Understanding Swap Fees: What You Actually Pay
Every swap carries a network gas fee and a protocol fee. Learn how AEXI compares gas costs across chains and routes around expensive networks — from $0.01 L2 swaps to optimized Ethereum paths.
Two Costs in Every Swap
Every swap comes with two separate charges. The network gas fee goes to validators for including your transaction in a block. The protocol fee goes to the DEX or aggregator executing the trade.
They behave nothing alike. Gas swings with network congestion; protocol fees are mostly stable percentages. Knowing which is which tells you where the money actually goes.
Gas Fees by Chain, Roughly
The spread across networks is wide. Ethereum mainnet: $2-50, depending on how congested it is. Arbitrum: $0.05-0.50, consistently. Base: $0.01-0.10, among the cheapest around.
Polygon runs $0.001-0.01 — essentially nothing. Optimism sits near Arbitrum at $0.05-0.30. BNB Chain lands $0.05-0.20, and Solana is $0.001-0.01 with sub-second finality.
Where AEXI Saves You Money
AEXI does not just hunt the best rate — it hunts the cheapest total cost. That includes gas, swap fees and slippage.
A concrete example: swapping ETH on Ethereum can be routed through Arbitrum, and if the combined bridge-and-swap cost undercuts a direct Ethereum trade, AEXI will show that route first.
Quotes refresh in real time before every swap, so the number you confirm is the number you pay.
Cutting Fees Further
Trade on L2s. Arbitrum, Base and Polygon run 10-1000x cheaper than Ethereum mainnet.
Trade at off-peak hours — weekends and late UTC evenings, when US markets are closed, tend to see the lowest gas.
Batch what you can. Several swaps on the same network avoid repeated bridge fees.
And lean on stablecoins where they are cheap: USDC on Base transfers for fractions of a cent.
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