What is Gwei and How is Gas Calculated in Ethereum?
Gwei is a denomination of the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH), used on the Ethereum network to denote gas prices. The name itself is a contraction of "giga-wei", representing 1,000,000,000 wei. Because typical gas prices are a fraction of a single Ether, quoting them in Gwei is far more convenient than quoting them in ETH (which would involve many leading zeros).
Calculating Gas Fees
Gas on the Ethereum network is calculated by multiplying the gas limit by the gas price. The gas limit is the maximum amount of computational work you are willing to pay for a transaction to be executed. The gas price (now composed of a base fee and a priority fee or tip) is what you pay per unit of gas, typically measured in Gwei.
For example, if a standard transfer requires a 21,000 gas limit and the base fee is 20 Gwei with a priority fee of 2 Gwei, the total cost would be: 21,000 * 22 Gwei = 462,000 Gwei (or 0.000462 ETH).