Fee Voting

XRPL fee voting is the mechanism by which the XRP Ledger's trusted validators collectively set and adjust two core parameters: the base transaction cost and the reserve requirements. No single entity controls these values — the network converges on the median preference of all trusted validators.

How Fee Voting Works

Every ~15 minutes, each validator broadcasts its preferred fee settings alongside its ledger validation messages. When a "flag ledger" is reached (every 256 ledgers), the network counts all votes and adopts the median value across the UNL (Unique Node List) of trusted validators. If the median differs from the current setting, a SetFee pseudo-transaction is automatically inserted into the next ledger.

The network automatically adjusts fee settings to the median of trusted validators' preferences — a decentralized governance mechanism requiring no central authority or voting period.

XRP Ledger Documentation

What Can Be Voted On

Validators can express preferences on two specific parameters:

• Base transaction cost: The minimum drops of XRP required for a standard transaction. Currently 10 drops (0.00001 XRP).
• Reserve requirements: The minimum XRP an account must hold. In December 2024, this was reduced from 10 XRP to just 1 XRP — a 90% reduction that opened the network to millions of new potential users.

Why Fees Need Periodic Adjustment

As the value of XRP changes over time, a static fee in XRP terms becomes either too cheap (failing to deter spam) or too expensive (excluding legitimate low-value users). Fee voting allows the network to adapt to long-term XRP price movements and changes in server hardware costs, keeping the ledger accessible and secure simultaneously.

Raising reserve requirements is considered more disruptive than lowering them, because it can lock users out of certain transaction types. Fee voting policy therefore tends to be conservative about increases and more willing to decrease requirements when market conditions allow.