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ICP Developer Docs

Reverse Gas Model

TODO: Write content for this page.

Explain the reverse gas model. Cover why ICP flips the gas model (users do not pay, canisters do), what cycles are (unit of compute payment, pegged to SDR), how ICP tokens convert to cycles via the CMC, what canisters pay for (compute, storage, bandwidth, special operations), and cost predictability compared to other chains. This is one of ICP’s biggest differentiators — make it compelling.

  • Portal: building-apps/essentials/gas-cost.mdx, getting-started/tokens-and-cycles.mdx
  • Learn Hub: Cycles
  • guides/canister-management/cycles-management — practical cycles management
  • reference/cycles-costs — exact cost tables
  • concepts/canisters — canisters as the paying entity