gas fees

Manta Pacific uses ETH as its gas token. This page explains what gas pays for, why Manta Pacific can keep transaction costs low by design, and what to check before bridging or using assets on L2.

What Gas Pays For

Gas is the network fee paid to process a transaction. On Manta Pacific, gas is paid in ETH, even when the asset being transferred is a token such as USDC.

You need ETH on the network where the transaction starts:

Action	Where gas is paid	Notes
Deposit from Ethereum to Manta Pacific	Ethereum L1	The deposit transaction starts on Ethereum, so the wallet pays Ethereum gas.
Transfer assets on Manta Pacific	Manta Pacific L2	The transfer is an L2 transaction, so it requires ETH on Manta Pacific.
Withdraw from Manta Pacific to Ethereum	Usually starts on Manta Pacific, then completes through the rollup exit flow	Withdrawal flows can involve more than one transaction. Review each wallet prompt before confirming.
ERC-20 approval	The network where the approval is submitted	Approvals are separate transactions that authorize a contract to move a token.

For the general Ethereum gas model, see ethereum.org's gas and fees documentation.

ETH Is the Gas Token

Manta Pacific uses ETH for gas. Bridging a token to Manta Pacific does not automatically give you ETH for future L2 transactions unless ETH is the asset you bridged.

For example, if you bridge USDC to Manta Pacific, you receive USDC on Manta Pacific, but you still need ETH on Manta Pacific to send that USDC, approve it for an app, or interact with a smart contract.

Keep enough ETH on Manta Pacific for the transactions you plan to make. Gas estimates change with network activity and transaction complexity, so always verify the live wallet estimate before confirming.

Why Manta Pacific Can Be Low-Cost

Manta Pacific is a modular Ethereum L2. It uses OP Stack execution and Celestia data availability, as described in What Is Manta Pacific?.

At a high level, L2 costs are influenced by:

Cost area	What it means
Execution	The work needed to run the transaction or smart contract call on the L2.
Data availability	The cost of publishing transaction data so it can be accessed for verification.
L1 settlement and bridging	Costs related to the rollup's connection back to Ethereum, especially for deposits, withdrawals, and finalization paths.

Celestia is built as a data availability layer, meaning transaction data can be published to a layer specialized for making data available rather than using Ethereum L1 as the only data publication venue. This modular design can reduce the data publication cost component for an L2, which is one reason Manta Pacific transactions can be lower-cost than comparable L1 activity.

For background on the underlying architecture, see the OP Stack documentation and Celestia's data availability documentation.

Gas vs. Bridge Fees

Gas fees are not the same as bridge fees.

Fee type	What it covers
Gas fee	The network cost of submitting and executing a transaction.
Bridge fee	Any bridge-related fee or route cost shown for moving assets between networks.
Token approval gas	The gas paid for a separate ERC-20 approval transaction, when required.

See Bridge Fees for the broader fee components that may appear during a bridge transaction.

Before You Confirm

Before submitting a transaction, check:

1. The selected network and direction.
2. The asset and amount.
3. Whether the action is a deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or approval.
4. The live gas estimate in your wallet.
5. Any bridge-related fee details shown in the interface.

Do not rely on static fee examples. Gas prices, route costs, and confirmation conditions can change over time.