How to increase gas fees for stuck transactions on MetaMask? (Speed Up)

Understanding Stuck Transactions

1. A transaction becomes stuck when its gas price is too low relative to current network congestion levels on Ethereum or EVM-compatible chains.

2. MetaMask displays such transactions as “Pending” indefinitely if miners or validators do not prioritize them for inclusion in a block.

3. This situation occurs frequently during spikes in network activity, especially when users set manual gas limits or fail to adjust fees dynamically.

4. The Ethereum mempool acts as a queue—low-fee transactions linger until higher-priority ones clear or gas prices drop significantly.

5. Users cannot cancel or modify a transaction once it is broadcast unless they replace it using the same nonce with a higher fee.

Locating the Pending Transaction

1. Open MetaMask and click the account icon in the top-right corner to access the main interface.

2. Select “Activity” from the sidebar menu to view all recent and pending transactions.

3. Identify the stuck transaction by its status label—“Pending” appears next to the relevant entry.

4. Hover over or click the three-dot menu adjacent to the transaction to reveal contextual options.

5. Choose “Speed Up” only if the transaction has not yet been confirmed; this option is disabled for confirmed or failed entries.

Executing the Speed Up Function

1. Clicking “Speed Up” triggers MetaMask to pre-fill a new transaction with the same recipient address, amount, data, and nonce.

2. The interface automatically suggests a higher gas price based on real-time network conditions, but users may manually increase it further.

3. Adjusting the “Max fee per gas” and “Max priority fee per gas” fields allows precise control over competitiveness in the mempool.

4. Confirming the revised transaction sends a replacement with identical parameters except for elevated fees and identical nonce.

5. Miners will discard the original low-fee version upon detecting the newer, higher-paying one sharing the same nonce.

Gas Fee Mechanics Behind Speed Up

1. Ethereum’s EIP-1559 introduced dual-fee components: base fee (burned) and priority fee (paid to validators).

2. The Speed Up feature recalculates both values using live estimates from third-party providers like EthGasStation or Blocknative APIs integrated into MetaMask.

3. A successful speed-up requires the new transaction’s max fee to exceed the original’s by at least 10%—a threshold enforced client-side.

4. If multiple speed-ups are attempted, each subsequent replacement must increment the max fee beyond the prior replacement’s value.

5. Transactions using legacy gas pricing (pre-EIP-1559) are converted internally to EIP-1559 format during speed-up processing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I speed up a transaction on Polygon or BSC using MetaMask?Yes. MetaMask supports Speed Up on any EVM-compatible chain where the underlying RPC provider returns accurate gas estimates and mempool visibility.

Q: What happens if I click Speed Up but the new transaction also gets stuck?The replacement transaction remains pending. You may repeat the Speed Up process again, ensuring each new max fee exceeds the previous attempt’s value by at least 12.5%.

Q: Does speeding up cost additional ETH beyond the original transaction amount?Yes. The gas fee difference between the original and replacement transactions is paid separately. The token transfer amount remains unchanged.

Q: Why does MetaMask sometimes show “Not enough ETH for gas” after clicking Speed Up?This indicates insufficient ETH balance to cover the newly calculated gas cost. Users must deposit additional ETH before confirming the replacement.