Transaction fees

[Cricktor]

..., you can send it when the mempool is almost empty ^{but lately it has been in that state most of the time anyway}  .

That's not quite true that mempools have been almost empty lately. There are a lot of very low fee rate (mostly spam crap) transactions worth a few dozens of full blocks, see below.



But of course, if you place your transaction fee rate bid smartly above all the crap, you can get your transaction confirmed still with a very modest transaction fee. From the perspective of starting e.g. from 1sat/vByte it looks more like you said (many spikes not rising above 1vMByte)...



Below is the current pending blocks according to mempool.space. If I'm not much in a rush with my transaction, aiming for a confirmation within about 0.5-1h or so, I would use a transaction fee of 0.35-0.40sat/vB.

[dkbit98]

Is it true you have to wait until exactly the right to time to send the transaction to save on the fee.  Can anyone please help me?

No it's not true.
Most wallets already have estimated fees for every transaction, but you can also check them yourself on mempool.space website.
Bitcoin transaction fees have been very low for some time, and they can increase only if mempool gets full again.
CUrent averge fees are 0.8 sat/vB, that is around $0.08, and you can increase it slightly if you want faster transaction confirmation.

[hd49728]

Is it true you have to wait until exactly the right to time to send the transaction to save on the fee.  Can anyone please help me?

No it's not true.
Most wallets already have estimated fees for every transaction, but you can also check them yourself on mempool.space website.
Bitcoin transaction fees have been very low for some time, and they can increase only if mempool gets full again.
CUrent averge fees are 0.8 sat/vB, that is around $0.08, and you can increase it slightly if you want faster transaction confirmation.

For quick overview, this website can help.
https://whatthefee.io/

For more details, it's recommended to use other websites.
https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC%20(default%20mempool),24h,fee
https://mempool.space/graphs/mempool#24h

[Bitcoin Smith]

OP didn't make it clear, the question was posted by other members, so we can't say for sure whether the user is trying to send funds from a wallet or an exchange.

Assuming that he need to buy bitcoin then the obvious choice is exchange where the user no need to create a wallet that will be provided once the registration is done and then user purchase bitcoin using bank account or other ways then he should transfer to an address that is fixed fee in every exchange.

[Rgram]

When you create a wallet and purchase Bitcoin the transaction fee will have to be added to it as well?  The purchase amount is $350.00.  I hear transaction fees can be very expensive.  Will the transaction fee cost as much as my initial purchase?

Fees often depend on where you are transferring from. If you have you coins on an exchange, especially Bitcoin, the transaction fee is usually set by the exchange and most times, it can range up to $10. When it’s an altcoin, it might not even cost that much.

If you are using a wallet where you get to set the fees, you might not even pay up to $2 in fees and still have your transactions recorded on the blockchain within 30minutes or less. You just have to set how many sat/byte you would want this transaction to be processed with and with the market condition right now, 1-5 sat/byte would do just fine.

[Luke3bird]

Fees often depend on where you are transferring from. If you have you coins on an exchange, especially Bitcoin, the transaction fee is usually set by the exchange and most times, it can range up to $10. When it’s an altcoin, it might not even cost that much.

If you are using a wallet where you get to set the fees, you might not even pay up to $2 in fees and still have your transactions recorded on the blockchain within 30minutes or less. You just have to set how many sat/byte you would want this transaction to be processed with and with the market condition right now, 1-5 sat/byte would do just fine.

When you store your coins on centralized exchanges or centralized online platforms, you will have to depend on their policies and withdrawal fees that are not cheap. They usually consider processing withdrawals for users is like a chance of getting profit for their companies so they charge expensive withdrawal fees.

If you want to save money in fees, you must use your non custodial wallets for controlling your private keys, UTXOs and freely choose fee rates for your Bitcoin transactions.

[Franctoshi]

I new to Bitcoin.  I am in a situation where I have to set up a wallet for one transaction only.

To set up a wallet? There are two major types of wallets, (centralised and decentralised) which wallet would you want to use for the purchase of your Bitcoin?

When you create a wallet and purchase Bitcoin the transaction fee will have to be added to it as well?  The purchase amount is $350.00.  I hear transaction fees can be very expensive.  Will the transaction fee cost as much as my initial purchase?

Yes, when you purchase or buy Bitcoin the transaction fees are always included, except for the fact if you're using a centralised exchange wallet that wants to offer you a free transfer maybe as first time user or whatever reason. As of now the transaction fees are not high since the system is not congested.

We do not know how much you were charged during your initial purchase and the type of exchange which you used, because some centralised exchange can charge extravagant fees, so charges varies base on CEX that you used.

Is it true you have to wait until exactly the right to time to send the transaction to save on the fee.  Can anyone please help me?

This was something I heard when the system was last congested, where some said they have to wait for mid-night when the system is less congested to carry out their transactions.

[Comeacross]

I new to Bitcoin.  I am in a situation where I have to set up a wallet for one transaction only.

One transaction only? You won't use the wallet again after that transaction? Are you being forced to make a payment in bitcoin?

When you create a wallet and purchase Bitcoin the transaction fee will have to be added to it as well?

No. The transaction fee is usually deducted from the sender. So you need to reach on agreement with your vendor on who should pay for the transaction fee. You'll receive lesser coin than what you actually buy if you are the one paying for the transaction fee.

The purchase amount is $350.00.  I hear transaction fees can be very expensive.  Will the transaction fee cost as much as my initial purchase?

Transaction fee can be expensive when the network is congested. At the moment, transaction fee is very cheap. Sending this amount should cost around $1-$3 depending on the wallet you are using and address set up. Although you pay high fee if you're sending from exchange.

Is it true you have to wait until exactly the right to time to send the transaction to save on the fee.  Can anyone please help me?

Maybe you should read this thread about fees by LoyceV for better understanding.

[LoyceV]

I new to Bitcoin.  I am in a situation where I have to set up a wallet for one transaction only.
~
The purchase amount is $350.00.

This sounds like a common scam! Be careful VSB3773!

Did someone ask you to send them Bitcoin? Did they promise you something in exchange?