Plain English
Gwei is the unit used to quote gas prices on Ethereum. 1 ETH = 1 billion Gwei. A “30 Gwei” gas price means each unit of gas costs 0.00000003 ETH. If a transaction uses 21,000 gas (a simple ETH transfer), the total fee is 21,000 × 30 = 630,000 Gwei = 0.00063 ETH.
How it actually works
Gwei exists because gas prices are inconveniently small numbers in ETH. The name comes from “giga-wei,” where wei is the smallest possible denomination (10^-18 ETH). Block explorers, wallets, and gas trackers all display gas prices in Gwei by default.
What it means for you
When you see “gas is at 15 Gwei right now,” that tells you the network is calm. 80+ Gwei is congested. 200+ Gwei is a wave (NFT mint, major liquidation cascade, market panic). For non-urgent transactions, waiting for sub-20 Gwei windows saves real money over a year of active use.
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Educational content only. Not investment, tax, or legal advice.