# Gas and fees explained

> The difference between gas and a fee, and why QRL Legacy and QRL 2.0 charge transaction fees in completely different ways.

People use the words **"gas"** and **"fee"** as if they're the same thing. They're not. And to make it more confusing, QRL's two chains charge fees in completely different ways. This guide untangles both — first gas vs fee, then [QRL Legacy](/learn/glossary#qrl-legacy) vs [QRL 2.0](/learn/glossary#qrl2).

## Gas vs fee: work vs money

The simplest way to keep them apart is a fuel analogy:

| Term | Analogy | What it really is |
|---|---|---|
| **[Gas](/learn/glossary#gas)** | Litres of fuel a trip burns | How much *work* a transaction needs |
| **Gas price** | Price per litre | What you pay *per unit* of work |
| **Fee** | The total bill | The *money* that leaves your balance |

So the one line to remember:

> **Gas is an amount of work. A fee is an amount of money.**

They're linked by a multiplication:

```
fee = gas used × gas price
```

A plain transfer does little work, so it uses little gas; a smart-contract call does more work, so it uses more gas. Either way, the **fee** is just that gas multiplied by the price per gas.

One crucial caveat before we go further: **gas only exists on QRL 2.0.** It's an [EVM](/learn/smart-contracts-on-qrl2) concept. That's exactly why the two chains differ.

## QRL Legacy: a fee is just a fee

[QRL Legacy](/learn/glossary#qrl-legacy) is the original Proof-of-Work chain. It has **no smart contracts** — only a fixed set of [transaction types](/learn/blocks-and-transactions) — so every transaction does roughly the same, predictable amount of work. There's nothing variable to meter, so there's **no gas**.

Instead you pay a simple, flat-style **fee** directly in [shor](/learn/units-shor-quanta-planck), and that fee goes to the **miner** who produces the block.

> On QRL Legacy: **fee = fee.** There is no gas, no multiplication, and nothing is burned.

## QRL 2.0: the fee is built from gas

[QRL 2.0](/learn/glossary#qrl2) is the EVM-compatible Proof-of-Stake successor. Because it runs arbitrary smart contracts, it *must* charge by how much work you do — hence gas. It uses the modern **EIP-1559** fee model (the same one Ethereum uses), where the **gas price** has two parts:

> On QRL 2.0: **gas price = base fee + tip**, and **fee = gas used × (base fee + tip)**.

- **Base fee** — set automatically by the protocol based on how full recent blocks are (it rises when the network is busy, falls when it's quiet). The base fee is **permanently burned** — destroyed and removed from the total [supply](/learn/qrl-tokenomics-and-supply) forever.
- **Priority tip** — an optional extra you add to jump the queue. The tip goes to the **validator** who includes your transaction.

So on QRL 2.0 two things happen to your fee that never happen on Legacy: the price moves with demand, and a chunk of every fee (the base fee) is **burned** rather than paid to anyone.

## Side by side

| | QRL Legacy | QRL 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Gas? | No | Yes (EVM work meter) |
| Fee model | Flat fee | `gas used × (base fee + tip)` |
| Price moves with demand? | No | Yes ([EIP-1559](/learn/smart-contracts-on-qrl2)) |
| Who gets paid | Miner | Validator (the **tip** only) |
| Base fee | — | **Burned** (removed from supply) |
| Paid in | [shor](/learn/units-shor-quanta-planck) | [Quanta](/learn/units-shor-quanta-planck) |

## Why the burn matters

Because QRL 2.0 burns the base fee of every transaction, heavy usage actually *removes* coins from circulation. On a busy chain this can offset — or even outpace — new issuance, making fees a genuine part of the supply story. You can watch this directly on the [gas & fees dashboard](/gas) and the [fee-burned chart](/charts/fee-burned). QRL Legacy has no burn, so its fees never affect supply.

## Where to go next

- [Gas & fees dashboard](/gas) — the live numbers behind this article.
- [QRL Legacy vs QRL 2.0](/learn/qrl-legacy-vs-qrl2) — the full two-chain comparison.
- [Units: Shor, Quanta and Planck](/learn/units-shor-quanta-planck) — the units fees are paid in.
- [Tokenomics and supply](/learn/qrl-tokenomics-and-supply) — how the burn fits the bigger picture.