You've learned what gas fees are and how they're calculated. Now comes the practical part: how to actually save money on every transaction you make. The difference between a novice and an expert Ethereum user often comes down to understanding when and how to execute transactions efficiently.
Haven't read Part 1 yet? Check out my introduction to gas fees and how they work to understand the fundamentals before diving into these optimization strategies.
Let's explore the proven strategies that can cut your gas costs by 50-90% without compromising transaction security or speed
Strategy 1: Master the Art of Timing
Weekends: Saturday and Sunday typically see 20-30% lower gas fees as business activity decreases.
Off-peak hours: Between 2 AM and 6 AM UTC, when both American and European users are asleep, gas prices often drop significantly.
Avoid these high-traffic periods:
NFT mint launches
Major DeFi protocol updates
Market crash periods (panic selling drives up demand)
Weekday mornings (8-10 AM UTC)
You can use trackers like:
Pro tip: Set up gas price alerts on your phone. When prices drop below your target threshold, that's your window to execute pending transactions.
Strategy 2: Batch Processing
Why send 10 separate transactions…
When you can send one batch?
Batching reduces overhead, saves time, and lowers gas.
Let’s explore 3 Ethereum standards that enable powerful batching:
1) ERC-3005: Batched Meta Transactions - https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-3005
This standard lets users combine multiple actions into one meta transaction.
Example:
Approve token
Swap on DEX
Send output to wallet
All in one call, reducing gas and relayer fees.
Great for:
Wallet apps
Gasless UX
Relayer-backed platforms
2) ERC-7821: Minimal Batch Executor - https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7821
This one’s about delegations and shared execution.
Think of it like batching multiple on-chain delegations, such as:
Voting
Staking
DAO participation
With atomic execution, if one part fails, nothing gets through so it keeps safe and predictable.
Perfect for:
DAO tools
Governance app
Delegation-heavy protocols
Example scenario: You want to withdraw from a liquidity pool, swap the tokens, and deposit them into a yield farming protocol. ERC-7821 ensures all these operations happen atomically, preventing scenarios where only part of your strategy executes
3) ERC-4393: Batch Micropayments - https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4393
When you need to make multiple small payments, ERC-4393 shines. This standard enables multiple tips or payments in a single transaction call.
Use case: Tipping multiple content creators or making several small purchases. Instead of paying gas fees for each micropayment, you pay once for the entire batch
Strategy 3: Wait for gas to go down
Gas prices go up and down every twelve seconds based on how congested Ethereum is. When gas prices are high, waiting just a few minutes before making a transaction could see a significant drop in what you pay.
Strategy 4: Use Layer 2 Solutions
Layer 2 solutions like zkSync, Arbitrum, and Optimism reduce gas fees by up to 95%. By bundling a large number of transactions together, these solutions reduce the number of on-chain transactions.
Popular options:
Arbitrum
Optimism
Base
Polygon (PoS)
Many dApps are now L2-ready. Just bridge your ETH once, and you’re good to go.
Wrap-up
Ethereum gas fees aren’t going away, but you can outsmart them with:
Good timing
Layer 2 networks
Batched transactions using ERC-3005, ERC-7821, and ERC-4393
Wait for the gas to go down
What’s next?
While timing and batching strategies can dramatically reduce your transaction costs, the next frontier in gas optimization lies in smart contract efficiency. In Part 3, we will explore advanced Solidity techniques that developers use to minimize gas consumption at the code level.
