How Can a User Estimate the Optimal Fee for Their Transaction?

A user can estimate the optimal fee by observing the current state of the mempool and the fee rates of recently confirmed transactions. Various fee estimation tools and wallet software analyze the data of unconfirmed transactions and the fee rates of the last few blocks.

These tools provide a recommended fee rate (e.g. sat/vbyte) to achieve confirmation within a desired time frame (e.g. next block, within six blocks). The optimal fee is the lowest amount that is competitive enough to be included by a profit-maximizing miner in a timely manner.

How Do Cross-Market Surveillance Tools Aid in Detecting Manipulation That Spans Spot and Futures Markets?
What Is “Fee Sniping” and How Does It Relate to Transaction Prioritization?
What Is the Difference between an “Active User” and a “Transacting User” in Blockchain Analytics?
How Can a Pool Operator’s Decision on Transaction Selection Affect Network Congestion?
What Is the Impact of Layer-2 Scaling Solutions on the Layer-1 Transaction Fee Market?
How Do Transaction Fees Change Based on Network Congestion and Block Space?
How Do Transaction Fees Relate to Blockchain Network Congestion?
What Is ‘Mempool’ in the Context of Transaction Congestion?

Glossar