MetaMask says insufficient funds for gas but I have ETH
You have ETH in your wallet. MetaMask still refuses to send a transaction. The error reads "insufficient funds for gas." This is one of the most common frustrations in crypto, and it usually comes down to a misunderstanding of how gas fees are calculated and reserved.
The gas fee formula
Every Ethereum transaction requires gas. The total fee is calculated as: gas limit × (base fee + priority fee). The gas limit is the maximum amount of computational work your transaction can consume. A simple ETH transfer uses 21,000 gas. A smart contract interaction might use 100,000 or more. The base fee is set by the network protocol and burns after each block. The priority fee is the tip you give validators to include your transaction faster.
MetaMask does not simply estimate your fee and deduct that amount. Instead, it reserves the maximum possible cost upfront. This is a safety mechanism. If gas prices spike during a period of network congestion, your transaction still completes. The wallet locks the full worst-case amount before submitting anything to the mempool.
The real culprit: network mismatch
The most common reason for false insufficient fund errors is being on the wrong network. Your ETH on Ethereum Mainnet cannot pay gas on Arbitrum, Polygon, or BNB Chain. MetaMask shows the balance from whichever network you selected in the dropdown. Check that you are on the correct chain. The network name appears at the top of the extension window, right below the account name.
ETH versus ERC-20 tokens
Many users mistake ERC-20 token balances for ETH balances. You can hold $10,000 worth of USDC but still cannot send a transaction. Gas must be paid in ETH, not in any other token. The wallet shows your ETH balance in a separate section, usually above your token list. If that number is zero, no amount of tokens will cover gas.
Checking your native token balance
Open MetaMask and look at the top of the asset list. The first entry should be the native token of whatever network you are on. On Ethereum Mainnet this is ETH. On Polygon it is MATIC. On Avalanche it is AVAX. If that balance is below the total gas reservation, the error appears.
As of August 31, 2026, no on-chain pair was found for "lingose" on any network queried. This does not affect the gas error itself, but it means you cannot rely on an existing liquidity pool for that token. If you are trying to interact with an unlisted token, the gas estimation may be incorrect because MetaMask cannot look up its contract's behavior.
Adjusting gas settings
You can lower the reserved amount by manually editing gas settings inside MetaMask. Click the "Edit" button next to the estimated gas fee before confirming. Reduce the priority fee. This does not risk out-of-gas failure for simple transfers. A priority fee of 1 gwei is often enough to get included during low activity periods.
Do not lower the gas limit below 21,000 for a standard ETH transfer. For contract interactions, leave the limit at the default value. Reducing the limit to save a few cents can cause the transaction to run out of gas midway. The transaction fails, you lose the fee, and the operation does not complete.
When the balance is genuinely too low
Sometimes you simply need more ETH. A balance of 0.001 ETH might show as available, but if the worst-case gas reservation requires 0.005 ETH, the error appears. Check the current estimated fee by opening the advanced gas settings. The wallet shows the maximum fee in USD and ETH. Compare that to your balance.
There is no shortcut around this. You need enough native token to cover the maximum, not the estimate. If you are short, you must acquire more ETH, MATIC, or whatever chain's native asset you are using.
MetaMask stores its maximum reservation per transaction. If you cancel a pending transaction, that reservation releases. But the error itself means the wallet decided upfront it cannot afford the worst case. Trust that calculation. Overriding it by manually forcing a lower gas limit than the default is a fast path to stuck transactions and lost fees.
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