Despite the often high prices associated with NFTs, if you want to create or mint an NFT for free, it's pretty easy to do when you know how.
NFTs have become one of the leading extensions of blockchain technology. According to data from Chainalysis, the NFT market surpassed $41 billion in 2021 and keeps on expanding with each passing day.
Since NFTs are minted on a blockchain, the creator of the NFT needs to pay a certain amount gas fee to get their NFT minted, a fee that has surged since the NFT boom began. To help users find more economical ways, let's take a look at one such possible method through which a user can mint NFTs for free.
How to mint NFTs for free
You can mint NFTs on OpenSea for free, with one major caveat. Here's how to create NFTs for free:
- Connect an ETH wallet to the OpenSea account. It can be either Coinbase or MetaMask wallet.
- Create an OpenSea Collection by clicking create a collection on OpenSea's dashboard.
- Set up your first OpenSea collection by customizing it. Check the logo, banner, name, and description.
- Pick the blockchain of your choice. To mint without paying gas fees, pick the Polygon blockchain for minting.
- Start minting your NFTs by clicking on the option "Collection" and "Add Item" to begin. OpenSea requires the price to be a minimum of $2.
And that's it, sort of. While you won't need to pay to mint the NFT, someone does have to. And that person is the buyer. At the point of transaction, buyers must shell out the ethereum gas fees to mint these NFTs on the blockchain, which obviously may deter many prospective buyers, especially if the NFT price is lower than the gas fees.
How much does it cost to mint NFTs?
As per Slate, the average cost of minting an NFT on Ethereum is around $1-$1000. However, users can mint NFTs for free if they decide to mint their none fungible tokens via the Polygon blockchain.
OpenSea's minting costs do vary, especially now users can also mint Solana NFTs on OpenSea.
The platform levies a 2.5% service charge on all NFT sales plus, users are required to pay an average of $70-$400 in order to mint NFTs on the platform. Users can join NFT Whitelists of leading and best NFT projects to learn more about its pricing and details.
How to mint Solana NFTs for free
Minting Solana NFTs for free is sadly not permitted. Users are required to fund their wallets with enough SOL to process their minting transactions.
To mint your Solana NFT via SolSea, a user must follow the instructions mentioned below:
- Download the phantom wallet and register with it by creating an account
- Fund your wallets
- Create a new account on Solsea
- Connect your wallet to SolSea
- Now begin creating your NFT Collection
- Upload the NFT details and information
- Confirm the transaction and pay the minting fees.
[image by Shubham Dhage via Unsplash]