Bitcoin Transaction Fees Right Now

How bitcoin transaction fees work

A bitcoin block comes about every 10 minutes and has room for about 1 million virtual bytes (vB). Every transaction waiting in the mempool bids for that space, and miners pick the ones that pay the most per vbyte. So the fee is set by the transaction's size and the fee rate you choose, in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB).

The amount you send doesn't matter: moving 0.001 BTC or 100 BTC costs the same if the transactions are the same size. What makes a transaction bigger is the number of inputs (the separate coins your wallet combines to pay) and outputs (the recipients, plus your change).

A higher fee rate gets you into an earlier block. The tiers above are the rates that, right now, are expected to confirm in the next block, within about 30 minutes, within about an hour, and eventually.

How big is my transaction?

Typical sizes for one payment with change (1 input, 2 outputs), by the type of address your wallet uses, and what each costs at the next-block rate now:

Each extra input adds about 68 vB (Native SegWit), 57.5 vB (Taproot), 91 vB (Nested SegWit), and 148 vB (Legacy). Each extra output adds 31 to 43 vB. The calculator above works it out for any number of inputs and outputs.

Why do bitcoin fees change?

Fees rise and fall with demand for block space. When many people send at once, for example during big price moves or a rush of new tokens or inscriptions, the mempool fills up and the rate needed for the next block jumps. When it's quiet, even the slowest tier confirms within a few blocks.

Fees are often lower at weekends and at quiet times of day, but that's a tendency, not a rule. The only reliable way to know is to check the current rate before you send, which is what this page is for.

How to pay a lower fee

• Don't pay for speed you don't need. If the payment can wait a few hours, pick the "No rush" rate in your wallet, or set a custom fee rate.
• Use a modern address type. Native SegWit (bc1q…) and Taproot (bc1p…) transactions are much smaller than Legacy ones, so they cost less at the same rate.
• Pay several people in one transaction (batching) instead of one transaction each.
• Consolidate small coins while fees are low. Every input costs vbytes, so a wallet full of small coins is expensive to spend when fees are high.
• Avoid tiny on-chain amounts. When fees are high, a coin can be worth less than the fee to spend it.

Sent with a fee that was too low? The Unconfirmed Transaction Checker shows how far back in the queue it is and the exact fee to speed it up with RBF or CPFP.

Bitcoin fees: questions

How much is the bitcoin transaction fee today?

Right now a typical payment (141 vB) costs about $0.18 (221 sats at 1.57 sat/vB) to confirm in the next block. The numbers at the top of this page update every 30 seconds.

Does the fee depend on how much bitcoin I send?

No. It depends on the transaction's size in vbytes and the fee rate. Sending a large amount can cost more only if your wallet has to combine many small coins to pay it.

What is sat/vB?

Satoshis per virtual byte, the price of block space. 1 sat is 0.00000001 BTC. A transaction of 141 vB at 5 sat/vB pays 705 sats.

What is a virtual byte (vB)?

The unit block space is measured in since SegWit. Signature data counts as a quarter of its real size, which is why SegWit and Taproot transactions are cheaper than Legacy ones.

Why did my exchange charge a different fee?

Exchanges and custodial apps set their own withdrawal fees. These are often a flat amount that has little to do with the network fee at that moment.

What is the lowest fee I can pay?

Most nodes relay transactions paying at least 0.1 sat/vB right now. A transaction at the minimum may take a long time to confirm when the mempool is busy, and can be dropped if it never does.

My transaction is stuck. What can I do?

If you sent it, you can usually replace it with a higher fee (RBF). If you're receiving it, you can pay for it with a child transaction (CPFP). Paste its transaction ID into the Unconfirmed Transaction Checker to see which works and how much to pay.

When is the next bitcoin halving?

At block 1,050,000, 78,519 blocks from now. At about 10 minutes a block that's around April 2028. The block reward then drops to 1.5625 BTC, so over time miners earn a larger share of their income from fees.

Where do these numbers come from?

Fee rates are mempool.space's recommended rates, and bitcoin prices come from CoinGecko. Our servers fetch both every 30 seconds; the block height and time come from the same feed.