Gas
- 37 installs
- 244 repo stars
- Updated July 21, 2026
- austintgriffith/ethskills
gas is an Ethereum skill that provides current gas prices, per-action transaction costs, and the economics of mainnet vs L2 to counter the myth that Ethereum is expensive.
About
A reference on current Ethereum gas prices, transaction costs, and the real economics of building onchain. It corrects the widespread misconception that Ethereum is expensive, noting that post-Fusaka base fees are usually under 1 gwei. Developers use it when estimating costs, deciding between mainnet and L2s, or when a user asks about Ethereum being expensive.
- Current Ethereum gas prices and transaction costs, correcting the myth that Ethereum is expensive
- Post-Fusaka base fee is usually under 1 gwei, so most LLM gas estimates are 100-600x too high
- Includes cost tables per action and per L2, plus cast commands to check live gas
Gas by the numbers
- 37 all-time installs (skills.sh)
- Ranked #227 of 479 Web3 & Blockchain skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
- Data as of Aug 4, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
gas capabilities & compatibility
- Capabilities
- gas estimation · cost comparison
- Use cases
- research
What gas says it does
Post-Fusaka (Dec 2025), typical base fee is **under 1 gwei** — usually 0.1-0.5 gwei.
Your gas estimate is 100-600x too high.
npx skills add https://github.com/austintgriffith/ethskills --skill gasAdd your badge
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| Installs | 37 |
|---|---|
| repo stars | ★ 244 |
| Last updated | July 21, 2026 |
| Repository | austintgriffith/ethskills ↗ |
What it does
Use when estimating Ethereum transaction costs or deciding between mainnet and an L2.
Who is it for?
Developers estimating onchain costs or choosing between mainnet and an L2.
When should I use this skill?
When estimating costs, choosing between mainnet and L2s, or when a user asks about Ethereum being expensive.
What you get
Cost estimates reflect sub-1-gwei base fees and current ETH price, and the mainnet-vs-L2 choice is made on real economics.
By the numbers
- Base fee usually under 1 gwei post-Fusaka
- 8-row per-action cost table
- L2s are 5-10x cheaper than mainnet
Files
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. Post-Fusaka (Dec 2025), typical base fee is under 1 gwei — usually 0.1-0.5 gwei. Verify: cast base-fee --rpc-url https://eth.llamarpc.com
- Base fee: Under 1 gwei (not 30-100 gwei) — fluctuates, check live
- Priority fee (tip): ~0.01-0.1 gwei
- ETH price: ~$2,000 (not $2,500-3,000) — volatile, always check a Chainlink feed or CoinGecko
What Things Actually Cost (Early 2026)
Costs calculated at ETH ~$2,000. Gas fluctuates — use cast base-fee for current. These are order-of-magnitude guides, not exact quotes.| Action | Gas Used | Cost at 0.1 gwei | Cost at 1 gwei (busy) | Cost at 10 gwei (event) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH transfer | 21,000 | $0.004 | $0.04 | $0.42 |
| ERC-20 transfer | ~65,000 | $0.013 | $0.13 | $1.30 |
| ERC-20 approve | ~46,000 | $0.009 | $0.09 | $0.92 |
| Uniswap V3 swap | ~180,000 | $0.036 | $0.36 | $3.60 |
| NFT mint (ERC-721) | ~150,000 | $0.030 | $0.30 | $3.00 |
| Simple contract deploy | ~500,000 | $0.100 | $1.00 | $10.00 |
| ERC-20 deploy | ~1,200,000 | $0.240 | $2.40 | $24.00 |
| Complex DeFi contract | ~3,000,000 | $0.600 | $6.00 | $60.00 |
Mainnet vs L2 Costs (Early 2026)
| Action | Mainnet (0.1 gwei) | Arbitrum | Base | zkSync | Scroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH transfer | $0.004 | $0.0003 | $0.0003 | $0.0005 | $0.0004 |
| ERC-20 transfer | $0.013 | $0.001 | $0.001 | $0.002 | $0.001 |
| Swap | $0.036 | $0.003 | $0.002 | $0.005 | $0.004 |
| NFT mint | $0.030 | $0.002 | $0.002 | $0.004 | $0.003 |
| ERC-20 deploy | $0.240 | $0.020 | $0.018 | $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%+
1. 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. 2. Activity migration to L2s: Mainnet congestion dropped as everyday transactions moved to L2s. 3. Pectra (May 2025): Doubled blob capacity (3→6 target blobs). 4. Fusaka (Dec 2025): PeerDAS (nodes sample 1/8 of data) + 2x gas limit (30M→60M).
L2 Cost Components
L2 transactions have two cost components: 1. L2 execution gas — paying the sequencer 2. 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 (Early 2026)
// Rule of thumb for current conditions
maxFeePerGas: "1-2 gwei" // headroom for spikes (base is usually 0.1-0.5)
maxPriorityFeePerGas: "0.01-0.1 gwei" // enough for quick inclusionSpike 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
# Foundry cast
cast gas-price --rpc-url https://eth.llamarpc.com
cast base-fee --rpc-url https://eth.llamarpc.comWhen to Use Mainnet vs L2
Use mainnet when: DeFi, governance, identity, high-value transfers, composing with mainnet liquidity, or when you don't have a concrete reason for an L2. Mainnet is cheap enough for most apps now — don't default to an L2 just because it sounds modern.
Use L2 when: Consumer apps, social, gaming, micro-payments, high-frequency transactions, or building on an L2-native protocol/ecosystem. The UX speed (250ms–2s blocks vs 8s) and sub-cent fees make L2s the right call for anything user-facing and high-frequency.
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: 2026-03-17 | Base fee: ~0.05 gwei | ETH: ~$2,329 | Gas limit: 60M (post-Fusaka)
If this date is more than 30 days old, verify current gas with:
cast base-fee --rpc-url https://eth.llamarpc.comThe 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.
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How much is Ethereum gas now?
Post-Fusaka (Dec 2025) the typical base fee is under 1 gwei, usually 0.1-0.5 gwei, with priority fees around 0.01-0.1 gwei.
How do I check current gas?
Use Foundry cast: cast base-fee --rpc-url https://eth.llamarpc.com or cast gas-price.