Ethereum Gas State Report — May 2026
Frozen snapshot · May 1–31Ethereum gas in May 2026 was historically cheap. Median 0.210 gwei, p90 0.860 gwei across all 40,895 samples from May 1–31. A routine ETH transfer cost about $0.0093 at the median and stayed under $0.038 90% of the time. L2 wallet fees were tinier still: Optimism led at $0.000048 for a simple transfer.
Published 2026-05-26. Figures are frozen to the May 1–31 window.
Correction, 2026-09-29: earlier versions of this page recomputed its statistics from a rolling 7-day window and a live L2 reading, so over time it showed data from after May. The headline originally read “median 0.14 gwei, p90 0.37 gwei” — one late-May week. Every figure now covers May 1–31 only.
Mainnet gas — May 1–31, 2026
Distribution across 40,895 samples between 2026-05-01T00:00:30Z and 2026-05-31T23:58:54Z:
| Statistic | Gwei | 21k-gas transfer | 150k-gas swap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 0.040 | $0.0018 | $0.013 |
| p10 | 0.130 | $0.0058 | $0.041 |
| Median | 0.210 | $0.0093 | $0.067 |
| Average | 0.462 | $0.021 | $0.147 |
| p90 | 0.860 | $0.038 | $0.273 |
| Maximum | 26.3 | $1.17 | $8.33 |
USD costs computed at ETH = $2,116, the median across May samples (range $1,969–$2,300). See the gwei column for exact gas values.
Layer 2 wallet fees — May 26–31 medians
Median wallet-fee estimate (execution gas + L1 data fee where measured) for a simple 21k-gas transfer, over May 26–31 — the first stretch where we recorded OP Stack L1 data fees. Arbitrum's L1 poster gas wasn't measured until September, so its May figure is execution-only (the poster gas adds roughly 3% to a plain transfer).
| Network | L2 execution | L1 data fee | Full wallet fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimism | $0.000042 | $0.000006 | $0.000048 |
| Base | $0.0003 | $0.000004 | $0.0003 |
| Polygonsidechain, no L1 fee | $0.0005 | — | $0.0005 |
| ArbitrumL1 poster gas not measured in May | $0.0008 | — | $0.0008 |
Cheapest hours of the day
Median gas by hour of day across May (UTC):
- 23:00–07:00 UTC, every day — the cheapest stretch: hourly medians of 0.14–0.17 gwei on weekdays and weekends alike.
- Weekdays 13:00–18:00 UTC — the most expensive: a 0.56 gwei median, peaking at 0.74 gwei around 14:00 UTC as US markets open. That's 3–5× the overnight level.
- Weekends — slightly cheaper overall (0.19 vs 0.22 gwei median) because the US-afternoon bump is smaller, not because the overnight floor is lower.
The live 7-day heatmap on /cheap-gas-times shows the exact pattern for the most recent week.
Notable events in May 2026
- Blocknative shutdown announcement (mid-month). Deloitte acqui-hired the Blocknative engineering team and announced the Gas Platform API and Gas Network would cease operations on June 19, 2026. Developers depending on
api.blocknative.com/gasprices/blockpriceshave ~3 weeks to migrate. See our migration guide. - Quiet macro environment, sub-1-gwei median for most of the month. No major NFT mint or token launch on mainnet drove a sustained base-fee spike. EIP-1559 base-fee decay kept the floor low.
- OP Stack wallet-fee transparency. On May 26 we shipped live L1-data-fee derivation for Optimism and Base via the chains' own GasPriceOracle predeploys — turning the L2 fee column from “execution gas only” into a true wallet-fee estimate. Optimism remained the cheapest L2 by full fee throughout the month.
Methodology and data sources
Mainnet gas is sampled every 30 seconds from publicnode, MEVBlocker, and Etherscan with active failover; persisted every 90 seconds. L2 gas is sampled every 60 seconds from each chain's public RPC. L1 data fee for OP Stack chains is queried from the GasPriceOracle predeploy at 0x420000000000000000000000000000000000000F. ETH/USD price comes from a 3-tier fallback chain (CoinGecko → Binance.US → Coinbase). Full methodology including failure handling and limitations: /methodology.
Citing this report
“Gas Fee Predictor, Ethereum Gas State Report — May 2026. gasfeepredictor.com/may-2026-ethereum-gas-report”
The underlying dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0 — free to use with attribution. Live data via the public API.
Frequently asked questions
How cheap was Ethereum gas in May 2026?
Across all 40,895 samples from May 1–31, 2026, the median standard-tier gas price was 0.21 gwei and the 90th percentile 0.86 gwei. With ETH around $2,116, a routine ETH transfer cost about 1 cent at the median and under 4 cents 90% of the time. The brief peak was 26 gwei on May 8.
What was the cheapest L2 in May 2026?
Optimism, by full wallet-fee estimate (execution gas + L1 data fee): a median of about $0.00005 for a simple transfer over May 26–31, the stretch where we recorded full L2 wallet fees. Base was around $0.00026, Polygon $0.00053, and Arbitrum $0.00085 (execution only — its L1 poster fee was not yet measured).
Why was Ethereum gas so cheap in May 2026?
Multiple factors converged: post-Dencun blob-fee absorption shifted L2 calldata pressure off L1, the broader market remained in a quiet "post-thaw" period without major mints or token launches, and Ethereum L1 base fee inertia kept the floor low for extended periods. Cheap mainnet gas also made the L1 data fee component on OP Stack rollups (Optimism, Base) trivially small.
What was the biggest infrastructure event in May 2026?
Blocknative announced their Gas Platform API and Gas Network would shut down on June 19, 2026 after Deloitte acqui-hired the engineering team. This affects dapps, wallets, and analytics platforms that depended on Blocknative's gas API. The shutdown is mid-Q2 and gives developers a narrow window to migrate.
How do I download the underlying data?
The figures are a frozen snapshot computed from our persisted gas samples for May 1–31, 2026. The public /api/gas-history endpoint serves up to the most recent 30 days, so it no longer reaches back to May; for current data use /api/gas-history and /api/l2-gas-history (free, no API key).
How are these numbers calculated?
Gas data is collected every 30 seconds from multiple public RPC providers (publicnode, MEVBlocker, Etherscan) with active failover, then persisted every 90 seconds. The percentiles in this report (median, p10, p90) are computed over every persisted sample from May 1–31, 2026 — 40,895 of them — and frozen; they do not change after publication. USD figures use the median ETH price over the month ($2,116). Full methodology is documented at /methodology.
Does this report update?
No. It is a fixed record of May 2026. An earlier version recomputed its statistics from a rolling 7-day window, which caused it to drift away from May over time; that was corrected on 2026-09-29. For current conditions, see the live dashboard and /cheap-gas-times.
See the live picture
The 7-day heatmap, next cheapest window, and live mainnet + L2 snapshots — all in one dashboard.