How much does it cost to create an NFT?

If you choose the right platform and the right blockchain, creating an NFT can be virtually free!

On Hodl My Moon, there are no minting fees and gas fees on the Polygon blockchain are less than a cent.

Minting this NFT cost us $0.0062 USD

In the following video, we mint an NFT on Hodl My Moon in 57 seconds.

There was no minting fee and we paid a gas price of 0.006907 MATIC, which at the time of writing is $0.0062 USD.

@hodlmymoon Minting an Xmas #nft on Hodl My Moon in 57 seconds. #nftcommunity #nfts ♬ All I Want for Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

What costs do I definitely have to pay?

At the time of minting an NFT you will have to pay a transaction fee to the maintainers of the blockchain called gas.

Dapps, like Hodl My Moon, do not receive this fee.

What does crypto have to do with gas?

Gas is the fee you pay to conduct a transaction on a blockchain.

Gas prices depend on the blockchain, and some blockchains, like Ethereum, can have high gas fees.

If you pick the right blockchain, gas is not expensive.

Are Polygon gas fees cheaper?

Yes. Polygon gas fees are cheaper than Ethereum.

In fact, gas usually costs less than a cent on Polygon and Solana (another blockchain).

Gas on Ethereum on the other hand can cost tens to hundreds of dollars if you transact on a busy day in a bull market!

Do crypto gas prices fluctuate?

Yes. Gas fluctuates depending on how busy the network is.

During the last bull market, some Ethereum users would stake or unstake their ETH at quieter times of the day to avoid eroding any profits they had made.

You can also voluntarily pay more gas to speed up a transaction.

Transactions are extremely fast on Polygon though, so you won't need to speed them up.

What's a blockchain transaction?

When you mint an NFT, a transaction takes place to update the state of the blockchain.

You see, your NFT lives on the blockchain, which is like a big shared programmable database or network.

And, as we mentioned to make changes to this database you pay gas to the maintainers of the network.

Do you have to pay dApps a fee for minting?

Aside from gas, some DApps may charge a fee to use their minting facility.

If there is a fee, it will be shown when you are prompted to confirm the transaction screen by your crypto wallet.

This practice isn't as common as it used to be though.

For example, Hodl My Moon, Rarible and Opensea do not have a minting fee.

So, how much money do I need to mint an NFT?

If you mint on Hodl My Moon and the Polygon blockchain you will need less than a cent.

If you mint on Ethereum, you will need tens to hundreds of dollars.

How do I pay to mint the NFT on Polygon then?

You will pay that transaction fee with a cryptocurrency called Matic.

Matic is the native currency of the Polygon blockchain.

You can obtain Matic :

  • from a cryptocurrency exchance like Coinbase or Binance.
  • using you crypto wallet. (many wallets now support buying cryptocurrencies direcly from the wallet)
  • by asking a friend to send you some

What about gasless minting?

Some platforms have allowed 'gasless' or 'lazy minting'.

This works a bit like drop shipping.

You give the platform your content for the NFT to store in their database.

They then list your "NFT" on their marketplace and if someone buys it they'll mint a real NFT with the content you gave them beforehand at the time of the sale.

That's good isn't it?

If you only care about selling, and the blockchain you want to use has high gas fees, then it's an option I guess.

If you want to actually own an NFT though, and share it on other NFT platforms then you should mint it at creation time.

More so, if the blockchain you use charges less than a cent for gas, like Polygon, then it makes little sense to defer minting.

How do I get started?

If you've watched the video above, you can see minting on Hodl My Moon is very quick, easy, and virtually free (less than a cent).

Join us to mint you first, or next, Polygon NFT today!