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How Much Does it Cost to Mint an NFT?
The minting fee attached to creating an NFT can vary depending on the blockchain ecosystem you choose. The blockchain technology will also impact the NFT marketplaces on which you can mint and list your creation. How much does it cost to mint an NFT (gas fees) and what do you need to account for? Let’s find out.
Understanding the Basics of NFT Minting
Minting an NFT is essentially securing its place on the blockchain through a creative process. Most NFTs are found on the Ethereum network, which also happens to be the largest and foremost choice for NFTs in general.
Since the Ethereum blockchain is the heavy-hitter in the NFT space, we’ll use it as the benchmark in terms of costs and procedure.
Aside from picking a blockchain and NFT marketplace to do the minting, NFT creators will also need cryptocurrency, a crypto wallet to deal with all transactions, and energy. It’s really not that difficult when you have gathered everything you need.
The Costs of Minting an NFT
After understanding the basics, it’s easier to get where the costs come from and why they are incurred. Let’s start with the average NFT minting cost on the Ethereum blockchain and then get to the volatility of minting an NFT.
• Average Cost
The average cost of minting a new NFT (non-fungible tokens) will vary depending on the blockchain and platform you pick. You will also have to account for the listing fee, updating prices, etc.
The average can be within a very wide range from being free for NFT artists (via lazy minting) to as high as $1,000. If we look at the collective of NFTs on the Ethereum network, the prices are typically between $70 to around $100.
It’s very hard to pinpoint an average cost because of fluctuations that can affect it, which is why crypto and NFTs are volatile in price.
• Volatility in Minting NFTs
If you understand the volatility of the market, you can better plan the minting steps and potentially save yourself money.
One thing that affects the minting fees is the time of day. Yes, there are “peak times”, which is the equivalent of the rush hour during workdays. It’s the time of day when NFT costs of minting are the highest because many people are trying to do transactions on the chain.
Minting your NFT collection during peak times is never a good idea because you could incur extra costs that are upwards of a couple of hundred dollars!
Minting Costs on Blockchains
Remember when we said the cost of minting will vary depending on the blockchain that you choose? Well, now we will compare minting on some popular chains to help you decide and to get a picture of the cost comparison.
Minting NFTs on Polygon
Polygon is the name of another blockchain, a layer 2 solution for Ethereum. It is a side chain that works alongside Ethereum to promote transaction speeds and cost. Polygon is a chain that supports lazy minting, which we mentioned before. This is a no upfront cost option for an NFT creator. It’s not free of fees like many popular marketplaces would have you believe, the process just offloads the costs to mint to the buyer.
This means that a potential buyer interested in your NFT item will bear the minting cost. While minting may not cost the NFT artist anything, they still have to account for the platform fee, which is the fee the popular NFT marketplaces charge as a service fee, which is 2.5% of the selling price on Polygon. A 2.5% platform fee is also pretty average when we look at all the marketplaces.
Minting NFTs on Ethereum
We have split the cost to mint on Ethereum into two separate categories:
• Regular Minting
If you go for regular minting on Ethereum, which is not the lazy way, it could cost you up to $700 or more during peak times! Those fees are insane, so it’s best to avoid these gas prices by not going through with transactions during peak hours.
Even if you mint during downtimes, it could still cost you a gas fee of anywhere between $50-$150.
• Lazy Minting
As said, you can mint for free via lazy minting on Ethereum if you go through Polygon. Although there is no upfront gas fee, you do have to think about the platform costs and other transaction fees that may occur.
Minting NFTs on Solana
Solana is a proof-of-stake (POS) blockchain and another giant ecosystem for NFTs. The POS algorithm is much more efficient than Ethereum’s proof-of-work (POW), which is what accounts for the much more affordable prices. Many other smaller chains also adopt the POS algorithm, which is what is giving them a huge leg up on Ethereum.
For Solana, the gas price for minting is only around $0.015, which is much more enticing than Ethereum’s potentially $700-$1000 during peak times. However, many people are still choosing to mint NFT art on Ethereum because it is still the largest market for digital art and it is still where collectors can get access to the best and largest collection of NFTs.
Read more: How to Mint an NFT on Solana
Tips for a Cost-Effective NFT Minting Process
Understanding the reasons behind how much it costs to mint NFTs is only part of the process. The next part is to see what you can do to make the most efficient use of your time and money, which is why we created a helpful guide.
• Take Note of Fluctuation Patterns
It’s hard to get a concrete gauge of the fluctuation in gas prices until the bill is due, but you can watch the market and take note of certain patterns. Sure, you can choose to sit at your computer all day Googling “how much does it cost to mint an NFT” by the hour, or you can choose averages. For example, studies show that the weekend is actually cheaper to mint and gas prices are at an all-time high during the middle of the week.
• Understand the Gas Fees and Conversion Fees
The gas prices are basically the transaction fees during NFT trading, listing, minting and any other transaction. When you are morning, the speed at which your requests are fulfilled can be customized (for a price, of course). If you are willing to wait, then there will be significantly lower fees than if you decided to push it through, because it will take miners more computer power to meet your needs.
Aside from the ETH gas fee when listing, and buying digital assets, there is also a conversion fee. The conversion fee is for converting one cryptocurrency into another.
• Choose the Best NFT Marketplace for You
One very important step in assessing the cost to mint your digital artwork NFT is the platform you pick. Does the platform use smart contracts to automate transactions? Does it allow for royalties back to the artist when the NFT is sold on the secondary market? Is there lazy minting? What’s the platform fee?
Does the platform support your wallet? Your digital wallet is something you need to handle all blockchain transactions transferred directly to where it’s necessary and pay fees. Some markets require a monthly fee to use their platform to list your digital file.
You can sell your NFT on OpenSea, which is the largest NFT marketplace at the moment that also supports the Polygon blockchain to offset the high ETH gas fee. Rarible, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, and FOundation are also great choices.
Just be sure to pick a platform that is compatible with your blockchain and wallet.
Additional Fees Involved in Minting an NFT
It’s not cheap to create NFTs. There are other costs to consider so you aren’t blindsided when the bill comes due.
• Upfront
Regular minting, whether it’s a single NFT or a whole collection, will require an upfront fee. There are still unavoidable gas fees even if you go with the lazy option. You have to pay the gas fee to mint even if your art does not sell, which is why the lazy way is so coveted.
• Per Sale
The per sale fee is the platform fee, the percentage of the final sale price the marketplace takes with each successful sale. How much will it be? You can use resources to see how much NFTs similar to yours are going for to work out the potential per sale fee, which is usually 2.5%.
• Subscription
As said above, there is a chance that a particular platform will require a monthly subscription fee to use its services. If this is the case, the other attached costs should be lower. However, keep in mind that the gas fee that apply to the total NFT minting costs is not controlled by the platform, but by the blockchain.
FAQ
• Why is minting NFT so expensive?
NFT minting is so expensive if you pick a proof-of-work (POW) blockchain. These chains require an exorbitant amount of computer processing power to validate and tokenize, which is what accounts for the high gas prices. Choosing a proof-of-stake (POS) blockchain will lower the costs.
• Can you mint an NFT for free?
Yes! You can mint an NFT for free via the lazy minting feature offered on certain blockchains if you’re the creator. Keep in mind that an NFT minted the lazy way may be free for the creator, but not for the buyer. This is because the cost of minting an NFT is offloaded to the collector.
Conclusion
It can be expensive, but you can create your very own NFT collection on a blockchain of your choice. The key to saving money on the price is to understand the transaction fee and all the other costs attached to mint NFTs. Choosing low-traffic times, using lazy minting, and picking a proof-of-stake blockchain, or using Polygon with Ethereum can save creators a lot.
