Bitcoin Forum

How do you ensure that you are not paying too much for a transaction, Talking about transaction fees, how many sat/byte do you use for transactions? Do you increase and decrease it depending on how quickly you want the transaction to be processed or how big or small the transactions value is? Do you use a fixed amount for transactions?

You can always track the fee priority using a mempool site, like these:

https://mempool.space/
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC,24h,weight

If you use a full node wallet, like Bitcoin Core, you have access to your own mempool directly.

For non-custodial wallets then you do have the option on making out adjustments on how fast the transaction would push and this is where it would be depending on how much sat/byte you could put on.
Example on Bitcoin, try to look on some sites for reference like mempool.space.You would be able to find out on which block would be processed out next basing up on the fees that been set out.
If you do have the plans on having the most priority then set out on whats currently the highest suggested so that the transaction you are doing would be processed out next.

Some wallets can underestimate while some can overestimate, the best would be to check the fee rate using a good mempool site like the ones listed above.

As mentioned by Charles-Tim,  fees are always dynamic and you should always look at mempool.space to get the best fee.

It doesn't matter with it is a big value or small. Transaction size doesn't depend on the value

It depends on how many people are transferring at that time, as there is a limit amount of space for transactions in a block.

If you are not in hurry, you can use a lower fee than recommended for the next block

Use the websites suggested by Charles-Tim above the check the mempool and get an estimate of the low, medium and high priority feerate.

Yes, your feerate determines how fast your transaction gets confirmed.
The transaction value does not influence the fee paid to get it confirmed.

No, that's not advisable.

Two ways:

1. Trackers: There is an overabundance of reliable price and fees tracker in the web nowadays, you can literally type in "gas/bitcoin fee tracker" on google and all the search results will be as reliable as the other, at least based on my experience.

2. Waiting It Out: I wait til the price is a little less, then initiate my transaction then. I have always trusted this technique to save me tons in transaction fees since time immemorial, and I trust that people do this all the time too.

These two have proven to be very effective in keeping me from paying too much for gas fees/transaction fees. I also just go for the slowest transaction processes since most of them tend to go through at my preferred time anyway and most of my transactions in the bitcoin network do not require immediate transfer, and even when they do I can always just ask for the person I'd send the btc to be patient, which surprisingly works every time.

Basically, as already mentioned, keep an eye on the current network congestion and use a fee estimator or a similar tool to determine a reasonable fee. Adjust the fee based on your preferences for transaction processing time. Generally, higher sat/byte fees will result in faster transaction processing times, but at a higher cost. If your wallet has the Replace-By-Fee (RBF) feature, you can use it to cancel or increase the fee of a transaction that was initially sent with low fee.

I basically hate sending out coins especially when it has to do with charges and that's why I barely sell out coins but rather do more of receiving.
Transaction charges are truly something else when the crypto space is involved as most times my heart skips when I have to send Bitcoin but thanks to lightening network which helps send Bitcoin bit with more lesser fee.

There is this technique I just learnt of recent which is that I first covert my crypto to BUSD because it doesn't require any charges and I relatively think is just the best and fastest way for me.
I hope you figure the best way for you too.

I no longer use sites that track mempool and current fees/byte to get your transaction in the next block. I use electrum, and I always use the minimum that they have at the time of my transaction and so far it’s doing well. Never had any delayed transactions and usually get my confirms in the next block or two. If I overpay on fees, I usually just let it be because it’s only a few cents at best anyways, so I do not feel the need to be bitchy about the fees especially when everything is already pre-calculated for me that still gets my transactions through the network.

In Electrum wallet, you have three options: Mempool, Static, ETA. I guess you use ETA option that usually over pay transaction fee with higher fee rate than what you can use to get fast enough waiting time for first confirmation.

Static is used for fixed fee rate that you don't want to change like with 1 sat/vbyte or 2 sat/vbyte but with this, you must check mempool before making transactions. If mempool is heavy and you broadcast your transaction with too low fee rate, your transaction will be stucked in mempool or will be dropped off mempool after about 14 days.

Mempool is for flexible fee rate and it helps you to avoid over paid with ETA. It's the best option in my opinion.

If you make a transaction with value like $100, $1000 a few cents for transaction fee is small with you but if someone make a $10 or $20 transaction, transaction fee is important for them.

There is no surefire way to make sure you are not overpaying for the fees of each one of your transactions, your only option is to look at the mempool and see how busy the network is and see how much you need to send as a fee to get a confirmation during the next block.

However if the transaction does not need to be confirmed as fast as possible you can reduce that fee and save yourself some satoshis, but if you do this you will be taking the risk of your transaction not being confirmed for hours.

Bitcoin fee isn't called as gas fee, gas fee is known in Ethereum not Bitcoin. Some sites do give a bad estimation or measurement of the current Bitcoin fee, the best is mempool.space where you can easily set the appropriate of sat/byte.

It's not effective to wait until the fee is low and then you will make a transaction, because it will wasting your time. The better option is just use wallet which have Replace By Fee feature e.g. Electrum, so if you make a transaction with cheap fee and it doesn't confirmed after next few hours or days, you can bump the fee whenever you want.

By now, you already have the best suggestion about where to check the estimated fees. But, Since you asked what others use to check the current transaction fees, I wouldn't mind sharing mine. I have used Atomic Wallet for a long time, and most of the time, I used suggested transaction fees, and sometimes I used lower fees. But, If I feel like Atomic is suggesting high fees, I check on Blockchains. Suppose you visit https://blockchair.com/bitcoin (https://blockchair.com/bitcoin); you will see the recommended transaction fees on their website (see the image below). If you want your transaction to get faster, you can increase it slightly. When I write this post, the recommended transaction fee is two satoshis per byte. You can increase three satoshis if you want.

https://i.postimg.cc/nzL7Vtxd/Screenshot-261.png

I am not in a hurry when i am withdrawing or converting so meaning that I only use the lowest it can be because i can wait for days since like what i said it is not for hurry.
though I have used that increasing of fees twice if I'm not mistaken because of the urgent need so i have no choice but to increase its fee in transaction.

For an end user it is and should be simple. You simply choose a good wallet that does that all for you automatically. Something like Electrum. Then you don't need to worry about knowing what the fee rates are, what to set the fee based on mempool state to get high priority, etc.

Otherwise it all comes down to manually analyzing the mempool and speculating the fee rate from the time you create your transaction until the next block is found. For example during an ongoing spam attack or a transaction surge you should consider the slope apart from the current state and possibly pay a slightly higher fee if you want to ensure your tx is confirmed.
But as I said for most users using a decent wallet should be more than enough.

Completely agree. While you have enough time, why to pay more?

It's best to check mempool state before sending your transaction, using websites like mempool.space is a good option, but I usually use my own BTC mempool fees browser extension.
I don't like to pay more fees than needed, but in some cases I want transaction to be confirmed faster and I use higher fees, so no it's not alwys fixed amount.
When I don't need fast confirmation I use lowest fees with RBF transaction, just in case I need to increase fee later.

Yes, that is true, but as explain by @dkbit98, if you want to get your transaction confirmed then pay higher fees. However, there are times as well that the mempool transaction fees changes, as it is dynamically base on the number of incoming transactions.

Like what I did a couple of hours ago, the median is around 2-3 sats/vB, but suddenly it became a low priority.

So I'm like waiting for 9 hours already, but hasn't got any confirmation yet. But I'm not in a hurry though, so it's ok. Maybe later it will clear out.

The two sites suggested by Charles-Tim are very helpful for you to make sure that you know how much you need to pay for each transaction.

That's right. It all depends on our needs.

In this case it also depends. I usually always add a few sat above the fixed amount of the medium rate or close to the fast rate.
For example, if the transaction is using the mobile version of the wallet as shown in the picture, then I will add 19 or 20 sat to the fixed amount (14 sat).

It seems to me that you don't do a lot of transactions, so it may not be perceptible to you. But for those who regularly pay for something in crypto, it can be significant.

If you have enough time, you don't have to worry about paying your fees.  I agree with that opinion.  I am a person who prefers to put in a little extra time rather than pay extra for my transactions.  It is very effective and efficient.  You just have to make the time when you need it with the transaction and you can make it with a small fee but with a little extra time that you have to accept.

You can just create a transaction with the fees you're want to pay, you don't need to wait until the right time where the mempool is empty, do you want to keep checking the mempool for everyday? it's wasting your time and I don't think it's worth it.

The better option is just use a wallet which have RBF feature, so whenever you're need it but the transaction still not confirmed yet, you can bump the fee whenever you want.

I don't think anyone can answer these questions with a correct answer since the cost of each transaction changes very often then you can think. Using 4 Satoshi for fees today and the transaction was fast doesn't mean it'll cost the same if you you want a faster transaction tomorrow. I don't increase my transaction fees because I want to send a larger amount.
Same fee can be used to send big amount of Bitcoin or smaller amount, all depends on how busy the network is at that point of transacting. If the network is congested then you might want to increase your fees to get a faster transaction.
Some wallets recommend fees you should use for a faster transaction and I use one of those wallets so I don't have to bother to check how congested the network is each time I want to transact.

Unfortunately, many of those who do BTC transactions have never heard of something called RBF (replace by fee), and even if they have, they still have a problem because they use online wallets (CEX) that do not have this option. For beginners, such things can be quite confusing, but as I saw on the forum, even for some older members.

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It is true that the fee may be the same, but still the total price of the transaction depends on the size of the transaction. For example, you can make a transaction in which you send 0.10 BTC to one user, and that transaction will have one input and two outputs (recipient+change address) and let's say you will pay a fee of $1. In the second case, someone can also send the same amount of BTC, but the difference will be more inputs (address from which BTC will be sent) and more outputs, i.e. multiple recipients.

The first and second transactions will undoubtedly be different in size, which means that the second transaction will be more expensive than the first, regardless of the fact that they use the same fee.

The best way to ensure you are not paying too much for a transaction is to use a fee calculator that will estimate the fee you should pay for a given transaction.  the amount of sat/byte used for transactions depends on how quickly you want the transaction to be processed, as well as the size and value of the transaction. I choose to use a fixed amount for transactions, while others may adjust the fee according to the size and value of the transaction. it is up to the individual to determine their own fee.