Yearn fees: Vault Charges and Gas Costs

Yearn fees can include management charges on deployed capital and performance charges on strategy profit, with rates set for the selected vault. Personal transaction gas adds a separate cost to deposits and withdrawals. V2 generally collects vault fees when strategies report, while V3 can charge inside tokenized strategies and through an allocator vault’s accountant. Both the vault version and deposit path affect the total cost. Fee settings vary by deployment. Swap-based deposits and exits can add conversion costs, and a withdrawal loss has a different cause from a management or performance charge.

Last updated · 8th Oct 2026

Costs at deposit, harvest and withdrawal

Depositing can incur gas for a token approval and the deposit itself, depending on the existing allowance and transaction method. An approval authorizes a particular contract to spend tokens. A vault deposit establishes the position that earns yield. An existing allowance can make another approval unnecessary. When the starting token differs from the vault’s accepted asset, a conversion route can add swap fees and price impact. Those costs arise before the vault begins managing the deposited asset.

During a holding period, strategies generate income and report their accounting results. Fee assessment follows the relevant contract’s rules. At withdrawal, personal gas returns to the cost calculation, and freeing assets from strategies can require additional execution. A subsequent swap into another token introduces its own terms. Vault management fees, strategy expenses and wallet transaction costs therefore appear at different points and use different calculation bases.

The deployment behind a fee quote

A vault’s contract address, network and apiVersion() identify its implementation. V2 exposes managementFee and performanceFee settings, alongside strategy-specific performance charges. A V3 allocator identifies its accountant; the standard Accountant’s getVaultConfig returns the applicable configuration. A tokenized strategy exposes its own performanceFee. Vaults accepting the same asset can use different fee settings.

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V2 management and performance accounting

A V2 management fee uses an annualized capital basis, while performance fees use the gains that a strategy reports. These percentages cannot simply be added into one annual charge. A performance percentage applies to profit, not automatically to the whole deposited balance. The original V2 fee model replaced the conditional withdrawal charge used in V1. Yearn no longer supports V1 vaults, so their historical withdrawal terms need their original version context.

In V2 API version 0.4.6, management accounting uses elapsed time since the strategy’s previous report. Its capital basis is strategy debt minus delegated assets. Here, debt means vault capital allocated to a strategy. Performance accounting includes the vault’s configured charge and the strategy’s separate strategist charge. The contract issues fee shares to recipients, spreading the economic effect across existing shares. A depositor does not receive a separate wallet invoice for each harvest.

V2 API 0.4.6 skips fee collection when a report contains no gain and caps combined fees at the reported gain. A personal balance multiplied by an annual rate therefore does not reproduce every harvest charge. Reporting timing and strategy accounting inputs also affect the calculation.

How do V3 strategy and allocator fees combine?

A V3 allocator deposit can carry both underlying strategy fees and the allocator’s own accountant charges. A direct deposit into a tokenized strategy has that strategy’s fee structure. The same underlying asset can therefore have different fee exposure through different vault arrangements.

Strategy fee recognition

Report-based profit

Report-based tokenized strategies assess performance fees when they recognize profitable reports. Fee shares represent the amount due to the fee recipients. The performance calculation uses strategy profit measured in its underlying asset. The standard TokenizedStrategy model has no separate annual management charge. The strategy’s quoted rate covers this layer; an allocator holding its shares can have additional charges.

Live accrual

TokenizedStrategy API version 3.1.0 also supports strategies that opt into live asset accounting. In that mode, state-changing accruals can recognize profit and assess fees between reports. The default strategy accounting remains report-based. This distinction affects the timing of charges, so the broad V3 label does not establish that all performance fees wait for a harvest.

Allocator accountant charges

A V3 allocator’s accountant calculates fees during strategy reports. The standard Accountant calculates management charges from allocated strategy debt and elapsed time, plus performance charges on reported gains. It can also apply a configured cap on total fees relative to gains. Custom accountants can use different logic. An allocator without an accountant assesses no accountant fees, while its underlying strategies can still charge their own fees.

Fee percentages at these layers can have different denominators. An allocator’s gain reflects the value of its strategy position after strategy-level fee effects. Its management charge uses a capital-and-time basis. Comparing the combined asset deductions avoids treating every percentage as a charge on the same original profit.

The protocol fee within collected revenue

A V3 protocol fee takes a configured portion of assessed fees, rather than an additional percentage of depositor profit. The corresponding factory supplies the applicable setting, including any deployment-specific override. The remaining fee shares go to the strategy’s designated recipient or the allocator’s accountant. A zero protocol-fee setting changes that revenue split while leaving the strategy or accountant’s own configured charges intact.

Fee ceilings and accounting units

Contract ceilings bound the values that fee setters can configure; active settings determine the actual charge. The standard V3 Accountant has its own management and performance limits. Custom accountants can follow other rules. TokenizedStrategy API version 3.1.0 limits its performance fee setting to 50% of profit. Each ceiling applies to the named implementation.

Is a withdrawal shortfall always a Yearn fee?

A withdrawal shortfall can reflect strategy losses or conversion costs, so a smaller received amount alone does not identify a Yearn fee. V2 removed the V1-style withdrawal charge. Its withdrawals can nevertheless realize losses when assets must leave a strategy position. Retrieving idle assets and unwinding invested assets involve different execution work. The distinction affects gas and available proceeds even when the vault charges no percentage exit fee.

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V3 withdrawals also have loss-tolerance controls that are separate from management and performance charges. In V3 allocator API 3.1.1, withdraw defaults to zero loss tolerance, while redeem defaults to permitting losses up to 100% of the assets represented by the redeemed shares. An explicit max_loss parameter changes the accepted loss limit. The withdrawal reverts if its loss exceeds that limit. A permitted withdrawal loss reduces the assets returned; it is not automatically revenue paid to a fee recipient. Interface settings and the selected call determine the applicable tolerance.

Wallet gas and pooled strategy expenses

Network gas pays for blockchain execution, including the work needed to enter or leave a vault. On Ethereum, execution cost equals gas used multiplied by the effective gas price. Network demand changes the base fee, and transaction priority can affect the price paid. A withdrawal that must retrieve assets through several strategy operations can consume different gas from a withdrawal served by idle assets. An exit estimate needs the withdrawal’s execution path and gas price.

Yearn pools strategy operations across deposits, allowing maintenance work to serve multiple depositors. This shared execution differs from the wallet-funded cost of an individual deposit or withdrawal. Fee revenue can support operating expenses, including strategy gas. Depositors should therefore distinguish the vault’s embedded costs from the network charges on their own transactions.

Keeping a gas-paying balance available matters at exit too; vault shares alone cannot pay an Ethereum transaction’s network charge.

Conversion costs around vault deposits

A zap combines asset conversion with a vault entry or exit where that route is supported. Its quoted economics can include provider charges and swap fees, alongside price impact from trading the selected amount. Availability depends on the vault, token and integration. Holding the vault’s accepted asset permits a comparison with direct deposit costs, without assuming that every conversion route exists or carries the same charge.

Slippage tolerance controls the acceptable movement in execution output. Increasing tolerance permits a worse conversion outcome; it does not reduce the provider’s stated fee. A quote’s expected output and minimum output describe different amounts. Conversion cost comparisons need the same input asset, destination asset and amount, with network gas accounted for separately.

Does displayed APY include every cost?

Yearn’s displayed net APY reflects vault fees but excludes the wallet’s personal gas costs. APY means annual percentage yield. External conversion charges also require their own treatment when they occur outside the vault return calculation. Gross strategy figures and net vault figures apply different fee treatment. Comparisons need the same basis.

Subtracting a performance fee again from a return that already includes it counts the same charge twice.

Holding periods and comparable cost totals

A consistent cost comparison separates deductions already reflected in vault value from personal expenses paid outside the vault. Entry and exit gas have greater relative weight when the position earns little before withdrawal. Management charges depend on the relevant capital and time inputs. Performance charges depend on recognized gains. A break-even calculation needs actual transaction expenses and net earnings over the holding period.

Costs quoted in different assets need a common valuation basis before they can form one total. Token-price movement can change a displayed monetary balance without creating a vault management charge. Net proceeds also reflect strategy income and realized losses.

V2 API 0.4.6 records calculated management, performance and strategist components in its FeeReport event. The event’s components are calculated before the gain cap; the charged total is the smaller of their sum and the reported gain.