Ethereum’s Glamsterdam Upgrade Will Change the 21,000 Gas Rule for ETH Transfers

Ethereum’s long-standing assumption that a basic ETH transfer always requires 21,000 gas is set to change with the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, potentially affecting wallets, blockchain explorers and Ethereum fee estimation tools.

The Ethereum Foundation has warned developers and infrastructure providers to update software that treats 21,000 gas as a fixed cost for sending Ether (ETH). Gas measures the computational work required to process transactions on Ethereum, with users paying the corresponding network fee in ETH.

Currently, a standard ETH transfer consumes 21,000 gas regardless of whether the recipient is an existing Ethereum account or a completely new address. Glamsterdam will introduce a distinction between the two.

Transfers to accounts already recorded in Ethereum’s state will continue to cost 21,000 gas. However, sending ETH to an address that has never previously appeared in Ethereum’s records will require additional resources because the network must create and permanently store a new account.

Under the proposal, creating that account will incur an additional 183,600 units of “state gas,” a new gas category designed to better reflect the long-term storage burden placed on the Ethereum network.

The change could have significant implications for cryptocurrency infrastructure. Wallets commonly rely on the 21,000-gas figure when determining how much gas to attach to ETH transfers, while blockchain services may use the number to identify and categorize transactions. Applications that assume 21,000 gas represents both the minimum and maximum for a basic transfer could reject legitimate transactions or underestimate required fees.

Ethereum developers are giving infrastructure providers time to identify compatibility issues before Glamsterdam reaches mainnet. The upgrade is scheduled to activate first on Platåberget, an Ethereum test environment using tokens with no real-world value. Testing will later expand to the Sepolia and Hoodi testnets before the changes are deployed on Ethereum mainnet.

Regular ETH holders do not need to take immediate action. For now, the warning primarily targets wallet developers, exchanges, blockchain data providers and other services that depend on Ethereum’s traditional 21,000-gas assumption.