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What are Ethereum gas fees and why do they change?

Published Sep 18, 2026Updated Sep 19, 2026Last verified Sep 18, 2026Requests recorded in this site’s own server logs, with the crawler identity checked by reverse DNS or IP range.Meta33Google19OpenAI13Anthropic5Ahrefs2Parallel2Apple1Microsoft1Perplexity1First collected Sep 18, 2026Recent requestsAhrefsOct 30, 2026OpenAIOct 24, 2026GoogleOct 17, 2026MicrosoftOct 15, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 12, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 12, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 12, 2026AhrefsOct 9, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 9, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 4, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 3, 2026Meta · unverifiedOct 3, 2026
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Quick answer

Gas measures the computation a transaction needs, and fees are paid in ETH, usually quoted in gwei (one-billionth of an ETH). Since EIP-1559 (the London upgrade, August 5, 2021), each fee has a base fee that is burned plus an optional tip to the validator. The base fee can move by up to 12.5% per block depending on demand, so fees rise when the network is busy.

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Answer

Many users move activity to layer-2 rollups, which usually charge lower fees than mainnet [6][4][11].

Sources

  1. officialWhat is Ethereum? (A Complete Guide) — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  2. officialIntroduction to smart contracts — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  3. officialWhat is Ether (ETH)? — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  4. officialTimeline of all Ethereum forks (2014 to present) — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  5. officialEthereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  6. officialGas and fees — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  7. officialProof-of-stake (PoS) — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  8. officialPrague-Electra (Pectra) — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  9. officialThe Merge — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 10, 2026 · Evidence page
  10. newsEthereum Activates Fusaka Upgrade, Aiming to Cut Node Costs, Speed Layer-2 Settlements — CoinDesk · accessed Oct 29, 2026 · Evidence page
  11. officialLayer 2 — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page
  12. officialClient diversity — ethereum.org · accessed Nov 11, 2026 · Evidence page