Key Takeaways:
- The cost of creating an NFT can vary greatly depending on factors such as the blockchain used, file size, and network congestion, with fees ranging from a few cents to several hundred dollars
- Alternative blockchains like Solana, Cardano, and Polygon offer lower fees for minting NFTs compared to Ethereum, which is generally more expensive but offers a larger market and higher security
- NFT marketplaces may charge additional fees, such as listing fees and transaction fees, which can vary depending on the platform
How Much Does It Cost to Create an NFT?
The costs to create an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) can vary heavily on many factors and can range from a few cents up to several hundred dollars.
The common fee quotes will range between $0.05 and up to $200 for gas fees.
Network congestion on the blockchain mostly specifies this range. Another factor most people wouldn’t think of is that there are not only the fees you have to pay on the blockchain, but there are also marketplace fees.
As great as NFTs are, they could be a costly endeavor, especially if you plan an entire collection. You could have gas fees, listing fees or even your design could cost you depending on what your process is. You should, therefore, take all these fees into consideration.
Overall, you can create NFTs with low costs, but you could also get into a situation where you will have to pay an exorbitant amount of fees. We will expand on all the factors that impact your overall costs.
Contributing Factors for the Cost of Creating an NFT?
In the entire creation process of an NFT, you will face different fees.
There will be gas fees and listing fees. Gas fees for minting could start at nearly zero up to many hundreds of dollars. This depends on the activity on the network. Ethereum is the most common blockchain to mint NFTs.
Other blockchains like Solana or Polygon are built on top of Ethereum and use this blockchain, too. This blockchain has a mechanism to prevent spam attacks.
This mechanism adjusts the transaction fee depending on the network activity, so the more users use Ethereum, the higher the fees get.
If a hacker would spam the blockchain, the fees would get so high that it wouldn’t be profitable, but this can also lead to market phases, where you could face high fees. Typical scenarios are if crypto markets skyrocket and all people want to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.
In such times, you could even face fees up to $500 for a single NFT or transaction. You could save fees if you would go for an alternative blockchain like Polygon, Cardano or Solana. Another important fee you need to consider are listing fees.
This is the business model of NFT platforms. They provide you the marketplace and for every sale you pay them a percentage of your sale proceeds, typically something from 1% to 20%.
Understanding the blockchain costs and the fees marketplaces demand will allow you to make the best decision.
What is the Best Blockchain to Create an NFT and Reduce the Costs?
The best blockchain to create NFTs with low fees are alternative blockchains like Solana, Cardano or Polygon.
Their key advantage is that they offer lower fees than Ethereum to mint NFTs.
This makes them the first choice in terms of costs. Ethereum is the oldest blockchain that allows the creation of NFTs, but it is also the most expensive one. The price you pay comes with some advantages.
It is the biggest blockchain and the basis of many other Layer-2 solutions. It is the most-known and accepted blockchain and offers you the biggest market for your NFT projects with a high level of security because of its size.
With alternative blockchains, you won’t find them in any marketplace, which limits your marketplace options. Another disadvantage of alternative blockchains is that they are not as common and therefore fewer people could be potential buyers.
But overall, many of the alternatives are already established, so you have the option to go for another blockchain without problems.
What is the Minting Fee for NFTs on Each Blockchain?
Ethereum will probably be the most expensive option you can choose.
Fees can increase extremely if you want to mint in the tense market phases.
Many NFT creators, therefore, decide to mint their NFTs on another blockchain. Some of the most-known alternatives will provide you with cheaper fees.
You should note that all fees depend on network congestion and could increase if the markets go up again. As of Feb, 2023 the average costs are at:
- Ethereum: 0.002 ETH ~ $3.00
- Solana: 0.000065 SOL ~ $0.005
- Cardano: 0.17 ADA ~$0.06
- Polygon: free
- Binance: 0.005 BNB ~ $1.55
You should note that these are the base gas fees. Depending on the blockchain and the complexity of your transaction, like smart contracts for NFTs, the fees could be higher. Fees also will depend on the size of your NFT.
The bigger the file size, the more data is included. Transferring more data means needing more resources and therefore you need to pay higher fees.
But this overview shows that aside from Ethereum and Binance, all alternatives have similar fees, so your choice doesn’t need to depend on this factor. Polygon even allows transactions to proceed for free.
Do You Have to Pay to Mint an NFT?
Yes, you will have to pay for an NFT in most cases.
It will mostly depend on which stage you are in the creation process and how far you want to go with your NFT.
If you just create the image in the first step, this will cost you nothing. If you then want to mint an NFT from your image, then you will have to pay fees depending on the blockchain you choose.
They differ in fees and these differences get bigger the greater your file size is. The amount of fees always depends on the amount of data you have to transfer. If you create NFT art with a basic look, then this image file will have just a few kB in size.
This will let the costs stay at a minimum and is one of the best ways to save your transaction fees, especially if you plan an NFT collection of several thousands images. If your image will be complex with high resolution, the file size could be several MB in size.
This will lead to much higher fees. An entire NFT collection in this quality could cost thousands of dollars. After you mint your NFTs, you most likely will want to sell them to people.
This will need an account on an NFT marketplace. They will demand listing fees for every single NFT you offer as this is their business model.
Can You Create NFTs or an NFT Collection for Free?
Minting NFT even for free is possible if you choose the Polygon network.
Up to now, this is the only network in the NFT space to create your NFT for free.
This can be a good way to try creating your first NFT without spending money. The cost of creating NFTs can get pretty expensive and Polygon could be a perfectly suited network for beginners, which could also expand fast because of this feature.
If you don’t want to be limited to Polygon, you could take a less expensive blockchain like the Solana blockchain. It has one of the lowest costs to create NFTs and could be a great alternative if you don’t mind some NFT minting costs.
An NFT blockchain is not the only factor that affects the cost in terms of a free NFT. The moment you want to list your NFT, you need to create an account in a popular NFT marketplace.
Depending on which marketplace you choose, you will face different amounts of fees for listing the NFT you want to sell. At some marketplace you will further have the option for “lazy minting” which allows an NFT artist selling NFTs without upfront costs.
The fees for minting and listing will be only triggered at the moment of a sale. This way people don’t have to invest upfront for NFTs which maybe won’t be successful.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell an NFT on Opensea?
Creating one NFT on OpenSea will cost you 2.5% fee on the price you sell your NFT for.
This fee will only apply in case of a sale.
If you can’t sell your NFT, then you won’t have to pay any fee besides the fee for the actual minting. But this fee can be postponed because of the option of lazy minting. You will have to pay the fees only at the moment you actually sell something.
OpenSea is one of the biggest and most-known markets with fair fees and the option to choose between blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon or Solana and some more.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell an NFT on Mintable?
Mintable takes a 2.5% fee if you sell your NFT.
The cost of minting can vary depending on the blockchain you choose.
You have an option to mint for free in Mintable’s gasless store. This is a good alternative to save costs but limits your buyer’s group. If you want to create a printable series NFT, the sale fees go up to 10%.
You can mint your NFTs only on Ethereum and the Layer-2 Ethereum IMX, as Mintable is built directly on top of Ethereum.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell an NFT on Rarible?
Rarible takes only 2% fees, 1% each from the buyer and the seller.
Similar to OpenSea, you have a wider range of blockchains to choose from.
How much it costs to create your NFT depends on which blockchain you go for on Rarible. Your options are Ethereum, Solana, Polygon or Tezos. Rarible even wants to support more blockchains in the future.
The decision for a certain blockchain is important, as you cannot change the blockchain once you mint your NFT.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell an NFT on Superrare?
SuperRare differs from the other marketplaces in fee structure because of its SuperRare DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
How much it will cost to sell your NFT depends on if it is a mint sale or not.
A mint sale will cost you 15%. There are additional 3% sales fees which are paid by the buyer and increase your sales price about 3%. All following sales between people will account to 10% sales fee, which won’t address you as the creator.
The fees are higher because they are collected in the SuperRare DAO Community Treasury. You as the creator will always pay the mint fees, as this is the first sale of a minted NFT. All subsequent sales are secondary sales with the lower fee.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell an NFT on Binance?
Binance as one of the big players takes only 1% fee for a sale.
Binance is a crypto exchange compared to the other platforms, which are pure NFT marketplaces.
Therefore, you will find a greater amount of additional fees you will face. Another important aspect is that Binance offers its own blockchain called the “BNB Smart Chain” with its own currency BNB.
Besides it, you only have the option to use Ethereum to mint your NFTs. This will affect your minting fees. Binance will automatically deploy a smart contract if you mint NFTs with costs of 0.1 ETH or 0.03 BNB.
You further will have to pay a deposit fee if you want to transfer your money from the exchange into your wallet. These fees have no fixed values and depend on network traffic according to Binance.
FAQ
Can You Create Your Own NFT and Sell It?
Everyone can create their own NFT and sell it easily.
Creating NFTs is an exciting way to get involved in digital art for everyone.
As long as you can access a blockchain through the internet you can mint NFTs. The cost for it will vary heavily, but it’s also possible to start without upfront costs. Only in case you actually sell your NFT you will pay fees.
To create your first NFT, provide an original image. You will then have to mint it through an NFT marketplace where you also can list it for sale. After that, you can sell your NFTs.
These platforms are user-friendly and make it relatively simple so anyone can create an NFT with little knowledge.
NFT Minting: What is It?
NFT minting is creating an NFT on a blockchain.
It is just another term for creating NFTs.
Minting allows you to create an NFT from a general image file or any other type of file. This way you grant the file the ability to have a proof of ownership.
This gives the file value and makes it possible to trade it in a marketplace where people are ready to invest money in something which provides value. Minting an NFT is the process where the actual NFT is created, not the file itself.
If you create an image, then this is not minting. This is just the general process to create an image. If you have the ultimate image ready, then you can take it and add a token from a blockchain to it. This token will contain the information to prove its originality.
In this step, you mint an NFT. The minting is what will make an NFT from your file. The cost of minting NFT depends on the blockchain and the marketplace you choose. You can use blockchain options like Solana or Ethereum.
You will use an NFT marketplace to mint and list and NFT in the last step. This is the process if you want to sell your NFT.
Can I Avoid the Gas Fee for NFT Creation?
If you use a network like the Ethereum blockchain, where fees are paid as gas fees, then you will have to pay them.
Most other blockchains are built on top of Ethereum, so they also demand gas fees.
A solution to avoid gas fees is to use a blockchain like Polygon. This blockchain allows transaction without fees. This also means that you won’t have to pay any gas fees to create an NFT. If you don’t want to use Polygon, you will have to pay gas fees.
Another thing you can do is to minimize your minting costs, as you can influence them. Network congestion, market size and transaction times throughout the day will have a major impact on fees and can be optimized to reduce the costs further.
Conclusion: How Much Does It Cost to Create an NFT?
The cost of creating an NFT can vary significantly depending on various factors such as the blockchain platform, network congestion, file size, and marketplace fees. Ethereum is the most commonly used blockchain but tends to have higher fees compared to alternative blockchains like Solana, Cardano, and Polygon.
As long as you inform yourself diligently, you will know what costs you will have to face. Especially, if you’re starting out, you now know that you can create NFTs even for free and pay only in case of a sale.
Also try to consider the market size, the network activity and transaction times before you mint NFTs as these factors also will influence your costs.
