Some wallets have either
- very high default transaction fee
or - let you set it manually
Assuming you want to set the fee manually, how to pick a reasonable number?
Xchain.io displays recommended fees
These are per kilobyte. Most counterparty transactions are roughly 260-280 bytes, i.e. a bit more than a quarter of a kilobyte. Therefore your fee can be a quarter of the amount you see here.
A very quick rule-of-thumb is to take the low fee (here: ~0.0012 BTC) and divide it by three (not by four - to be on the safe side). The fee you will manually enter is thus 0.0004 BTC.
Double check it’s zero dot triple-zero four BTC
If BTC were $1000 that would be 40 cents. Today at $1800, it’s almost twice that
Dividing by three gives a higher fee than the 'low fee’ per kb so you should be safe.
Warnings!
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Bitcoin transactions’ size depends on number of inputs. Your wallet may use lots of inputs and then the size will be MUCH larger and require a HIGHER fee. This is normally the case if you have received lots of transactions (e.g. you were folding FLDC or signed up to LTB Coins). Then maybe better use the automated fee even if it’s quite high. With Counterwallet I use the low priority fee and always have had it confirm within an hour.
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Xchain is under development. I’ll update this post if @j-dog changes/removes this feature.
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Be very careful if you MUST have the transaction confirmed quickly, e.g. DEX order. Then better pay the automatic fee.