Key takeaways
- The sender pays. Every USDT or USDC transfer pays a network fee from the sending wallet, and receiving costs nothing on the blockchain.
- The fee is paid in the network's own token, not in the stablecoin: ETH on Ethereum and Base, TRX on Tron, SOL on Solana. A wallet that holds only USDT can't send it without help.
- The fee depends on the network and the work the transfer does, not the amount. A first transfer to an address that has never held the token costs more.
- Someone else can pay it: a provider can sponsor the fee, and Align pays the network fee on USDC and USDT sent from an AlignPay balance.
The short answer
The sender pays. A USDT or USDC transfer is a transaction on a blockchain, and the wallet that sends it pays the network's fee, in the network's own token: ETH, TRX, SOL, POL or AVAX. The person receiving the payment pays nothing on the blockchain to get it.
What the fee costs depends on the network, how busy it is and whether the recipient has held the token before. A business can avoid holding those tokens at all by using a provider that pays the fee for it.
What the fee is paid in
On the networks Align supports, as of October 2026:
| Network | Fee paid in | What sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | ETH | The gas the transfer uses, times the gas price: a base fee set for each block, which is burned, plus a tip to the validator |
| Base | ETH | An execution fee on Base plus a fee for publishing the transaction to Ethereum; Base's docs say the second is usually larger |
| Arbitrum and Optimism | ETH | The gas used on the network, times its gas price |
| Tron | TRX, or staked or delegated energy | Energy for the contract call and bandwidth for the transaction's size, with a surcharge of up to 4.4 times on heavily used contracts such as USDT's |
| Solana | SOL | A base fee of 5,000 lamports (0.000005 SOL) per signature, plus an optional priority fee |
| Polygon | POL | The gas used, times the gas price |
| Avalanche | AVAX | The gas used, times the gas price |
The stablecoin itself never pays the fee. On Tron, an account can get energy by staking TRX or by having another account delegate it; without either, it burns TRX. Our live stablecoin fee tracker shows what one transfer costs on each network right now.
Why a first payment costs more
A transfer to an address that has never held the token has more to do, because the network has to create a balance for it:
- Tron: a USDT transfer used 130,285 energy to a new address and 64,285 to one that already held USDT when we measured on 22 October 2026, so the fee roughly doubles. See USDT on Tron.
- Ethereum: 63,995 gas instead of 46,455 for USDT, because writing a new balance costs more than updating one. See USDT on Ethereum.
- Solana: the recipient needs a token account for USDT, and the sender usually funds it with the rent-exempt deposit for that account. See USDT on Solana.
So the first payment to a new supplier or contractor costs more than the ones after it. That's normal, not a mistake.
Who pays when a provider is involved
- Exchanges set their own withdrawal fees, which can be higher or lower than the network fee at the time. Compare the two before you choose where to send from.
- Payment processors can include it. Stripe's pricing page lists gas sponsorship as part of its 1.5% fee for stablecoin payments, as of October 2026.
- Smart-contract wallets on Ethereum and other EVM networks can use paymasters under ERC-4337, which, in the standard's words, "can sponsor transactions for other users".
- Align pays the network fee on USDC and USDT sent from an AlignPay balance, so you don't need to hold or top up ETH, TRX or SOL. A deposit into your account from an outside wallet is still paid for by the wallet that sends it. See the stablecoin business account.
If you're paying many people, the per-transfer fee adds up quickly, and so does topping up network tokens in each wallet. Which network to use for USDT and USDC compares the networks on cost and finality.
Sources
- Ethereum.org, Gas and fees (accessed October 2026)
- TRON, Resource model: energy and bandwidth and Paying for resources and the dynamic energy model (accessed October 2026)
- Solana, Fees (accessed October 2026)
- Base, Network fees (accessed October 2026)
- Ethereum Improvement Proposals, ERC-4337: Account abstraction using alt mempool (accessed 29 October 2026)
- Stripe, Pricing (accessed 29 October 2026)
- Align, stablecoin fee tracker: transfer measurements of 22 October 2026
Common questions
- Does the recipient pay a fee to receive USDT or USDC?
- Not on the blockchain: the network fee is paid by the wallet that sends the transfer. An exchange or payment provider can still charge its own fee to credit a deposit or to pay it out, so check its price list.
- Why can't I send USDT from a wallet that has USDT in it?
- Because the network fee is paid in the network's own token. On Tron, a wallet with no staked or delegated energy pays by burning TRX, and the USDT itself can't pay the fee. On Solana every transaction pays its fee in SOL. Keep a small balance of that token next to the stablecoin, or use a provider that pays the fee for you.
- What happens if a transfer fails?
- The fee can still be charged. Ethereum.org notes that gas is charged even if the transaction fails, and on Tron a transfer that needs more energy than its fee limit fails with OUT_OF_ENERGY, with the energy already used still charged.
- Is the fee higher for a larger payment?
- No. On Ethereum the fee is the gas the transfer uses times the gas price, so it's the same for $10 and $10 million. The same holds on the other networks Align supports: the fee follows the work the transfer does, not its value.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules and providers' terms change; check the sources linked above and take advice on your own situation.