How much does it cost to move bitcoin, and when is it cheapest?
Every Bitcoin transaction pays a fee per virtual byte (sat/vB) to enter a block. When there is a queue (a full mempool), getting in costs more; when the network is quiet, almost nothing. This page shows the cost right now, places it in its 90-day percentile, and displays a day-by-hour map of when sending tends to be cheaper, computed from our own dataset.
What makes this tool different?
Fee estimators (the ones your wallet suggests) only show the present, and nobody archives their recommendations. Here we store every few minutes what the public estimators recommend and, afterwards, what actually sufficed to enter the following blocks. That cross-check — recommendation vs reality — is a dataset that cannot be rebuilt after the fact, and we know of no other site publishing it live.
How do we measure estimator "overpayment"?
For each stored sample we compare the recommended "fast" rate with the 10th percentile of the fees actually included in the very next block (i.e., the cheapest 10% that also got in). The 30-day median of that gap is the "overpayment". For the "economy" rate we measure how often it matched or beat the lowest rate accepted within the following hour. The full methodology is described here so anyone can replicate it.
How to read the cheap-hours map?
Each cell is the median per-block fee for that slot (weekday × hour, already converted to your local time). Green = historically cheap; red = historically expensive. The outline marks your current hour. It describes the recent past, not a guarantee: a demand spike can make any slot expensive.
Why does timing matter when consolidating UTXOs?
If your wallet accumulates many small inputs (UTXOs), spending them one day will be expensive: each input adds ~68 vB to the transaction. Consolidating them (merging into one) during a low-fee window reduces that future cost. The calculator estimates the cost today and during a cheap window of the last 90 days.
Frequently asked questions
Why do fee estimators recommend overpaying?
Because they prioritise your transaction not getting stuck: when in doubt, they quote the most expensive recent scenario. That is a prudent design, but it means whoever always uses the "fast" rate pays, at the median, more than would have sufficed. Exactly how much is what we measure here with our own data.
What does the current cost percentile mean?
It is an arithmetic fact: the percentage of blocks in the last 90 days whose median fee was equal to or below the current fast rate. Percentile 10 means "cheaper than 90% of the period". It is not a forecast or a call to action.
When is sending bitcoin usually cheapest?
In our dataset, as for any network observer, lower-demand slots tend to fall on weekends and during early UTC hours, but it shifts with the market. The map on this page is recomputed from real per-block data and shows what was observed, not a promise.
What is UTXO consolidation?
Sending coins to yourself to merge several small inputs into a single output. It reduces the size (and therefore the cost) of your future transactions. Its cost depends on the number of inputs and the fee level at the time, which is why it is usually done during cheap windows. Also consider the privacy implications of merging coins.
Do you store any visitor data?
No. The database only contains public Bitcoin network data (estimator recommendations and per-block fees). This page's preferences live only in your browser.