Open data
What it costs to send USDT on each network
We read the fee that recent plain USDT transfers actually paid on 8 networks and publish the middle of the range. No estimates, no calculator guesses.
Measured on
The short answer
Cheapest network
Solana
$0.00083 per transfer
Most expensive network
Tron
$2.04 per transfer
Difference
2459x
Between the cheapest and the most expensive network in this table, for the same USDT.
The token is the same. The network you pick decides the fee. Most wallets and exchanges name the network next to the deposit address, so check it before you send.
Fee by network
The median is the middle fee of the sample: half the transfers paid less, half paid more. The range shows the quarter that paid least and the quarter that paid most, so you can see how much the fee moves within a few minutes.
| Network | Token standard | Typical fee | Range | In the network coin | First transfer to a new address | Transfers read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solana | SPL | $0.00083 | $0.00042 to $0.0017 | 0.00001 SOL | - | 40 |
| TON | Jetton | $0.0015 | $0.0014 to $0.0016 | 0.001265 TON | $0.0027 | 50 |
| BNB Smart Chain | BEP-20 | $0.0016 | $0.001 to $0.0023 | 0.00000234 BNB | - | 50 |
| Polygon PoS | ERC-20 | $0.0019 | $0.0014 to $0.0043 | 0.022276 POL | - | 50 |
| Arbitrum One | ERC-20 | $0.0025 | $0.0018 to $0.0033 | 0.00000123 ETH | - | 50 |
| Avalanche C-Chain | ERC-20 | $0.0048 | $0.0039 to $0.0062 | 0.000551 AVAX | - | 50 |
| Ethereum | ERC-20 | $0.017 | $0.0053 to $0.126 | 0.00000846 ETH | - | 50 |
| Tron | TRC-20 | $2.04 | $2.04 to $2.15 | 6.4285 TRX | $4.13 | 51 |
Prices for the network coins are the median of several public venues, taken at the same moment as the sample.
Network by network
What is behind each figure, including the parts a fee estimate usually leaves out.
Solana$0.00083
Fee is the transaction fee (meta.fee) of 40 plain transfers, priority fee included.
- 40 transfers, slots 468438050 to 468438641, read 07:18 UTC.
- SOL at $82.77, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
Es9vMFrzaCERmJfrF4H2FYD4KCoNkY11McCe8BenwNYB
TON$0.0015
Fee is the sum of the fees of every step of 50 plain jetton transfers. TON attached for gas that comes back to the sender is not counted. 9 of 50 transfers created the recipient's USDT jetton wallet, which keeps about 0.000974433 TON for storage. That balance is not a network fee, so it is not in the fee figures.
A first transfer to an address that holds no USDT costs about $0.0027.
- 50 transfers, blocks 104923403 to 104923546, read 07:18 UTC.
- TON at $1.20, median of 2 venues.
- USDT contract
EQCxE6mUtQJKFnGfaROTKOt1lZbDiiX1kCixRv7Nw2Id_sDs
BNB Smart Chain$0.0016
Fee is gas used times the effective gas price, from 50 direct transfer() calls on the USDT contract. Sending to an address that holds no USDT uses more gas, so those transfers sit at the top of the range. 11% of plain transfers paid no gas because someone else sponsored them; they are left out.
- 50 transfers, blocks 133118038 to 133118837, read 07:17 UTC.
- Median gas used 34,515, at 0.05 gwei.
- BNB at $672.98, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
0x55d398326f99059fF775485246999027B3197955
Polygon PoS$0.0019
Fee is gas used times the effective gas price, from 50 direct transfer() calls on the USDT contract. Sending to an address that holds no USDT uses more gas, so those transfers sit at the top of the range.
- 50 transfers, blocks 97174654 to 97174942, read 07:17 UTC.
- Median gas used 54,068, at 370.9 gwei.
- POL at $0.086, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
0xc2132D05D31c914a87C6611C10748AEb04B58e8F
Arbitrum One$0.0025
Fee is gas used times the effective gas price, from 50 direct transfer() calls on the USDT contract. Arbitrum's gas used already includes the cost of posting the transaction to Ethereum. Sending to an address that holds no USDT uses more gas, so those transfers sit at the top of the range.
- 50 transfers, blocks 523497117 to 523500278, read 07:17 UTC.
- Median gas used 44,203, at 0.02202 gwei.
- ETH at $2045.78, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
0xFd086bC7CD5C481DCC9C85ebE478A1C0b69FCbb9
Avalanche C-Chain$0.0048
Fee is gas used times the effective gas price, from 50 direct transfer() calls on the USDT contract. Sending to an address that holds no USDT uses more gas, so those transfers sit at the top of the range.
- 50 transfers, blocks 100091353 to 100091921, read 07:17 UTC.
- Median gas used 50,000, at 10.5 gwei.
- AVAX at $8.62, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
0x9702230A8Ea53601f5cD2dc00fDBc13d4dF4A8c7
Ethereum$0.017
Fee is gas used times the effective gas price, from 50 direct transfer() calls on the USDT contract. Sending to an address that holds no USDT uses more gas, so those transfers sit at the top of the range.
- 50 transfers, blocks 26397266 to 26397309, read 07:17 UTC.
- Median gas used 46,109, at 0.1964 gwei.
- ETH at $2045.78, median of 4 venues.
- USDT contract
0xdAC17F958D2ee523a2206206994597C13D831ec7
Tron$2.04
Median over transfers that burned TRX for all of their energy, as a wallet without staked or rented energy does (51 of 421 plain transfers). 44% of plain transfers paid 0 TRX because they used staked or rented energy. To an address that already holds USDT: about 6.4285 TRX. To an address with no USDT: about 13.0285 TRX, because the contract has to store a new balance.
A first transfer to an address that holds no USDT costs about $4.13.
Of all plain transfers in the sample: 12% burned TRX for all their energy, 87% used staked or rented energy, 44% paid nothing.
- 51 transfers, blocks 87931324 to 87931328, read 07:17 UTC.
- Energy price 100 sun per unit.
- TRX at $0.317, median of 3 venues.
- USDT contract
TR7NHqjeKQxGTCi8q8ZY4pL8otSzgjLj6t
How the figures are measured
A job on our own server samples each network once a day. It reads recent blocks, keeps only plain USDT transfers, takes the fee each one paid from its receipt, and works out the quartiles.
Nothing is estimated from a gas price. On the chains that charge gas, the fee is gas used times the effective gas price of that transaction. On Tron it is the TRX burned. On Solana and TON it is the fee of the transaction and of every step it triggered.
A transfer to an address that has never held USDT costs more, because the contract has to store a new balance. Those transfers are in the main range, and the extra cost also has its own column.
Rent and storage deposits are not fees. On Solana the sender funds the recipient token account, and on TON the new jetton wallet keeps a small balance. That money stays in the account, so it is listed apart from the fee.
Prices for the network coins come from several public venues, and the median of those is used, so one venue cannot move a figure on its own.
Every run keeps a history row, so the CSV below shows how the fee moved day by day.
USDT on HiddenSwap
You pick the network when you pick the coin. USDT on Tron, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Solana and TON are separate options in the swap form.
The network fee for sending your coins out is quoted before you start, so you see it with the rate rather than after the swap.
Swap USDTUse the data
The full dataset is on this site, as JSON and CSV, under CC BY 4.0. It carries the quartiles, the sample size, the block range, the contract address and the notes for every network. Link back to this page if you use it.
Questions
Which network is cheapest for sending USDT?
In the current sample it is Solana, at about $0.00083 per transfer. The order changes when a chain gets busy, which is why this page is measured again every day rather than written once.
Why is USDT on Tron more expensive than on most other networks?
Tron charges energy. A wallet that has not staked or rented energy burns TRX for it, and the burn rate is set by governance rather than by demand. A first transfer to an address that holds no USDT needs about twice the energy, which is the single largest fee on this page.
Why did my wallet charge more than the figure here?
Three common reasons. You sent to an address that had never held USDT. The chain was busier than during our sample. Or the fee you saw was not only the network fee, because some services add their own charge on top and show one number.
Is USDT on Tron the same token as USDT on Ethereum?
It is the same brand and the same value, but a separate contract on each network. Coins sent on one network cannot arrive at an address on another. If you send to an address on the wrong network, the coins usually cannot be recovered.
What do TRC-20, ERC-20 and BEP-20 mean?
They are the token standards of Tron, Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain. Exchanges use them as network names in deposit screens. The table above shows which standard goes with which network.
Do these fees include what HiddenSwap charges?
No. These are network fees only, paid to the chain itself. What a swap costs you is the rate you are quoted before you start.