Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains
BlockchainsArbitrum
Leads$0.00104
- p99
- $0.00108
- rank
- #6
- samples
- 20,160
Ethereum
Trails$0.00657
- p99
- $0.2696
- rank
- #8
- samples
- 20,160
Arbitrum vs Ethereum
Arbitrum leads on 2 of 5 shared benchmarks, Ethereum on 3. Arbitrum wins on Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains ($0.00104 vs $0.00657), Fastest LayerZero source chain by end-to-end message delivery (27.24 s vs 4.0 min). Ethereum wins on Fastest Wormhole VAA finalization by source chain, live latency (14.5 min vs 16.6 min), Fastest Chainlink CCIP source chain by end-to-end delivery latency (17.0 min vs 17.6 min), Fastest Axelar GMP source chain by end-to-end delivery (16.7 min vs 20.0 min).
Arbitrum
Optimistic rollup built on Nitro stack with a fast-finality sequencer. Sub-second block times (~250 ms) via a 250 ms default block interval, far below the 2 s OP Stack convention. 7-day fraud-proof window for L1 finality.
Ethereum
PoS chain using Gasper (Casper FFG plus LMD-GHOST). 12-second slots with deterministic finality every two epochs, roughly 12.8 minutes.
Side by side measurements
Fastest Wormhole VAA finalization by source chain, live latency
BridgesArbitrum
Trails16.6 min
- rank
- #10
- samples
- 25provisional
Ethereum
Leads14.5 min
- p99
- 19.9 min
- rank
- #9
- samples
- 476
Fastest Chainlink CCIP source chain by end-to-end delivery latency
BridgesArbitrum
Trails17.6 min
- rank
- #8
- samples
- 63provisional
Ethereum
Leads17.0 min
- p99
- 26.3 min
- rank
- #6
- samples
- 223
Fastest LayerZero source chain by end-to-end message delivery
BridgesArbitrum
Leads27.24 s
- p99
- 23.1 min
- rank
- #2
- samples
- 689
Ethereum
Trails4.0 min
- p99
- 19.1 min
- rank
- #17
- samples
- 572
Fastest Axelar GMP source chain by end-to-end delivery
BridgesArbitrum
Trails20.0 min
- rank
- #6
- samples
- 18provisional
Ethereum
Leads16.7 min
- rank
- #5
- samples
- 70provisional
Frequently asked questions
Arbitrum vs Ethereum: which one is better?
Arbitrum and Ethereum are compared on 5 shared OpenChainBench benchmarks. Arbitrum leads on Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains. Ethereum leads on Fastest Wormhole VAA finalization by source chain, live latency. See the live table on this page for every metric.
Which is cheaper, Arbitrum or Ethereum?
On the Cheapest blockchain transaction fee, live across 15 L1 and L2 chains benchmark, Arbitrum leads at $0.00104 versus Ethereum at $0.00657. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.
Which is faster, Arbitrum or Ethereum?
On the Fastest Wormhole VAA finalization by source chain, live latency benchmark, Ethereum leads at 14.5 min versus Arbitrum at 16.6 min (provisional). Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.
How is the Arbitrum vs Ethereum comparison measured?
Every benchmark on this page uses the same open methodology, published at https://openchainbench.com/methodology. Data is CC-BY-4.0. Measurement harnesses are MIT-licensed.
Related comparisons
How this pair was selected
Auto-generated pairs require: both providers in the same benchmark for seven consecutive days, at least 1000 samples per provider, observable third-party search demand, and a public /products/[slug] page on OCB. Editorially curated pairs (like this one) may publish early when search demand is high and data is accruing — panels with fewer than 100 samples are shown as provisional. The full pair ledger is versioned in the public repo.