Want to create your own non-fungible token but don’t know where to start? Before diving into the world of selling NFTs on an NFT marketplace, it’s important to understand the cost of minting and other upfront costs involved.
So, how much does it cost to create an NFT?
NFT minting costs can vary depending on the NFT marketplace and blockchain you use and whether the network congestion cases may be present on the network. Minting an NFT on Ethereum, the most popular blockchain for NFTs, usually involves paying gas fees, which can be quite expensive.
Along with listing fees and transaction fees, your total NFT minting costs could range from $0.01 to $1000.
However, thanks to a process called “lazy minting NFT” and gasless marketplaces (marketplaces that do not charge transaction fees), there are now ways to mint NFTs for free! This guide will break down the costs associated with creating and minting NFT, and explore your options for NFT minting without any cost.
Source: Freepik
Ethereum has the highest gas fees, while blockchains like Solana and Cardano offer cheaper alternatives.
Marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible allow you to list an NFT without NFT minting until it’s purchased, so you won’t have to pay transaction costs upfront.
To create an NFT for free, mint it on the Polygon network or use a marketplace that offers gasless or lazy minting options.
Source: Freepik
When you mint an NFT on a blockchain, you’ll often need to pay transaction fees known as a “gas fee.” A gas fee is determined by how busy the blockchain is at the moment you mint your NFT. The higher the demand, the higher the gas fee. Additionally, the larger the transaction, the more gas you’ll need to execute it.
To reduce your upfront cost, mint your NFT on a blockchain with lower fees. Ethereum, the most popular blockchain for NFTs, has higher gas fees for the NFT creation process compared to blockchains like Solana and Cardano.
Many marketplaces now offer ways of minting NFTs without paying a gas fee. Check out our list of options for making an NFT for free.
Some NFT marketplaces charge platform fees to list your NFT collection for sale, but most popular marketplaces now take a percentage of your sales (typically around 2.5%) instead of charging flat marketplace fees fee upfront.
While this isn’t as common as it used to be, some NFT marketplaces charge an initial platform fee when you create an account to sell your NFT projects. However, most popular NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, Magic Eden, and MakersPlace, offer free accounts to NFT creators.
Source: Freepik
Lazy minting, a feature offered by some popular NFT marketplaces, allows you to list NFTs with no upfront costs. Instead of paying gas fees to mint your NFT, you can upload the NFT to the marketplace without minting it to a blockchain right away. The NFT won’t be minted until someone buys it, and at that point, the buyer will pay the gas fees.
OpenSea offers an option to mint and list NFTs, as well as an entire NFT collection, without paying any costs to create NFT collections, including minting NFT costs or other associated costs. To publish NFTs for free, you’ll need to use the Collection Manager.
Rarible also offers a lazy minting option. After connecting your wallet, just click Create, fill out your NFT details, and choose the Free Minting option.
Lazy minting is the most common way to list NFTs for free, but it’s not the only way. Instead of listing an NFT without minting it until the sale, you can add your NFT to your crypto wallet, making this digital asset available on the Ethereum blockchain immediately. Neither the seller nor the buyer will ever have to pay gas fees for creating an NFT.
Mintable was one of the first “gasless” NFT marketplaces, offering a completely free publishing experience on the Ethereum blockchain. When creating your NFT in Mintable, just select Gasless to avoid paying the cost of minting.
Curate is another gasless platform that offers an option of minting an NFT on Ethereum without paying the minting cost. They plan to support Solana, Algorand, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche blockchains in the future.
Source: Freepik
One of the easiest ways of minting an NFT is to use a popular NFT platform and marketplace.
Go to the OpenSea marketplace and connect your crypto wallet by clicking on the top right wallet icon. OpenSea supports many Ethereum wallets, including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and Fortmatic.
We will demonstrate how to use OpenSea with MetaMask, but you can use any wallet you prefer. After selecting your wallet, follow the steps to confirm the connection to OpenSea.
Since most successful NFTs are part of a collection, it is recommended to mint NFTs for a collection instead of a single NFT.
Click on your account icon (top-right) and select “My Collections.” Click on “Create a Collection” to start a new NFT collection on OpenSea. On the Create a Collection page, you will need to add details about your NFT collection, including:
For creating an NFT collection, click on “Create”.
After creating an NFT collection, you can start adding items to it. On the collection page, click on “Add Item” (top-right). On the Create New Item page, specify the details for your new NFT, including:
Once all details are filled in, click “Create” to create the NFT. Note that while your NFT is now created, it won’t be visible on the Explore page until you list your digital asset for sale.
To benefit from your digital art, you need to list your NFT for sale and find the right buyers for your collection. This part can be challenging as artists need to develop the right marketing strategies and approaches to successfully sell their first NFTs.
New artists will have to pay two fees on OpenSea. First, you will need to initialize your account to create NFT, which can cost between $70 and $300, depending on the gas fee on the Ethereum network at the time of the transaction.
Secondly, OpenSea access is granted to your NFTs via a transaction costing between $10 and $30, again depending on gas fees.
After these steps, you will have successfully learned how to mint an NFT on OpenSea.
While we have recommended some important marketplaces for minting NFTs, these are just suggestions. Everyone who wants to mint NFT should decide for themselves which marketplace is the best choice. There is no right or wrong choice.
Hopefully, NFT crypto investors will soon be able to bridge across all available blockchains with low fees that will reduce upfront costs, enjoying all the benefits of the decentralized blockchain world in general and the NFT space specifically.
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