Encyclopedia Ethereum · Entry 129
Paymasters: who pays for a smart-account operation?
In this article
At a glance
Key facts
Move the payment responsibility, not the computation cost
A user can interact without holding native ETH for the immediate gas charge if a suitable paymaster funds the operation. The paymaster may receive compensation elsewhere or treat the charge as a service expense.
This does not remove gas metering or make every smart-account action free. Identify who pays, which operations qualify and whether another token is charged.
Authorization to execute differs from authorization to sponsor
An account may validly authorize an operation while the paymaster refuses it because of policy, insufficient funding or changed conditions. Conversely, available sponsorship does not give the paymaster unrestricted authority over the account.
The exact powers depend on the account, paymaster and any allowances or additional contracts involved. Review those relationships rather than the marketing label.
Failed work can still create costs
Validation and execution have distinct stages and accounting rules. Paymasters need to handle the specified post-operation flow and potential execution failure.
A user interface should distinguish a sponsorship rejection from a contract execution revert, and show any user-paid token charge before authorization.
Direct answers
Questions people ask
Can a paymaster guarantee that I will never need ETH again?
No. Coverage depends on the supported account stack, funding and policy for each operation. A service can change or refuse sponsorship.
Inspect the evidence
The answer and key facts have stable claim links. These records retain the scope and qualification when reused.
An ERC-4337 paymaster can agree to cover a user operation’s gas through the EntryPoint, subject to its validation and payment policy. It may sponsor selected actions or charge the user in another way. “Gasless” usually describes the user experience; network execution still has a cost and sponsorship can be refused.
Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.
Link to this claimValidation: The paymaster participates in validating whether it will cover an operation.
Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.
Link to this claimFunding: EntryPoint deposits support paying applicable gas charges.
Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.
Link to this claimPolicy: Sponsorship conditions are implementation-specific.
Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.
Link to this claimRevision history
- — First publication after primary-source research and independent automated verification.
Source register
Sources and references
Retrieval dates and locators are recorded individually.- Account Abstraction Using Alt MempoolEthereum Improvement Proposals
User operations, bundler transaction submission and paymaster validation.
Locator: Specification; Bundlers; Paymasters; Security Considerations · Version / scope: EIP/ERC-4337; retrieved document hash recorded · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:42.486ZOpen source
Research and drafting use AI assistance. A separate automated review checks claims against primary sources; no external expert or named human review is implied. Publication, substantive editing, source retrieval and verification are recorded separately. This version was independently checked by an automated reviewer on 2 October 2026.
Editorial method and correctionsDegrees of Satoshi editorial project. “Paymasters: who pays for a smart-account operation?.” Published 2026-10-02; updated 2026-10-02. https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/smart-account-paymasters/