Glamsterdam Upgrade: Sepolia Blocks Leave Most of Ethereum’s New Gas Capacity Unused

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade has raised Sepolia’s block-gas limit from about 60 million to nearly 200 million, giving developers a live test of a much larger processing budget. Early results are encouraging, but sampled blocks used less than half that capacity, and the test doesn’t commit to the same gas limit on mainnet.

More than 25 consecutive blocks used roughly 52 million to 92 million gas, or 26% to 46% of the available allowance. In a separate six-minute period, all 32 scheduled blocks were produced, and 99.97% of eligible testnet stake voted toward finality; Hoodi is tentatively planned for October 27, pending Sepolia results.

The upgrade activated on Sepolia on Tuesday, October 6. By early Thursday, October 8, blocks were being produced with a limit near 200 million gas, compared with about 60 million before the change, according to CoinDesk’s report.

Gas measures the computing work required to process transactions. When Ethereum demand outstrips available block space, users compete to have transactions included, which can push fees higher; a larger allowance could accommodate more payments and trades before that competition intensifies.

But a threefold increase in the block budget does not mean three times as many transactions. Glamsterdam also changes the gas charged for particular tasks, so transaction counts depend on the mix of activity and the revised costs assigned to it.

Multiple reviews of more than 25 consecutive test blocks found usage between roughly 52 million and 92 million gas, or 26% to 46% of available capacity. None approached the limit, leaving the test short of the fuller blocks that would place the greatest strain on the computers running the network.

The upgrade changes how work is divided between specialists assembling transactions and validators publishing blocks, giving validators more time to check transaction calculations.

It also introduces lists of accounts and stored information touched by transactions, allowing software to fetch data ahead of time and check unrelated transactions in parallel. The changes link Ethereum’s higher-capacity ambitions to a broader scaling and Layer-2 capacity outlook.

During a separate six-minute voting period early Thursday, all 32 scheduled blocks were proposed, while 99.97% of eligible testnet stake voted toward finality, according to the ethPandaOps explorer. Finality is the point at which the network treats its transaction history as settled.

Those figures show that the test configuration produced its scheduled blocks and attracted near-total eligible stake participation during that window. They do not establish that sustained blocks near 200 million gas would be safe under heavier demand or across the full range of mainnet operating conditions.

Sepolia is a public test network where developers run software using tokens with no real value before changes reach Ethereum itself. The rehearsal therefore offers a live environment for assessing the upgrade, but its results are not a direct measure of how many more transactions Ethereum mainnet will process.

Ethereum Could Soon Get Much More Powerful…

Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade activated on Sepolia on Oct. 6 for a major public network test.

The upgrade raises the testnet gas limit to 200 million, above the previous 60 million level.

Developers will monitor whether validators… pic.twitter.com/37G041C8sy

Hoodi, the next public test network, is tentatively planned for October 27, pending the Sepolia results. Ethereum’s mainnet has no activation date in the reported schedule, and no final production gas limit has been set.

The Sepolia data can inform further testing, but the distinction remains material: a higher testnet gas limit shows developers are using more capacity, not that mainnet is ready to adopt it.

Any future decision will have to account for block production, validation demands, and the revised costs of processing and storing data alongside raw gas capacity.

Glamsterdam is also one stage in Ethereum’s broader protocol roadmap, where capacity changes are assessed alongside network economics and functionality. For now, the meaningful result is a larger Sepolia test with blocks still well below the new ceiling, not a confirmed threefold increase in mainnet throughput.

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