Since Fusaka, EIP-7825 caps a single transaction at 16,777,216 gas (2^24).
- Block gas limit: 30 million from the Merge until February 2025, then 36 million, 45 million in July 2025, and 60 million since late November 2025. Validators can change it without a hard fork by signalling a new target. Check a live chart for the current value.
A worked example
Using ethereum.org's example figures for a 21,000-gas ETH transfer, with a 10 gwei base fee and a 2 gwei tip:
- Total: 21,000 × 12 gwei = 252,000 gwei = 0.000252 ETH
- Burned: 21,000 × 10 gwei = 0.00021 ETH
- To the validator: 21,000 × 2 gwei = 0.000042 ETH
Actual fees are often far lower. On 25 October 2026, Etherscan showed a gas price of 0.043 gwei and an ETH price of $2,337.27. At those figures, the same transfer costs about 903 gwei (0.000000903 ETH), or roughly $0.002. Both numbers change from block to block, so treat this only as a snapshot.
What will your Ethereum transaction cost?
Enter the gas your transaction uses, the base fee, your tip and your max fee to see what you pay in gwei.
| Gas your transaction uses (a plain ETH transfer needs 21,000) | Base fee per gas, set by the protocol and burned | Max priority fee (tip) per gas, paid to the validator | Max fee per gas, the ceiling you set | Total fee for the transaction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21,000 gas | 10 gwei | 2 gwei | 12 gwei | 252,000 gwei |
| 21,000 gas | 10 gwei | 2 gwei | 12 gwei | 252,000 gwei |
| 21,000 gas | 0.043 gwei | 0 gwei | 0.043 gwei | 903 gwei |
- The first example uses ethereum.org's figures: 21,000 gas at a 10 gwei base fee and a 2 gwei tip comes to 252,000 gwei (0.000252 ETH).
- The second example uses the 0.043 gwei gas price Etherscan showed on 25 October 2026, about 903 gwei for the same transfer; it is a snapshot only.
- One gwei is 0.000000001 ETH; the base-fee part is burned and the tip goes to the validator.
This multiplies your inputs only: it cannot predict the next block's base fee, and it leaves out layer-2 blob fees and the ETH-to-dollar conversion.
Blob gas: the second fee market
The Dencun upgrade (13 March 2024) added EIP-4844, which created "blobs": large chunks of data that rollups post to Ethereum. Blobs have their own fee market:
- Each blob costs 131,072 (2^17) blob gas.
- Blob gas has its own base fee, set by a targeting rule similar to EIP-1559, and that fee is burned.
- Nodes keep blobs for about 18 days (4,096 epochs) and then delete them. Rollups only need the data long enough for anyone to check their state.
The blob target was 3 per block (maximum 6) at Dencun. Pectra (7 May 2025, EIP-7691) raised it to 6 (maximum 9). Fusaka allows later increases through "Blob-Parameter-Only" forks. Ethereum.org gives an example schedule of 10/15 and then 14/21, but describes those figures as illustrative. Fusaka also added EIP-7918, which sets a minimum blob fee so it cannot fall to almost zero while blobs still put load on nodes.
If you use a layer-2 network, most of your fee depends on blob prices, not mainnet gas.
Why Ethereum has gas and Bitcoin does not
Ethereum runs general-purpose smart contracts. Without a per-step cost, a contract could loop forever or flood the network. Gas puts a price on every computation, which ethereum.org says prevents spam and accidental or malicious infinite loops.
Bitcoin does not need gas because its script language is limited on purpose. Bitcoin's developer documentation describes it as "deliberately designed to be stateless and not Turing complete", with no loops. Bitcoin fees are based on a transaction's size in bytes, not on computation. The fee is the input value left over after the outputs are paid, and it goes to the miner.
What Glamsterdam could change (not yet scheduled)
These items are planned or proposed and are not live on mainnet:
- EIP-2780 (reduced intrinsic gas): Ethereum.org says this could make a standard ETH transfer between existing accounts up to 71% cheaper in gas.
- EIP-8037 and EIP-8038: EIP-8037 ties state-creation costs to data size, and EIP-8038 raises the gas cost of some state-reading opcodes. EIP-8037 is the proposal behind the October 2026 testnet delay.
- EIP-7732 (ePBS) and EIP-7928 (block-level access lists): These change how blocks are built and processed. Ethereum.org links them to a future gas-limit floor of 200 million.
As of 25 October 2026, there is no confirmed mainnet date.
Practical points
- Your wallet sets the max fee and tip for you. Raising the tip helps mainly when blocks are full, and when they are not, extra tip is wasted.
- A failed transaction still pays for the gas it used up to the point of failure.
- If you set a transaction's gas limit too low, it fails and you still pay the fee.
- No upgrade requires you to convert or "upgrade" your ETH. Ethereum.org warns that requests to do so are scams.
Limitations: fee levels, the block gas limit and blob parameters change often. Figures here are dated, and planned upgrades may change before they activate.
