BSC Gas Fees Explained: Tracker, Calculator, Free BNB and More.

If you’ve ever transacted on the Binance Smart Chain, then you’ve undoubtedly paid a BSC Gas Fee.

This blog post will answer all your questions about BNB Gas Fees: 

• What they are
• How they work
• How to calculate them
• How to minimize them

What are BSC Gas Fees?

BSC gas fees refer to the transaction fees required to process transactions on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network. 

Gas fees are paid in BNB, the native cryptocurrency of Binance Smart Chain. 

The amount of gas fees required for a transaction depends on the complexity and size of the transaction, as well as the current network congestion. 

BSC gas fees are generally lower than those on the Ethereum network, which makes BSC a popular choice for decentralized applications and transactions.

BSC Gas Fee Tracker

There are several websites and tools available to track BSC gas fees in real-time. Here are some popular options:

1. BSCScan Gas Tracker: This is a gas fee tracker provided by BSCScan, one of the most popular block explorers for the Binance Smart Chain. It provides a detailed breakdown of the current gas fees for BSC transactions, as well as historical data and charts.
2. GasNow: This is a gas fee tracker that provides real-time data for multiple Ethereum-based networks, including Binance Smart Chain. It shows the current gas fees for different types of transactions on BSC, as well as historical data and charts.
3. Y Charts: This BSC gas fee tracker shows historical data of the GWEI over time on Binance Smart Chain

These are just a few examples of the many BSC gas fee trackers available online. By keeping an eye on the current gas fees, users can optimize their transactions and save money on fees.

BSC Gas Fees Calculator

Calculating BSC Gas Fees can be confusing at first but is fairly straightforward. It is simply calculated as follows:

Gas fees = Gas Limit * Gas Price

• Gas Limit: This refers to the maximum amount of gas that a transaction can consume. It is determined by the complexity and size of the transaction. The more complex and larger the transaction, the higher the gas limit required.
• Gas Price: This refers to the price per unit of gas, measured in Gwei (10^-9 ETH). The gas price is determined by market demand and supply. When the network is congested, the gas price tends to increase, and when there is less demand, the gas price tends to decrease. If you are confused about units, consult this unit converter.

For example, if a transaction has a gas limit of 21000 and a gas price of 10 Gwei, the total gas fees would be:

Gas fees = 21000 * 10 Gwei

Gas fees = 0.00021 BNB

Finally, simply multiply 0.00021 BNB by the Market Price of BNB to get the final dollar amount. 

What Affects BSC Gas Fees?

Unlike Ether, BSC gas fees are consistently low for several months. Still, there’s been times they jumped from $0.20 to $0.50, which adds up quickly for arbitrage traders. They once crossed $1 last year, but will it happen again? Watch these factors:

Network Congestion

Network congestion occurs when traders overload the blockchain. Validators suddenly have to manage more transactions, which is profitable but not sustainable. Thus, gas fees increase and crypto transaction speeds slow down.

Note that the block time of the BNB Chain is still the same. Validators can choose to ignore small transactions and instead verify users that paid higher fees. It’s a “bidding” feature that BNB Chain inherited from Ethereum.

To speed up a transaction is to pay more gas and make it a bigger priority for validators. If there’s too much demand, you can overpay and still wait for hours for your transaction to clear. Canceling transactions doesn’t refund network costs.

Expect network congestion when bull markets start or whenever BNB rallies. Still, it won’t be as expensive as Ethereum’s fees.

Centralization

The shortest road to scalability is through centralization. How is BNB Chain 10X times cheaper than Ethereum? A better question might be: why does BNB use 21 validators and Ethereum 200,000+?

Ethereum could have lowered fees a long time ago by centralizing the validation. Instead, it chose to protect what matters the most in cryptocurrencies: decentralized security. This alternative involves more infrastructure work, such as building sidechains, Layer-2 solutions, or data shards.

It’s not that the same 21 people run BNB Chain. “Anyone” can become a validator if you meet the minimums, which are 10,000 BNB staked, 128GB of RAM, and other hardware specs. But to actually validate blocks, you have to be one of the 21 validators with the most tokens staked.

Presumably, many of those belong to Binance (company). A 100-validator minimum would be more plausible. With only 21, it’s hard not to associate Binance with the blockchain.

Think about it. If the Binance exchange suddenly shuts down or disappears, what would happen to the BNB Chain?

To complicate further, the BNB coin is linked to both, which will impact gas fees.

Block Time

Block time is associated with transaction speed, size, confirmations, and network volume. It’s the time it takes for validators to create a new block. In proof-of-work blockchains, block time is how long it takes to mine a new coin (e.g., the block time of Bitcoin is 10 minutes).

It depends on the number of validators online and network demand, so there’s no fixed time. Instead, there’s an average block time and expected block time (the longest it should take). When the average exceeds the expected time, the mechanism reduces it (by increasing hash difficulty on Bitcoin or reducing stake rewards on Ethereum).

The BNB block time is 3 seconds, the same as PulseChain’s, and 4x faster than Ethereum. BNB also has a 32KB block size compared to Ethereum’s 80KB. When reducing block time, transactions are faster but users save fewer fees.

Consensus Mechanism

The consensus mechanism of a blockchain is the rules it follows to function without intervention. It sets the way of verifying blocks and choosing validators. BNB Chain uses a hybrid between proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-authority (PoA) called Proof Of Stake Authority (PoSA):

• Validators need to verify their identity
• Nodes choose validators based on their reputation protecting the network
• Every day, the consensus mechanism selects the 21 nodes (out of thousands) with the most BNB to validate blocks

It’s a centralized model that works great on private blockchains. On public ones, not so much. Any security threat to Binance will affect the coin and network fees.

How To Change BSC Gas Fee on Trust Wallet

To change the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) gas fee on Trust Wallet, follow these steps:

1. Open the Trust Wallet app and make sure you have selected the BSC network.
2. Navigate to the page where you want to perform a transaction, such as a DEX or wallet transfer.
3. Click on the "Settings" icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Scroll down and click on "Advanced Settings".
5. Under the "Advanced Settings" section, you will see the "Gas Price" option. Click on it to adjust the gas fee.
6. You can adjust the gas fee by moving the slider to the left or right. Moving the slider to the right will increase the gas fee, while moving it to the left will decrease it.
7. After you have adjusted the gas fee to your liking, click "Save" to confirm the changes.
8. Finally, review the transaction details and click "Confirm" to send the transaction with the new gas fee.

Gas Fee BSC Metamask

To view and adjust gas fees for transactions on the Binance Smart Chain using the Metamask wallet, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have installed and set up Metamask for the Binance Smart Chain network.
2. Once you are on the BSC network, navigate to the page where you want to perform a transaction (such as a DEX or wallet transfer).
3. In the Metamask popup window that appears, you will see an option to adjust the gas fee. Click on "Edit" next to the gas fee to customize the gas limit and gas price for the transaction.
4. You can adjust the gas limit based on the complexity and size of the transaction. If you set the gas limit too low, the transaction may fail. If you set the gas limit too high, you may pay more in fees than necessary.
5. You can also adjust the gas price based on the current network conditions. If the network is congested, you may need to increase the gas price to ensure that your transaction is processed quickly. If the network is less congested, you may be able to lower the gas price to save on fees.
6. After you have adjusted the gas fee to your liking, click "Save" to confirm the changes.
7. Finally, review the transaction details and click "Submit" to send the transaction.

Free BNB for Gas Fees

Unfortunately, there is no legitimate way to obtain free BNB specifically for gas fees. BNB is a cryptocurrency that is used as the native token on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), and it is required to pay gas fees for transactions on the network.

However, some platforms or services may offer promotions or airdrops that provide free BNB or other tokens, which can be used to pay for gas fees. It is important to be cautious of scams and fraudulent offers that claim to give away free BNB, as they may result in the loss of your funds.

If you need BNB to pay for gas fees, you can purchase it on a cryptocurrency exchange that supports BNB trading pairs. Alternatively, you can earn BNB by providing liquidity to a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Binance Smart Chain or participating in yield farming. However, these options come with their own risks and require careful consideration before investing your funds.