Mint a 1 of 1 on Solana, and what it actually costs
One Metaplex Core account, a few cents of Arweave storage, royalties enforced by the protocol, no platform fee. The whole bill, and why Core rather than pNFT or compressed.
Minting a 1 of 1 on Solana costs about 0.003 SOL of rent for the asset account plus a fraction of a cent of Arweave storage for the image, paid from the minter's wallet, and nothing to the platform when the tool takes no cut. Mantel's mint at mantel.gallery/mint creates one Metaplex Core asset signed by your wallet with royalties enforced by the protocol; the image and metadata go to Arweave through Irys, and the piece can hang on your wall the same minute.
Every minting site quotes a price and most of them are mostly fee. Here is the whole bill for a 1 of 1 on Solana, line by line, and why Mantel's mint is built the way it is.
The bill
| Line | Who gets it | About |
|---|---|---|
| Asset account rent | the network, held as a deposit | 0.003 SOL |
| Image storage | Irys, for Arweave | under a cent for most images, by the byte |
| Metadata storage | Irys, for Arweave | a fraction of the image |
| Network fee | validators | a fraction of a cent, with a small priority fee so it lands |
| Platform fee | Mantel | nothing |
Rent is a deposit, not a payment: the account holds it as long as it exists and returns it if the asset is ever burned. Storage is paid once and is permanent; Arweave's model is a one-time endowment rather than a subscription, which is the point of using it for art.
What the tool does, in order
- Prices the upload. Before anything is signed, the tool asks Irys what your image will cost and shows the total with the rent added.
- Uploads the image. Your wallet pays Irys in SOL. If the Irys balance for your wallet is short, the tool funds it first, which is one extra approval.
- Writes the metadata. A small JSON file with the title, description, image link and royalty, uploaded the same way.
- Mints. One transaction creates the Core asset with you as owner and creator, the royalty you chose, and no rule set. You approve it in your wallet.
- Hangs it. If the wallet is linked to your Mantel account, the piece is featured on your wall immediately.
Mantel signs nothing in this sequence. Every transaction is built in your browser and approved by your wallet, the same as the burn, send and trade tools.
Core, pNFT, compressed: which standard for art
Solana has three ways to mint. They exist for different supplies.
Metaplex Core is the current standard: one account per asset, with royalties, freezing, attributes and collections as plugins on that account. It costs about a third of the legacy standard and every wallet and marketplace reads it directly from the chain. For a 1 of 1 or a small run, this is the one.
Programmable NFTs (pNFT) are the legacy Token Metadata standard with a rule set that lets creators enforce royalties by refusing transfers to non-compliant programs. They work, and a great deal of 2022 and 2023 art is pNFT, but they cost several accounts per piece and the enforcement is a rule set rather than the protocol. Nothing about a new 1 of 1 needs them.
Compressed NFTs (cNFT) store the piece as a leaf in a Merkle tree, so ten thousand pieces cost a few SOL in total. The catch is that the chain holds only the tree's root; reading a compressed piece needs an indexer, and when the indexer is down or out of credits the piece is invisible. Right for a hundred-thousand-supply airdrop, wrong for a single work you want seen anywhere, any time.
After the mint
A Core asset carries its creator on the asset itself, so there is nothing to sign afterwards; the verified-creator step that legacy pieces need is already done. If you also have older pieces that name you unsigned, the sign your work tool finds them.
Listing is where it always was: Mallow for 1 of 1s, Magic Eden and Tensor for the wider market. The selling guide says which fits what.
Questions
- How much does it cost to mint an NFT on Solana?
- With Metaplex Core, about 0.003 SOL for the on-chain account (recoverable if you ever burn it) plus storage for the image, which Irys charges in SOL by the byte, typically under a cent for a normal image. Network fees add a fraction of a cent. There is no mint fee on Mantel.
- Why Core and not a regular NFT or a compressed one?
- Core is one account per piece with royalties and freezing built into the protocol, so it costs a third of a legacy Token Metadata NFT and needs no indexer to be seen. Compressed NFTs are cheaper still per piece but need a Merkle tree paid up front and an indexer to read, which suits a 100,000 supply, not a 1 of 1. Programmable NFTs enforce royalties through rule sets that cost more accounts for the same result Core gets natively.
- Where does the image live?
- On Arweave, a permanent storage network, uploaded through Irys and paid once. The metadata JSON that names the piece and points at the image lives there too. Neither depends on Mantel staying online.
- Do I keep my royalties?
- Yes. The Royalties plugin on a Core asset names you as the creator at 100% and the percentage you chose; Core-aware marketplaces enforce it at the protocol level rather than by policy.
- Can I mint into a collection?
- Not yet from Mantel's tool; each mint is a standalone Core asset. Collections and editions are the next thing the tool learns.
Data on this pageMetaplex Core rent from the program's account size at current rent-exemption rates; Irys pricing read live by the tool before you mint. Checked 30 August 2026.