What is gas?

The short answer

Gas is Ethereum’s unit of computational work. Every operation a transaction triggers consumes gas. The sender pays for it. The word names the meter, not the price. The price of gas is set per block by the protocol, plus an optional tip. It moves continuously. That is why fee figures belong to dated tables, not definitions.

The definition, sourced and dated

The protocol documentation is exact. Gas refers to the unit that measures the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on the Ethereum network. That is ethereum.org’s developer documentation, read 11 September 2026 ^[1]. Fees are denominated in gwei, a billionth of an ether, and paid in the chain’s own token.

The definition has survived every upgrade since the network launched. That is what makes it stable enough to define a term by. What changed repeatedly is how the price is set, which is the next section.

The mechanism, base fee plus tip

Since the London upgrade, a transaction’s gas payment splits into two parts. The total gas you pay is divided into two components, the base fee and the priority fee, or tip. The base fee is set by the protocol ^[1].

The base fee is an algorithm, not an auction. It moves up when blocks run above target gas and down when they run below, block by block. No committee sets it. The base fee is also destroyed, removed from circulation rather than paid to anyone. The tip is the optional part. It goes to the block builder as an incentive to include the transaction sooner.

Two consequences matter for a reader. First, the base fee is the same for everyone in a block, which makes it measurable and reproducible. A median base fee times a transaction’s gas is a figure anyone with a node endpoint can re-derive. Second, the tip is a choice, so observed payments vary by sender and by wallet defaults. Comparing them across chains compares mixed quantities.

This page carries no live fee figures, deliberately. Gas prices move continuously. A number quoted in a definition goes stale the day it is written. The dated fee table lives on the cost of sending page, where every figure carries its method, its providers, and its pull date.

Three dated examples

The mechanism itself has a history, and the dates are load-bearing. The London upgrade went live on 5 August 2021, introducing the base fee and its burning rule. The source is ethereum.org’s upgrade table, read 11 September 2026 ^[2].

The Fusaka upgrade went live on 3 December 2025, per the roadmap page last updated 31 August 2026, read 11 September 2026 ^[3].

Its PeerDAS change scales the data capacity that layer 2 networks post to Ethereum. That is why the layer 2 term and this one reference the same upgrade from different sides.

The third example is the metering itself. A simple token transfer costs a fixed, small amount of gas on Ethereum, tens of thousands of units. A complex contract interaction costs more. That is the whole reason the unit exists. Effort, not transaction size in bytes, is what the sender pays for ^[1].

Gas fees versus other fees

Two confusions recur, and both are definitional. Gas is a network fee, paid to the chain for computation. It is not a ramp fee, the cut an on-ramp or off-ramp service charges for moving between fiat and crypto. That is the on-ramp and off-ramp term’s subject. A transfer can incur one, the other, or both. They are never summed into a single cost on this site.

The second confusion is between chains. Gas is Ethereum’s metering word, and other chains meter differently. Solana prices a base fee in lamports per signature. Tron prices transfers in Energy. The cost of sending register states each chain’s method beside its figures. A cross-chain comparison without the methods is not a comparison.

What are Ethereum gas fees?

Payments denominated in gas, the unit measuring the computational effort of operations on the network. Since August 2021 the payment splits into a protocol-set base fee, which is burned, and an optional priority tip to the block builder. Levels move block by block. Current figures live in dated tables, not in this definition.

How much does it cost to send USDC?

It depends on the network and the day. The site’s cost of sending register carries the dated pull across eight chains. Each figure carries its method and providers. This page explains what is being priced. The register explains what was paid.

Which network is best for sending USDC?

No verdict from this page. Gas mechanics explain why the question has no standing answer. Fees are set per block and differ by chain mechanism, so the comparison needs dated data and stated methods. The chains hub carries each network’s facts. The choice belongs to the reader.

Where this term sits

The cryptocurrency hub frames the cluster. The sibling terms layer 2 and on-ramp and off-ramp mark the two borders of this one. Where fees scale down, and where fees change kind. Every claim above carries its source and date.