13 Oct, 2025
3 minutes
If you've ever sent ETH or interacted with a smart contract, you've likely noticed that Ethereum gas fees can vary wildly - sometimes costing just a few cents, and other times several dollars for a single transaction. These fluctuations can make or break your experience with DeFi platforms, NFT trades, or token swaps.
Knowing when ETH gas fees are lowest can be time- and money-saving. Because Ethereum fees are network demand-driven, one can save tremendous amounts of money by choosing the right window to make a transaction without losing speed or dependability.
This article responds to what ETH gas fees are, how they operate, and - most importantly - when ETH gas fees are cheapest on any given day and week based on historical and real-time trends of information.
To know when are the lowest gas fees ETH, you need to know how they operate. Any action on the Ethereum network - whether it is transferring ETH or calling a smart contract - demands processing power from validators of the network. The price of such processing is referred to as gas.
Gas is quantified in terms of units of gwei, which is a smaller unit of Ether (1 gwei = 0.000000001 ETH). The overall price you pay depends on two critical parameters:
Gas Limit: The quantity of processing your transaction needs.
Gas Price: How much gwei you're prepared to pay per gas unit.
At peak usage of the network, users bid to get their transactions included earlier by offering higher prices for gas. Bidding increases fees. At low demand of the network, validators agree to decrease prices, and gas fees are cheaper.
In the EIP-1559 upgrade, Ethereum added a base fee (burned with each transaction) and priority fee (or "tip") for validators. This fees were more predictable but still didn't eliminate volatility - when you transact still has a drastic impact on cost.
Ethereum gas prices aren't fixed because they are based on network demand - the amount of people who want to execute operations on the blockchain simultaneously. Gas prices increase when traffic is high and fall off when traffic slows.
The following are the primary reasons for ETH price volatility of gas:
Network Congestion: During periods of high demand - e.g., large NFT drops, DeFi farm launches, or market stress - there are thousands of transactions competing for limited block space. Validators prefer the ones willing to pay more, making average gas prices increase.
Smart Contract Complexity: Basic ETH transfers are less gas-intensive than intricate DeFi or NFT transactions. Tokens swapping on Uniswap or NFT minting are computationally intensive, and therefore, your overall gas consumption is more level when the network is less active.
Market Volatility: When Bitcoin or Ethereum prices are oscillating vigorously, investors are desperate to rebalance portfolios or settle positions, clogging the network and driving fees higher.
Ethereum Is Global: Meaning usage patterns follow regional business hours. Most transactions occur during U.S. and European trading hours, while activity tends to decline during late-night hours in those regions.
Gas fees are a reflection of supply and demand for block space. To minimize costs, users must look for periods when that demand is naturally low - which we'll explore next.
Ethereum gas fees follow a rather predictable daily rhythm depending on the interplay among network activity, time zones, and global trader activity. Based on long-term network statistics, fees vary through three big cycles in a 24-hour day.
This is the approximate split:
This window overlaps the U.S. and European business days, when the majority of on-chain transaction volume, NFT activity, and DeFi activity is done. The network congestion is usually high, pushing gas fees to their peak.
The network is busy but not too congested during the Asian trading session. Transactions during this period are moderately priced, a decent balance between speed and cost.
Ethereum's lowest transaction volume is late American night and early European morning. Demand plummets when the two markets are not online, so average ETH gas prices are lowest.
For instance, it is 50-70% cheaper to execute ETH transactions between 02:00-03:00 UTC than at noon. This is best for those users who need transfers, swaps, or NFT interactions cheapest possible.
Thursday and Sunday are the days with the lowest ETH gas fees when cryptocurrency demand is naturally slower on these days due to fewer users competing for block space.
In addition to their intraday trends, Ethereum transaction fees also trend throughout the week. The trend is straightforward: gas prices follow closely behind trader action, DeFi protocol activity, and institutional activity - all of which are suspended on weekends.
The following is what long-term data indicates:
Ethereum is busiest from Tuesday to Thursday when institutions, developers, and most of the traders are most occupied. Smart contract deployment, DeFi settlements, and NFT sales push fees high during these days. Mondays and Fridays are relatively slow but remain very costly compared to weekend days.
Gas prices are least during weekends. The majority of businesses and traders are on leave, and there are fewer transactions made.
Network usage is lower, and transfers and contract interactions cost less. Gas prices average 20-40% less throughout Saturday and Sunday compared to weekday highs.
Collating daily and weekly trends, the lowest time to execute an Ethereum transaction is between 00:00 and 06:00 UTC on a Saturday or Sunday. This window consistently has the lowest reported average gas prices.
So, if your transaction is not an emergency - to send ETH, purchase NFTs, or try out a dApp - waiting until the weekend late-night sessions can save you a lot of ETH.
It doesn't do you a lot of good to know how low ETH gas prices are if you can't actually see them in real time. Thankfully, there are a number of analytics websites and tools which give you simple access to Ethereum network usage and gas prices before you can send a transaction.
Some of the most widely used ETH gas trackers by traders and developers are the following:
Etherscan Gas Tracker. Etherscan Gas Tracker is arguably the most widely used tool in the ecosystem. It shows real-time gas prices for varying transaction rates (Low, Average, High). It also shows 7-day average historical gas charges, allowing users to plan ahead.
Blocknative Gas Estimator. Blocknative provides an integrated estimator within dApps and wallets in real-time. It provides a perspective of upcoming transactions to customers and enables them to choose maximum gas limits along with priority fees.
ETH Gas Station. ETH Gas Station has easy access and also displays real-time and estimated gas prices as well as network utilization rates. It is a favorite among traders who carry out different transactions on a daily basis.
Crypto Wallet Integrations. More modern wallets like MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Ledger Live also display live estimates of gas fees when confirming a transaction. Some even give suggestions for the cheapest times to perform based on recent network usage.
DeFi Dashboards & Alerts. Platforms such as Nansen, Dune Analytics, or DefiLlama can be set up to track gas usage patterns on well-known dApps. You can even receive notifications for when fees fall below a certain threshold.
With such platforms, Ethereum users are able to plan their transactions, paying minimal unnecessary fees without compromising fast confirmation times.
Despite the ongoing development of Ethereum, the volatility of gas prices will never be fully eradicated. That's because of the nature of decentralized systems - demand and supply of block space will constantly fluctuate based on real-world usage, market psychology, and network utilization patterns.
The following are the key reasons why gas prices continue to be so volatile:
The Ethereum network is still the foundation of DeFi and NFT trading. Network demand can spike in minutes, triggering temporary fee increases, when prominent DeFi protocols launch or new NFT sets mint.
Any significant crypto price move initiates a cascade of on-chain activity - liquidations, trades, arbitrage, and profit-taking. Such activities inevitably lead to congestion and drive gas prices higher, particularly during periods of volatility.
Although Layer-2 solutions (i.e., Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base) relieve mainnet of its load, there are users who bridge assets to and from Ethereum. These bridging transactions create short-term bursts of demand that surge fees.
The Ethereum block gas limit determines how much work can fit into a block. Because there is no limit to how much this could be raised without compromising on decentralization, naturally gas prices increase as more people vie for space.
Human behavior synchronizes - when there's a hot project or influencer that requests taking action (i.e., "mint now"), thousands of users all react at the same time, flooding the network.
The Ethereum roadmap and upcoming scaling upgrades are designed to stabilize fees even more. That said, so long as Ethereum is the most active smart contract blockchain, fee volatility will always exist - which renders timely transactions more critical than ever.
Although you cannot completely get rid of Ethereum gas fees, there are efficient strategies to reduce the amount you have to pay without sacrificing the integrity of transactions.
Here is how professional traders and investors save money:
The simplest and optimal way is to plan your transactions. As noted earlier, the fees fall considerably between 00:00 and 06:00 UTC hours, especially over weekends. This could be utilized to cut the gas fees as much as by 50%.
Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Base are a few of the platforms that process transactions off-chain before finishing them on Ethereum. This ensures there is no congestion and reduces the fees significantly without the security of Ethereum being affected.
Wallets like MetaMask allow manually adjusting gas limits and priority fees. For non-urgent transfers, it tends to work by lowering your fee settings slightly lower than the current average - especially when the network is not busy.
If you're executing multiple actions (for example, sending tokens to several wallets), consider batching them into a single transaction through smart contract tools. This can reduce your total gas cost per action.
All dApps do not optimize equally. Some of them use more gas than others for the same actions. Before you ever use a new dApp, look online at gas efficiency comparisons or on-chain figures via Etherscan.
Install Blocknative, Etherscan, or GasNow notifications to alert you when average gas falls below a specific level. This allows you to move quickly as soon as fees are good.
If you work with Layer-2s intensively, bridge your assets during downtime. Bridges also clog up, impacting your overall gas fees.
By these strategies, Ethereum users will always be saving money and leveraging the network's agility to the limit without exploitation owing to congestion.
Ethereum is still one of the healthiest blockchain ecosystems, but its gas fees are a headache for everyone on the network. Knowing when ETH gas fees are lowest allows users to plan smarter, save more money, and circumvent congestion times that raise the cost of a transaction.
In general, the most opportune times to trade are late evening (00:00-06:00 UTC) and at weekends, when are lowest ETH gas fees. Coupling this with Layer-2 scaling, gas monitors, and manual fee management makes your Ethereum usage affordable and effective.
As Ethereum keeps scaling through upgrades such as Danksharding and Rollup scaling, gas fees should be even more predictable and stable - although timing and strategy will never cease to exist for users who care about efficiency.
Gas prices fluctuate in real-time based on network congestion levels. They trade between 5 and 40 gwei but can peak above 100 gwei during periods of highest congestion (e.g., during NFT mints or DeFi operations). Websites such as Etherscan Gas Tracker indicate current prices.
Gas fees are cheapest on weekends, i.e., Saturday to Sunday, 00:00-06:00 UTC, when institutions and traders are fewer.
Increased users bid to get their transactions in the next block when fees are higher. NFT launches, market fluctuations, or intense DeFi activity typically trigger these highs.
Use Layer-2 solutions such as Polygon or Arbitrum, wait until when there is little that people are purchasing, or manually change your gas settings on your wallet.
Ethereum's move to Proof of Stake and gradual rollout of scaling solutions is reducing fees and increasing throughput. It helps but absolute removal of fees is impossible - network demand will always be a cost factor.
