Low Fee Crypto Wallet: What MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and MoonPay Actually Charge

MetaMask and Trust Wallet themselves charge nothing just to hold crypto — both are self-custody wallets with no account or monthly fee^††. The real cost only shows up once you actually use one: swapping tokens inside MetaMask costs 0.3%–0.875%, scaling with order size^†, swapping inside Trust Wallet costs Trust Wallet itself nothing but the DEX provider it routes the trade through charges an estimated 0.5%–1% spread^†, and buying crypto with a card or bank transfer through an on-ramp like MoonPay costs a flat 2% either way^†. On top of any of these, a separate network/gas fee applies that none of the three controls — more on that below.

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RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

How Do MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and MoonPay Actually Charge?

Here's how the three compare side by side — custody model, the fee that actually applies when you use each product, and whether KYC is required:

It's worth being precise about that Trust Wallet row: Trust Wallet does not charge its own swap fee. When you swap inside the app, it routes the trade through a decentralized exchange (DEX) provider, and that provider — not Trust Wallet — charges the estimated 0.5%–1% spread, in Trust Wallet's own words^†. MetaMask's swap fee, by contrast, is MetaMask's own service fee for its in-app swap feature, and it moves between 0.3% and 0.875% depending on the size of the order rather than sitting at one flat rate^†. All three ship as apps: MetaMask is iOS, Android, and a browser extension^†; Trust Wallet ships the same three formats^†; MoonPay is iOS and Android only, since it's typically embedded as a payment widget rather than used as a standalone browser extension^†. MoonPay also accepts more payment methods than either wallet needs to worry about, since it's the one handling fiat: credit card, debit card, bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay^†.

What Does a Thousand-Dollar Swap or Purchase Actually Cost You?

Here's what that translates to on an identical thousand-dollar swap or purchase, using the ranges above:

On an identical $1,000, MetaMask's swap fee comes out to somewhere between $3 and $8.75 depending on order size^†, Trust Wallet's DEX-provider spread lands between $5 and $10^†, and MoonPay's flat 2% on-ramp fee is $20 regardless of whether you pay by card or bank transfer^†. None of these three numbers include the separate network/gas fee that every on-chain transaction also pays — we don't have a single verified figure for that here, because it changes by blockchain and by how congested that chain is at the moment you transact, so treat it as an additional line item on top of whichever number above applies to you.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

Three things sit outside this comparison on purpose:

• Network/gas fees. This is the fee the underlying blockchain charges to process your transaction, separate from and usually larger than the wallet's own swap or purchase fee. It changes by chain and by congestion at the moment you transact, so there's no single verified number we can publish here — treat it as an additional cost stacked on top of everything in the tables above.
• Which wallet is "safest." This page compares fees, not security posture, and a proper safety comparison deserves its own dedicated analysis. It doesn't rank MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or MoonPay against each other here.
• CEX exchange withdrawal fees. MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and MoonPay aren't exchanges, so this page doesn't mix them into an exchange withdrawal-fee comparison. See our low-fee exchange comparison for that separate topic.

Once you know your own transaction size and how often you transact, our fee calculator lets you model these numbers against your own habits instead of a generic thousand-dollar example.

All of this also assumes you actually want a self-custody wallet in the first place — full control of your own keys, and the swap and gas fees that come with managing that yourself. If that trade-off doesn't appeal to you and you'd rather hold and trade crypto inside an exchange's own app instead, our guide to the best crypto trading app for beginners covers that alternative path.

Why Almost Nobody Actually Checks a Wallet's Fee Schedule

Checking MetaMask's actual swap-fee range or comparing it against Trust Wallet's DEX spread before moving real money through either one is exactly the kind of unglamorous work that pays off nothing the moment you do it — nobody feels a rush from reading a fee schedule the way they do from watching a position move. The reason most people skip it and default to whatever wallet a friend already had installed isn't really laziness; it's that there's no concrete number anchoring the effort. A vague instinct to "shop around before I swap" rarely survives a busy week. What tends to survive is something specific: once you know roughly how much you move through a wallet in a normal month, a half-a-percentage-point gap between two swap-fee ranges turns into an actual number worth caring about, instead of an abstract feeling that one wallet is probably fine. Attach the comparison to a number tied to how you actually use the wallet, and checking the fee schedule before you swap stops being a chore and starts being a habit you keep.

A couple of mistakes are common once people do sit down to compare these three: treating MetaMask's swap fee as if it applied to simply holding tokens, when it only applies once you actively use the in-app swap feature^†, or treating Trust Wallet's spread as a fee Trust Wallet itself charges rather than the DEX provider it routes through^†. See our methodology for how we source and verify figures like these, and our best crypto exchanges and wallets list if you're weighing this comparison against other products.

FAQ

Does MetaMask charge a fee just to hold crypto?

No. MetaMask is self-custody, so there's no account or monthly fee for holding tokens^†. The 0.3%–0.875% swap fee only applies when you use MetaMask's in-app swap feature — it doesn't apply to simply holding or receiving crypto^†.

Does Trust Wallet charge its own swap fee?

No. Trust Wallet does not charge its own fee for swaps. When you swap inside the app, the DEX provider it routes the trade through charges an estimated 0.5%–1% spread — that's the provider's fee, not Trust Wallet's^†.

How much does MoonPay charge to buy crypto?

2% on both card purchases and bank transfers, though the exact amount can vary by region and transaction type^†.

Do I need to complete KYC to use MetaMask or Trust Wallet?

Not for the wallet itself — both are self-custody and don't require KYC on their own^††. KYC only becomes relevant if you use an on-ramp partner, like MoonPay, through the wallet, since MoonPay itself requires it^†.

Do these numbers include network or gas fees?

No. Network/gas fees are separate, vary by blockchain and by congestion, and usually cost more than the wallet's own swap or purchase fee. We don't have a single verified number to publish here — treat it as an additional line item on top of the numbers above.

See our best crypto exchanges and wallets list for more comparisons, and read our methodology for how we source and verify these figures.

RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

Last updated: 2026-09-22