TRON's resource model

What is Energy and Bandwidth?

Energy and Bandwidth  are  two core resources that power the TRON blockchain. When staking $TRX , token holders get to choose to get “Energy” or “Bandwidth” in return , on top of voting rights called Tron Power(TP) , not to be confused with our name, to earn staking rewards.

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Energy

Energy is required for complex operations, such as executing smart contracts or running decentralized applications (dApps). Developers and organizations utilize Energy for tasks like:

Transferring TRC-20 tokens like USDT between wallets^#

Swaping tokens within a dApp/DEX

Operating an NFT marketplace.

^_#The reason why transferring TRC-20 tokens like USDT use energy is because they are built using smart contracts.

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Bandwidth

TLDR; All transactions on TRON use bandwidth.

Bandwidth is a resource allocated for basic transactions , as well as other complex transactions on the TRON network. These include simple operations like sending $TRX or voting for a super representative. Complex transactions like transferring TRC-20 tokens also use bandwidth along with the energy required.

More interesting reads (click to expand)

Resource Regeneration

Energy and Bandwidth gained by staking TRX will regenerate over 24 hours if consumed by transactions.

Priority of energy consumption / How do I make know if I need to burn TRX for energy?

The priority of account Energy consumption is as follows:

• Energy obtained by staking TRX

• Burn TRX

First, the Energy obtained by staking TRX will be consumed. If this part of Energy is not enough, the account's TRX will continue to be burned to pay for the Energy resources required for the transaction, at the unit price of 0.00021 TRX per Energy (Rates valid as of May 2025; check for potential blockchain updates.)