What Is Fee Rate (sat/vB)?
Fee rate, measured in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), represents how much you're paying per unit of transaction data. It's the primary metric miners use to prioritize transactions from the mempool when building blocks.
Understanding Virtual Bytes
Virtual bytes (vBytes) account for the SegWit discount, where witness data takes up less block weight. A transaction's total fee is calculated as: fee rate × transaction size in vBytes.
Key Concepts
Fee Market Dynamics
Fee rates fluctuate based on network demand. During high activity, you need higher sat/vB rates for timely confirmation. During quiet periods, lower rates suffice.
Most wallets automatically suggest appropriate fee rates based on current mempool conditions. Advanced users can manually set rates using tools like RBF to adjust after broadcasting if needed. Understanding fee rates helps optimize both cost and confirmation speed.
Quick Facts
- •Measured in satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB)
- •Higher fee rate = faster confirmation
- •Fee rates fluctuate with network demand