Resource Metering

Learn how Base measures transaction resource usage and how to set priority fees for reliable block inclusion.

Overview

Base uses resource metering to measure how much computation each transaction requires during block building. Three resources are tracked:

• Gas — total gas consumed by the transaction
• Execution time — wall-clock time spent executing the transaction in the EVM
• Data availability (DA) — compressed transaction size posted to L1

Each resource has a limited budget per block (or per flashblock). The block builder always includes transactions in priority fee order, but when demand for a resource exceeds capacity, lower-paying transactions are skipped for inclusion until capacity allows.

Resource metering affects you in two ways:

1. Transactions that consume excessive resources may be skipped for inclusion. If your transaction uses a disproportionate amount of execution time or DA relative to its gas usage, it may be skipped even if its gas-based priority fee would normally be sufficient.
2. You can query the recommended priority fee for your transaction. The base_meteredPriorityFeePerGas RPC method simulates your transaction and returns the priority fee needed to get included based on recent block congestion across all three resources.

Get a recommended priority fee

The base_meteredPriorityFeePerGas RPC method simulates a bundle of transactions and returns a recommended priority fee based on recent block congestion. It evaluates all three resource types independently and returns the highest fee across them.

Request

Send a JSON-RPC request with a single bundle object:

Example request

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "base_meteredPriorityFeePerGas",
  "params": [
    {
      "txs": ["0x02f86c..."],
      "blockNumber": "0x0"
    }
  ]
}

Bundle parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
txs	Bytes[]	Yes	RLP-encoded signed transactions (EIP-2718 envelopes)
blockNumber	quantity	Yes	Target block number (hex). Use 0x0 for the current block.
flashblockNumberMin	quantity	No	Earliest flashblock index for inclusion
flashblockNumberMax	quantity	No	Latest flashblock index for inclusion
minTimestamp	quantity	No	Earliest block timestamp for inclusion
maxTimestamp	quantity	No	Latest block timestamp for inclusion
revertingTxHashes	TxHash[]	No	Transaction hashes allowed to revert without failing the bundle
replacementUuid	string	No	UUID for replacing a previously submitted bundle
droppingTxHashes	TxHash[]	No	Transaction hashes to drop from the pool

Response

The response includes the priority fee recommendation alongside full bundle simulation results.

Top-level fields

Field	Type	Description
priorityFee	quantity	Recommended priority fee per gas (hex). This is the maximum across all resource types.
blocksSampled	integer	Number of recent blocks used for the estimate. 0 means no historical data was available.
resourceEstimates	ResourceEstimate[]	Per-resource fee breakdown
totalGasUsed	integer	Total gas consumed by all transactions
totalExecutionTimeUs	integer	Total EVM execution time in microseconds
stateRootTimeUs	integer	Time to compute the state root in microseconds
stateBlockNumber	integer	Block number used for simulation state
stateFlashblockIndex	integer	Flashblock index used for simulation state (omitted if not applicable)
results	TransactionResult[]	Per-transaction simulation results
bundleGasPrice	quantity	Effective gas price of the bundle
bundleHash	hash	Hash of the bundle
coinbaseDiff	quantity	Total change in sequencer balance
ethSentToCoinbase	quantity	ETH explicitly sent to the sequencer
gasFees	quantity	Total gas fees paid by the bundle

Resource estimates

Each entry in resourceEstimates describes the fee threshold for a single resource type.

Field	Type	Description
resource	string	Resource name: "gasUsed", "executionTime", or "dataAvailability"
thresholdPriorityFee	quantity	Minimum fee to displace enough lower-paying transactions to free capacity for the bundle
recommendedPriorityFee	quantity	Fee with a safety margin above the threshold
cumulativeUsage	quantity	Total resource usage of transactions that would remain included alongside the bundle
thresholdTxCount	integer	Number of higher-paying transactions that would be included alongside the bundle
totalTransactions	integer	Total transactions considered in the estimate

Transaction results

Each entry in results describes the simulation outcome for one transaction.

Field	Type	Description
txHash	hash	Transaction hash
fromAddress	address	Sender address
toAddress	address	Recipient address (null for contract creation)
gasUsed	integer	Gas consumed
gasPrice	quantity	Effective gas price
gasFees	quantity	Gas fees paid
coinbaseDiff	quantity	Change in sequencer balance from this transaction
ethSentToCoinbase	quantity	ETH explicitly sent to the sequencer
value	quantity	ETH value transferred
executionTimeUs	integer	Execution time in microseconds

Example response

Example response

{
  "priorityFee": "0x5f5e100",
  "blocksSampled": 12,
  "resourceEstimates": [
    {
      "resource": "gasUsed",
      "thresholdPriorityFee": "0x3b9aca00",
      "recommendedPriorityFee": "0x5f5e100",
      "cumulativeUsage": "0x1e8480",
      "thresholdTxCount": 5,
      "totalTransactions": 10
    },
    {
      "resource": "executionTime",
      "thresholdPriorityFee": "0x2540be400",
      "recommendedPriorityFee": "0x2540be400",
      "cumulativeUsage": "0xf4240",
      "thresholdTxCount": 8,
      "totalTransactions": 10
    },
    {
      "resource": "dataAvailability",
      "thresholdPriorityFee": "0x1",
      "recommendedPriorityFee": "0x1",
      "cumulativeUsage": "0x2710",
      "thresholdTxCount": 10,
      "totalTransactions": 10
    }
  ],
  "bundleGasPrice": "0x3b9aca00",
  "bundleHash": "0xabc123...",
  "coinbaseDiff": "0x4a817c800",
  "ethSentToCoinbase": "0x0",
  "gasFees": "0x4a817c800",
  "results": [
    {
      "txHash": "0xdef456...",
      "fromAddress": "0x1111111111111111111111111111111111111111",
      "toAddress": "0x2222222222222222222222222222222222222222",
      "gasUsed": 21000,
      "gasPrice": "0x3b9aca00",
      "gasFees": "0x4a817c800",
      "coinbaseDiff": "0x4a817c800",
      "ethSentToCoinbase": "0x0",
      "value": "0x0",
      "executionTimeUs": 150
    }
  ],
  "stateBlockNumber": 12345,
  "stateFlashblockIndex": 3,
  "totalGasUsed": 21000,
  "totalExecutionTimeUs": 150,
  "stateRootTimeUs": 80
}

Interpreting the response

The priorityFee field is the recommended value for your transaction’s maxPriorityFeePerGas. It reflects the highest recommended fee across all three resource types, so setting your priority fee to at least this value gives your transaction the best chance of inclusion.

To understand which resource is driving the fee, inspect the resourceEstimates array. The resource with the highest recommendedPriorityFee is the binding constraint on your bundle’s inclusion.

Scenario	priorityFee	blocksSampled	What it means
Normal congestion	> 0	> 0	Set your maxPriorityFeePerGas to at least this value.
Uncongested	Low value	> 0	Blocks have spare capacity. The returned fee is a floor value.
No historical data	0x0	0	The metering system does not have enough data yet. The bundle simulation results are still valid.

How the estimate works

The estimation runs in three stages:

1. Simulate the bundle

   Your bundle is executed against the latest pending state (including any in-progress flashblocks). This produces the bundle’s resource consumption: gas used, execution time, and DA bytes.

2. Estimate per block

   For each recent block (default: 12 blocks), the estimator evaluates each flashblock:

   • Transactions are sorted by priority fee, highest first.
   • For each resource, the algorithm walks down the sorted list, accumulating resource usage.
   • It stops when adding the next transaction would leave less remaining capacity than your bundle needs.
   • The last included transaction’s fee becomes the threshold — the minimum fee your bundle would need to displace it.
   • If all transactions fit with room to spare, the resource is uncongested and a default floor fee is returned.

   Execution time is a use-it-or-lose-it resource. Unused time in one flashblock does not carry over to the next. For this resource, transactions are aggregated across all flashblocks before running the estimation.

3. Aggregate across blocks

   For each resource, the median recommended fee across all sampled blocks is computed. The final priorityFee is the maximum across all three resources.

Errors

Error	Cause
Priority fee estimation not configured	The node does not have resource metering enabled.
bundle ... demand (...) exceeds capacity limit (...)	Your bundle’s resource consumption exceeds the block’s capacity for that resource. The bundle cannot fit in a single block.
Failed to parse bundle	One or more transactions in txs could not be decoded as valid RLP-encoded EIP-2718 envelopes.
Bundle metering failed	The simulation failed (for example, insufficient balance or invalid nonce).