TL;DR:
- The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade includes a set of gas repricings. EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 (both scheduled for inclusion) adjust the cost of creating and accessing state so that gas prices more accurately track the real work each operation takes.
- Replaying historical mainnet transactions under the new schedule shows that a small set of smart contracts rely on assumptions the new schedule shifts, which may lead to these contracts breaking or degrading without preventative updates.
- Most flagged issues are fixed with a gas-limit increase, and the large majority of smart contracts are unaffected. Direct outreach to the most-affected builders is already underway.
- Check whether your L1 smart contract will be affected at ethereum.github.io/repricing-impact/ and test fixes on the Platåberget testnet (glam-devnet-8).
Background
Two EIPs implement the repricing, adjusting the cost of creating and accessing state so that gas prices more accurately track the real work each operation takes:
- EIP-8037 increases and harmonizes the cost of creating new state (new accounts, new storage slots, deployed bytecode) and meters it separately, keeping state growth sustainable as gas limits rise.
- EIP-8038 increases the cost of accessing state (SSTORE, SLOAD, cold account access, EXTCODESIZE/EXTCODECOPY) to reflect the measured performance of these operations on today’s state size.
Gas prices for state operations were last adjusted in the Berlin fork in 2021. Since then, Ethereum’s state has grown significantly, and the recent gas limit increases have accelerated that growth.
Repricing these operations to reflect their actual cost is a prerequisite for raising the gas limit further. The new schedule is derived from a performance target that supports roughly a 3x increase in base throughput.
Impact
To understand the real-world impact, we replayed historical mainnet transactions under the new schedule and analyzed what actually diverges. Every transaction falls into one of four practical outcomes:
- No change: Identical outcome and execution. The large majority of transactions fall here.
- Succeeds with changes: Still succeeds, but gas used or another detail differs.
- Fixable with a gas-limit increase: Runs out of gas at its original limit but completes with a higher one. Fixed with a gas-limit increase.
- Potentially broken: Fails even with a substantially raised gas limit.
Contracts in the last group typically rely on hardcoded gas assumptions, such as fixed stipends (Solidity’s transfer/send 2,300 gas), hardcoded gas values in calls, logic that branches on gasleft(), or presigned transactions with fixed gas limits. Direct outreach to the most-affected builders is already underway.
Actionable changes
If you maintain L1 contracts, you can check whether a contract may be affected by pasting the contract address into the affected-contracts search here. Affected contracts are shown with their distinct failure modes and the specific repricing driving each one.
- If your contract is fixable with a gas-limit increase, update the gas limits your frontend, infra, or users supply.
- If your contract is potentially broken, review the flagged call sites and test your fix. The Platåberget testnet (glam-devnet-8) runs the new schedule and is available now for testing.
- Even if your contract is not listed, review any code that hardcodes gas values or branches on remaining gas.
If you build wallets, RPC infrastructure, or node tooling, update gas estimation for the new schedule. Both EIPs require eth_estimateGas and related handling to account for the new cost rules, and cached gas constants will underestimate and lead to failed transactions.
If you are a regular user, no action is needed. Updated wallets and infrastructure handle these changes.
A report of the most-affected entities has been compiled, and direct outreach to those teams is already underway.
Outlook
These repricings exist to keep Ethereum scaling safely. Gas that reflects real resource costs allows block gas limits to keep rising without degrading the network for node operators. The repricing schedule is live on devnets now and will roll out to public testnets ahead of mainnet activation. Teams are strongly encouraged to test before then.
As with previous upgrades, changes that impact users will be communicated proactively via this blog and community channels. You can also reach out in the Ethereum R&D Discord server (evm-pricing channel) or the corresponding Telegram group. Teams that depend closely on the protocol roadmap are encouraged to follow the ACD process and the discussion threads for EIP-8037 and EIP-8038, where questions are welcome.
