Gateway Fees

Fees for using Circle Gateway vary based on several factors, including the source blockchain where USDC is being transferred from and the size of the transaction. Each transfer includes a base fee that covers the gas costs incurred during the burn process on the source chain. In addition to these network-related costs, a percentage-based fee is applied based on the transaction size to support operational and infrastructure needs.

Gateway fees are charged in USDC and collected onchain at the time of the burn from the user's unified USDC balance. This mechanism ensures that USDC minted on the destination chain is exactly equivalent to the USDC that has been requested, and also exactly matches the amount of USDC that is burned on the source chain.

Gateway fees can be dynamically retrieved using the API before executing the transaction. Applications must query the Gateway API to fetch the current fee rate and apply it before submission.

Transfers where the source and destination domains are the same do not incur the percentage-based fee, as these are treated as instant withdrawals from the Gateway smart contract without invoking crosschain functions.

To support early adopters and encourage adoption, Circle is offering a promotional rate of 0.005% (half a basis point) on all instant crosschain transfers. This promotional fee structure reflects Circle's commitment to providing low-cost access to instant, non-custodial USDC transfers across multiple blockchains.

As the Gateway network continues to scale and mature, this promotional pricing may be revised. Users and partners maintaining high volume and balances during the promotional period may be prioritized for eligibility to extend the promotional pricing beyond the standard window. This consideration reflects Circle's intention to reward early participation and meaningful engagement with Gateway.

If you have further questions about the current fee structure or would like to discuss long-term pricing options, reach out to Circle directly via the Discord support channel or your Circle account representative.

Excluding the percentage-based fee charged by Circle for using Gateway, network fees affect both the base fee charged by Circle and the cost of executing the mint onchain using the attestation provided by Circle. Generally, the overall gas cost increases linearly with the number of sources (burn intents) involved in a transfer.

The gas cost of using an attestation for a single-source transfer is comparable to the cost of a CCTP V2 mint. Each additional source chain (burn intent) involved in the transfer adds approximately 60k gas to the mint transaction, which scales more slowly than the cost of the equivalent set of CCTP transfers. Hook data incurs a cost of roughly 16 gas per byte for both the mint and the burn.

For reducing overall gas costs, it may be preferable to keep the majority of Gateway funds on low-cost chains, so that the base fee for the burns Circle charges for is cheaper.