What are gas and network fees?

Gas measures the computational work required to execute a transaction on Ethereum. A gas fee is the cost calculated from gas used and its unit price, paid in ETH. Network fee is the broader term: not every blockchain calls its fee gas or calculates it the same way.

Are gas used and gas price the same thing?

Gas used measures the work performed; gas price expresses its unit cost. The gas limit is the maximum allowed for the transaction and is not necessarily all consumed.

Example

Suppose a transaction uses 21,000 gas at an effective price of 5 gwei. Its fee would be 105,000 gwei, or 0.000105 ETH. This is an illustration, not a current fee quote. More complex contract interactions can use more gas; the amount of crypto sent does not determine the fee on its own. Different assumptions can be compared in our gas fee calculator.

Why can a failed transaction still cost gas?

A transaction executed on-chain and then reverted can still pay for the computation it consumed. That differs from a transaction rejected before inclusion in a block. Running out of gas can consume the full allowance; not every transaction reverted for another reason has the same outcome.

Ethereum’s gas documentation explains the distinction between computation and fees. Paying a fee for a failed transaction does not mean the intended transfer also reached the recipient.