TRON Resource Model — Energy, Bandwidth & Staking TRX

TRON does not charge a per-transaction gas fee the way EVM chains do; instead it meters usage with two resources, Energy and Bandwidth. This reference explains both and how to obtain them.

Energy and Bandwidth

Bandwidth covers the byte size of a transaction — every transaction consumes Bandwidth points proportional to how large it is. Energy covers smart-contract execution — running the computational steps of a TRC-20 transfer or other contract call consumes Energy. Simple TRX transfers use only Bandwidth; contract interactions also require Energy.

Obtaining resources by staking TRX

You obtain Energy and Bandwidth by freezing (staking) TRX. Staked TRX grants a daily-replenishing allotment of the chosen resource. When you run out of the free or staked allotment, the network burns TRX to cover the shortfall, so holding staked TRX keeps recurring transactions cheaper.

TRON address format

TRON mainnet addresses are Base58Check encoded, begin with the letter T, and are 34 characters long. Internally an address also has a hex form (a 21-byte value with a network prefix byte). APIs and explorers typically display the T-prefixed Base58Check form.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between Energy and Bandwidth on TRON?

Bandwidth pays for the raw byte size of a transaction; Energy pays for smart-contract computation. A plain TRX transfer consumes only Bandwidth, while a TRC-20 token transfer also consumes Energy for the contract execution.

Do I always pay a fee on TRON?

Not always in TRX directly. Staking TRX gives you a replenishing allotment of Energy and Bandwidth that covers transactions for free. Only when that allotment is exhausted does the network burn TRX to make up the difference.

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