What Are Gasless Transactions? Benefits for UX & Onboarding

The Gas Fee Headache

You finally discover a cool new Web3 game or social app, and you are excited to try it. Then reality hits. Before you can do anything on-chain, you have to visit an exchange, create an account, complete KYC, Buy ETH, send it to your wallet, wait for confirmations, and then choose a gas fee you barely understand. For many people, that is where the journey ends.

High gas fees and confusing wallet flows are now widely recognized as some of the biggest blockers to Web3 adoption. Product and UX case studies show that a large majority of first-time users abandon the onboarding process before completing even a single transaction, often at the moment they first see a gas prompt or are asked to fund a wallet. In other words, the concept of “gas” itself is scaring away the very audience that Web3 wants to attract.

Gasless transactions aim to remove this barrier entirely. In a gasless experience, the end user still sends a real blockchain transaction, but they do not have to manually pay the gas fee or even think about it. The fee is covered by someone else, usually the dApp or a third-party service. This does not mean the transaction is free; it means the complexity and timing of gas payment are abstracted away from the user.

This guide explains why gas fees are such a UX nightmare, how gasless transactions work, which technologies make them possible, and why they are quickly becoming one of the most important building blocks for smooth Web3 onboarding.

Enhance the User experience with Gasless Transactions: Source: Blog.Aquartia

Gas Fees: The Hidden UX Killer in Web3

For most people coming from Web2, the idea that every click requires a separate network fee is deeply unintuitive. In traditional apps, you do not think about paying a tiny fee every time you like a post or save a file. You simply use the product. Web3 flips this expectation on its head.

Gas fees are a necessary part of blockchain security. They compensate validators for the computational work of including a transaction in a block and help prevent spam. But from a user-experience point of view, gas behaves like an extra tax on every action. Research and UX analyses repeatedly highlight gas fees, wallet setup, and transaction delays as primary reasons why new users drop off in early funnels.

Why Gas Breaks Onboarding for New Users

The first problem is that gas is a brand-new concept for most people. When a newcomer opens a dApp and tries to sign their first transaction, they are suddenly asked to choose a fee level, estimate confirmation time, and approve a cost that fluctuates minute by minute. There is almost nothing in their Web2 experience that prepares them for this step.

The second issue is that gas requires the right token on the right chain. A new user might hold USDC, a game token, or an NFT, but still be unable to perform a simple action because they do not have enough of the native gas token. 

In many cases, they must leave the app, sign up with an exchange, buy the gas token, wait for confirmations, and then return. For a user looking at all this inside a digital wallet for the first time, it feels more like debugging infrastructure than playing a game or using a social product.

The third challenge is unpredictability. Gas prices can swing dramatically with network congestion. During busy periods, fees can spike several times higher than normal. Studies on Web3 UX describe gas as “opaque and volatile,” noting that users often have no meaningful way to predict the final cost of their transaction. This volatility destroys confidence and makes it hard to build products that feel smooth or reliable.

When you combine these three factors, new concept, extra token, and unpredictable cost, it is easy to see why gas becomes one of the sharpest friction points in the Web3 user journey.

The Solution: Hiding the Gas Fees from the User

Gasless transactions do not remove gas from the blockchain. Instead, they remove it from the user’s mental model. The core idea is simple: let users interact with a dApp as if there were no gas fees at all, while the underlying system takes care of paying the network.

In practice, a gasless transaction is one where the end user signs an intent or meta-transaction, and a separate actor, often called a relayer or paymaster, submits the actual on-chain transaction and pays the network fee. The user might still compensate the dApp later through another mechanism, such as in-app fees, subscriptions, or token-based rewards, but this cost is decoupled from the moment of action.

Two Main Models for Gasless Experiences

The first model is where the dApp pays the gas. Here, the application treats gas costs as a customer acquisition or retention expense. Just as many Web2 apps subsidize free trials or onboarding discounts, Web3 dApps cover the gas bill to make the first interactions feel simple and instant. 

Developer-focused platforms that support gas sponsorship report that covering gas for first-time actions significantly increases the rate at which new users complete their initial transaction. For the user, this looks like a normal click; behind the scenes, the dApp is paying the network.

The second model is where the user pays, but not in the native gas token. In this case, the user might pay the fee in a stablecoin or in the app’s own token, while a relayer converts that value into the native token and submits the transaction. 

Conceptually, this is similar to paying for an online purchase in one currency while the payment processor settles in another. The important part is that the user no longer has to hold or manage a separate gas token just to interact.

In both models, gasless design reframes gas as an implementation detail. The blockchain still enforces fees, but the timing and mechanics are handled by infrastructure instead of being dumped on the user.

Gasless flows are already showing up in real systems. Some networks, such as those exploring gasless subnets or meta-transaction relayers, demonstrate that users can stake or perform complex actions without ever approving a standalone gas payment. As these patterns mature, they are increasingly becoming part of the standard Web3 UX toolbox.

The Key Technologies: Account Abstraction and Relayers

Making gasless transactions work at scale requires more than just a generous dApp. It needs a technical foundation that allows flexible fee logic, sponsored transactions, and secure delegation. Two concepts are central here: account abstraction and relayer networks.

Account abstraction, often discussed under the Ethereum standard ERC-4337, changes how accounts behave. Instead of relying solely on externally owned accounts that are controlled by a private key and have fixed rules, account abstraction lets smart-contract-based wallets define custom logic for how they initiate and pay for transactions. In simple terms, it upgrades wallets from static containers into programmable accounts.

How Account Abstraction Enables Gasless UX

With account abstraction, it becomes possible to code rules such as allow this trusted service to pay gas on my behalf, let me sign a single intent that covers multiple actions, or allow gas to be paid in a token other than the native asset. Instead of the network demanding that every user manually attach gas in the chain’s base token, the smart account can accept a higher-level instruction and delegate execution details to a paymaster or relayer.

Adoption of account abstraction has grown rapidly. Analytics from infrastructure providers show that smart accounts following the ERC-4337 standard have passed well over one million deployments, with hundreds of thousands of new accounts created in a short period as dApps experiment with more user-friendly flows. This growth is a strong signal that builders see account abstraction as a practical path toward easier onboarding and gasless patterns.

Relayer networks form the other half of the picture. A relayer is a service that submits transactions on behalf of users, paying the on-chain gas and then being reimbursed in some other way. Some relayers are operated by the dApp itself; others are part of generalized infrastructure platforms that support many projects. These networks coordinate which transactions to sponsor, how to price their service, and how to manage risk, including spam and abuse.

From an economic perspective, relayers function a bit like payment gateways. They handle the conversion between the user’s intent and the chain’s requirements. In some setups, they may even source the native gas token through liquidity venues or by monitoring prices on the best crypto exchange before topping up their reserves. 

As tools and dashboards emerge around relayers and paymasters, teams can monitor exactly how much they spend to provide a gasless experience and how that investment impacts user activation. Together, account abstraction and relayers form a flexible infrastructure layer that turns gas sponsorship from a one-off hack into a repeatable, scalable pattern.

The Invisible Revolution

If we step back, gasless transactions are more than a small UX upgrade; they signal a fundamental change in how people interact with blockchains. For the first time, it becomes possible to imagine dApps that feel as simple as mainstream Web2 apps, where users sign up and start using the product without dealing with network settings or gas prompts. 

A gasless transaction still incurs a fee, and validators are still paid, but the user never has to handle the payment directly. The dApp or supporting infrastructure manages it quietly in the background.

This shift brings Web3 closer to the expectations shaped by years of mobile and web usage. When gas becomes an internal cost rather than a user burden, teams can design pricing, rewards, and onboarding flows that feel natural. They can offer free tiers, promotions, or bundled actions without forcing new users to understand gas mechanics first.

Platforms such as Digitap help map this new landscape by highlighting which wallets and dApps offer gasless options, sponsored onboarding, or flexible fee-payment mechanisms. For developers and investors, this kind of visibility makes it easier to see where gasless UX is gaining traction and how it affects real user behavior.

As more projects adopt account abstraction, relayers, and sponsorship models, gas will steadily move out of the user’s view. Rather than forcing newcomers to buy crypto just to try a feature, teams will treat gas as a backend requirement, important for security, but no longer a visible hurdle in the interface. The long-term vision for Web3 is a world where gas still exists, yet users barely notice it. 

People will connect, trade, play, and create in applications that feel as smooth as modern Web2 platforms, while blockchains handle settlement behind the scenes. Gasless transactions push the ecosystem toward that future, transforming one of crypto’s most confusing elements into something users never need to think about at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are gasless transactions really free?
No. Gasless transactions are not free; they simply shift who pays and when. The network still charges a fee, but the cost is covered by a third party, such as the dApp, a relayer, or a sponsor. The dApp might treat this as a marketing or onboarding expense, or it might recoup the cost through in-app monetization, subscriptions, or volume-based fees.

Who pays for the gas in a gasless transaction?
In most designs, either the dApp or a specialized relayer service pays the gas to the network. The user signs a meta-transaction or intent, and the relayer packages it into a real on-chain transaction and pays the fee. Depending on the model, the user may later reimburse this cost in another token or through in-app economics.

What is a relayer?
A relayer is an off-chain service that submits transactions to the blockchain on behalf of users. It typically receives a signed message from the user, prepares the actual transaction, pays the gas in the native token, and then is compensated in some way for its role. Relayers are a key part of implementing meta-transactions and gasless flows.

What is Account Abstraction?
Account abstraction is a design pattern that makes blockchain accounts programmable. Instead of relying only on private-key-controlled accounts with rigid rules, account abstraction allows smart contracts to act as accounts and define custom logic for authorization, fee payment, batching, and recovery. Standards such as ERC-4337 bring this model to Ethereum without changing the base protocol, enabling features like gas sponsorship and flexible fee tokens at the wallet level.

Why don’t all dApps offer gasless transactions yet?
Gasless systems are powerful but not trivial to implement. They introduce new economic and security considerations, such as preventing abuse of sponsorship, managing relayer infrastructure, and balancing long-term costs. Some dApps operate in environments where gas is already very cheap, so the extra complexity may not be worth it yet. As tooling around account abstraction and relayers matures, more projects are likely to adopt gasless patterns, especially for onboarding new users and high-intent flows.