Network fees
Blockchain fees right now, network by network
Every crypto payment pays a network fee to get into a block or a ledger. It goes to the network, not to Unheld, and it changes by the minute. The table reads the live rate on each network Unheld supports and prices one transfer with it, in the coin and in dollars.
What one transfer costs right now
Read live from the network. Figures refresh about once a minute; the time of the last read is shown.
| Network | Native coin transfer | Stablecoin transfer | Live rate | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Loading the live figure… | — | ||
| Ethereum | Loading the live figure… | |||
| Base | Loading the live figure… | |||
| Polygon PoS | Loading the live figure… | |||
| BNB Chain | Loading the live figure… | |||
| Lisk | Loading the live figure… | — | ||
| Tron | Loading the live figure… | |||
| XRP Ledger | Loading the live figure… | — |
How these figures are made
Unheld reads the live rate from each network — a gas price, Tron’s energy and bandwidth prices, a sat-per-vbyte estimate, the XRP Ledger’s open-ledger fee — and multiplies it by what a plain transfer uses on that network. The rate and the units are shown beside each figure, so the arithmetic can be checked. Figures refresh every minute; the time of the last read is shown.
Who pays the network fee
The payer does, from their own wallet, on top of the invoice amount. Unheld takes 0% of the payment itself and charges the merchant a monthly plan priced by the number of payments; the network fee never passes through Unheld and never changes what the merchant is owed.
What the receiver needs, and what the first payment costs
On every network the sender pays the fee and the receiver pays nothing to receive. What differs is whether a stablecoin transfer to an address holding none of it costs the sender more, whether a never-used address costs something extra to reach, and what the merchant needs on that address to spend from it later. An Unheld invoice address is usually a fresh one, so the first-payment column is the usual case.
| Network | What the receiver needs | Stablecoin to an address holding none | First payment to a never-used address | For the merchant to spend it later |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | No stablecoin on this network. | Costs the same as any other payment. | Each payment is its own output; spending it costs one more input in that transaction. |
| Ethereum | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | Costs the sender more than one to an address already holding it: the network writes a new balance entry. | Costs the same as any other payment. | ETH on the address, for gas. Receiving never needed it. |
| Base | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | Costs the sender more than one to an address already holding it: the network writes a new balance entry. | Costs the same as any other payment. | ETH on the address, for gas. Receiving never needed it. |
| Polygon PoS | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | Costs the sender more than one to an address already holding it: the network writes a new balance entry. | Costs the same as any other payment. | POL on the address, for gas. Receiving never needed it. |
| BNB Chain | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | Costs the sender more than one to an address already holding it: the network writes a new balance entry. | Costs the same as any other payment. | BNB on the address, for gas. Receiving never needed it. |
| Lisk | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | No stablecoin on this network. | Costs the same as any other payment. | ETH on the address, for gas. Receiving never needed it. |
| Tron | Nothing: no balance, no coin, no setup. | Uses about twice the energy of one to an address already holding USDT. | A TRX payment also burns the account-creation fee the chain sets (live figure beside); a USDT payment does not. Loading the live figure… | TRX on the address, or staked energy, to send USDT on. Receiving never needed it. |
| XRP Ledger | An account that exists on the ledger. The first payment creates it, and must carry the base reserve. | No stablecoin on this network. | Must carry at least the base reserve (live figure beside), which stays locked in the account. A smaller payment is rejected by the ledger. Loading the live figure… | The reserve stays locked; only what is above it can be sent. It comes back only by deleting the account. |
Questions about blockchain fees
What are blockchain fees?
A blockchain fee is what a transaction pays the network to be included in a block or a ledger. Every network meters it differently: Ethereum and its EVM relatives price gas, Tron spends energy and bandwidth, Bitcoin prices bytes, the XRP Ledger burns a small amount of XRP. The fee is set by the payer’s wallet and goes to the network, not to the merchant or to Unheld.
Which network has the lowest fees?
It changes with demand, which is why this page reads the live rate rather than stating one. The estimator sorts the networks by what one transfer costs right now, in dollars, from the same figures.
Does Unheld charge a network fee?
No. The network fee is paid by the payer to the network. Unheld takes 0% of the payment and charges the merchant a monthly plan by the number of payments.
Why does a stablecoin transfer cost more than a coin transfer on the same network?
A stablecoin is a token contract, and a token transfer runs contract code, which uses more gas or energy than moving the native coin. The table shows both for each network that lists a stablecoin.
Does the receiver pay anything?
No, on every network here. The sender pays the fee and the receiving address needs no balance to receive. The one condition is the XRP Ledger, where an account must exist before it can hold anything: the first payment to a never-used address creates it and must carry the base reserve, which then stays locked in that account.
Why are there two stablecoin figures?
A stablecoin transfer to an address holding none of the token costs the sender more than one to an address that already holds some, because the network writes a new balance entry for the receiver. An Unheld invoice address is usually in that first state, so the headline figure is that case and the cheaper one is shown beneath it.