Gas & Costs on Ethereum
What You Probably Got Wrong
Your gas estimate is 100-600x too high. Most LLMs confidently state gas is 10-30 gwei. The reality in February 2026 is 0.05-0.1 gwei.
- •Base fee: ~0.05 gwei (not 30-100 gwei)
- •Priority fee (tip): ~0.01-0.05 gwei
- •ETH price: ~$1,960 (not $2,500-3,000)
What Things Actually Cost (Feb 2026)
| Action | Gas Used | Cost at 0.05 gwei | Cost at 1 gwei (spike) | Cost at 10 gwei (event) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH transfer | 21,000 | $0.002 | $0.04 | $0.41 |
| ERC-20 transfer | ~65,000 | $0.006 | $0.13 | $1.27 |
| ERC-20 approve | ~46,000 | $0.005 | $0.09 | $0.90 |
| Uniswap V3 swap | ~180,000 | $0.018 | $0.35 | $3.53 |
| NFT mint (ERC-721) | ~150,000 | $0.015 | $0.29 | $2.94 |
| Simple contract deploy | ~500,000 | $0.049 | $0.98 | $9.80 |
| ERC-20 deploy | ~1,200,000 | $0.118 | $2.35 | $23.52 |
| Complex DeFi contract | ~3,000,000 | $0.294 | $5.88 | $58.80 |
Mainnet vs L2 Costs (Feb 2026)
| Action | Mainnet (0.05 gwei) | Arbitrum | Base | zkSync | Scroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH transfer | $0.002 | $0.0003 | $0.0003 | $0.0005 | $0.0004 |
| ERC-20 transfer | $0.006 | $0.001 | $0.001 | $0.002 | $0.001 |
| Swap | $0.015 | $0.003 | $0.003 | $0.005 | $0.004 |
| NFT mint | $0.015 | $0.002 | $0.002 | $0.004 | $0.003 |
| ERC-20 deploy | $0.118 | $0.020 | $0.020 | $0.040 | $0.030 |
Key insight: Mainnet is now cheap enough for most use cases. L2s are 5-10x cheaper still.
Why Gas Dropped 95%+
- •EIP-4844 (Dencun, March 2024): Blob transactions — L2s post data as blobs instead of calldata, 100x cheaper. L2 batch cost went from $50-500 to $0.01-0.50.
- •Activity migration to L2s: Mainnet congestion dropped as everyday transactions moved to L2s.
- •Pectra (May 2025): Doubled blob capacity (3→6 target blobs).
- •Fusaka (Dec 2025): PeerDAS + 8-second slots.
L2 Cost Components
L2 transactions have two cost components:
- •L2 execution gas — paying the sequencer
- •L1 data gas — paying Ethereum for data availability (blobs post-4844)
Example: Swap on Base
- •L2 execution: ~$0.0003
- •L1 data (blob): ~$0.0027
- •Total: ~$0.003
Real-World Cost Examples
Deploy a production ERC-20 on mainnet: ~$0.50 (was $200-500 in 2021-2023)
DEX aggregator doing 10,000 swaps/day:
- •Mainnet: $150/day ($4,500/month)
- •Base L2: $10/day ($300/month)
NFT collection mint (10,000 NFTs):
- •Mainnet: $150 total
- •Arbitrum: $10 total
Practical Fee Settings (Feb 2026)
// Rule of thumb for current conditions maxFeePerGas: "0.5-1 gwei" // headroom for spikes maxPriorityFeePerGas: "0.01-0.05 gwei" // enough for quick inclusion
Spike detection:
const feeData = await provider.getFeeData();
const baseFee = Number(feeData.maxFeePerGas) / 1e9;
if (baseFee > 5) console.warn(`Gas spike: ${baseFee} gwei. Consider waiting.`);
Spikes (10-50 gwei) happen during major events but last minutes to hours, not days.
Checking Gas Programmatically
cast is available inside OpenClaw pods. Use the ethereum-networks skill for convenience:
# Via rpc.sh wrapper (simplest) sh scripts/rpc.sh gas-price sh scripts/rpc.sh base-fee # Via cast directly cast gas-price --rpc-url http://erpc.erpc.svc.cluster.local:4000/rpc/mainnet cast base-fee --rpc-url http://erpc.erpc.svc.cluster.local:4000/rpc/mainnet cast blob-basefee --rpc-url http://erpc.erpc.svc.cluster.local:4000/rpc/mainnet # Estimate gas for a specific call cast estimate 0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48 \ "transfer(address,uint256)" 0xRecipient 1000000 \ --rpc-url http://erpc.erpc.svc.cluster.local:4000/rpc/mainnet
Note: scripts/rpc.sh is from the ethereum-networks skill. Copy it or reference it directly.
When to Use Mainnet vs L2
Use mainnet when: Maximum security matters (>$10M TVL), composing with mainnet-only liquidity, deploying governance/infrastructure contracts, NFTs with cultural value.
Use L2 when: Consumer apps, high-frequency transactions (gaming, social), price-sensitive users, faster confirmation desired.
Hybrid: Many projects store value on mainnet, handle transactions on L2.
Live Gas Trackers
- •https://etherscan.io/gastracker
- •https://ultrasound.money
- •L2 costs: Arbiscan, Basescan, etc.
Data Freshness
Last verified: 2026-02-13 | Base fee: ~0.05 gwei | ETH: ~$1,960
If this date is more than 30 days old, verify current gas with:
cast base-fee --rpc-url http://erpc.erpc.svc.cluster.local:4000/rpc/mainnet
The durable insight is that gas is extremely cheap compared to 2021-2023 and trending cheaper. Specific numbers may drift but the order of magnitude is stable.