Term
Gas limit
A gas limit is the maximum amount of computation you authorize a transaction to consume on Ethereum or another EVM chain — a simple transfer costs 21,000 gas, while complex smart-contract calls can require hundreds of thousands.
The gas limit is the cap on how much computational work a single transaction can perform on an EVM chain. It is different from the gas price (which determines how much you pay per unit of gas). A simple ETH transfer needs 21,000 gas; a token transfer typically costs 40,000-80,000; a complex DeFi interaction can consume several hundred thousand.
If a transaction runs out of gas before completing, the operations revert but the gas already spent is not refunded — you paid for the failed execution. Wallets estimate the required gas limit automatically for common operations, but manual overrides matter when interacting with novel contracts or when a wallet under-estimates.
Setting the gas limit too high does not cost more if the transaction uses less — unused gas is refunded. Setting it too low causes a failure and a wasted fee. The safe default is to trust the wallet's estimate unless you know why to change it.
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