# What are Gas Fees?

As an artist, you want to sell your artwork or accept payment for your services. However, you may have noticed that when you conduct a transaction on a blockchain, you need to pay a small fee in order to complete the transaction. These fees are known as "gas fees," and they play a crucial role in the functioning of a blockchain.

You see, a blockchain is like a digital ledger that records all of the transactions that take place on it. But in order to make sure that these transactions are secure and accurate, they need to be processed by multiple computers on the network. And just like how a car needs fuel to run, these computers need a little bit of "gas" to power the transaction. The cost of this gas is the gas fee.

<figure><img src="https://1480526110-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FYyFCj6EPwkJhogUskDnu%2Fuploads%2Fa7qiyqGOb0HDsANQmfRC%2FGas.jpg?alt=media&#x26;token=f0593abd-5f9b-4489-8358-ebeb0d1df737" alt=""><figcaption><p>Etherscan Gas Tracker</p></figcaption></figure>

{% embed url="<https://etherscan.io/gastracker>" %}
Current Gas Prices on Ethereum
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