EIP-1559 Transaction Fee Calculator
EIP-1559 changed how Ethereum transaction fees work by burning the base fee. This calculator shows how much of your fee gets burned versus how much goes to validators.
Transaction Fee Inputs
Fee Breakdown Results
How EIP-1559 Works
The base fee (set by the network) is permanently burned. Only the priority fee (tip) goes to validators. If you set a max fee higher than the actual base fee, you get the difference refunded.
Example: Base fee = 100 gwei, Priority fee = 10 gwei, Max fee = 120 gwei - Total fee = 110 gwei - 100 gwei burned (base fee) - 10 gwei goes to validator (priority fee) - 10 gwei refunded to you
Ethereum EIP-1559 didnât just tweak how gas fees work-it rewrote the economic rules of the network. Before EIP-1559, users were stuck in a bidding war. Youâd guess how much to pay to get your transaction confirmed, often overpaying by 50% or more. Sometimes, your transaction would just sit there, stuck, because you underestimated the fee. It was chaotic. EIP-1559 changed all that. It introduced a system where part of every transaction fee is permanently destroyed-burned-instead of going to miners. Thatâs not just a technical upgrade. Itâs a shift in how Ethereumâs money supply behaves.
What Exactly Gets Burned?
Under EIP-1559, every transaction has two parts: the base fee and the priority fee (also called a tip). The base fee is set by the network itself. It goes up when blocks are full and drops when theyâre empty. Itâs automatic, predictable, and most importantly-itâs burned. That means it disappears from circulation forever. No one gets it. Not miners. Not the Ethereum Foundation. Not even a treasury. Itâs gone.
The priority fee is different. Thatâs the extra amount you add to convince miners to include your transaction faster. Think of it like tipping a delivery driver. You can leave $0, or you can leave $5 if you want it sooner. That tip goes straight to the validator who includes your transaction. But the base fee? Thatâs gone. Burned. Forever.
Hereâs how it works in practice. Say the base fee is 100 gwei and you set a priority fee of 10 gwei. Your total fee is 110 gwei. The 100 gwei gets burned. The 10 gwei goes to the validator. If congestion spikes and the base fee jumps to 150 gwei, your total fee becomes 160 gwei. Again, 150 gwei vanishes. Only 10 gwei stays in the system. This is the core of EIP-1559âs deflationary design.
Why Burn Fees Instead of Pay Miners?
Before EIP-1559, miners earned all transaction fees. That created a problem: when Ethereum got busy, fees spiked wildly. Users paid more, but miners didnât care-they got paid either way. The network couldnât self-regulate. Blocks filled up, fees soared, and users suffered.
EIP-1559 flipped that. By burning the base fee, the network now has a built-in balancing mechanism. When demand goes up, the base fee rises. That cools demand. When demand drops, the base fee falls. That encourages more usage. Itâs like a thermostat for the network. And because the base fee is burned, every time Ethereum is used, ETH is removed from circulation.
This isnât theoretical. Since EIP-1559 launched in August 2021, over 2.5 million ETH has been burned. At current prices, thatâs worth more than $7 billion. Thatâs not a drop in the bucket-itâs about 0.23% of the total ETH supply annually. In periods of high activity, like during NFT drops or DeFi surges, the network has burned over 1,500 ETH in a single day. Thatâs deflationary pressure built right into the protocol.
How the Base Fee Adjusts
The base fee doesnât jump around randomly. It follows strict rules. Each block, it can increase by a maximum of 12.5% if the previous block was full. It can decrease by the same amount if the block was underfilled. That means if you see a spike in fees, it wonât happen instantly. It takes about 20 blocks-roughly five minutes-for the base fee to multiply by 10. For it to multiply by 100, youâd need 40 blocks.
This design prevents panic spikes. It gives wallets time to adjust. If your wallet says âsuggesting 120 gwei,â itâs not guessing. Itâs looking at the base fee from the last block and projecting forward based on the 12.5% cap. Thatâs why most users donât need to think about fees anymore. Their wallet does it for them.
But hereâs the catch: if congestion lasts longer than a few minutes, the base fee still climbs. The 12.5% cap isnât a limit on total fees-itâs just a speed limit on how fast it rises. During sustained high demand, fees can still get very expensive. EIP-1559 smooths the ride, but it doesnât eliminate hills.
What Happens to Your Money?
When you send a transaction, you set two numbers: your max fee and your max priority fee. The max fee is the most youâre willing to pay per unit of gas. The max priority fee is the most youâre willing to tip. The network calculates the actual base fee, burns it, pays your tip (up to your max), and refunds the rest.
Letâs say you set a max fee of 200 gwei and a max priority fee of 20 gwei. The base fee is 150 gwei. The network burns 150 gwei, pays your 20 gwei tip, and refunds you 30 gwei. You only paid 170 gwei total. You didnât overpay. You didnât get ripped off. You paid exactly what was needed, plus your tip.
This refund system is why EIP-1559 reduced failed transactions by nearly 18% in the first six months. Before, if you set your fee too low, your transaction died. Now, if you set your max fee too high, you just get money back. Itâs a win-win.
Impact on Miners and Validators
Miners lost their main source of income. Before EIP-1559, transaction fees were a big chunk of their revenue. Now, they only get tips. Thatâs a problem-especially when network usage is low. During quiet periods, tips can be near zero. Thatâs why Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake in September 2022. Validators now earn rewards from staking, not just tips. The base fee burn was never meant to fund validators. It was meant to make ETH scarcer.
Some critics, like Ethereum Classic researchers, argue that burning fees hurts security. They say if validators earn less from fees, they might be less motivated to keep the network running. But the data doesnât back that up. Since the merge, Ethereum has remained secure. Validators still earn block rewards. Fees are just a bonus. The system works because staking rewards are the main incentive, not fees.
How It Changed User Experience
Before EIP-1559, users had to guess fees. Wallets showed ranges: âlow,â âmedium,â âhigh.â Youâd pick one and hope. Sometimes, youâd pay $50 in fees for a $10 swap. That was normal.
After EIP-1559, wallets stopped guessing. They started calculating. MetaMask, for example, now looks at the last blockâs base fee, checks recent trends, and suggests a max fee thatâs almost always correct. You still see âgas fee,â but itâs not a guess anymore. Itâs an estimate based on real data.
Support tickets for gas issues dropped 37% in the year after EIP-1559. People stopped asking, âWhy is my transaction stuck?â because it rarely happened anymore. Even non-technical users noticed the difference. Reddit threads filled with thanks. One user wrote: âI didnât even know what gas was before. Now I just click send and it works.â
What Other Blockchains Did
EIP-1559 didnât stay on Ethereum. It became a blueprint. Polygon adopted a version called EIP-1559++, which burns part of the fee and sends the rest to a treasury. BNB Chain started burning fees too. Solana and Avalanche have similar models. Even Bitcoiners are talking about it.
Why? Because it works. Users like predictable fees. Developers like fewer failed transactions. Investors like deflationary assets. EIP-1559 proved that a blockchain can be both efficient and economically sustainable. Itâs not perfect, but itâs the best system weâve seen so far.
Whatâs Next for EIP-1559?
EIP-1559 isnât done evolving. With the Shanghai upgrade in 2023, users could finally withdraw staked ETH. That led to more activity-and more fee burning. The network burned 12% more ETH in the months after.
Now, developers are working on EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding). It will introduce a new type of transaction called âblob transactions,â which are cheaper and used mostly by Layer 2 networks. These will have their own fee market, separate from EIP-1559. But the burning part? Thatâs staying. The goal is clear: make ETH scarcer, not more abundant.
Some researchers are even talking about adjusting the 12.5% cap to handle extreme congestion better. But the core idea-burning the base fee-isnât going anywhere. Itâs now central to Ethereumâs identity. ETH isnât just a currency. Itâs a deflationary asset, powered by usage.
Is ETH Really Deflationary?
Yes-but only sometimes. When the network is busy, more ETH is burned than created. Thatâs deflation. When the network is quiet, new ETH is minted as staking rewards, but not enough to offset burns. So ETH is usually neutral or slightly deflationary. Itâs never inflationary.
Delphi Digital estimates that under current usage, Ethereum burns 0.15% to 0.30% of its supply each year. Thatâs not huge, but itâs real. And as more people use Ethereum, that number grows. If Ethereum hits 100 million active users, the burn rate could double. Thatâs not a prediction-itâs math.
The IRS even weighed in. In 2023, they confirmed: burning ETH is not a taxable event. You donât owe taxes when your fee gets burned. Thatâs huge. It means the burn isnât a transaction. Itâs a protocol rule. Like gravity.
Why This Matters for You
If you hold ETH, EIP-1559 makes your asset stronger. Every time someone uses Ethereum, ETH disappears. Thatâs scarcity. Thatâs value. Itâs not magic. Itâs code. And itâs working.
If youâre a developer, EIP-1559 makes your apps more reliable. Fewer failed transactions. Fewer angry users. Less support work.
If youâre just using DeFi or NFTs, youâre already benefiting. You donât pay extra. You donât wait. You just send.
EIP-1559 didnât fix everything. But it fixed the one thing that was holding Ethereum back: unpredictable, expensive, broken fees. And in doing so, it gave ETH a new superpower: it gets more valuable every time itâs used.
What happens to the base fee in EIP-1559?
The base fee is automatically calculated by the Ethereum network based on block congestion. It is permanently burned-meaning it is removed from circulation and destroyed. No one receives it. Only the priority fee (tip) goes to validators.
Does EIP-1559 make ETH deflationary?
Yes, under normal or high network usage, EIP-1559 makes ETH deflationary. More ETH is burned through transaction fees than is created as staking rewards. Since its launch in 2021, over 2.5 million ETH have been burned. During peak usage, daily burns have exceeded 1,500 ETH.
Do I need to change how I send transactions after EIP-1559?
No. Most wallets now handle EIP-1559 automatically. Youâll see a single gas fee estimate, but behind the scenes, your wallet sets your max fee and max priority fee. You donât need to understand the details-just send. If you manually set fees, make sure your max fee is higher than the suggested base fee to avoid failed transactions.
Why do some people say EIP-1559 hurts miners?
Before Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake, miners earned all transaction fees. EIP-1559 removed the base fee from their income, leaving only tips. This reduced their revenue, especially during low-traffic periods. However, after the Merge in 2022, miners became validators who earn staking rewards instead, making fee income less critical to network security.
Is burning ETH bad for the network?
No. Burning ETH reduces supply, which can increase scarcity and value. It also creates a self-regulating fee market that prevents price spikes and improves user experience. The Ethereum community views burning as a feature, not a bug. Tax authorities like the IRS even confirm that burning ETH is not a taxable event.
