Free tool
Gas fee estimator
What a mint, a transfer or a contract deployment actually costs — at the gas price you enter, and at four typical network conditions so you can see how much the time of day matters.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
What you are doing
Pick the closest match, or type your own figure below.
Check etherscan.io/gastracker for the live number.
Gas units are the work your transaction asks the network to do. Gwei is what you pay per unit — that part moves minute to minute.
At your gas price
At typical network conditions
Scenario gwei figures are representative of Ethereum mainnet ranges, not a live feed. Layer 2s like Polygon, Base and Arbitrum typically cost a small fraction of these.
These are estimates for Ethereum mainnet. Actual cost depends on network congestion at the moment your transaction is mined, and on how the specific contract is written. Always check the figure your wallet shows before confirming.
How gas actually works
Every transaction on Ethereum consumes a measurable amount of computation, counted in gas units. Sending ETH costs exactly 21,000. Transferring an NFT costs roughly three times that, because the contract has to update ownership records. Deploying a contract costs far more again.
That part is stable and predictable. What is not stable is the gas price, quoted in gwei, which is set by an auction for space in the next block. When demand is low it might be 8 gwei; during a contested mint it can exceed 120. Same transaction, fifteen times the cost.
Typical gas units by operation
| Operation | Approximate gas units | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Send ETH | 21,000 | The fixed floor for any transaction |
| Approve a marketplace | ~46,000 | One-off per collection, per marketplace |
| Transfer an ERC-721 | ~65,000 | Varies with contract implementation |
| Mint, simple contract | ~85,000 | A plain ERC-721 mint |
| Mint, complex contract | ~150,000 | Allowlists, reveals, on-chain metadata |
| Accept an offer | ~180,000 | Order matching adds meaningful cost |
| Deploy an NFT contract | 250,000+ | Highly variable; often far more |
Three ways to pay less
Wait
Gas prices follow a daily and weekly rhythm. Late at night and at weekends, UTC, the price is routinely a third of the weekday peak. If your transaction is not time-critical, waiting a few hours is the cheapest optimisation available.
Use a layer 2
Polygon, Base and Arbitrum settle to Ethereum but process transactions far more cheaply — typically fractions of a cent rather than tens of dollars. For minting your own work, this is almost always the right choice, and it is the reason "it costs hundreds of dollars to mint an NFT" is no longer true unless you specifically choose mainnet.
Do not chase contested mints
A gas war is a bidding contest you are unlikely to win against automated bidders, and losing still costs you the gas. If a mint requires you to pay 120 gwei to have a chance, the expected value of participating is usually negative.
A note on failed transactions
This is worth stating on its own because it surprises people every cycle: a failed transaction still costs gas. If a mint sells out while your transaction is pending, or you set the gas limit too low, the network performed work on your behalf and charges you for it. Nothing arrives in your wallet. Budget for this when you model a mint — the expected cost of attempting is higher than the cost of one successful attempt.