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Glamsterdam upgrade ends flat 21,000 gas for new ETH addresses

Transfers to never-before-used addresses will require an extra 183,600 units of state gas, while payments to existing accounts stay at 21,000 gas.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

CoinDesk reports that Ethereum’s next major upgrade, Glamsterdam, will remove the long-standing assumption that a basic ETH transfer always costs a flat 21,000 units of gas. Under the change, sending ETH to an existing account will still require 21,000 gas, but transfers to addresses that have never been used before will add 183,600 units of new “state gas.”

Ethereum developers said the shift will require wallet providers, blockchain trackers, and fee calculators to update any software that hardcodes 21,000 as both the minimum and maximum gas for ETH transfers. They warned that systems treating the value as fixed could reject valid payments or quote fees that are too low.

According to the reporting, the extra charge reflects the additional network work of creating and permanently storing a new account record when the recipient address has not appeared in Ethereum’s records. Paying an existing account adjusts balances the network already tracks, while paying a fresh address adds storage the network may need to hold.

Developers noted that Glamsterdam is expected to switch on Thursday on Platåberget, a practice environment intended for developers to test updates safely before changes reach mainnet.

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