Term
Gas
Gas is the fee paid to network validators for executing a transaction on Ethereum and other EVM chains — priced in the native token (ETH, BNB, etc.) and calculated as gas-limit multiplied by gas-price, both of which vary with network congestion.
Gas is the unit of computational work in the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Every operation a transaction performs — from a simple transfer to complex smart-contract execution — has a defined gas cost. The transaction fee is calculated as gas used × gas price (denominated in gwei, one billionth of ETH). Gas is why complex smart-contract calls cost more than plain transfers, and why the same transfer costs different amounts at different times.
The user pays the gas fee in ETH regardless of what token they are moving. This is a common source of confusion for people holding only stablecoins on Ethereum: to send USDT-ERC20, the wallet must have a small amount of ETH to pay for gas. The same rule applies on BNB Smart Chain (fees paid in BNB), Polygon (MATIC), Arbitrum (ETH), and other EVM chains.
Gas prices spike when the network is congested. Since EIP-1559, Ethereum gas has a base fee (algorithmically adjusted per block, and burned) plus an optional priority fee (tip to the validator). Layer-2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base execute transactions off the main chain and post compressed proofs, resulting in gas fees that are typically 10-100x cheaper than mainnet Ethereum.
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