How Much Does It Cost to Create an NFT These Days and How to Do It
NFTs have been around since 2014, but the world approached them with caution back then. They weren’t the best investment option until Pak sold his digital artwork ‘The Merge’ for nearly $92 million. This event garnered global attention and since 2021, in the ‘post Merge’ era, people have become globally interested in the NFT sphere, celebrities, and artists in particular.
2021 has become the year of breakthrough and creativity in NFT: a non-fungible token was no longer limited to a digital image or animation. Instead, creators started to think ‘out of the box,’ putting for sale their tweets, voice messages, and even virtual sneakers (like Nike did with their Cryptokicks collection).
This sphere is too vast to explore just in one article. However, we will try to shed some light on what NFTs are and answer the popular question ‘How much does it cost to make an NFT?’ to help you see how to enter the sphere of non-fungible art and if you can afford it. So follow this short guide to find it out.
How Much Does It Cost to Make an NFT and What Steps Should You Take?
Until NFTs were introduced, it was quite a traditional activity to trade assets and usual practice. Nowadays, it remains relevant, but with NFTs, it has become easier to define and prove ownership of digital items, whether a virtual image or a game property. Moreover, encryption technology made it safe. In other words, NFTs act as digital certificates of ownership for assets, which concern anything from photos and videos to virtual land and images.
Making NFTs is called minting in the blockchain terminology. In fact, the procedure is very simple and only includes a few steps:
Step 1. Creating a digital asset.
This can be a digital image or anything else, – a unique artwork that will be the future NFT.
Step 2. Uploading the NFT to the marketplace of your choice.
A user needs to upload this image to the chosen marketplace and mention metadata: its main properties, name, and description.
Step 3. Listing the NFT for sale.
This is the last step when you can display the token for other people to purchase it.
Ok, but this doesn’t answer ‘How much does it cost to create an NFT and list it for sale?’ Let us explain it. The cost will usually depend on several factors such as:
- the cost of blockchain
- the fee that the chosen marketplace charges from your account
- listing fee
- gas fee
If you’re a beginner and think that the most popular blockchain (Ethereum) would be a perfect option, don’t swing into action because, in reality, the Ethereum blockchain is the most expensive one. The reason is that it is a Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain and its validation method for confirming blockchain transactions is expensive.
Look for alternatives such as Solana or Binance Smart Chain. This is highly important because the main cost of making an NFT is the fee of the blockchain. In addition, a Polygon blockchain lets you make NFTs free of charge (this phenomenon is called ‘lazy minting,’ or minting off-chain) as NFTs are created not on the main blockchain, and the user only pays a fee when this NFT is purchased.
The latter might also depend on the ‘rush hours.’ How much does it cost to create an NFT project on a loaded blockchain, then? For instance, if you try to make your token on the Ethereum blockchain at a busy time, you risk paying a few hundred dollars worth of blockchain fees.
How Much Is an NFT Fee and Minting Costs
The previous paragraphs gave you a partial answer to how much is an NFT. But let us look at each fee respectively, one by one.
- Gas fee.
This fee is charged to pay for the transaction to take place on the blockchain. This fee is formed according to how much the particular blockchain needs. The gas fee is taken for a number of activities on the ledger: buying NFTs, minting NFTs, accepting bids, listing NFTs for sale, and delegating ownership.
- Listing fee.
Since each marketplace is different and may charge a fee or not for listing an item for sale, the cost you pay can vary. It will be for free if you are lucky enough, but some may require a fee for listing the item.
- Account fee.
NFT marketplaces also take some fees for themselves. However, when you register a marketplace account and tie it to your crypto wallet, this fee is only charged at the start. Popular places to use if you are after a user-friendly interface and simplicity include OpenSea, Mintable, and Rarible. They are also great as they give you a choice of how much to pay for NFT creation (giving a choice between several blockchains).
So, how much does it cost to list an NFT for sale? As you can see, this is the key cost included in the process of making and listing an NFT, and it will be different for all blockchains, which might offer different speeds of transactions, minting time, gas fees, etc.
How Much Does an NFT Cost on Solana Blockchain
It is natural to be interested in a cheaper method of NFT creation if you are just starting a career as a digital designer. How much does an NFT cost on Solana? So, an average sum that the SOL network takes for mining NFTs is 0,00001 SOL, or 0,0000026 USD as of the time of writing (July 2022).
The Solana blockchain relies on the Proof of Stake (PoS) and Proof of History (PoH) protocols. PoS allows any miner to validate transactions on its blockchain, whereas PoH is responsible for recording each message’s time. These two mechanisms make the network a reliable option as it provides a convenient NFT creating an experience, recording over 65 thousand transactions per second, compared with Ethereum’s 15 max.
However, the ever-costly blockchain Ethereum is not targeting the transition from the Proof of Work protocol to the Proof of Stake model, which is expected to cut down the transaction costs significantly.
How Much Does It Cost to List an NFT: Wrapping Up
The topic we covered in this short article relates to the blockchain a user chooses, the number of NFTs they want to launch, and other factors. So, the relevant answer to the question ‘How much does it cost to create an NFT collection?’ will depend on the blockchain and its parameters. This factor will determine if you list your NFTs for zero fees, maximum or minimum fees.
Whether you are about to leverage an NFT collection for your personal growth or do a business out of it, it is time to take the first steps and try one of the available blockchains to know firsthand how it works.
Hopefully, this 5-minute read has given a bit more clarity to the topic ‘How much does it cost to launch an NFT project?’ and our advice will come in handy when you dare to try your hand in the NFT sphere to promote your own art project.