Priority Fees and Miner Tips: How to Get Your Blockchain Transactions Confirmed Fast

• by Eamon Ledgerwood
• Nov 15, 2025
• 0 Comments

Priority Fees and Miner Tips: How to Get Your Blockchain Transactions Confirmed Fast

Ever sent a crypto transaction and waited hours-maybe days-for it to go through? You’re not alone. In 2025, with Ethereum and Bitcoin still handling millions of transactions daily, priority fees are the difference between your swap working in seconds or getting stuck in a digital back alley. This isn’t about paying more for no reason. It’s about understanding how miners and validators decide who gets processed first-and how to make sure you’re not the one left behind.

What Exactly Is a Priority Fee?

A priority fee, sometimes called a miner tip or validator tip, is the extra money you add to your transaction to say, "Hey, I really need this done now." It’s optional, but if you skip it during busy times, your transaction might sit there forever. Think of it like tipping a delivery driver to get your food faster during dinner rush. No one forces you to tip, but if you don’t, your order might arrive after everyone else’s.

This system became official on Ethereum in August 2021 with EIP-1559. Before that, Ethereum used a first-price auction: everyone bid whatever they wanted, and the highest bidder got in. That led to wild spikes-during the CryptoKitties craze in 2017, people were paying over 500 Gwei just to send a simple transfer. Today, the system is cleaner. Ethereum now has a base fee that gets burned (destroyed), and a separate priority fee that goes straight to the validator. You control the tip. The network controls the base fee.

Bitcoin works differently. It never had a base fee system. Miners still pick transactions based on satoshis per byte-the higher the fee rate, the faster your transaction climbs to the top of the queue. The old priority formula based on coin age and size? Gone. Today, if you don’t pay a fee, your transaction won’t even be considered.

How Priority Fees Work on Ethereum

On Ethereum, your total fee has two parts: the base fee and the priority fee. The base fee changes every block depending on how busy the network is. If blocks are full, it goes up. If they’re empty, it drops. You don’t pay this to anyone-it’s burned. The priority fee? That’s your tip. It goes directly to the validator who includes your transaction in a block.

Here’s how it breaks down:

• Gas used: How much computational work your transaction needs. A simple ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas. A complex DeFi swap might use 200,000+.
• Gas price: The amount you’re willing to pay per unit of gas. This is now mostly set automatically by your wallet.
• Priority fee: The extra you add on top. This is what makes validators jump to your transaction.

So if your transaction uses 21,000 gas and the gas price is 20 Gwei with a 5 Gwei priority fee, your total cost is: 21,000 × (20 + 5) = 525,000 Gwei, or 0.000525 ETH.

IntoTheBlock found that in 2025, the average priority fee hovers between 2 and 8 Gwei during normal times. But if you’re swapping tokens during a NFT drop or trying to get into a popular DeFi liquidity pool, you might need 20-50 Gwei to get confirmed in the next block. Set it too low, and you’ll wait. Set it too high, and you’re wasting money.

How Priority Fees Work on Bitcoin

Bitcoin doesn’t have a base fee or burning mechanism. It’s simpler: miners look at one thing-satoshis per byte. The more satoshis you pay per byte of data, the faster your transaction gets picked.

A standard Bitcoin transaction is about 250 bytes. If the network is quiet, you might get away with 5 satoshis/byte-that’s 1,250 satoshis total, or $0.05. But during a surge, like when Lightning Network traffic spikes or a big whale moves coins, fees can jump to 50-100 satoshis/byte. That’s $0.50 to $1.00 per transaction.

Unlike Ethereum, you don’t set a separate tip. You just set one fee rate. Wallets like Electrum or BlueWallet show you estimates: “Low,” “Medium,” “Fast.” Choose “Fast,” and your wallet automatically sets a higher satoshi/byte rate to get you into the next few blocks.

The shift away from the old priority system (based on coin age) was a big win for Bitcoin. Before 2016, you could send small transactions for free if they met certain conditions. That led to spam and bloated mempools. Now, every transaction pays. The network is cleaner, faster, and more reliable.

When Do You Need a High Priority Fee?

You don’t always need to pay extra. But here’s when you should:

• During NFT mints: Thousands of people try to mint at the same second. Priority fees spike to 30-100 Gwei on Ethereum.
• DeFi swaps at peak hours: If you’re trading during US market open or when a major token launches, expect fees to jump.
• Time-sensitive transfers: Sending ETH to an exchange before a deadline? Don’t risk it. Set a 15-25 Gwei tip.
• Emergency transactions: If you’re recovering funds from a smart contract or unstaking locked tokens, you need speed.

On the flip side, if you’re sending ETH to a friend on a Sunday night? 2-5 Gwei is fine. You might wait 2-5 minutes, but you’ll save money.

TechRate’s 2023 survey found that 68% of Ethereum users had at least one failed transaction in the last six months because their priority fee was too low. The average loss? $4.72 per failed transaction. That’s not a small amount.

How to Set the Right Priority Fee

Most wallets now auto-estimate fees. But they’re not always right. Here’s how to do it better:

1. Check real-time data: Use Etherscan’s Gas Tracker or Blocknative’s dashboard. Look at the “Fast” or “Priority” recommendation-not the average.
2. Use MetaMask’s Advanced Gas Controls: Toggle on “Customize Gas” and manually set the priority fee. Start with 10 Gwei during normal times. Increase by 5 Gwei every 10 minutes if it’s stuck.
3. Don’t overpay: Many users set 50 Gwei just to be safe. But in 2025, 90% of transactions confirm under 20 Gwei. You’re likely wasting 30-40 Gwei per transaction.
4. Use gas bumping: If your transaction is pending, you can replace it with a higher fee. Wallets like MetaMask let you “speed up” or “cancel” with a higher tip. This costs more, but it’s better than waiting days.

Professional traders use tools like Alchemy’s Gas Station or Tenderly to automate this. They monitor network congestion and adjust fees in real time. If you’re doing more than a few transactions a week, it’s worth learning these tools.

What’s Changing in 2025?

The game is changing fast. Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, rolled out in early 2024, introduced EIP-4844, which massively reduces data costs for Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism. That means transactions on these chains now cost 10-100 times less. Priority fees on Layer 2s? Often under 1 Gwei.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s base fee has become more stable. The burning mechanism has removed over 3.5 million ETH since 2021-worth over $10 billion. That’s reduced overall supply pressure and made fee spikes less extreme.

On Bitcoin, the Mempool-as-a-Service proposal is gaining traction. It could let users pay for guaranteed inclusion in the next block-kind of like a priority fee system, but baked into the protocol. That’s still experimental, but it shows even Bitcoin is moving toward more structured fee markets.

The future? Multi-dimensional fee markets. Vitalik Buterin has talked about charging separately for computation, storage, and bandwidth. That’s still years away. But the trend is clear: fees are becoming more predictable, more granular, and more user-controlled.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

• Mistake: Setting the same fee for every transaction. Solution: Adjust based on time of day and network activity.
• Mistake: Ignoring wallet settings. Solution: Turn on advanced gas controls and learn what each slider does.
• Mistake: Thinking “higher = faster.” Solution: 50 Gwei isn’t 5x faster than 10 Gwei. Often, it’s just 2x.
• Mistake: Not checking pending transactions. Solution: Use Etherscan or Blockchain.com to track your TX status. If it’s been 30 minutes, bump it.

Professional users rarely have failed transactions. They don’t guess. They monitor. They adjust. You can too.

Why This Matters Beyond the Fee

Priority fees aren’t just about speed. They’re a signal. High fees mean the network is congested. Low fees mean it’s calm. That’s why developers watch them closely. If fees stay high for days, it’s a sign the network needs scaling. If they drop, it’s a win.

For users, understanding this system means you’re no longer at the mercy of random spikes. You’re in control. You can choose when to pay more and when to wait. You can avoid losing $5 on a failed swap. You can make smarter decisions-whether you’re sending $10 or $10,000.

The blockchain economy runs on incentives. Miners and validators want to earn. Users want speed. Priority fees are the bridge between them. Learn how to use them, and you’ll never be stuck again.