Ethereum Gas Fee Complete Guide 2024: How to Get the Lowest Cryptocurrency Gas Fees

Straight to the Point: Why Should You Care About Gas Fees?

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, with a circulating market cap of $360.06B and a current price of $2.98K (24-hour increase +1.86%). As the most important smart contract platform in the Web3 ecosystem, it enables millions of users to transact daily. But an unavoidable issue is: Every transaction requires paying Gas fees.

Gas fees are the costs users pay for network computational resources. Simply put, anything you do on Ethereum—sending funds, interacting with smart contracts, participating in DeFi—requires paying nodes to validate your operations. Understanding the Gas mechanism is essential for any Ethereum user because it directly impacts your transaction costs.

What Exactly Are Gas Fees? A Quick Visual Explanation

Gas in Ethereum is a unit measuring computational work. The more complex the operation, the more Gas it consumes.

Calculating Gas fees is straightforward:

• Gas units × Gas price = Total fee

For example, sending ETH to a wallet only costs 21,000 Gas units. If the Gas price is 20 gwei (1 gwei = 0.000000001 ETH), then the fee is:

• 21,000 × 20 gwei = 420,000 gwei = 0.00042 ETH

The Gas price fluctuates with network congestion—spiking during busy periods and dropping during quieter times.

What did EIP-1559 change?

The August 2021 London upgrade introduced EIP-1559, which fundamentally changed the Gas model. Previously, it was a pure auction system where “you pay what I ask.” Now, it became:

• Base fee: Automatically set by the protocol, dynamically adjusting based on network demand
• Tip: Optional user-added fee to prioritize transactions
• Part of the base fee is burned, which benefits ETH’s long-term supply

This mechanism makes Gas fees more predictable and reduces sudden surges.

Cost Comparison of Different Operations

Why such a big difference? Smart contracts require more computation validation, and ERC-20 token transfers involve additional token logic. During NFT booms or meme coin surges, these costs can double or even quintuple.

Real-Time Gas Monitoring: Using the Right Tools Is Key

To save money, you need to know if prices are high or low right now. Here are three of the best tools:

1. Etherscan Gas Tracker
The industry standard. Shows real-time low/medium/high Gas prices, and estimated costs for different operation types (swaps, NFT sales, token transfers). Essential before planning transactions.

2. Blocknative Gas Estimator
Provides Gas price trend forecasts, helping you decide “Is it cheap now?” or “Should I wait?”

3. Milk Road Gas Visualization
Displays Gas prices via heatmaps and trend charts, making it easy to spot cheap periods. Usually, weekends and US mornings are the cheapest.

The Top Three Culprits Causing Gas Fees to Skyrocket

1. Network Demand Surge

When many users compete for transaction inclusion simultaneously, Gas prices soar. Like抢演唱会票, the more people, the higher the price—users bid high to get miners to prioritize their transactions.

2. Network Congestion + Complex Operations

High-frequency DeFi interactions, smart contract deployments, large batch transactions all push costs higher. A complex Uniswap swap might need 100,000+ Gas, while a simple transfer only needs 21,000.

3. The Dual Impact of EIP-1559

The dynamic base fee means the more congested the network, the higher the floor price. While this stabilizes the market long-term, short-term peaks can be painful.

Four Practical Strategies to Lower Gas Costs

✓ Rule 1: Avoid Peak Hours

The cheapest times are usually:

• Friday to Saturday nights
• 2-6 AM Pacific Time (US)
• Market holidays

Avoid these periods for large NFT drops, new coin launches, or market volatility.

✓ Rule 2: Use Layer 2 Networks to Slash Gas Fees

This is the most effective solution. Layer 2 scaling solutions like Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync, and Loopring have proven their power:

• Transactions on Loopring: < $0.01
• Same transactions on mainnet: Several dollars

Two main L2 approaches:

• Optimistic Rollups (Optimism/Arbitrum): Bundle multiple transactions off-chain, record only summaries on mainnet
• ZK-Rollups (zkSync/Loopring): Use zero-knowledge proofs to compress transactions, more efficient but technically complex

Layer 2 networks handle most of the load, which is why they can offer the lowest cryptocurrency gas fees.

✓ Rule 3: Track Historical Data with Etherscan

Don’t just look at real-time prices—check historical trends. Etherscan Gas Tracker’s time series can tell you:

• The cheapest times this week
• The average price over the past month
• Whether current prices are within a reasonable range

Use this data to adjust your strategy.

✓ Rule 4: Manually Adjust Gas Settings in MetaMask

Most wallets (including MetaMask) support custom Gas prices and limits. You can:

• Set a maximum acceptable fee
• Submit transactions during cheaper periods manually
• Avoid overspending caused by automatic adjustments

The Outlook for Ethereum 2.0 and Dencun Upgrades

Two major upgrades in Ethereum’s roadmap could drastically improve Gas situations:

Ethereum 2.0’s Ultimate Goal

After fully migrating to Proof of Stake, it will incorporate Sharding, increasing transaction throughput from around 15 TPS to over 1000 TPS. Theoretically, Gas fees could drop below $0.001, making Ethereum truly accessible for mass adoption.

The Immediate Effect of Dencun Upgrade

The 2024 Dencun upgrade introduces EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding), specifically optimizing Layer 2 costs. It increases block space, improves data availability, and directly reduces fees on zkSync, Arbitrum, and other Layer 2 networks.

Quick FAQ

Q: Why do failed transactions still require Gas?
A: Because miners have already consumed computational resources to process your transaction, even if it ultimately fails. That’s why it’s important to double-check transaction parameters.

Q: What to do if I get an “Out of Gas” error?
A: It means your Gas limit was set too low. Resend with a higher limit (remember different operations need different Gas amounts).

Q: When is Layer 2 most cost-effective?
A: For any transaction where cost matters—small transfers, frequent trades, DeFi activities—Layer 2 can save 80-95% of fees.

Q: Will Gas prices keep skyrocketing?
A: Short-term depends on market demand; long-term, upgrades like EIP-1559 and Dencun aim to significantly reduce costs. They’ve already alleviated much of the volatility.

Key Takeaways

1. Gas = units of computational work, more complex operations cost more
2. EIP-1559 introduced predictable base fees + flexible tips
3. Monitoring tools are essential: Etherscan, Blocknative, Milk Road—check prices anytime
4. The best way to save: Use Layer 2 (Optimism/Arbitrum/zkSync) or avoid peak times
5. Future cheaper fees: Ethereum 2.0 sharding and Dencun upgrades are on the horizon

Mastering these points will enable you to transact efficiently on Ethereum while keeping Gas costs at a minimum.