Ethereum Gas Tracker

How fees work on Ethereum

Every transaction on Ethereum pays for gas in ETH. Gas measures the computational work a transaction needs, and prices are quoted in gwei, where one gwei equals one-billionth of an ETH. A plain transfer and a complex smart contract call use different amounts of gas, so the same gas price can produce very different total costs. The total you pay is the gas used multiplied by the sum of the base fee and the priority fee.

Since EIP-1559, each transaction pays a base fee set by the protocol plus an optional priority fee, or tip, chosen by the sender. The base fee is always burned, which means it is destroyed and paid to no one. Only the priority fee goes to the validator who includes the transaction. You also set a max fee, and any difference between that max fee and the base fee plus tip is refunded to you.

Each block has a gas target equal to half of its gas limit, since EIP-1559 sets the elasticity multiplier at 2. A block can use up to twice the target when demand is high. If a block is fuller than the target, the base fee for the next block rises, and if it is emptier, the base fee falls. The change is capped at 12.5% per block, set by a max change denominator of 8.

Since EIP-4844, rollups can post their data to Ethereum in blobs instead of regular calldata. Each blob holds 4,096 field elements of 32 bytes, or 128 KiB. Blobs have their own gas and their own base fee, separate from normal gas, and that blob base fee is also burned. Consensus nodes only need to keep blob data for about 18 days.

Fees spike when many users want block space at the same moment, such as during token launches or sharp market moves. Several full blocks in a row push the base fee up by as much as 12.5% each time, and users then raise tips to get ahead in line. A practical tip is to set a max fee you are comfortable with and a modest tip, and to wait for a quieter period if the transaction is not urgent.

Sources: ethereum.org: Gas and fees · Ethereum EIPs: EIP-1559 Fee market change · Ethereum EIPs: EIP-4844 Shard Blob Transactions. Checked Sep 26, 2026.

How we measure Ethereum gas

Every 5 minutes our server calls eth_feeHistory for the last 20 blocks on a live public Ethereum RPC endpoint (last: rpc.mevblocker.io). Slow, standard and fast are the next block’s base fee plus the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile of priority tips paid in those blocks. Block use: 48% of the gas target on average.

What is a gas fee? · What is gwei? · Ethereum RPC endpoints