<p>A good way to answer your question would be to find a transaction on the Cardano mainnet and see how much it cost.</p>
<p><a href="https://cardanoscan.io/tokentransactions" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="CardanoScan Explorer">Cardano Scan</a> has a great lookup tool to see all token transactions</p>
<p>I picked a <a href="https://cardanoscan.io/transaction/f1586f854063466acde03a758f46f24a984b49447077ca32283a7ca1dc1946ee" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="random transaction">transaction at random</a> which contained the transfer of a single native asset.</p>
<p>This shows that there were:</p>
<ul>
<li>16.0 Ada of Inputs</li>
<li>A fee of 0.234405</li>
<li>&quot;Change&quot; of 14.265595 sent back to the sending address</li>
</ul>
<p>This means a total transaction &quot;cost&quot; of 1.734405</p>
<p>That cost consists of:</p>
<ul>
<li>The fee of 0.234405</li>
<li>A minimum Ada cost of 1.5</li>
</ul>
<p>There are a few good references to understand how these costs are derived, as it depends on <a href="https://docs.cardano.org/native-tokens/faqs/#transactingwithnativetokens" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Cardano parameters for NFT transactions">Cardano parameters</a> but hopefully this example gave you an idea of the cost.</p>
<p>If you want to port your application across to Cardano, there is a great Technical Dev Guide you can use <a href="https://developers.cardano.org/docs/native-tokens/minting-nfts" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Minting Cardano NFTs">specific to minting NFTs</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe <a href="https://pool.pm/addr1q88zjqfkeryg5pc99m2yclxj39ll6uhsafplx6gqrwenthhznzapjp75qlegy80m2cjcakeqcgew74sqx0qs9hmy030s8h4g5s" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Pool Tool NFT Viewer">the NFT</a> will be worth more now that it is in a stack exchange answer!? :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-27T15:58:15.400Z
Ouch, that pretty much halts any hopes I had for moving onto Cardano.  I am not saying Cardano is expensive, I was just hoping it would be a little less so.  Thank you for your help on this!
wellssea
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-27T11:27:15.197Z
2021-08-27T11:27:15.197Z
spirois
<p>Note that the minimum ADA cost isn't a fee. You can ask the NFT buyer to send the minADA with his request, and you send him back the NFT + minADA. Costs on Cardano are deterministic, so you should be able to calculate the minADA required for a specific NFT.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-27T15:59:44.370Z
Thank you for this, I was not aware of this fact.  Ok, so the 1,5 ADA can be sent back and forth, and the fee is only 0.23 ADA (in the above use case).  However, this unfortunately is still very expensive for using ADA for something like access control, we could hardly expect customers to pay 0,23 ADA for doing something simple like granting vehicle access to others.  Then again, this will be even more, as it will be interacting with a smart contract, and the above fees are only for moving NFTs... I wonder how expensive smart contracts will be to use... Thanks again!
wellssea
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-28T15:59:31.517Z
It should be possible to do this for no cost in an hydra head when hydra will be available.
regisg
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-27T15:13:00.060Z
2021-08-27T15:13:00.060Z
regisg
<p>I have a project underway using private Eth network (zero tx costs) where NFTs transfer ownership very frequently between various owners.  I wish to move to Cardano for its completeness and security but am concerned about the TX fees for attempting to accomplish this.  Can we presently calculate the price of transferring ownership of an NFT?</p>

<transaction><nft><cost>
What is the cost (in ADA) of transferring ownership of NFTs?
# What is the cost (in ADA) of transferring ownership of NFTs?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-08-27)

I have a project underway using private Eth network (zero tx costs) where NFTs transfer ownership very frequently between various owners. I wish to move to Cardano for its completeness and security but am concerned about the TX fees for attempting to accomplish this. Can we presently calculate the price of transferring ownership of an NFT?

**Tags:** transaction, nft, cost

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-08-27. Score: 1

A good way to answer your question would be to find a transaction on the Cardano mainnet and see how much it cost.

[Cardano Scan](https://cardanoscan.io/tokentransactions "CardanoScan Explorer") has a great lookup tool to see all token transactions

I picked a [transaction at random](https://cardanoscan.io/transaction/f1586f854063466acde03a758f46f24a984b49447077ca32283a7ca1dc1946ee "random transaction") which contained the transfer of a single native asset.

This shows that there were:

* 16.0 Ada of Inputs
* A fee of 0.234405
* "Change" of 14.265595 sent back to the sending address

This means a total transaction "cost" of 1.734405

That cost consists of:

* The fee of 0.234405
* A minimum Ada cost of 1.5

There are a few good references to understand how these costs are derived, as it depends on [Cardano parameters](https://docs.cardano.org/native-tokens/faqs/#transactingwithnativetokens "Cardano parameters for NFT transactions") but hopefully this example gave you an idea of the cost.

If you want to port your application across to Cardano, there is a great Technical Dev Guide you can use [specific to minting NFTs](https://developers.cardano.org/docs/native-tokens/minting-nfts "Minting Cardano NFTs").

Maybe [the NFT](https://pool.pm/addr1q88zjqfkeryg5pc99m2yclxj39ll6uhsafplx6gqrwenthhznzapjp75qlegy80m2cjcakeqcgew74sqx0qs9hmy030s8h4g5s "Pool Tool NFT Viewer") will be worth more now that it is in a stack exchange answer!? :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Ouch, that pretty much halts any hopes I had for moving onto Cardano.  I am not saying Cardano is expensive, I was just hoping it would be a little less so.  Thank you for your help on this!  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-08-27. Score: 0

Note that the minimum ADA cost isn't a fee. You can ask the NFT buyer to send the minADA with his request, and you send him back the NFT + minADA. Costs on Cardano are deterministic, so you should be able to calculate the minADA required for a specific NFT.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you for this, I was not aware of this fact.  Ok, so the 1,5 ADA can be sent back and forth, and the fee is only 0.23 ADA (in the above use case).  However, this unfortunately is still very expensive for using ADA for something like access control, we could hardly expect customers to pay 0,23 ADA for doing something simple like granting vehicle access to others.  Then again, this will be even more, as it will be interacting with a smart contract, and the above fees are only for moving NFTs... I wonder how expensive smart contracts will be to use... Thanks again!  
> **username_2**: It should be possible to do this for no cost in an hydra head when hydra will be available.  

---

