What BTC fee should I use?
Last updated
Last updated
The low/medium/high fee is an estimation by Freewallet when setting a BTC fee and is based off of average send size that is calculated at the time you create the action in Freewallet. It is recommended to always use the High setting, or input a Custom fee even higher than that! This average fee estimation is just an estimation of the most recent block on the Bitcoin network and can vary from block to block.
If using Counterparty is the first time you have manually set BTC fees for a manual transaction, make sure you are patient and educate yourself on the timespan it takes the Bitcoin Miners and Network to confirm your transaction. The average time for each Bitcoin block of transactions to be confirmed is about 12 minutes but in the past confirming blocks have taken 2 hours or more for even just one confirmation. In the screenshot below, Freewallet will also let you know how recently this information was updated as this will affect the fee estimations.
It is very important to understand what Satoshi per Virtual Byte (sat/vB) amount you are looking to place as a fee on each transaction you do with Freewallet. A good place to view this fee information for the BTC blockchain is https://mempool.space/
To get a better historical understanding of how fees have looked in the recent or distant past, look over this infographic below:
Below is a great example of this process and a specific use case in video form, which was made by Robotlovecoffee and is a great informational resource to learn about BTC fees in Freewallet:
If you need the transaction to go through as soon as possible it is always good practice to use the High fee setting, though the “High” setting may not be high enough for some users so it is recommended to educate yourself on average fee size of the time of send. If you'd like to 'just be safe' and get this transaction done 'no questions asked' it is possible to set a custom fee higher than the one recommended to you. Two to Three times the estimated 'High' amount, in most cases, is more than enough for priority.
Take note that the $USD or Currency conversion is an estimate and it is ultimately your responsibility to set the correct fee at the time you send your transaction with the information stated above.
If you felt you used too small of a fee (or "high" setting did not end up being high enough for you) and urgently need to "increase the fee" of a previous sent transaction, please reference the Help! I used too small of a fee and my transaction is not confirming!