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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.Google12OpenAI1First collected Sep 18, 2026Recent requestsGoogleSep 21, 2026GoogleSep 21, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026GoogleSep 20, 2026OpenAISep 20, 2026GoogleSep 19, 2026GoogleSep 19, 2026GoogleSep 19, 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.

67 words12 sources

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 Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  2. officialIntroduction to smart contracts — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  3. officialWhat is Ether (ETH)? — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  4. officialTimeline of all Ethereum forks (2014 to present) — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  5. officialEthereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  6. officialGas and fees — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  7. officialProof-of-stake (PoS) — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  8. officialPrague-Electra (Pectra) — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  9. officialThe Merge — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  10. newsEthereum Activates Fusaka Upgrade, Aiming to Cut Node Costs, Speed Layer-2 Settlements — CoinDesk · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  11. officialLayer 2 — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page
  12. officialClient diversity — ethereum.org · accessed Sep 19, 2026 · Evidence page