<p>The fee estimation is completely based on how long your node has been running, how many transactions have entered the mempool, and how many of those transactions have been confirmed. It is not (and cannot be) based on the fee information of transactions already included in blocks. So it does not matter whether you are fully synced or not. If you just started up or if there are few transactions being confirmed, then the fee estimation will not have enough data to work.</p>

<p>Testnet does not have a lot of traffic, and AFAIK, a miner is currently not including any transactions in their blocks. Thus there is not a lot of information available for fee estimation to work, so it does not. That is why it is currently unavailable.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-10T14:05:50.007Z
how does it manage to send a transaction, in that case? It 'guesses' a fee in case the user wants do send a transaction, but does not consider it realiable enough to use in _estimatesmartfee_?
Lelo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-10T22:08:22.030Z
There is a default fallback fee which it uses.
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-23T17:26:45.540Z
So how do I get that one? @AndrewChow
Pavel Niedoba
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-23T17:47:49.577Z
@PavelNiedoba Get what? The fallback fee? That's a configuration option that you can set. There is no longer a default.
Ava Chow
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-10T01:00:12.523Z
2018-10-10T01:00:12.523Z
Ava Chow
<p>I'm running bitcoin core version 0.17.0 on the Testnet and since yesterday, I've been experiencing problems with the RPC <strong>estimatesmartfee</strong>. I'm getting as a response: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"errors": "Insufficient data or no feerate found"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The output of <em>getblockcount</em> is 1434922, which complies with that number of blocks on block explorers.</p>

<p><strong>getnetworkinfo</strong> says I've got 8 peers connected.</p>

<p>I believe my node is fully synced, and, in fact, <a href="https://testnet.blockchain.info/tx/19cecc8ddc9244d2a5661653a3387e760409c11f836c7d0ace5e4ad1ac754e86" rel="noreferrer">I just made a transaction while I'm writing this</a>.</p>

<p>What might be the issue here? I pasted the <a href="https://pastebin.com/eFsBxpch" rel="noreferrer">final lines of the debug.log here</a>.</p>

<bitcoin-core><testnet><fee-estimation>
Bitcoin core's estimatesmartfee error "Insufficient data or no feerate found" with synced node
Lelo
# Bitcoin core's estimatesmartfee error "Insufficient data or no feerate found" with synced node

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-10-09)

I'm running bitcoin core version 0.17.0 on the Testnet and since yesterday, I've been experiencing problems with the RPC **estimatesmartfee**. I'm getting as a response:

> "errors": "Insufficient data or no feerate found"

The output of *getblockcount* is 1434922, which complies with that number of blocks on block explorers.

**getnetworkinfo** says I've got 8 peers connected.

I believe my node is fully synced, and, in fact, [I just made a transaction while I'm writing this](https://testnet.blockchain.info/tx/19cecc8ddc9244d2a5661653a3387e760409c11f836c7d0ace5e4ad1ac754e86).

What might be the issue here? I pasted the [final lines of the debug.log here](https://pastebin.com/eFsBxpch).

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, testnet, fee-estimation


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-10-10. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

The fee estimation is completely based on how long your node has been running, how many transactions have entered the mempool, and how many of those transactions have been confirmed. It is not (and cannot be) based on the fee information of transactions already included in blocks. So it does not matter whether you are fully synced or not. If you just started up or if there are few transactions being confirmed, then the fee estimation will not have enough data to work.

Testnet does not have a lot of traffic, and AFAIK, a miner is currently not including any transactions in their blocks. Thus there is not a lot of information available for fee estimation to work, so it does not. That is why it is currently unavailable.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: how does it manage to send a transaction, in that case? It 'guesses' a fee in case the user wants do send a transaction, but does not consider it realiable enough to use in _estimatesmartfee_?  
> **username_1**: There is a default fallback fee which it uses.  
> **username_2**: So how do I get that one? @AndrewChow  
> **username_1**: @username_2 Get what? The fallback fee? That's a configuration option that you can set. There is no longer a default.  

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