eth_estimateGas on Story
Everything below was measured on 2026-10-13 by calling eth_estimateGas on Story through the same endpoint customers use, and is re-measured weekly.
What eth_estimateGas does
Runs a transaction against current state and returns the gas it would use, so you can set a gas limit. If the transaction would revert or the sender cannot pay, the node returns an error instead of a number.
eth_estimateGas on Story: what we measured
| Zero-value DATA transfer to an EOA | 21,000 gas |
|---|---|
| Same on Ethereum | 21,000 gas |
| 1 wei from an empty account | failed with 16777216 gas: insufficient funds for gas * price + value: address 0x202e679E8f995883592b28FFAbaa96178445AfE2 have 0 want 1 |
What the numbers mean
A plain transfer estimates at exactly 21,000 gas on Story, as on Ethereum. Contract calls vary with state, so estimate those rather than hard-coding a limit.
An estimate for a sender that cannot pay fails with: "failed with 16777216 gas: insufficient funds for gas * price + value: address 0x202e679E8f995883592b28FFAbaa96178445AfE2 have 0 want 1". Your app sees this text when a user's balance is too low, so match on it to show a clear message.
Chains where a transfer is not 21,000 gas
Of the 53 chains we measure, 6 estimate a plain transfer at something other than 21,000 gas.
Example request
curl -s https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/story?key=YOUR_API_KEY \
-X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_estimateGas","params":[{"from":"0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000","to":"0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD","value":"0x0"}]}'import { createPublicClient, http } from "viem";
const client = createPublicClient({
transport: http("https://rpc.swiftnodes.io/rpc/story?key=YOUR_API_KEY"),
});
const gas = await client.estimateGas({ account: from, to, value });
// Add headroom: state can change between estimate and inclusion
const gasLimit = (gas * 120n) / 100n;Other methods on Story
- eth_blockNumberSupported
- eth_chainIdSupported
- eth_getBalanceSupported
- eth_getBlockByNumberSupported
- eth_getTransactionByHashNot measured
- eth_getTransactionReceiptNot measured
- eth_callSupported
- eth_gasPriceSupported
- eth_maxPriorityFeePerGasSupported
- eth_sendRawTransactionSupported
- eth_getTransactionCountNot measured
- eth_getCodeSupported
- eth_subscribeSupported
- eth_getLogsSupported
- eth_getBlockReceiptsSupported
- eth_feeHistorySupported
- eth_getProofSupported
- eth_createAccessListSupported
- debug_traceCallNot available
- trace_blockNot available
- trace_transactionNot available
eth_estimateGas on other chains
- Ethereum
- Base
- Arbitrum
- Optimism
- Polygon
- BNB Smart Chain
- Avalanche
- Sonic
- Linea
- Scroll
- zkSync Era
- Blast
- Mantle
- Gnosis
- Celo
- Berachain
- Monad
- Unichain
- Kaia
- PulseChain
- World Chain
- Ronin
- Abstract
- ApeChain
- MegaETH
- Fantom
- Lisk
- Hemi
- X Layer
- BOB
- Plasma
- Fraxtal
- Zora
- Soneium
- Sei
- Hyperliquid
- Taiko
- Morph
- Ink
- Katana
- Ethereum Classic
- opBNB
- Mode
- Flare
- Core
- Chiliz
- Telos EVM
- Tempo
- Cronos
- Manta Pacific
- Shibarium
- Boba Network
- Arbitrum Nova
- Immutable zkEVM
Frequently asked questions
Does Story support eth_estimateGas?
Yes. eth_estimateGas answered on the SwiftNodes Story endpoint when our weekly probe called it through the customer path (2026-10-13).
How much gas does a plain transfer use on Story?
eth_estimateGas returned 21,000 for a plain transfer on 2026-10-13.
What does "insufficient funds for gas * price + value" mean from eth_estimateGas on Story?
The sender's balance cannot cover the value plus the gas. Fund the account or lower the value; the have and want figures in the message are in wei.
Story endpoints, live block height and WebSocket status are on the Story RPC page.
One key covers every chain we serve, and SwiftNodes has a free tier.