Ethereum Foundation Warns: 21,000 Gas Won’t Be Enough for New Addresses, 183,600 Extra Gas Required

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade will change the 21,000 gas rule by creating additional costs for ETH transactions sent to new addresses.

Ethereum’s upcoming upgrade will eliminate the long-standing fixed assumption regarding ETH transfer fees. While the fee for sending to an existing account will remain at 21,000 gas, it is proposed to add 183,600 state gas if a transfer is made to an address never before seen on the Ethereum network.

The Ethereum Foundation, in a published blog post, warned wallet developers, blockchain tracking services, and fee calculators to update their software. Gas measures the computational work required to perform a transaction on the network, and users pay this cost in ETH. For years, many software applications have operated under the assumption that a basic ETH transfer consumes 21,000 gas in all cases.

Glamsterdam upgrade changes gas fees

State gas refers to the cost of creating a new network record that Ethereum must store permanently. While a transfer to an existing account only updates balances already present on the network, sending to a new address creates a new record that the network will maintain permanently. Therefore, software that considers the 21,000 gas value as both the floor and the ceiling may undercalculate fees or reject valid transactions.

The testing process for Glamsterdam will begin on Thursday with the Platåberget network, which uses worthless test tokens. The upgrade will then be tested on the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets, respectively, before being moved to the Ethereum mainnet.

Ethereum users do not need to take any action or change any settings this week. The warning is directed at companies developing wallet and infrastructure software that must ensure ETH transfers are correctly priced.