In Web3, gas refers to the cost of executing a transaction on a blockchain network. When a user initiates a transaction, they include a fee to cover the cost of recording the transaction onto the blockchain.

Some key points to keep in mind about gas fees:

• Gas is the unit of measurement used to represent the fee for executing a transaction on the blockchain.
• The gas fee is typically paid in the native currency of the network. For example, you use ETH on the Ethereum Network and SOL on the Solana network to pay for gas.
  • In most cases, if you do not have the native currency in your wallet you will not be able to send/swap funds.
• The fee goes to the miners/validators to process and confirm the transaction.
• The gas required to execute a transaction can vary widely depending on the network, level of congestion, and complexity of the transaction.
  
  • For example, it is much cheaper to send SOL on the Solana Network than it is to swap ETH on the Ethereum network due to the varying factors above.
  • During times of high network usage, fees can increase as users compete to have their transactions validated.

Swap on Ethereum

Swap on Solana

Swap on a Layer 2

The gas fee can be manually changed to increase or decrease your transaction speed. There are some risks with manually adjusting gas fees, including:

• Setting the gas fee too low. The transaction may not process quickly or at not all.
• Setting the gas fee too high. You may end up paying more than necessary to process a transaction. In times of network congestion, an increased gas fee may not have the desired effect of speeding up a transaction.

Brave Wallet automatically adjusts the price of gas for the amount that will likely be required to successfully complete a transaction. 

To get started with Brave Wallet on desktop, open the Brave Browser and click the  icon in the toolbar. To get started with Brave Wallet on mobile, open the browser menu and then tap the  icon.