Any user hoping to buy NFTs on OpenSea will be subject to the OpenSea gas fees, but just how much are these?
Gas fees are a core part of the NFT trading purchase. Whether minting an NFT or buying a new NFT project, a user must pay the calculated gas fee charges. These will reimburse the computational energy that was used to process the NFT transaction on a particular blockchain.
Gas fees are often volatile and subject to change depending on multiple factors, including network congestion and availability. So, let's take a look at the OpenSea Gas fee charges breakdown.
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How Much Are Gas Fees On OpenSea?
There is no flat OpenSea gas fee, with the fees varying based on a number of factors both in and out of OpenSea's domain.
OpenSea generally levies two types of gas fees on its users.
- Time Fees or tariffs are to be paid by users when they use Ethereum for the first time.
- Account Initialisation fee is to be paid by first-time users who wish to list their collection on Ethereum.
Apart from these, users are also required to pay a Token Or Contract Approval fee. This is levied at the time when a user mints an NFT through a custom NFT collection.
If a user is listing their NFT collection for the first time on OpenSea, the platform also levies an additional wETH charge.
In addition to this, users will have to pay recurring gas fees while performing the set of functions listed below:
- Accepting an offer.
- Transferring (or Gifting) an NFT to someone.
- Buying an NFT.
- Cancelling a listed NFT.
- Cancelling a Bid.
- Converting wETH back to ETH, and vice versa.
- Freezing your metadata.
- Bridging ETH or withdrawing ETH to and from Polygon.
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Why Are Gas Fees On OpenSea So High?
Being one of the central NFT marketplaces accommodating Ethereum NFTs, OpenSea gas prices are higher due to the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum's volatile base fee is another reason why gas fees are particularly expensive on OpenSea. Base fee refers to the smallest quantity of gas required by Ethereum to process a transaction. Congestion on the network or increased demand may be a reason for the dynamic and high prices of gas on OpenSea.
For example, when high-profile NFT projects first launch, such as the recent Otherside metaverse land sale, it saw the network crash, with gas fees soaring as users attempted to buy land.
How To Avoid High Gas Fees On OpenSea
There is no direct way to avoid paying gas fee charges on OpenSea. However, users can try the tips mentioned below to avoid paying high gas fees.
- Check the gas prices beforehand to avoid trading at times when the prices are extremely high. You can check the gas fee prices here
- Learn to identify when and at what time the gas fee prices are the lowest
- Avoid failed transactions as they can incur more hefty/recurring charges
- You can opt for L2 solutions such as Loopring and Immutable X
- Change your blockchain and access networks like Polygon to pay low fee charges