Token Approval Gas Fee Right Now
How much does an ERC-20 token approval cost on Ethereum mainnet right now? The card below shows the live USD cost across three priority tiers — calculated from real-time gas prices and the current ETH/USD rate.
Live ERC-20 approval cost
45,000 gas units · ETH ≈ $2,259
Standard
$0.0102
0.100 Gwei
Lowest tier that confirms in a few minutes.
Fast
$0.0142
0.140 Gwei
Default wallet tier — confirms in about a minute.
Rapid
$0.0601
0.591 Gwei
Top priority — confirms in under 30 seconds.
Base fee right now: 0.098 Gwei. Tier prices add the average priority tip seen in recent blocks. Wallets often pad estimates by 10–30%, so your actual quote may be a bit higher.
What is a token approval?
When you use an ERC-20 token in a smart contract — swapping on Uniswap, lending on Aave, staking, bridging — the contract needs explicit permission to move that token from your wallet. The approve transaction grants that permission by setting an allowance amount.
Approvals are cheap relative to swaps or transfers (~45,000 gas vs ~55,000 or ~150,000) because all the contract does is write a single number to its allowance mapping. No tokens actually move during an approval — just permission.
Infinite approval vs. exact amount
Most wallets default to "infinite" approval (a max-uint256 allowance). Trade-off:
- Infinite: pay gas once, never re-approve. Convenient. Risk: if the contract is exploited, your full balance is reachable.
- Exact amount: pay gas every time you use a new amount. Lower blast radius if something goes wrong.
Rule of thumb: trusted protocols (Uniswap, Aave, Curve) → infinite is fine. Unknown contracts from new launches → cap the approval to the amount you need.
How to reduce your approval gas cost
- Approve once with infinite cap. For long-term protocols you trust, the one-time gas cost beats paying for every re-approval.
- Approve during a low-gas window. Approvals don't need to be urgent — wait for the late-night UTC dip and save 50%+.
- Approve on a Layer 2. Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon — approvals cost pennies versus dollars on mainnet.
- Pick Standard tier. Approvals are not time-sensitive. Default Fast tier wastes money.
- Revoke unused approvals. Old approvals are security risks. Use revoke.cash to clean up. Costs the same as an approve but reduces exposure.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a token approval cost right now?
The live USD figures above show the exact cost. A standard ERC-20 approve uses approximately 45,000 gas units. Cost = 45,000 × current Gwei × current ETH/USD. Updated every minute.
What is a token approval and why do I have to pay for it?
When you swap, lend, or stake an ERC-20 token, the smart contract needs permission to move tokens from your wallet. The approve transaction grants that permission. It's a separate on-chain action and costs gas.
Why does MetaMask ask me to approve before every swap?
Only on first use of a token in that app. After approving, subsequent swaps skip the approval step. The default approval often defaults to 'infinite' so you never have to re-approve.
Should I approve infinite or a specific amount?
Infinite approval = one-time gas cost, future convenience, security risk if the contract is exploited. Specific amount = pay gas every time you re-approve, lower risk. For trusted protocols (Uniswap, Aave), infinite is generally fine. For unknown contracts, set a small cap.
Can I cancel a token approval?
Yes. Use a tool like revoke.cash or your wallet's allowance manager to set the approval back to zero. It costs another ~45,000 gas — same as the original approve.
How can I avoid paying for token approvals?
On mainnet, you can't — every approve costs gas. Some Layer 2s have lower fees ($0.10 vs $5). Some wallets (Smart Account-based) bundle approve + swap into a single tx, but the underlying gas is similar.
Why is a token approval cheaper than a transfer or swap?
Approval just writes a number to the allowance mapping — single storage write, no token movement. About 45,000 gas vs 55,000 for a transfer or 150,000 for a swap.
Related ETH gas tools and guides
Approve cheap. Wait for a low-gas window.
Set a gas alert at your target Gwei and approve when fees drop into the cheap zone.