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Gas fees are the costs associated with initiating a transaction on a given blockchain, allowing network validators to perform the requested function. Gas fees can fluctuate due to network congestion, the type of transaction you request, and the priority placed on your request. You can accelerate a transaction by paying additional gas fees. Each blockchain has its own native asset required to pay these fees. When interacting with the blockchain, you’ll need to account for the amount of this native asset required for the requested transaction. You can estimate transaction fees and contract execution with Circle’s Wallets API.
Watch this video to learn about gas fees, also known as transaction fees. In the video, you will learn the importance of gas fees, understand how to estimate fees for a transfer transaction using an API and send USDC to other wallets using the estimates.

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Wallets gas fee configurations

When initiating a request via the Wallets APIs that requires gas fees, you have two options for configuring your fee tolerance: fee levels and gas limits. Fee levels provide a simple way to configure your gas tolerance. Depending on your choice, the speed in which your transaction completes compared to the expected blockchain confirmation timing may vary. You can choose between three tolerance levels:
  1. low - a low-priority transaction, expected to take longer than the average amount of time to complete, with lower fees
  2. medium - a medium-priority transaction, expected to take the average amount of time to complete, with average fees
  3. high - a high-priority transaction, expected to take less than the average amount of time to complete, with higher fees
Gas limits allow for a more advanced configuration of your gas tolerance. Setting gas limit requires the following parameters, which are all designated in wei:
  1. gasLimit - the base amount of gas required to process the requested transaction
  2. priorityFee - an additional “tip” that can be added to the validator to accelerate the requested transaction
  3. maxFee - maximum fee that can be used for the requested transaction, if the fee is greater, the transaction will be failed. Note that Solana has no concept of a max fee.

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Differences in gas fee specification

While EVM chains and Solana support fee levels, you can also assign your own gas fee. The process differs based on the blockchain and protocols supported.

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EVM chains

When creating a transfer transaction, you must specify gasLimit, maxFee, and priorityFee. Your actual fee will be (base fee + priority fee) * gas used . Note that you do not need to specify the base fee in your transaction because it is automatically determined and adjusted by the network based on its current congestion level.
priorityFee is not applicable to Arbitrum and can be left blank.
  • Base fee: Fee set by the network based on congestion levels. It is burned with a transaction, which means it is removed from circulation.
  • Priority fee: Additional fee paid to miners that expedites your transaction.
  • Max fee: Maximum price you’re willing to pay per unit of gas for the transaction. This protects against paying excessive prices when the base fee rises unexpectedly.

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Solana

The gas fee mechanism is similar to EIP-1559, where you can specify the priority fee to incentivize miners to include your transaction in a block. However, there’s no max fee concept in Solana, and the gasLimit is optional as Solana defaults to a gas limit of 200,000 micro-lamport (10-15 SOL).

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Estimated gas fees

The following table shows the estimated gas fees on various blockchains, using a trailing six-month average, and includes the date when the data was last updated.
BlockchainPrice of Native Token (USD)As of Date
Aptos$4.35Sep 2024
Arbitrum$3,046Sep 2024
Avalanche$28Jul 2025
Base$3,046Sep 2024
Ethereum$3,046Sep 2024
Optimism$3,046Sep 2024
Polygon$0.54Sep 2024
Solana$151Sep 2024
Unichain$3,046Sep 2024

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Smart Contact Account (SCA) wallets

SCA wallet creation is unique to EVMs and has a gas cost in deploying the smart contract account. Circle uses lazy deployment at the time of the first outbound transaction, so there is no gas cost in creation and deposits. The following table shows the estimated total gas fees in native tokens and USD for wallet deployment and fungible token transfers on various blockchains for SCA wallets.
BlockchainDeploy Fee (native)Deploy Fee (USD)Transfer Fee (native)Transfer Fee (USD)
Arbitrum0.0000034$0.0100.0000021$0.006
Avalanche0.00324355$0.05189680.00191335$0.0306136
Base0.000000040589440509$0.000123635430.000000014010345339$0.00004267551
Ethereum0.0020745$6.3190.0012237$3.727
Optimism0.000000040624052029$0.000123740860.000000012263512376$0.00003735465
Polygon0.0372023$0.0200.0219454$0.012
Unichain0.0000001$0.00040.00000003$0.00009

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Externally Owned Account (EOA) wallets

Creating an EOA wallet is free. However, both Solana and Aptos charge a one-time fee when receiving a non-native token for the first time. On Solana, the fee is used to create an associated token account (ATA) and can be recovered by closing the account. On Aptos, the fee is used to store the token on the recipient’s account and is not recoverable. The following table shows the estimated total gas fees in native tokens and USD for account creation and fungible token transfers on various blockchains that support EOA wallets.
BlockchainWallet Deployment Fee (native tokens)Wallet Deployment Fee (USD)Token Transfer Total Fee (native tokens)Token Transfer Total Fee (USD)
Aptos0.0004916$0.002138460.0005324*$0.00231594*
Arbitrum0.0000034$0.0100.0000021$0.006
Avalanche0.0122877$0.3440.0072485$0.203
Base0.000000040589440509$0.000123635430.000000014010345339$0.00004267551
Ethereum0.0020745$6.3190.0012237$3.727
Optimism0.000000040624052029$0.000123740860.000000012263512376$0.00003735465
Polygon0.0372023$0.0200.0219454$0.012
Solana0.0020910$0.3160.0000388$0.0059
Unichain0.0000001$0.00040.00000003$0.00009
*Aptos charges an additional storage creation fee when transferring a fungible token to an address for the first time. The approximate total gas fees are:
  • First transfer to a new address: 0.0005324 APT (~$0.00232 USD)
  • Subsequent transfers to the same address: 0.0000002 APT (~$0.00000087 USD)
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