Gas Fee
The total cost to run an Ethereum transaction, found by multiplying the gas used by the price per unit.
A gas fee is what you actually pay, in ETH, to get a transaction processed. The math is straightforward: gas used multiplied by gas price. A transfer using 21,000 gas at 20 gwei costs 0.00042 ETH. The same transfer during congestion, at 200 gwei, costs ten times more.
Since Ethereum's 2021 London upgrade, most of the fee — the 'base fee' — is burned, removing ETH from circulation. A smaller 'priority fee,' or tip, goes to the validator and can push your transaction ahead in line. Layer-2 networks exist largely to cut these fees, often down to cents.
Related terms
A unit measuring the computational work an Ethereum operation requires, from a simple transfer to a complex contract call.
GweiA denomination of ether equal to one billionth, used to quote Ethereum gas prices in readable numbers.
BurnPermanently removing tokens from circulation by sending them to an address no one can spend from, shrinking supply.
Layer 2A separate network built on top of a base chain to process transactions faster and far more cheaply.