Compiled August 2026. This page describes fee models and gives orders of magnitude. It quotes no current fee levels, because those move by the hour and a static page cannot honestly report them.
Chains charge for transactions in fundamentally different ways — a flat rate, an auction for scarce space, or a rental on resources bought in advance — and the model is the part that stays true when the price does not.
| Chain | Model | What you are charged for | Who receives it | Typical order of magnitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Auction for block space | Transaction size in bytes, weighted | The miner | Cents to several dollars, depending entirely on congestion |
| Ethereum | Base fee plus tip | Computation and storage, measured in gas | Base fee burned, tip to the proposer | Cents to tens of dollars for contract calls at peak |
| BNB Chain | Base fee plus tip, EVM-style | Gas | Part of the fee burned, remainder to validators | Fractions of a cent to a few cents |
| Solana | Flat base fee plus optional priority fee | A fixed amount per signature, plus what you bid for position | Half of the base fee burned; priority fees to validators | Base fee is a tiny fixed amount; priority fees rise sharply under contention |
| TRON | Rented resources, burn as fallback | Bandwidth for size, Energy for computation | Nobody, if you staked; burned, if you did not | Nothing if adequately staked; a noticeable TRX burn if not |
| Avalanche | Base fee plus tip, both burned | Gas on the C-Chain | Nobody — the entire fee is destroyed | Cents |
| Cardano | Formula: a constant plus a per-byte rate | Transaction size, with script execution priced separately | Split between the reward pot and the treasury | Predictable and low; you can compute it before you send |
| XRP Ledger | Anti-spam destruction | A reference cost per transaction, rising under load | Nobody — it is destroyed | A fraction of a cent |
| TON | Gas plus storage rent | Computation, message forwarding, and storing state over time | Half burned, half to validators | Fractions of a cent |
| Polkadot | Weight-based with a congestion multiplier | Execution weight, adjusted by how full recent blocks were | Split between treasury and block author | Cents |
| Dogecoin | Auction for block space, rarely contested | Transaction size | The miner | A fraction of a cent, because the space is rarely full |
The four models, and what each one feels like
An auction for scarce space
Block space is fixed, everyone bids, the highest bids get in. Bitcoin works this way, and so does Dogecoin — the difference is that Bitcoin's blocks are usually full and Dogecoin's usually are not, which is why one produces headline fees and the other does not. Same mechanism, different demand.
What it feels like: cheap when the network is quiet, arbitrarily expensive when it is not, and no ceiling on how bad it gets.
A metered base fee that adjusts itself
Ethereum's design and the many chains that copied it. The protocol computes a base fee that rises when blocks run above target and falls when they run below, and you add a tip on top for priority. The base fee is destroyed.
What it feels like: more predictable than a pure auction, because the base fee moves in bounded steps rather than jumping to whatever the highest bidder offered. Still demand-driven, and still capable of getting expensive.
A flat fee with an optional queue-jump
Solana charges a small fixed amount per signature regardless of what the transaction does, plus an optional priority fee to get ahead when there is contention.
What it feels like: predictable and nearly free most of the time, and then during a contended period the priority fee becomes the whole cost and transactions that do not pay it may simply fail to land. Averages hide that.
Rented resources
TRON's model, and the most unusual one here. You stake tokens, which entitles you to a daily allocation of Bandwidth and Energy. Using them costs nothing. The cost is having capital locked.
What it feels like: genuinely free at the moment of sending if you prepared, and a surprise burn if you did not — especially for contract calls, which need Energy and get no free allowance. The TRON record sets this out in detail.
Two things a fee table cannot tell you
What you will actually pay. That depends on congestion at the moment you send, what your transaction does, and on several chains, what you choose to bid. The order of magnitude column above is a rough guide to the shape, not a quote.
Whether cheap is cheap for a reason. Low fees come from somewhere: more block space, heavier hardware for validators, a smaller validator set, or activity levels that have not yet tested capacity. None of those is a flaw, and all of them are trade-offs worth knowing about. The consensus comparison covers what each network gave up.
And if you are choosing between a base chain and a network layered on top of it, the costs work differently again — that is covered in the guide on layer 1 and layer 2.
Fee mechanisms were taken from each project's own documentation in August 2026. The magnitude column is a description of the shape of the cost, not a measurement, and deliberately carries no figures precise enough to be mistaken for one. Nothing on this page is live.
Related tools: consensus mechanisms compared · what this address format can identify