VTRADER Ethereum Gas Fee Tracker App

Ethereum transaction fees or ETH gas fees can be very volatile, often making transactions very expensive during high congestion times. At VTRADER, we built a mobile app that allows you to check ETH gas fees in real-time and get instant alerts sent to your phone so you can wait for the optimal time to do an Ethereum transaction.

Through our VTRADER Ethereum Gas Fee Tracker app found in the Apple App Store and Google Play, users can receive real-time gas prices for Ethereum transactions and stay informed about the current gas prices and make smarter decisions when it comes to your Ethereum transactions. Whether you are a developer, trader, or a new Ethereum user, this app can help you monitor gas prices and optimize your transactions.

Check ETH gas fees right now, using Etherscan API data. Current Ether gas price alerts. Custom alerts in gwei or USD. Prices for DeFi NFTs stablecoins. You can even view real-time quotes on what a sample transaction fee would be on any major on-chain platform. Never overpay for ETH gas fees again.

What Are Ethereum Gas Fees?

Ethereum gas fees are an integral part of the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring the network remains secure and efficient. As a decentralized platform, Ethereum lacks a central authority, relying instead on a mechanism that prevents network congestion or spam transactions. This mechanism requires users to pay a fee, known as Ethereum gas fees, for every transaction. These fees are used to reward block producers (validators) who process and confirm transactions on the network.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) acts as a large virtual computer that enables the execution of smart contracts and decentralized applications, which require gas fees.

Gas fees are paid in ETH, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum. ETH also powers the network by facilitating value transfers, block production rewards, and the execution of smart contracts.

Understanding Ethereum Gas

Ethereum gas is a crucial component of the Ethereum ecosystem, enabling the execution of smart contracts and decentralized applications. It is a fee required to conduct transactions or execute contracts on the Ethereum blockchain platform. The fee is priced in tiny fractions of the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) called gwei. Gas is used to pay validators for the resources needed to conduct transactions. The exact price of gas is determined by supply, demand, and network capacity at the time of the transaction.

How Do Ethereum Gas Fees Work?

The concept of gas fees is comparable to fuel for a vehicle. To move from point A to point B, your vehicle requires sufficient fuel. Similarly, for a transaction to succeed on the Ethereum network, the sender must provide enough gas in the form of Ether gas fees.

How Do You Calculate and Pay Gas Fees?

Gas fees are calculated using a formula that includes the base fee, units of gas required, and a priority fee. The priority fee is a tip to the validator that chooses a transaction.

Gas fees are automatically deducted from your ETH balance during the transaction. They are not taken from the amount you are sending. For instance:

Suppose your wallet has a balance of 10 ETH.
You send 1 ETH to a friend, with the gas fee being 0.005 ETH.
Your friend receives exactly 1 ETH, while 0.005 ETH is deducted as the Ether gas fee.
After the transaction, your wallet balance will be 8.995 ETH.

This deduction happens in a single transaction, ensuring you don’t need to separately account for gas fees.

Ethereum Live Data

ASK

$0.00

BID

$0.00

LAST

$0.00

0.00%

How to Set and Calculate Ethereum Gas Fees

When setting Ethereum gas fees, two key variables come into play:

Gas Price: This is the cost per unit of gas, measured in GWEI (1 GWEI = 0.000000001 ETH).
Gas Limit: The maximum amount of gas allocated for the transaction.

Gas Fee Formula: Gas Fee = Gas Price × Gas Limit

For example, if the gas price is 10 GWEI and the gas limit is 21,000, the required gas fee is:

10 × 21,000 = 210,000 GWEI

This equals 0.00021 ETH.

For simple ETH transfers, a gas limit of 21,000 is usually sufficient. However, interacting with smart contracts often requires a higher gas limit due to the complexity of the operations involved.

How Much Is Enough for Gas Fees?

The cost of Ethereum gas fees depends on network congestion. When demand is high, fees increase. To determine suitable gas prices at any time, tools like the VTRADER Gas Tracker analyze blockchain activity and recommend optimal gas prices.

Concerns About Ethereum Gas Fees

An ongoing concern for any cryptocurrency that requires transaction fees is the price users pay for the transactions. Even for small transactions, the fees to transact on Ethereum can be prohibitive in certain scenarios. On several occasions, gas fees on Ethereum began climbing as the network attracted new users or new products, reaching more than $100 (sometimes much higher) for long periods. After The Merge, fees began to range from a few dollars to as high as $30.

Paying Gas Fees

Users pay gas fees to conduct transactions on the Ethereum network. The fee required to successfully conduct a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain is denominated in Gwei (the unit used to determine gas prices). Gas fees are used to incentivize users to stake their ETH and help secure the network.

Gas Limit

The gas limit is the maximum amount of gas that can be used for a transaction. The gas limit is set by the sender of the transaction. If the gas limit is set too low, the transaction may not be processed. Unfortunately, if the transaction is not processed but submitted, the gas fees will still be paid by the sender–even more of a reason to use a tool like VTRADER’s Ethereum Gas Fee Tracker.

Gas Prices

Gas prices are determined by the amount of network traffic, the supply of validators, and the demand for transaction verification. The higher the demand and traffic, the higher the gas prices. Gas prices can fluctuate rapidly due to changes in network conditions. Certain products that became very popular during Ethereum’s history like CryptoKitties, the ICO craze, even NFTs all made the Ethereum network so congested with users all vying to get their transactions into the blockchain that gas fees spiked and made it difficult to access the Ethereum blockchain.

Current Ethereum Gas Prices

Rapid

Fast

Standard

Slow

Factors Affecting Gas Prices

Network capacity: The amount of transactions that can be processed by the network at any given time (e.g. the more demand on the Ethereum blockchain, the higher the gas fees).
Transaction fees: What users are willing to pay to get their transaction included into the next block. Generally, users willing to pay higher fees will get priority.
Complexity of the Ethereum Smart Contract being used: Generally, transactions that are less complicated, like a simple sending of ETH will have lower gas fees. However, transactions that require more complexity of the Ethereum Smart Contract will have higher gas fees. For example, sending ETH to a friend will generally result in a lower gas fee than participating in a DeFi Liquidity Pool like Uniswap.

Strategies To Reduce Gas Costs

The best strategy is planning and timing. Choose the right moment to send transactions: Use online tools to predict the time of day when Ethereum transactions will be more infrequent. Simulate transactions to estimate gas costs: Use online tools to simulate a crypto transaction and estimate the gas costs. Use applications that reduce costs: Use dApps that help reduce the cost of transactions on the Ethereum network. Consider a Layer-1 alternative: Consider using a different blockchain network with lower transaction fees.

Optimize Gas Usage

Choose the right moment to transact: Use online tools like the charts at the top of the page to predict the time of day when Ethereum transactions will be more infrequent. This can help you avoid high gas fees during peak hours.
Simulate the transaction: Several online tools, such as Tenderly and DeFi Saver, allow users to simulate a crypto transaction. This can help you estimate the cost of the transaction and optimize your gas usage.
Use applications that reduce costs: Several dApps now exist with the direct purpose of helping you reduce the cost of transactions on the Ethereum network.
Consider a Layer-2 alternative: New blockchain networks have appeared in recent years, which offer much lower transaction fees and can process more transactions at higher speeds. Examples include Arbitrum, Optimism.

Use online tools like the VTRADER Gas Fee Tracker App which can predict the time of day when Ethereum transactions will be more infrequent. If you’re not in a hurry and you manage to time your action just right, you could cut your gas fee costs significantly. Within the VTRADER Gas Fee Tracker App you can set alerts right on your phone to notify you when gas fees are low and therefore optimize your transaction.

Simulating Transactions to Estimate Gas Costs

Use tools like VTRADER Gas Fee Tracker App to simulate a crypto transaction. You can also see the estimated cost of the transaction in full-featured ETH wallets like MetaMask if you’re connected to a dApp.

Ethereum Upgrades and Gas Fees

Roll-ups are Layer-2 solutions that help transactions be processed off-chain. Examples of Layer-2 chains that have been successful are Optimism, Arbitrum, zkEVM. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sees the benefit of these and believes that in the near future, gas fees for a transaction could be as low as a few pennies.

Historical Gas Price Data

Historically, gas prices fluctuate based on the time of day and day of the week. As you can see in a Gas Price History, gas prices can spike at predictable times.

Ethereum is the most popular blockchain network, surpassing Bitcoin in terms of transfer of value. Even traditional fiat rails like MasterCard and Visa have less daily transaction volume than the Ethereum blockchain.
Using this data, we can confidently say that the most ideal time to transact on the network is on the weekends. If you are transacting mid-week, your best bet is early morning or late at night (U.S. EST).

Ethereum is a fascinating blockchain and will likely become the “World’s Computer.” To understand more about the progress that Ethereum is making towards that goal, read more on its Roadmap and future ambitions.

Ethereum 2.0 and Gas Fees

Ethereum 2.0, also known as Serenity, is an upcoming upgrade to the Ethereum network that aims to improve scalability, security, and sustainability. One of the key features of Ethereum 2.0 is the introduction of sharding, which allows for parallel processing of transactions, reducing the load on the network and increasing throughput.

While Ethereum 2.0 is expected to improve the overall performance of the network, it’s unclear how it will affect gas fees. Some experts believe that the increased scalability and efficiency of the network could lead to lower gas fees, while others argue that the increased demand for transactions could drive up fees.