Ethereum gas price charts and historical gas fees

About this ETH guest data

The charts above use the “standard” gas price given by gasnow.org. It is recommended that users who are going to transact on Ethereum check gas prices before doing so. The heatmap calculates an average of these standard prices for each 1-hour window using data from the previous two weeks.

Ethereum Gas

Ethereum is the most popular blockchain network, surpassing Bitcoin in terms of value transfer. However, his continued success was not without its setbacks. High gas fees and significant wait time for transaction processing have been a common grumble for Ethereum’s growing number of investors.

While the Ethereum network has made a lot of recent progress with The Merge and successful Shanghai upgrade, it hasn’t done much to solve the scalability issues the network has been facing. But in addition to the rise of layer-2 blockchains, there are many more upgrades planned in the future, and several of them focus on scalability.

Let’s take a look at how Ethereum gas works and what these upgrades are likely to change.

What is Ethereum Gas?

More than 1 million transactions take place on the Ethereum network daily, proof that Ethereum offers massive utility rather than just speculation about price. But even after merger, these transactions are not free. Gas fees are paid in Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency fuel that powers the Ethereum blockchain.

Gas fees enable the network to carry out simple transactions, such as sending ETH from wallet A to wallet B, or more complex transactions, such as claiming a return through a smart contract implemented in various types of ERC-20- tokens are paid.

More complex transactions require more gas because they require more computing power from the network.

But Ethereum gas costs are also driven by network traffic. When the network is busy, you will pay more for the same transaction than when the network is less loaded. Some apps and wallets show a measurement of this cost called Gwei, also known as nanoether, which represents 1 billionth of an ETH.

50 Web = 0.000000050 ETH

Gas prices depend on the amount of traffic, which means the demand for network computing power. Higher Gwei equals a higher gas cost for the same transaction.

What is an ETH Gas Tracker

Since gas consumption and prices are constantly changing on Ethereum, we need a way to track them. This is where the Ethereum Gas Chart and Tracker comes in: The ETH Gas Price Chart allows anyone to see the current Ethereum Gas Price in real time.

The ETH gas price is a culmination of the amount of transactions taking place on the network at one time, as well as the type of transactions taking place. Each type of transaction on the blockchain requires a different amount of gas and affects the network’s congestion differently.

For example, it can be very cheap to transfer ETH to another wallet and won’t affect the network much. However, if you deploy a smart contract, or everyone rushes to create an NFT at the same time, gas prices can skyrocket quickly.

Checking the Ethereum gas price chart before trading can save you money and ensure your transaction goes through on time. And if you are an active DeFi user, checking the ETH gas price chart can really add up over time.

Finally, familiarity with Ethereum gas prices can provide insight into market activity and network sentiment. Higher ETH gas prices indicate that there is excitement on the network and that there may be something to pay attention to.

How to use ETH gas cards

Now that we understand the importance of tracking gas, we should be familiar with reading an ETH gas fee table. And when it comes to Ethereum gas fee cards, we have two we like to keep a close eye on:

1/ The line graph at the top details gas prices over the past week: This ETH gas fee graph can be effective to see how busy Ethereum’s network was during the last 7-day period.

By looking at this ETH gas chart, you can use spikes to determine when a major event may have happened on the network. It also complements our heatmap chart, which shows the times of day and days of the week when gas prices are typically the cheapest.

2/ The other Ethereum gas fee chart we like to look at is our heatmap. This heatmap uses historical data to visualize the busiest times on the Ethereum blockchain. Simply line up a day of the week and time, and measure historical accumulation based on how red the box is.

Using this data, we can say with confidence that the most ideal time to do transactions on the network is on weekends. If you’re trading in the middle of the week, your best bet is early morning or late at night (US EST).

Gas prices are dynamic

The Ethereum blockchain is similar to a highway. At 02:00 there is less traffic and smooth sailing. During rush hour, the highway becomes congested. On crypto networks, expect to pay more as more users want to push their transactions through.

The Ethereum gas price and fees are determined by supply and demand. Ethereum users create the demand, while it is up to the network validation nodes to provide them with confirmed transactions.

Modern Ethereum wallets allow users to adjust gas fees to prioritize their transactions. Think of it like buying a first class ticket on an airline. First class travel costs more, but first class passengers leave the plane first while the rest of the passengers huddle in the aisle waiting for the line to move.

However, the analogy is not perfect because using a lower gas fee can cause your transaction to get stuck in the mempool (a database of unconfirmed transactions) if gas prices change and your fee is now too low. The deal remains in mempool limbo until gas prices drop enough to confirm the deal. If the gas fee is too low, transactions may fail.

Remember, gas is paid in ETH (Ether), so the price of ETH itself plays a role.

Therefore, there are a few elements that can cause the price of gas fees to fluctuate:

Oscillation of the price of ETH as rewards are provided in the network’s native coin. Change in demand for transactions to be confirmed. Higher volume and demand for faster confirmations will drive the price up.

Ethereum gas prices after the merger

The merger has acquired almost mythical status in the crypto community. This is partly because it has been released since 2017 (finally arriving in 2023).

Here’s what The Merge accomplished:

Switched the network to proof-of-stake creating a much more environmentally friendly network Changed Ether’s supply mechanics

What will Ethereum 2.0 do to gas prices?

So, did The Merge help gas costs? Not really.

The merger did bring slightly faster confirmations and a less inflationary ETH supply (as well as a planet-friendly consensus method). But the changed consensus method did not help the network’s capacity.

Despite this, there is a silver lining. While The Merge may not affect gas fees, the use of roll-up technology may. Digests are Layer-2 solutions that help process transactions off-chain.

They support the scaling of the Ethereum network and the reduction of costs. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sees the benefit of this and believes that gas fees for a transaction could be as low as a few USD cents in the near future.

Zero-Knowledge rollup networks like Polygon ZkEVM and ZkSync are already live, and Optimistic rollup networks like Arbitrum and Optimism continue to grow in popularity, bringing lower fees while using the Ethereum network to secure transactions.

Strategies to reduce gas costs

Although Layer-2 solutions may eventually reduce gas fees, it is important to know what to do as an Ethereum user until then. Here are some strategies that can go a long way in reducing your costs.

Choose the right moment

You can use online tools like the charts at the top of the page to predict the time of day when Ethereum transactions will be more rare. If you are not in a hurry and you manage to time your action just right, you can significantly reduce your gas fee costs.

Simulate the transaction

In order to reduce gas fees, it is essential to know how much they will actually be. Several online tools, such as Tenderly and DeFi Saver, allow users to simulate a crypto transaction. You can also see the estimated cost of the transaction in full ETH wallets like MetaMask if you are connected to a dApp.

Use applications that reduce costs

Several dApps now exist with the direct goal of helping you reduce the cost of transactions on the Ethereum network. For example, Rook helps bundle transactions and thus reduce fees. Likewise, using Balancer’s crypto vault can significantly reduce gas fees.

Consider a Layer-1 alternative

Ethereum’s position in the crypto ecosystem is unlikely to change for a while. Still, new blockchain networks have emerged in recent years, which offer much lower transaction fees and can process more transactions at higher speeds. For example, the Solana network charges around $0.00025 per transaction. Cardano, NEAR Protocol or Binance Smart Chain are other alternatives to consider.

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