If you used Ethereum during DeFi Summer or the NFT boom, paying $20, $50 or more for a swap was not unusual. In 2026, the same kind of transaction can cost cents.
At 0.5 gwei and ETH at $2,350, a basic ETH transfer costs about $0.025. A swap using around 180,000 gas costs about $0.21. Ethereum gas dropped as more activity moved to Layer 2, blobs made rollup data cheaper and mainnet got more room.
So how did a network known for expensive gas get here, and what would have to happen for $20 to $50 swaps to return?
Key Takeaways
On August 28, 2026, a 21,000-gas ETH transfer cost about $0.025 at 0.5 gwei with ETH at $2,350.
Rollups handle roughly 95% of Ethereum transaction activity based on Ethereum Foundation estimates from May 2026.
Ethereum's L1 gas limit rose from around 30 million to 60 million.
The Merge did not directly reduce gas fees.
$10 to $50 swaps can return if L1 blockspace gets crowded again.
How Cheap Is Ethereum Gas Now?
Plain ETH transfers are cheap because there is very little for Ethereum to execute. An ERC-20 transfer calls a token contract, while a swap runs more contract operations and uses more gas.
Operation
Gas Used
Cost at 0.5 Gwei
ETH transfer
21,000
$0.025
ERC-20 approval
About 46,000
$0.054
ERC-20 transfer
About 65,000
$0.076
Token swap
About 180,000
$0.21
The table above uses ETH at $2,350. Contract calls vary, so real gas use will not always match these numbers exactly.
Philip Krause, Builder Growth at the Ethereum Foundation, described the difference from the previous fee cycle in May 2026:
“The 2021 to 2023 fee regime is no longer a safe default assumption.”
Krause reported standard gas near 0.15 gwei on May 5 and daily averages close to 0.5 gwei through April.
Source: Building on Ethereum in 2026, Philip Krause, Ethereum Foundation. Published May 7, 2026. Checked August 28, 2026.
FAQ
No. Once Ethereum has tried to execute the transaction, that work has already used gas.
Yes. Cancelling normally means sending a replacement transaction with the same nonce. The replacement transaction needs gas.
No. The gas limit only sets the maximum amount of gas the transaction can consume. It does not give the transaction priority.
Wallets estimate fees before confirmation, while gas prices can change before a transaction enters a block. The final amount depends on the gas actually used and the effective gas price.
Yes. USDT cannot pay its own Ethereum network fee. A wallet sending USDT ERC-20 needs ETH for gas.
Methodology: Gas figures come from the Ethereum Foundation material cited above. ChangeNOW calculated the ETH and dollar values using ETH at $2,350 and the gas prices shown in each table. The figures do not include DEX liquidity fees, slippage, bridge costs or exchange spreads. Calculated August 28, 2026.
Why a First Token Swap May Cost More
A token may need an approval before its first swap. The approval gives the DEX contract permission to use that token from the wallet.
Approval and swap are separate Ethereum transactions, so both use gas.
At 0.5 gwei and ETH at $2,350, a 46,000-gas approval plus a 180,000-gas swap costs about $0.27. At 20 gwei, the pair costs about $10.62.
DEX Action
Gas Used
Cost at 0.5 Gwei
Cost at 20 Gwei
Approval
46,000
$0.054
$2.16
Swap
180,000
$0.21
$8.46
Approval + swap
226,000
$0.27
$10.62
If the token is already approved for that contract, another approval may not be needed.
What a 180,000-Gas Swap Costs at Different Gas Prices
The same 180,000-gas swap can cost $0.21 or more than $40 depending on the gas price.
Gas Price
ETH Price
Fee in ETH
Fee in USD
0.5 gwei
$2,350
0.00009 ETH
$0.21
5 gwei
$2,350
0.0009 ETH
$2.12
20 gwei
$2,350
0.0036 ETH
$8.46
24 gwei
$2,350
0.00432 ETH
$10.15
100 gwei
$2,350
0.018 ETH
$42.30
100 gwei
$3,000
0.018 ETH
$54.00
Gas use stays at 180,000 in every row. Only the gas price changes.
Gas Price Verdict: A $0.21 swap and a $42 swap can both use 180,000 gas. The difference is the price paid for each gas unit.
Why Was Gas So Expensive Before?
During DeFi Summer and the NFT boom, much more activity ran directly on Ethereum mainnet. Swaps, NFT mints, liquidations and bots competed for space in the same blocks. Layer 2 networks handled a much smaller share of activity.
During busy periods, paying more improved the chance of getting confirmed faster, and other users could raise their bids too.
EIP-1559 changed the fee system in August 2021.
Ethereum began setting a base fee for each block, while users could add a priority fee for the validator. When blocks use more gas than the target, the base fee rises. When they use less, it falls.
The base fee is burned. EIP-1559 made gas easier for wallets to estimate, but it did not give Ethereum much more block capacity.
What Changed After the Gas Wars?
When a popular mint, token launch or market move sends many users to Ethereum at once, demand for blockspace can jump fast. Users start paying more to get their transactions included sooner, and bots may bid even higher.
Interesting Fact: Gas wars were common during the DeFi and NFT booms, when many users were trying to get into the same blocks at the same time.
Layer 2 Took Pressure Off Mainnet
Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and other Layer 2 networks now process many swaps and transfers that once ran directly on Ethereum mainnet.
The Ethereum Foundation estimated in May 2026 that rollups handled roughly 95% of Ethereum transaction activity.
ChangeNOW's Blockchain Integration Team pointed to Layer 2 as one of the biggest differences from the years when mainnet was regularly congested:
“A lot more activity is on L2 now. Ethereum does not need to run every heavy swap itself. An L2 can do the computation and then post the data back to Ethereum.”
Blobs Gave Rollups Cheaper Data Space
Dencun introduced blobs through EIP-4844 in March 2024. A blob is temporary data space that rollups use to post transaction data to Ethereum. Before blobs, rollups used calldata, which competed more directly with normal L1 transactions.
Blob data has its own fee market. Pectra raised blob capacity in May 2025.
Fusaka added PeerDAS in December 2025, followed by another blob-capacity increase in January 2026.
Upgrade
Activation
What Changed
Effect
Dencun
March 2024
Added blobs through EIP-4844
Gave rollups separate data space
Pectra
May 7, 2025
Raised blob target/max from 3/6 to 6/9
Added more room for rollup data
Fusaka
December 3, 2025
Added PeerDAS
Allowed more blob capacity
Fusaka BPO2
January 7, 2026
Raised blob target/max to 14/21
Added another capacity increase
Sources: Ethereum Foundation upgrade documentation. Checked August 28, 2026.
Ethereum Foundation contributors explain Fusaka, PeerDAS and Ethereum capacity. Published December 5, 2025. Checked August 28, 2026.
Ethereum Made More Room on L1
Ethereum's L1 gas limit rose from around 30 million to 60 million during 2025. Fusaka's EIP-7935 set 60 million as the default gas limit.
At 60 million gas, one block could theoretically fit about:
2,857 ETH transfers at 21,000 gas each
923 ERC-20 transfers at 65,000 gas each
333 swaps at 180,000 gas each
Real blocks contain a mix of transaction types. These numbers are just capacity examples.
Under EIP-1559, the target is half of the block gas limit. With a 60 million limit, that puts the target at around 30 million gas. Blocks above target push the base fee up, while blocks below target push it down.
A maximum-size block can raise the base fee for the next block by up to 12.5%. If blocks stay full, the base fee can keep climbing. Ethereum does not set a hard ceiling on the base fee.
Capacity Verdict: Mainnet blocks have more room now, while much of the activity that used to compete for that space has moved to L2.
Why Transaction Count Can Be Misleading
Transaction count can be misleading because one transaction can use far more gas than another.
For example:
100 ETH transfers use about 2.1 million gas
100 swaps at 180,000 gas each use 18 million gas
Both examples contain 100 transactions. The swaps use more than eight times as much gas.
ChangeNOW's Blockchain Integration Team explained that raw transaction count misses the amount of work Ethereum has to perform:
“A simple ETH transfer is about 21,000 gas. An ERC-20 transfer can be around 50,000 to 65,000. A swap can use 150,000 to 300,000. So a few swaps can use more gas than a lot of simple transfers.”
EIP-1559 adjusts the base fee based on gas used relative to the block target, not raw transaction count.
How Ethereum Calculates a Transaction Fee
The final fee comes down to two numbers: gas used and gas price.
Under EIP-1559, that price includes the protocol's base fee and a priority fee paid to the validator.
Ethereum transaction fee = gas used × gas price. Under EIP-1559, gas price includes the base fee and priority fee.
Source: Blockscout. Checked August 28, 2026.
Transaction fee = gas used × effective gas price
Take a basic ETH transfer using 21,000 gas with:
base fee: 10 gwei
priority fee: 1 gwei
The effective gas price in this example is 11 gwei.
21,000 × 11 gwei = 231,000 gwei = 0.000231 ETH
Value
What It Means
Gas used
Work the transaction actually consumed
Gas limit
Maximum gas the transaction can consume
Base fee
Protocol fee that is burned
Priority fee
Amount paid to the validator
Source: Blockscout. Checked August 28, 2026.
A failed transaction can still cost gas because Ethereum already spent compute trying to execute it.
Gas limit is not the final bill either. If a wallet sets a gas limit of 90,000 and the transaction consumes 65,000, the user pays for the 65,000 actually used.
Did the Merge Make Gas Cheaper?
No. The Merge moved Ethereum to Proof of Stake, but block capacity barely changed.
Ethereum moved from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake on September 15, 2022. Validators replaced miners and Ethereum's energy consumption fell by about 99.95%.
Ethereum's Merge documentation lists lower gas fees as a misconception about the upgrade. Network capacity barely changed at the time.
The big fee drop came with L2 growth, blobs and a higher L1 gas limit.
Ethereum Mainnet vs Layer 2 Fees
L2 can be cheaper, but moving funds there also costs money.
If your ETH is already on mainnet and gas is 0.5 gwei, paying a few cents for one transfer can be cheaper than moving funds to another network first. Moving assets can add bridge or withdrawal costs.
Layer 2 becomes more useful when funds are already there or when you plan to make several swaps and contract calls.
Source: ChangeNOW. Checked August 28, 2026.
Ethereum is available on ChangeNOW across Ethereum mainnet and supported networks including Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync Era, Base, Starknet and Linea. Network availability can change.
If you need to bridge first, include that cost when comparing L1 and L2.
ETH vs ERC-20 Network Costs on ChangeNOW
ETH and ERC-20 tokens use different Ethereum transactions.
Sending ETH normally uses 21,000 gas. Sending USDT or another ERC-20 token calls a token contract and usually needs more.
Onchain, a ChangeNOW exchange has two legs: your deposit and the payout to the receiving wallet.
Exchange Route
Deposit
Payout
ETH → USDT ERC-20
ETH transfer, normally 21,000 gas
ERC-20 transfer
USDT ERC-20 → ETH
ERC-20 transfer
ETH transfer, normally 21,000 gas
Your wallet pays the network fee for the deposit. The payout is a separate onchain leg handled as part of the exchange, so the table does not mean you pay two wallet fees.
For ChangeNOW's Blockchain Integration Team, the current gas price is more useful than maintaining a separate Ethereum congestion score:
“We don't use a separate Ethereum congestion metric. As a sender, the gas price already gives us the signal we need. We sync it from the network automatically and use it in the fee calculation.”
Update frequency also differs across EVM networks:
“It differs by EVM network. Arbitrum gas can be pretty volatile: the network gets busy, then quiet again. Ethereum mainnet is usually steadier.” – ChangeNOW's Blockchain Integration Team
ChangeNOW Verdict: ChangeNOW does not use a fixed Ethereum network fee. The estimate moves with the gas price pulled from the network.
USDT ERC-20 needs ETH for gas. If you send USDT on Ethereum, the sending wallet also needs ETH to pay the network fee.
You can check the final fee of a completed Ethereum transaction on Etherscan. Its transaction guide explains the main fields shown on a transaction page.
The most useful fields for checking gas are Transaction Fee, Gas Price and Gas Limit & Usage by Txn.
Source: Etherscan. Checked August 28, 2026.
In this example, the transaction had a gas limit of 3,000,000 but used only 46,458 gas. The user pays for the gas actually used, not the full limit.
Copy the transaction hash from your wallet or exchange page.
Paste it into Etherscan.
Check Status to see if the transaction succeeded.
Check Transaction Fee to see what you paid.
Open More Details.
Check Gas Limit & Usage by Txn and Gas Price.
Check Transaction Action or Method to see what type of transaction it was.
Your wallet may show a higher estimate before you sign because gas conditions can change before confirmation.
Can Ethereum Gas Fees Return to $10 to $50?
Yes. EIP-1559 does not set a maximum base fee.
At ETH $2,350, a 180,000-gas swap costs about $10 at 24 gwei. At 100 gwei, the same 180,000-gas swap costs about $42.
Fees can jump during:
a popular token launch
a large NFT mint
a major airdrop claim
a liquidation wave
heavy L1 trading during a sharp market move
ChangeNOW's Blockchain Integration Team said a return to the old fee levels would require much stronger competition for L1 blockspace:
“To get back to $20 or $50 swaps, L1 would have to get seriously crowded again. Users would need to compete for blockspace and keep paying up instead of waiting. It can still happen, but Ethereum has more capacity now and a lot of activity has moved to L2.”
A $50 swap is still possible. It takes much more pressure on mainnet than it did when most Ethereum activity ran directly on L1.
Fee Verdict: $10 to $50 swaps can still happen. Ethereum has more L1 capacity and much more activity on L2 now, so mainnet has to get seriously busy before fees reach those levels again.
Source: Etherscan. Checked August 28, 2026.
