Fee Gauge Screensaver
The Fee Gauge screensaver is a pressure gauge of Bitcoin network fees in sats per virtual byte; the needle climbs when the mempool is congested. From the key-less mempool.space API. It's free, runs in your browser, display only, and ESC exits.
How the Fee Gauge screensaver works
The saver fetches the recommended Bitcoin fee rates from the key-less mempool.space API.
It draws a pressure gauge whose needle eases to the current next-block fee in satoshis per virtual byte — green when calm, red when congested.
Below the dial it lists the fast, medium, slow and minimum tiers with their rough confirmation times.
It refreshes every 30 seconds, so the needle rises and falls with real network demand.
A worked example
On a quiet night the needle sits low and green at 3 sat/vB; when a wave of transactions floods in it swings into the red past 80 sat/vB — the tier row showing fast, medium and slow fees pulling apart.
Settings & tips
- Accent recolours the needle and tiers.
- Background sets the dial backdrop.
- The gauge auto-scales so the needle always has headroom.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the fees live?
- Yes. They come from the mempool.space API and refresh every 30 seconds, so the gauge tracks real network demand.
- What is sat/vB?
- Satoshis per virtual byte — the price you pay per unit of transaction size. Higher fees confirm sooner when the network is busy.
- Is this investment advice?
- No. It's a display of public network data for ambiance, not advice of any kind.
- Does it need a key?
- No. The mempool.space API is free and key-less; the saver only needs an internet connection.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.