Paying with ETH: gas fees and how to avoid a short payment
Gas comes out of your wallet, not the payment, but mistakes still lead to underpaid orders. How to send ETH cleanly.
In this guide
Paying a checkout with ETH is straightforward once you understand gas. Gas is the fee for running your transaction on Ethereum, paid separately from the amount you send. Most problems with ETH payments come from mixing those two numbers up, or from setting gas so low that the transaction sits waiting. This guide explains both, with a routine for clean payments.
Two numbers, not one
When you send ETH, your wallet shows two amounts:
- The amount: the ETH that goes to the recipient. For a checkout, this must equal the amount the checkout page asks for.
- The network fee (gas): the ETH paid to the network to process the transaction. It leaves your wallet as well, but it never reaches the recipient.
Your wallet balance must cover both. If you have exactly the checkout amount and nothing else, the wallet will refuse to send or will suggest sending less, which leads to an underpaid order.
How gas is priced
Ethereum fees have two parts: a base fee set by the network according to how busy it is, and a priority fee (a tip) that encourages validators to include your transaction sooner. Wallets usually hide the details behind simple choices such as low, market and aggressive. A plain ETH transfer uses a small, fixed amount of gas; what changes is the price per unit of gas.
When the network is quiet, a payment costs very little and confirms within a minute or two. When it is busy, fees rise, and transactions with a low tip can wait. If you notice fees are unusually high, it may be cheaper to pay with a stablecoin on another network instead; see our network comparison.
Why ETH payments end up short
"Send max" with the fee taken out
Some wallets have a "max" button that sends your whole balance minus the fee. If your balance happened to equal the checkout amount, the fee is deducted from it and the payment arrives short.
Sending from an exchange that deducts its fee
Many exchanges subtract their withdrawal fee from the amount you type. Type the checkout amount and less arrives. Check whether the exchange shows "amount received" and adjust until it matches. This guide walks through typical exchange screens.
Rounding
ETH amounts have many decimal places. Paste the full amount from the checkout instead of typing a rounded version.
If a payment does arrive short, the order cannot become a card as it stands. Fixing an underpaid order explains the options.
When a transaction gets stuck
A transaction sent with too low a fee during a busy period may stay pending. Most wallets let you speed it up by resending with a higher fee, or cancel it by replacing it with an empty transaction. Do this only from the same wallet and only if the original is still pending. Sending a second, separate payment while the first is pending can result in paying twice.
Remember that the checkout quote has a time limit. If your transaction confirms after it expires, read what to do about an expired quote.
A clean payment, step by step
- Check your wallet holds the order total in ETH plus a margin for gas.
- Review the order receipt (balance, 15% on top, $5.00 per card) and continue to the checkout.
- Choose ETH on the checkout page and keep an eye on the quote timer.
- Copy the address and the exact amount. Paste both into your wallet.
- Pick a market or faster fee setting and confirm.
- Wait on the checkout page until it detects the payment.
Once the network confirms the transaction, the checkout reports it to us. Your order moves to "Pending review" and a person checks it. Paid orders are usually checked and issued within a few hours.
Security notes for Ethereum wallets
- Only send to the address shown on the checkout page for this order. Never reuse an old address.
- Compare the opening and closing characters of what you pasted with the checkout. Some malware quietly replaces copied addresses.
- A plain ETH payment never requires you to "approve" a token or sign a message. If a site asks for that during payment, stop.
For more on keeping wallets safe at checkout, see spotting fake checkout pages. The pricing page shows card totals.
A note on wallet types
Browser wallets, mobile wallets and hardware wallets all send ETH the same way, but they show fees differently. Hardware wallets ask you to confirm the amount and address on the device screen; read both there, because that screen cannot be altered by anything running on your computer. Mobile wallets often suggest a fee automatically; you can usually open an advanced view to see the base fee and tip separately. Whichever you use, the rule does not change: the recipient amount matches the checkout, and gas is extra.
Quick answers
Can I pay with ETH from a layer-2 network?
Only networks listed on the checkout page are supported. Sending from an unsupported network risks losing the payment.
Is gas included in the card price?
No. Gas is paid to the Ethereum network by your wallet. The card price covers the balance and our two fees.
What happens after the checkout confirms your ETH is covered on the how it works page.
BuyVCC Team
The people who review BuyVCC orders write these guides from the questions customers send us. Notice something outdated? Let us know.