Median Transaction Fee

The median is the value at the midpoint of the fee distribution, so half of confirmed transactions paid less and half paid more. It is far less sensitive than the mean to a handful of very expensive transactions. It is the better figure for describing what an ordinary transaction cost during the period.

How it is computed

the 50th percentile of fees paid across all transactions confirmed over the trailing 24 hours, converted to US dollars

Where it misleads

Robustness to outliers comes at the cost of describing only the typical transaction, which on most chains is a simple transfer, so the median materially understates what a token swap, a bridge deposit or an NFT mint actually cost in the same period. On chains carrying large volumes of near-zero-fee spam, the median is pulled toward zero while real users paid far more at the same moment. It hides congestion entirely: the median can look steady on a day when the priority-fee market spiked for several hours and ordinary users were priced out. Comparing medians across chains compares medians of completely different workloads.

Reading a high or a low value

A higher value means the midpoint transaction cost more during the period and a lower value means it cost less. A large gap between the median and the mean indicates a small number of transactions paid very high fees.