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Encyclopedia Ethereum · Entry 108

Wei and gwei: converting Ethereum amounts and gas prices

AI-assisted research · separate automated verificationCorrections

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Ethereum
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7 cited records
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Key facts

Key facts for Wei and gwei: converting Ethereum amounts and gas prices
FactDetailSource
Wei1 ETH = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 wei.[2]
Gwei1 gwei = 1,000,000,000 wei.[1]
Execution feeGas used × effective price per gas gives the execution-gas charge.[3][4]
01

Keep the units attached to each number

An illustrative operation using 50,000 gas at 12 gwei per gas costs 600,000 gwei, or 0.0006 ETH, for execution gas. The transferred ETH value is a separate field and may be zero.

The gas limit is a maximum allowance for work, not necessarily the gas actually consumed. Use the receipt’s actual gas used for an after-the-fact calculation.

02

Use integer units when handling exact values

RPC responses commonly encode quantities as hexadecimal integers. Software should preserve the integer value and apply the appropriate display scale instead of passing large wei values through an imprecise floating-point representation.

ERC-20 tokens have their own decimals conventions. A token with six decimals does not become an 18-decimal asset merely because it runs on Ethereum.

03

Execution gas is not every possible fee

A blob transaction has a separate blob-gas component. Rollup fees can also include components beyond the execution charge visible in a simple mainnet example.

Name the fee component and network before comparing numbers. A bare “12 gwei” does not tell a reader the total amount paid.

Direct answers

Questions people ask

Does a gas price of 20 gwei mean the transaction costs 20 gwei?

No. That is a price per gas unit. The total execution-gas charge depends on how many gas units the transaction consumes and its effective price.

Inspect the evidence

The answer and key facts have stable claim links. These records retain the scope and qualification when reused.

Wei is Ethereum’s smallest ETH denomination: one ETH is 10^18 wei. One gwei is 10^9 wei, so one ETH is one billion gwei. Gas prices are often quoted in gwei per gas; multiply by gas used to calculate the execution-gas fee, then convert the result into ETH.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.

Link to this claim
Wei: 1 ETH = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 wei.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.

Link to this claim
Gwei: 1 gwei = 1,000,000,000 wei.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.

Link to this claim
Execution fee: Gas used × effective price per gas gives the execution-gas charge.

Scope: Ethereum · data through 2026-10-02. Verification: verified · 2026-10-02T18:12:41.505Z.

Link to this claim
Revision history
  1. — First publication after primary-source research and independent automated verification.

Source register

Sources and references

Retrieval dates and locators are recorded individually.
  1. Gas and feesethereum.org contributors

    Execution resource units, fee components and gas expenditure.

    Locator: What is gas?; Base fee; Priority fee · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:41.688ZOpen source
  2. Ethereum accountsethereum.org contributors

    Key-controlled and code-controlled accounts, balances, nonces and storage.

    Locator: Account types; An account examined; Account creation · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:41.958ZOpen source
  3. Fee market change for ETH 1.0 chainEthereum Improvement Proposals

    Base fees, fee caps, priority fees and effective transaction gas price.

    Locator: Specification · Version / scope: EIP/ERC-1559; retrieved document hash recorded · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:42.151ZOpen source
  4. Ethereum JSON-RPCethereum.org contributors

    RPC response fields, transaction receipts, call simulation and log filtering.

    Locator: eth_getTransactionByHash; eth_getTransactionReceipt; eth_call; eth_getLogs; eth_getCode; eth_estimateGas; eth_getBalance; eth_getStorageAt; eth_getTransactionCount; default block parameter · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:42.060ZOpen source
  5. ERC-20 Token StandardEthereum Improvement Proposals

    Token supply, displayed units and balance accounting.

    Locator: totalSupply; balanceOf; transfer; decimals; approve; allowance; transferFrom; Transfer · Version / scope: ERC-20 · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:45.826ZOpen source
  6. Shard Blob TransactionsEthereum Improvement Proposals

    Blob commitments, separate blob-gas fee calculations and temporary data availability.

    Locator: Gas accounting; Opcode to get versioned hashes; Point evaluation precompile; Consensus layer validation · Version / scope: EIP/ERC-4844; retrieved document hash recorded · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:03:42.506ZOpen source
  7. OP Stack transaction feesOptimism

    Rollup execution, data-publication and operator fee components depend on active network upgrades.

    Locator: Gas fee components; Execution gas fee; L1 data fee; Operator fee · Retrieved: 2026-10-02T17:55:17.901ZOpen source
How this article was made

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 corrections

Degrees of Satoshi editorial project. “Wei and gwei: converting Ethereum amounts and gas prices.” Published 2026-10-02; updated 2026-10-02. https://degreesofsatoshi.com/encyclopedia/wei-and-gwei/