eth_gasPrice

The eth_gasPrice method returns the current gas price in wei. This value represents the median gas price from recent blocks, providing developers with a reliable baseline for transaction fee calculations and helping users avoid transaction failures due to low gas prices.

Use Cases

• Transaction fee estimation for wallets and DApps
• Setting appropriate gas prices for urgent transactions
• Price monitoring and alerts for optimal transaction timing
• Gas price tracking for analytics dashboards
• Transaction optimization to reduce costs
• MEV protection strategies to avoid front-running
• Historical gas price analysis
• Fee calculators and user-friendly gas interfaces

Method Details

This method provides a simple way to query the current network gas price. It requires no parameters and returns a single hexadecimal value representing the gas price in wei.

Response Example

{
	"jsonrpc": "2.0",
	"id": 1,
	"result": "0x1DCD65000" // 8 Gwei
}

Understanding Gas Units

Gas prices are typically discussed in these units:

• Wei: The smallest unit (returned by this method)
• Gwei: 1 billion wei (10^9), the common unit for gas prices
• Ether: 10^18 wei, the main currency unit

For user interfaces, converting the returned value to Gwei usually provides a more readable format. For example, 0x1DCD65000 (8 Gwei) is easier to understand than 8,000,000,000 wei.

Common Use Case Example

// Example of calculating gas cost for a standard transfer
const gasPrice = await provider.send('eth_gasPrice', []);
const gasPriceInGwei = parseInt(gasPrice, 16) / 1e9;
const standardTransferGas = 21000;
const costInEth = (parseInt(gasPrice, 16) * standardTransferGas) / 1e18;

Important Notes

• On EIP-1559 enabled networks, this method returns a value suitable for legacy transactions
• For EIP-1559 transactions, consider using eth_feeHistory to determine appropriate maxFeePerGas and maxPriorityFeePerGas values
• Gas prices can fluctuate rapidly during periods of high network activity
• Some providers may add their own estimates or adjustments to this value

See also

• eth_estimateGas - Estimates the gas needed for transaction execution
• eth_feeHistory - Returns historical fee data for advanced fee strategies
• eth_maxPriorityFeePerGas - Returns a suggested priority fee (tip) for EIP-1559 transactions