Gas fees vs. dust value
Network fees are priced by network congestion and transaction size — not by how much you're sending. That means moving a small balance sometimes costs more than the balance itself. Here's how to tell.
What you're actually paying for
Most blockchain transactions involve a network fee — called "gas" on Ethereum, and often a "network fee" or "miner fee" elsewhere. The fee helps compensate the validators or miners who process and confirm transactions, and it is generally determined by factors such as network conditions and transaction complexity rather than simply by the dollar amount you're sending. That last part is the key to this whole page: a $500 transfer and a $0.05 transfer can sometimes require the same network fee.
Why this matters for dust
Because fees don't scale down with the amount sent, there's a real point where a balance becomes too small to move economically. If you have $0.10 of ETH sitting in a wallet and the current gas fee to send a transaction is $1.50, moving it costs fifteen times what it's worth. That math changes constantly with network congestion, so a balance that's not worth moving today might be worth moving next week — or vice versa.
Rough fee ranges by network
A simple rule of thumb
Before moving a small balance anywhere — including to a wallet on this site — check what the current network fee is (most wallets show an estimate before you confirm). If the fee is a small fraction of what you're sending, moving it may make sense. If it's a third or more of the balance, it might be one of the cases where leaving it alone is the more sensible option.
Want to run the numbers instead of eyeballing it? Use the crypto dust calculator to compare your balance with the estimated transaction fee and see how much value would actually remain after moving it.
Calculate your crypto dust