Gwei
Gwei is a small denomination of ether used to price gas fees on the Ethereum network.
Gwei is a unit of ether (ETH), the native currency of Ethereum. One gwei equals 0.000000001 ETH, or one billionth of an ether. The name comes from “gigawei,” where wei is the smallest possible unit of ETH. Because Ethereum transaction fees are usually tiny fractions of an ether, gwei makes them easier to read and compare than long decimal amounts.
Gwei matters because gas prices on Ethereum are commonly quoted in gwei. Gas is the fee paid to validators for processing transactions and running smart contracts. For example, instead of saying a transaction uses gas priced at 0.000000025 ETH per gas unit, a wallet can display it as 25 gwei. When the network is busy, users may need to pay a higher gwei price to have transactions included sooner; when demand is lower, gas prices often fall. Gwei does not change what ETH is worth—it is simply a smaller measuring unit used for practical fee pricing.
Other terms in Ethereum
Account Abstraction (ERC-4337)
A way for Ethereum wallets to act like smart contracts, enabling features such as gas sponsorship, account recovery, and custom transaction rules.
Beacon Chain
Ethereum’s proof-of-stake coordination layer that organizes validators and finalizes blocks for the network.
EIP
An Ethereum Improvement Proposal is a formal document used to suggest, discuss, and standardize changes to the Ethereum network or ecosystem.
ERC-1155
An Ethereum token standard that lets one smart contract create and manage multiple token types, including fungible tokens, NFTs, and semi-fungible items.