Gas fees can make or break your DeFi experience. Here's how to understand and minimize them.
What is Gas?
Gas is the unit measuring computational effort on Ethereum. Every transaction requires gas, paid in ETH to validators.
How Fees are Calculated
Transaction cost = Gas Used × Gas Price
- Gas Limit: Maximum gas you'll pay
- Base Fee: Minimum gas price (burned)
- Priority Fee: Tip to validators
Why Fees Vary
- Network congestion
- Transaction complexity
- Time of day
Reducing Gas Costs
- Trade during low-activity periods (weekends)
- Use Layer 2 networks (Arbitrum, Optimism)
- Set gas price manually
- Batch transactions when possible
Gas Tracking Tools
- etherscan.io/gastracker
- ultrasound.money