What is the cost of creating an NFT?
Let’s look at how much it costs to create an NFT on a marketplace. There are two primary possibilities, and which one you choose is up to you and your project’s plan.
Anyone can create an NFT, and accounts on all main platforms, including as OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable, are simple to set up. The other good news is that when minting an NFT, all of these platforms provide at least two, if not more, blockchains to choose from.
The cost of minting NFTs is determined by the blockchain used.
The Ethereum network is the most popular blockchain for NFTs since it was the first programmable blockchain to facilitate the registration of digital objects. Today, though, creators have more options, including Polygon and Solana.
Most developers still prefer Ethereum because it was the first blockchain to support NFTs, and as a result, it is the most popular.
Ethereum, on the other hand, is now undergoing major changes that will shift the network's consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake. Transaction fees will decrease and transaction speeds will increase as a result of this update. The update should be completed by the end of 2022, according to the developers. Until then, all Ethereum transactions must be meticulously planned. It's always a good idea to keep an eye on the current ETH gas fee on a site like ETH Gas Station. We'll go over the three most popular blockchains for minting NFTs and their implicit costs in order to help you analyze and answer the question "How much does it cost to create an NFT?" We'll go over the three most popular blockchains for minting NFTs and their implicit costs in order to help you analyze and answer the question "How much does it cost to create an NFT?"
On Polygon, NFTs are being minted.
Using the most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, digital artists can mint NFTs on the Polygon blockchain. If you don't currently have an OpenSea account, follow these instructions to create an NFT. The good news is that if you choose the Polygon network for your NFT, you can mint and list it for free. You won't have to pay anything to start mining NFTs on Polygon. This is feasible because when you choose to mint an NFT on Polygon, the platform employs the sluggish minting option by default.
After the NFT is first sold, the platform charges a 2.5 percent service fee, which is taken from the selling price. Another thing to bear in mind is that selling is a two-way street price which will be in ether (ETH), although you are using the Polygon network.
On Solana, we're minting NFTs.
Solana is the second most popular blockchain for NFTs after Ethereum, with several new projects being established every day. Solana is a cost-effective alternative for minting NFTs, especially given the high Ethereum gas tax.
It's worth noting that minting NFTs on the Solana blockchain necessitates the use of a Solana-compatible wallet, such as Phantom. To mint your NFT, you can use one of Solana's prominent NFT marketplaces, such as SolSea, SolanaArt, or Magic Eden. So, how much does creating an NFT on the Solana blockchain cost? You just have to pay the Solana transaction fees for each on-chain activity, so the costs are modest.
Note that minting an NFT on the Solana blockchain will incur three blockchain transactions — two approval transactions for minting and another one for setting the price when listing the NFT. Each transaction, however, costs roughly 0.00045 SOL, which was the fee when we tested the minting process on SolSea. A transaction charge of $0.04 at a price of 1 SOL = $95. The overall cost of minting an NFT on the Solana blockchain is 0.00135 SOL, which includes three transaction fees on the network. The NFT minting cost will increase to $0.12 in January 2022, at a price of $95 per SOL.
Minting NFTs on Ethereum
As previously said, Ethereum is the most widely used network for NFT mining. Because it was the first platform to allow them, most NFT investors resort to Ethereum, even though it is no longer the only NFT blockchain. What does it cost to construct an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, though?
Experienced investors may recall instances when a single NFT minting cost more than $50–$100, depending on the time of day and the price of ETH. However, this is no longer the true, and popular NFT marketplaces have discovered a means to avoid the costs. On the Ethereum blockchain, developers can now mint NFTs fully for free.
If you want to mint an NFT on Ethereum, you can use any of the most popular marketplaces, such as OpenSea, Rarible, or Mintable. After you’ve connected your wallet, you can create a new NFT, and during the process, you can select between regular or lazy minting. Here’s the key option when it comes to the cost of creating your NFT on Ethereum.
Regular minting
The cost of minting an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain varies depending on the time of day, day of the week, and current ethereum price (ETH). When we tried to mint an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain using OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable at the time of our tests, the gas fee ranged from 0.0468 to 0.0616 ETH ($59 to $123, putting the price of 1 ETH at $2,490), regardless of the NFT's listed price. If you wish to list your NFT on Ethereum, there is another alternative that does not require developers to pay any upfront minting fees.
Lazy minting
Lazy minting allows NFT artists and creators to mint their NFTs without any upfront costs. When choosing lazy minting, the process of actually registering your NFT on the blockchain doesn’t take place until the NFT is purchased. In this case, the selling price of the NFT covers the cost of the minting fee. Effectively, the buyer is responsible for minting the tokens, not the NFT creator.
With lazy minting, NFT creation happens later, reducing the need for computational power as only sold NFTs experience minting. The solution is available on the most popular NFT marketplaces to allow all digital artists and NFT creators to increase exposure. They can use lazy minting and create an NFT on the Ethereum network for free.
Conclusion...
The outcome of this investigation is that creating an NFT does not cost a lot of money. In reality, if you choose a popular platform like OpenSea, Rarible, or Mintable and enable the slow minting option, it can be absolutely free. On the most popular blockchains, minting NFTs has never been easier (or cheaper). The only issue is: what will be the subject of your next NFT collection?
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