A common question from Ethereum users new to XRP: does XRP have gas fees? The short answer is no — XRP does not use a gas fee system. Instead, XRPL uses a simpler, fixed-fee structure measured in drops of XRP.
What Are Gas Fees (Ethereum)?
Ethereum gas fees are a two-component system: gas units (computational work required) multiplied by the gas price (amount per unit in Gwei). Complex smart contract interactions require more gas units, making fees highly variable. During Ethereum congestion, gas prices can spike dramatically — users bid against each other for block space.
How XRP Fees Work Instead
XRPL's fee model is fundamentally different. There is no gas bidding system. All standard payment transactions cost exactly 10 drops (0.00001 XRP) regardless of transaction value. The fee scales slightly with network load via the load_factor mechanism, but this is automatic — users don't set their own fees competitively.
XRP Has No Smart Contract Gas (Currently)
As of 2026, XRPL's programmability is more limited than Ethereum — it natively supports payments, DEX trading, escrow, NFTs, and payment channels, but not arbitrary smart contracts. This means there is no analog to Ethereum's variable gas consumption from complex computation. Future programmability features (hooks, sidechains) may introduce new fee structures.
Cost Comparison: XRP vs ETH Per Transaction
A simple token transfer on Ethereum costs roughly $2–$20 in gas fees (2026 average). The same XRP-to-XRP transfer on XRPL costs $0.00002. For an ERC-20 token transfer, Ethereum gas is even higher. XRPL's equivalent issued currency (IOU) transfer also costs 10 drops, plus any issuer transfer fees — still far cheaper than ETH gas.
The Burn Mechanism: XRP vs ETH
Interestingly, both XRP and post-EIP-1559 Ethereum (launched 2021) burn a portion of transaction fees. Ethereum burns the "base fee" portion and pays the "priority fee" to validators. XRP burns 100% of all fees. This makes XRP's burn mechanism more deflationary per transaction, though Ethereum's much higher fees result in far greater absolute burn amounts.
