Gas (Ethereum)

Gas is the unit that measures the amount of computational work required to execute a specific operation on the Ethereum network. Every transaction or smart contract call consumes gas; the sender pays for that gas in ETH.

How gas works

Each EVM operation has a fixed gas cost (e.g., a simple ETH transfer costs 21,000 gas). The total fee is:

Fee = Gas used × Gas price (in gwei)

Gas price is denominated in gwei — one billionth of ETH.

EIP-1559 fee model

After EIP-1559 (August 2021), Ethereum fees have two components:

• Base fee — set by the network based on block demand; burned (removed from supply)
• Priority fee (tip) — set by the user; goes to the validator/miner as an incentive

Gas limit vs. gas price

• Gas limit — the maximum gas a sender is willing to spend on a transaction; unused gas is refunded
• Gas price — the price per unit of gas the sender is willing to pay; higher price = faster inclusion

Relevance to miners

Before The Merge, Ethereum miners earned priority fees (tips) directly. On EVM-compatible chains still using PoW (e.g., Ethereum Classic), gas fees remain part of miner revenue.

See also

• Gwei
• EIP
• Ethereum
• Fee