Arbitrum Gas Fees (Tracker, Comparison, Bridge Fees, and More)

Invented as a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, Arbitrum has significantly reduced its gas fees. Yet, it has not fully eliminated them.

In this guide, we're going to review the structure of Arbitrum gas fees, how they work, and how you can estimate your transaction costs.

Key Takeaways

• Arbitrum is built upon Ethereum, aiming to reduce its fees and increase scalability.
• Optimistic Rollups is the technology that Arbitrum uses to reduce gas fees.

What is Arbitrum?

Arbitrum represents a Layer-2 scaling solution built specifically for the Ethereum network. 

With the ICO boom that took place in 2017, the popularity of Ethereum spiked. As the network got congested, transaction fees turned into a real problem having grown tremendously.

Striving to offer a better solution, many alternative blockchains have emerged. Many projects like TRON and Solana have built new platforms from scratch to achieve this goal. Yet, the team standing behind Arbitrum has decided to rely on Ethereum’s foundation to provide developers with a scaling tool specifically for its ecosystem.

This approach has proved efficient, attracting many developers and end-users. At the time of writing, Arbitrum features over 40,000 active addresses holding more than $1,000 USD worth of $ARB on them.

CoinMarketCap: the increasing number of active addresses on Arbitrum indicates the growing popularity of this network

What are Arbitrum Gas Fees?

Just like Ethereum, Arbitrum requires its users to pay gas fees to transfer funds or run smart contracts. 

However, the platform has managed to significantly reduce these fees by implementing Optimistic Rollups. This is a Layer-2 protocol that decreases the computation burden on Ethereum.

By utilizing this technology, Arbitrum verifies transactions off-chain and then submits them in batches to Ethereum’s mainnet. As a result, the efficiency of the network grows while transaction costs plummet.

Arbitrum features a native token called $ARB, which is used primarily for network governance. $ETH is the primary currency that users rely on to cover Arbitrum gas fees.

The State of Gas Fees on Arbitrum

So far, Arbitrum gas fees have stayed comparatively low. The maximum gas price a user has ever had to pay for a transaction so far equaled 6,052 Gwei, which is currently worth way below $0.01.

ArbiScan: Even during the network congestion, Arbitrum gas fees remain negligible.

The overall sum that Arbitrum users pay for transactions daily is also very low compared to some other chains, even while the total number of transactions long exceeded 1 million. 

However, there was a significant spike in transaction costs on June 20th, 2024. The primary reasons were as follows.

1. First, it was the day when LayerZero launched its token ZRO on Arbitrum. To claim the airdrop, users had to make small payments which led to a surge in transactions and, consequently, gas prices. 
2. Second, to satisfy the increased demand, Arbitrum had to increase the frequency of batch submissions to Ethereum around the block 20132500. This led to longer confirmation times and further growth of transaction fees.

Yet, even in these conditions, the highest fee paid per transaction was less than $1. This appears to show that Arbitrum can stand against a surge in usage while staying cost-efficient.

Nansen.ai: On June 20th, 2024, Arbitrum experienced a spike in gas prices

Arbitrum Gas Fees Tracker

There are several services that you can use to estimate the current Arbitrum gas fees. Some of the reliable solutions include the following:

1. CoinTool: This web3 multi-functional platform combines a plethora of different tools powering blockchain development. Its Arbitrum gas fees tracker displays the cost of transactions in real-time together with the gas price history over the past 24 hours.
2. BitBond: With a focus on asset tokenization tools, BitBond offers some blockchain analytical solutions to developers and other blockchain enthusiasts.
3. L2 Fees: This is an aggregator that compares gas fees across many different L2 solutions like Arbitrum. With its help, one can estimate how much it would cost to send ETH or to swap tokens at a given moment in time.

So far, these are the most popular solutions designed for tracking Arbitrum gas fees. With the growth of the network, more tools will surely appear

Arbitrum Bridge Gas Fees

The Arbitrum Bridge is the tool that enables the transfer of assets from Ethereum to Arbitrum. In short, here’s what one needs to do to bridge the assets:

1. Connect your wallet to the Arbitrum Bridge.
2. Select if you want to transfer assets from Ethereum to Arbitrum or vice versa.
3. Specify tokens and amount.
4. Launch the transfer and confirm the transaction.

While transaction costs on Arbitrum are negligible, the fees for bridging may be comparatively high. Typically, they consist of two parts:

• Ethereum gas fees. Network congestion is the key aspect that influences the size of these fees. Also, the higher the complexity of a smart contract, the higher the associated costs.
• Arbitrum bridge gas fees. These fees, in turn, depend on the amount and the type of the asset you transfer.

According to Arbitrum’s documentation, the whole process usually takes 15-30 minutes. Once the transfer is complete, you can use your Ethereum-based assets in the same way while enjoying lower transaction fees powered by Arbitrum.

FAQs

Does Arbitrum have gas fees?

Yes, it does. However, compared to Ethereum, Arbitrum fees are much lower. On average, a simple transaction costs less than $0.01.

Is there a priority fee for Arbitrum?

No, Arbitrum doesn’t feature priority fees. Nodes process transactions in the same order they receive them. Even if a user includes a priority fee, it will be refunded once the transaction gets executed.

How do I estimate gas costs on Arbitrum?

Arbitrum gas fees can be calculated with the help of the following formula: Transaction fees = L2 Gas price * Gas Limit. The gas limit, in turn, includes Gas used on L2 and an additional buffer to cover the L1 gas.

What is the average transaction cost on Arbitrum?

The minimum Arbitrum gas fee starts at 0.01 Gwei, but it may cost more depending on network congestion. So far, the network's fees do not exceed $0.1 on average.