# Ethereum Gas Tracker

> Track Ethereum gas in gwei block by block: base fee, priority fee percentiles, gas used and what a transfer, swap or mint costs, each figure with a receipt.

Markdown copy of https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-gas-tracker

**Question:** How much does an Ethereum transaction cost right now?

- Kind: Dashboard in Voltfin Vantage
- Topic: [Ethereum](https://voltfincrypto.com/topics/ethereum)
- Chains: Ethereum
- Status: Planned. The data is not published yet, so this page states no figure; each figure will open its receipt when it is.

Every Ethereum transaction pays gas: a base fee that the protocol sets from how full the last block was and burns, plus a priority fee that goes to the block's proposer. This dashboard reads both from each block as it lands, so the number you see is the fee the chain itself charged, not an estimate from a single node.

Use it to time a transaction, to see how busy the network is through the day, or to explain a fee spike. Each figure is pinned to the block it was read at, with the block hash and the exact read, so anyone can re-check it in their browser.

## Blueprint

### Now

The fee of the latest block and what common actions cost at it.

- **Base fee** (gwei): The base fee per gas of the latest finalized block, read from its header.
- **Priority fee, median** (gwei): The median tip paid by transactions in recent blocks, from eth_feeHistory.
- **Block fullness** (%): Gas used as a share of the gas limit in the latest block: above half, the next base fee rises.
- **What actions cost now**: The cost of an ETH transfer, a token transfer, a DEX swap and an NFT mint at the current base fee and median tip, in ETH and USD.
- **Base fee, recent blocks** (gwei): The base fee of each block over the last hours, so a spike shows the moment it starts.

### History

How fees moved over the last day, week and month.

- **Base fee by day** (gwei): The median and the high base fee of each day, from every block of the day.
- **Fees paid by day** (ETH): Total fees users paid each day, split into the burned base fee and tips to proposers.
- **Cheapest hours** (gwei): The median base fee by hour of day and day of week over the selected period, to find the quiet hours.

Filters: Period (Last day, week or month).

## How it will be measured

- The base fee is read from each block header (base_fee_per_gas) at the chain head and at finalized blocks, and converted from wei to gwei.
- Priority fee percentiles come from eth_feeHistory over recent blocks, so a fast, a normal and a slow tip are measured, not guessed.
- The cost of a transfer, a swap and a mint multiplies the current fees by the typical gas each action uses, and names those gas amounts.
- Every figure carries a receipt: the block number and hash, the provider reads that agreed, and the time of the read.

## Data it needs

- `gas_blocks` (to build): Base fee, priority fee percentiles, gas used and gas limit for each block on fee-market chains, for a near-live gas tracker.
- `chain_fees_daily` (to build): Fees paid per chain per day in the native token: base fee and priority fee percentiles, total fees, and the share burned where the chain burns fees.
- `native_prices_daily` (to build): Reference prices of major assets read from on-chain oracle feeds (Chainlink latestRoundData) at each day's last block, with each round's update time.
- Source: Block headers on Ethereum: base_fee_per_gas, gas_used and gas_limit
- Source: eth_feeHistory reward percentiles over recent blocks
- Source: Chainlink ETH/USD feed at the same block for USD values

## Questions

### What is the Ethereum base fee?

The base fee is the minimum price per unit of gas that a transaction must pay to be included in a block. The protocol raises it when blocks are more than half full and lowers it when they are less, and the base fee is burned rather than paid to anyone.

### What is a priority fee?

A priority fee, or tip, is what a transaction offers the block proposer on top of the base fee. Higher tips get included sooner when blocks are busy. This dashboard shows the tips recent blocks actually paid, at several percentiles.

### Why do gas fees spike?

Fees rise when demand for block space outruns supply: a popular mint, a market move that sends traders to DEXs, or a wave of liquidations. Because the base fee follows block fullness, a run of full blocks pushes it up quickly.

### Is gas cheaper on layer 2s?

Usually, because layer 2s batch many transactions and post them to Ethereum together. The layer 2 pages compare what users pay there with what each layer 2 pays Ethereum to settle.

## Glossary

- **Gwei**: One billionth of an ether. Gas prices are quoted in gwei per unit of gas.
- **Gas used**: How much computation a transaction or a block consumed, in units of gas. A plain ETH transfer uses a fixed, small amount; contract calls use more.
- **EIP-1559**: The fee market upgrade that introduced the base fee, burns it, and lets transactions add a separate priority fee.

## Related apps

- [When Is ETH Gas Lowest? Gas Price by Hour and Day](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/eth-gas-price-by-hour)
- [ETH Supply Tracker: Burn vs Issuance](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/eth-supply-burn-vs-issuance)
- [Ethereum Blob Fees and Blobs per Block vs Target](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-blob-fees)
- [Ethereum L2 Fees Compared: Cost per Transaction](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-l2-fees)
- [Ethereum Validator Queue: Entry and Exit Wait Times](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-validator-queue)
- [Is ETH Deflationary? ETH Supply Since the Merge](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/is-eth-deflationary)

Build it in Voltfin Studio: https://app.voltfincrypto.com/signup?next=%2F