Polygon Gas Fees (Everything You Need to Know)

Released in 2017 as a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, Polygon has its own approach to cracking down on high transaction fees. 

This aims to make the network a better fit for microtransactions. But that's not the full story.

In this article, we're reviewing everything you need to know about gas fees on the Polygon network.

What Are Gas Fees?

Gas fees are payments one must make when sending funds over a blockchain network. These fees are paid out as a reward to node operators for validating transactions.

For most decentralized blockchains, these fees are a way to maintain the system's security; they let people conduct activities like buying tokens and interacting with smart contracts without requiring middlemen to facilitate the transactions.

Polygon is no exception.

To send a transaction on the Polygon network, you have to pay Polygon's gas fees. These are paid out in MATIC, which is the ticker symbol for Polygon's native token.

Polygon Gas Fees in 2024

Poygon gas fees are flexible, as the cost depends on how congested the network is when you're trying to send a transaction.

If you want to find out how much your transaction would cost to send right now, the simplest solution is to use a gas tracker designed for Polygon.

These gas trackers allow you to see the current state of the network's gas fees, whcih are paid out in its native MATIC token:

1. PolygonScan. Developed by the Polygon team, this native tracker provides up-to-date information about current MATIC gas fees.
2. BitBond. This Web3 tokenization platform offers a Polygon gas fees tracker, as well as many other tools for blockchain developers. BitBond displays fees in Gwei and USD, making calculations easier.
3. Blocknative. This platform builds infrastructure for monitoring transactions across Ethereum and Polygon. It displays MATIC gas fees and the likelihood of a transaction going through successfully.

MATIC gas fee estimates may vary across different trackers, but these fluctuations should be small enough to not drastically impact your overall transaction cost.

Paying Gas Fees With the Polygon Faucet

If you're developing a smart contract on Polygon, you'll likely want to test it out before its deployed. But that can result in significant gas costs. Luckily, you can obtain free test MATIC tokens through what's known as a faucet.

Faucets are tools that give you access to a small amount of tokens at no cost. Some of the most popular Polygon faucets include:

• Polygon Faucet. This native faucet, provided by Polygon and its key partners like Alchemy, QuickNode, and GetBlock, allows developers to obtain test MATIC/ETH tokens on the PoS Amoy, zkEVM Cardano, and Ethereum Sepolia testnets. The service requires connecting via Discord and joining Polygon’s Discord community.
• Stakely. This service offers a user-friendly interface, but you'll have to tweet about your request for it to be processed.
• Chaindrop. This platform aggregates crypto faucets for multiple networks and offers a simple user interface.

With these faucets, it's only possible to get free tokens if your wallet has a zero balance. This helps prevent faucets from being misused as a way to generate profit.

Polygon Bridge Gas Fees

While gas fees on the Polygon network are generally low, bridging funds back to another chain like Ethereum is a different story. 

The fee size depends on factors such as network congestion and the method you're using to bridge your tokens.

Polygon’s native bridge is the primary tool for performing this task. But there are also some third-party solutions that you might be able to use to access cheaper bridging fees. These include:

• Umbria Narni Bridge.
• Squid Router.
• Orbit.Bridge.

Unlike Polygon's native bridge, these bridges also give you the ability to move your financial energy to other chains beyond Ethereum. However, your mileage may vary.

If you're looking to cut down on your gas fees, it's always a good idea to consider all of your options — including finding the best chain for your needs.

To learn more about how much your transactions could cost on other networks, check out our articles on BSC and PulseChain's gas fees.