Ethereum network activity revolves around one crucial metric: Gas price. This figure serves as the primary indicator of network congestion, ecosystem growth, and the urgency of on-chain transactions. As the importance of Gas data has grown, so too has the number of third-party tools designed to analyze it. These tools generally fall into two categories: those tracking historical records and those offering predictions for future Gas prices.
Historical Gas data helps researchers understand past on-chain events and user behavior patterns. Predictive tools, on the other hand, assist users, wallets, and dApps in planning transactions more accurately. For most users, Gas prediction is the more common need—often integrated seamlessly within crypto wallets to improve the user experience and help save on costs.
In this guide, we explore six leading services for Gas-related data: GasNow, Blockchair, ETH Gas Station, Etherscan, ETH Gas.watch, and fees.wtf. We’ll also cover a pro technique for accessing Gas data even faster.
What Is Gas in Ethereum?
Every operation on the Ethereum network—whether a simple transfer or a smart contract interaction—consumes computational or storage resources. This consumption is measured in Gas. For each transaction, users must specify two parameters: Gas Limit (the maximum amount of Gas a transaction can use) and Gas Price (the amount of ETH you’re willing to pay per unit of Gas). Multiplying these values gives the total maximum transaction cost denominated in ETH.
Gas consumption depends on transaction complexity. A standard ETH transfer uses 21,000 Gas. Gas Price is denoted in Gwei, a subunit of ETH. Its value is market-driven: during high congestion, it can exceed 500 Gwei, while in quiet periods, it may fall below 10 Gwei.
Gwei is derived from Wei, the smallest unit of ETH, which itself is named after cryptographer Wei Dai, creator of the precursor to Bitcoin called B-money. The conversion is as follows:
1 ETH = 10⁹ Gwei = 10¹⁸ Wei
GasNow: Real-Time Gas Price Suggestions
Among the various services offering real-time Gas price suggestions, GasNow stands out for accuracy and speed. Powered by data from the Spark Pool mining pool, it analyzes pending transactions to provide up-to-the-minute Gas estimates.
Many popular wallets—including imToken, MathWallet, MYKEY, TokenPocket, and Trust Wallet—have integrated GasNow. It also offers a handy macOS desktop widget for users who want constant visibility over Gas fluctuations.
Highlights: Data sourced from a major mining pool; highly accurate and timely.
Best for: Most users access it indirectly via integrated wallets. Power users may prefer the desktop tool.
Blockchair: True Network Load via Median Gas Prices
Blockchair is a multi-blockchain explorer that supports 16 networks. Its most useful Gas-related feature is the daily median Gas price chart. Unlike averages, medians are not skewed by extreme outliers—such as transactions with astronomically high Gas prices—making this a more reliable indicator of actual network conditions.
Blockchair offers a range of charts and a robust API service, which also serves as a revenue stream for the platform.
Highlights: Uses median values to filter out extreme outliers in Gas pricing.
Best for: Researching historical network activity. For example, the highest median Gas price occurred on the day Uniswap released its UNI token, reaching 542 Gwei.
ETH Gas Station: Detailed Gas Consumption Stats
Before GasNow, ETH Gas Station was the go-to resource for suggested Gas prices. While it still offers reliable estimates, its most unique feature is the ranking of smart contracts by Gas consumption over the past 30 days.
This ranking reveals the most active dApps and contracts, along with metrics like average Gas price and total Gas used.
Highlights: Tracks Gas usage per contract with high precision.
Best for: Discovering emerging or highly active smart contracts and dApps.
Etherscan: All-in-One Ethereum Data Explorer
Etherscan is the most widely used Ethereum block explorer. It offers a broad suite of tools, including Gas price suggestions, historical charts, and transaction analytics. While not as specialized as some tools on this list, its wide range of features makes it invaluable for many users.
Highlights: Comprehensive data coverage and multiple chart types.
Best for: Users who need broad access to Ethereum data and analytics.
ETH Gas.watch: Email Alerts for Low Gas Prices
ETH Gas.watch is ideal for users who can wait for optimal conditions. You can set a threshold—say, 50 Gwei—and receive an email when Gas prices drop below it. This is perfect for non-urgent transactions like periodic swaps or claims.
The platform also aggregates predictions from multiple sources, giving you a consolidated view of the market.
Highlights: Email notifications and multi-source Gas data.
Best for: Users planning non-urgent transactions who want to minimize fees.
fees.wtf: Track Your Historical Gas Spending
Curious how much you’ve spent on Gas over time? fees.wtf lets you enter an Ethereum address and see the total Gas consumed by that account. Many users are surprised to learn how much they’ve spent in cumulative fees. For example, one address may have spent over 1 ETH on Gas across all its transactions.
A similar service is offered by https://oh.mygas.io.
Pro Tip: Use iOS Shortcuts for Instant Gas Checks
Many Gas data services offer public APIs. Developers can use these with Python or other languages to build custom solutions. But even non-developers can create handy tools using apps like iOS Shortcuts.
For example, you can build a shortcut that fetches the latest Gas price from GasNow’s API and shows it as a notification. You can trigger it manually or automate it to run periodically. With iOS 14 or later, you can even activate it by tapping the back of your phone.
👉 Get advanced Gas monitoring methods
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good Gas price for Ethereum?
A good Gas price depends on network congestion. For non-urgent transactions, 20–40 Gwei is often sufficient. During peak times, you may need 100 Gwei or more.
How can I reduce my Gas fees?
Try transacting during off-peak hours (evenings or weekends UTC). Use layer-2 solutions like Optimism or Arbitrum, or leverage tools like ETH Gas.watch to wait for lower prices.
What happens if my Gas price is too low?
If your Gas price is set too low, your transaction may remain pending for a long time or eventually be dropped from the mempool. You can then retry with a higher price.
Why do Gas prices fluctuate?
Gas prices are determined by supply and demand. When many users are transacting, prices rise. During quiet periods, they fall.
Can I change the Gas price after submitting a transaction?
Not directly. But you can submit a new transaction with the same nonce and a higher Gas price to replace the original one.
Are Gas fees the same on all Ethereum-based networks?
No. Layer-2 networks and sidechains like Polygon or Binance Smart Chain have much lower Gas fees due to different consensus mechanisms and higher throughput.