Gas fee

How it is used

Often just gas: pay gas, gas is high, save on gas. Prices are shown in gwei, a tiny unit of ether. Wallets show an estimated gas fee before you confirm, and developers try to make contracts gas-efficient. On Bitcoin people say transaction fee or network fee instead.

Example sentences

1. Gas fees were so high on Monday that a simple transfer cost more than the amount being sent.

2. Moving the app to a layer 2 cut our users' gas fees by more than 90 percent.

Common collocations

• pay a gas fee
• high gas fees
• estimated gas fee
• save on gas
• gas price

Related terms

• transactionAny action recorded on a blockchain, such as sending coins from one address to another or calling a smart contract. It must be signed with the sender's private key.
• gas limitThe maximum amount of gas a transaction is allowed to use. If the work needs more than this, the transaction fails, but the gas already used is still paid.
• EthereumA blockchain launched in 2015 that can run smart contracts and applications, not just payments. Its own currency is called ether (ETH), and it has used proof of stake since 2022.
• layer 2A network built on top of a layer 1 blockchain that handles transactions faster and more cheaply, then sends the results back to the main chain for security. Rollups and the Lightning Network are examples.
• mempoolThe waiting area where a node keeps valid transactions that have been broadcast but not yet included in a block. The name is short for memory pool.

More terms: Transactions & Fees

• confirmation
• transaction hash
• block explorer