Network fees
Tron energy and the fee on a USDT transfer, right now
Tron prices energy and bandwidth, not gas. This page reads both prices live and shows what a USDT transfer and a TRX transfer cost at this moment for an account with no staked energy.
Right now on Tron
Read live from the network. Figures refresh about once a minute; the time of the last read is shown.
| One TRX transfer | Loading the live figure… |
|---|---|
| One USDT transfer to an address holding none of it | Loading the live figure… |
| One USDT transfer to an address already holding it | Loading the live figure… |
| Burned by the sender when a TRX payment reaches a never-used address | Loading the live figure… |
| Live rate | Loading the live figure… |
| What a transfer uses | Loading the live figure… |
| Read from | Loading the live figure… |
| Last read | Loading the live figure… |
What the fee pays for on Tron
Tron does not price gas. A transaction consumes two resources: bandwidth, measured in bytes, and energy, used by contract code. Every account gets a daily allowance of bandwidth, so a plain TRX transfer is often free; a USDT transfer calls the token contract and uses energy, which an account can stake TRX to earn, obtain from an energy rental service, or pay for at the network’s energy price.
The figures here assume an account with no staked or rented energy, paying the live energy price and bandwidth price in TRX — the most a transfer costs. A payer who has staked TRX for energy pays less or nothing.
Who pays it, and what Unheld charges
The payer pays the Tron fee from their own wallet, on top of the invoice amount; it goes to the network. Unheld takes 0% of the payment and charges the merchant a monthly plan priced by the number of payments, so the fee never changes what the merchant receives.
What the receiver needs on Tron, and the first payment
The sender pays the energy and the bandwidth. The receiving address needs no TRX to receive USDT, and need not even be activated: USDT lands on a never-used address and waits there.
A USDT transfer to an address holding no USDT uses about twice the energy of one to an address already holding some. An Unheld invoice address is usually in that first state, fresh or swept to zero, so the headline figure above is that case, with the cheaper case beneath it.
A TRX payment, not a USDT one, to a never-used address also burns the account-creation fee the chain sets; the row above shows it live.
To send USDT on later, the address needs TRX for energy, or staked energy; receiving never needed it.
Questions about Tron fees
How much does a USDT transfer on Tron cost?
The live figure is at the top of this page: the energy a USDT transfer uses, priced at the network’s current energy price in TRX and in dollars, for an account with no staked energy. Staking TRX for energy brings it down.
Is a TRX transfer free on Tron?
Often. Every account receives daily free bandwidth, and a plain TRX transfer uses only bandwidth. The figure here is the cost once that allowance is spent.
What is Tron energy?
A resource consumed by contract code — a token transfer, for instance. An account earns energy by staking TRX, can rent it, or pays the network’s energy price in TRX for what it uses.
Does the receiver need TRX to be paid USDT on Tron?
No. USDT lands on an address that holds no TRX and has never been activated. The receiver needs TRX, or staked energy, only later, to send it on.
Why does the first USDT payment to an address cost more?
A transfer to an address holding no USDT uses about twice the energy of one to an address that already holds some. An Unheld invoice address is usually in that first state, so the headline figure is that case.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these documents. Each was read on the date shown rather than recalled.