Which chain is cheapest to send on right now

A gas price only becomes money when you multiply it by how much gas the transaction uses and by what the native token is worth. Fifty gwei on a chain whose token costs a few cents is nothing; five gwei on Ethereum is not. That is why this page shows dollars per transfer rather than a wall of gwei numbers. Sorted cheapest first, because the useful question is usually not "what is gas on Ethereum" but "where should this transfer go today".

Sending the native coin uses a fixed 21,000 gas. Sending a token is a contract call and costs roughly two to three times more, and more still the first time a recipient ever receives that token.

• Plain transfer: the floor price of doing anything on a chain.
• Token transfer: what moving a stablecoin actually costs there.
• Both move with congestion - a quiet hour can be several times cheaper than a busy one.

A layer-2 that costs a fraction of a cent still needs its native token in your wallet before you can move anything. That is the most common reason a first transaction on a new chain fails: the balance is there, the gas is not.

Why does your number differ from my wallet?

Wallets add their own safety margin and quote at the instant you press send. This page shows the base fee plus a median priority tip, which is closer to what a transaction actually clears at - a base-only figure would read as nearly free on the chains that have no base fee at all. Each row prints both parts so you can see where the number comes from.

Is a cheaper chain always the right choice?

Only if the person or service receiving the funds supports it. A correct address on the wrong chain is the most expensive way to save on gas.