Filecoin Gas Fees vs Arweave Storage Fees: Cost Structure

Dynamic gas fees for deals and proofs: Transaction costs fluctuate with network demand, similar to Ethereum. This matters for active data lakes requiring frequent updates, retrievals, or on-chain proofs. The storage cost itself is a fixed, negotiated rate with storage providers.

Single, upfront payment for perpetual storage: Pay once to store data for a minimum of 200 years, funded by an endowment. This matters for archival use cases like NFT metadata, static web apps, or historical records where you want guaranteed, immutable access without recurring bills.

Best for data with a changing lifecycle. If you need to frequently update, verify, or expire datasets (e.g., decentralized video streaming logs, active scientific data), Filecoin's gas model supports these on-chain operations. Integrates with IPFS for content addressing and tools like Lighthouse.storage for simplified deals.

Best for "write-once, read-forever" assets. The economic model guarantees long-term persistence, making it ideal for NFT metadata (Solana, Ethereum via Bundlr), dApp frontends, and permanent document storage. Protocols like Bundlr Network and ArDrive simplify the upload process.

Pay-as-you-go gas model: Fees are paid per transaction (deal-making, sector sealing) and fluctuate with network demand. This can lead to significantly lower costs during low-activity periods. This matters for high-volume, ephemeral data or cold storage where you can schedule deals strategically.

Gas fee volatility: Costs can spike during network congestion, making long-term budgeting difficult. Requires active management and monitoring tools like Filscan or Filfox. This matters for enterprise applications requiring predictable OpEx or protocols with automated, frequent storage operations.

Upfront, permanent storage: Pay a single fee based on current AR price and data size to store data for a minimum of 200 years. Eliminates recurring costs and gas fee management overhead. This matters for NFT metadata, permanent archives, and foundational dApp assets where cost certainty is critical.

Large upfront capital: The one-time fee can be substantial for large datasets compared to Filecoin's incremental costs. No deletion/refunds: The model is optimized for permanence, not data churn. This matters for applications with mutable data or teams with limited initial capital for storage provisioning.

Predictable, upfront cost: Pay once for permanent storage. For example, storing 1GB permanently costs ~$5-10 upfront (AR token price variable). This is ideal for NFT metadata, dApp frontends, and archival data where long-term cost certainty is critical.

Dynamic, usage-based pricing: Pay continuous gas fees for on-chain deals, proofs, and retrievals. Storage deals are priced per TiB/month (~$0.0015/TiB), but network congestion can spike gas. Best for large-scale, cold storage backups and datasets with flexible budgets.

No cost to access data: Once stored, data can be fetched by anyone at any time without additional fees. This enables high-performance dApps and public data lakes where frequent, cost-free access is a requirement, unlike some L2 solutions with data availability fees.

Multiple fee layers: Costs include initial pledge collateral, ongoing gas for Proof-of-Spacetime (PoSt), and potential retrieval fees. This complexity suits enterprise storage clients using tools like Lotus or Textile but adds operational overhead for simple use cases.