⛽ Tool

Live gas fees

Real-time gas prices on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Polygon. Auto-refreshes every 15 seconds. USD costs use the current ETH/MATIC spot price.

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Ethereum

ETH

Slow

—

Standard

—

Fast

—

Gwei

ERC20 transfer —

Uniswap swap —

Arbitrum

ARB

Slow

—

Standard

—

Fast

—

Gwei

ERC20 transfer —

Uniswap swap —

Optimism

Slow

—

Standard

—

Fast

—

Gwei

ERC20 transfer —

Uniswap swap —

Base

BASE

Slow

—

Standard

—

Fast

—

Gwei

ERC20 transfer —

Uniswap swap —

Polygon

MATIC

Slow

—

Standard

—

Fast

—

Gwei

ERC20 transfer —

Uniswap swap —

How to read gas fees

Gas is the fee paid to validators for executing a transaction. It is denominated in gwei (1 ETH = 1,000,000,000 gwei). The total cost depends on two things:

Gas price (gwei) — what the network is currently charging per unit of computation.
Gas used — how much computation the transaction needs. A simple ETH transfer uses ~21,000 units; an ERC20 token transfer uses ~65,000; a Uniswap swap can use 150,000–300,000.

Slow / Standard / Fast reflect three price tiers offered by validators. Slow may take a few minutes to confirm; Fast is mined in the next block. For non-urgent transactions, Slow can save 30–60% during congestion.

When to transact

Gas tends to be cheapest during off-peak hours for the US market (06:00–14:00 UTC) and on weekends. It spikes during NFT mints, major token launches, and high-volatility days. Layer-2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base are routinely 10–100× cheaper than Ethereum mainnet for the same operation.

FAQ

Why are L2 fees so much lower?

Layer-2 chains batch hundreds of transactions and post a single compressed proof to Ethereum. The L1 cost is amortised across all those transactions, so each user pays a fraction of mainnet gas.

What is EIP-1559?

Since August 2021, Ethereum gas has two parts: a base fee that the protocol burns (reduces ETH supply), and a priority fee (tip) paid to validators. Wallets show you the total, but most of the cost goes to the burn — not to miners.

Can I set my own gas price?

Yes. In MetaMask click "Advanced" on the confirmation screen and set the max fee. If you set it below the current base fee, your transaction will sit pending until the base fee drops to that level — or you can cancel and resubmit.

Why does my swap cost more than a transfer?

A swap touches multiple smart contracts (the router, the pool, possibly token approvals). Each interaction consumes gas. A plain ETH send only changes one balance — the cheapest possible transaction at 21,000 gas.

How accurate is this data?

Ethereum data is sourced from Etherscan's gas oracle. L2 data comes from direct RPC calls to each chain. Numbers refresh every 15 seconds. Real-world wallet quotes can vary slightly based on the priority tip and mempool state at the exact moment of submission.