Send USDC or USDT on Polygon without POL
Your USDC or USDT arrived on Polygon, often after a cheap withdrawal from an exchange, but the wallet holds no POL. You can send it without getting POL first.
Why your wallet refuses
Polygon charges gas in POL, the coin that used to be called MATIC, and it has to be POL on Polygon itself. A transfer there costs less than a cent, but with exactly 0 POL the wallet cannot pay even that, and USDC or USDT cannot pay it in a normal transfer.
Your options
- Withdraw a little POL from an exchange directly to Polygon. If you can do this, it is the cheapest route.
- Ask someone to send you a little POL. One POL covers many transfers.
- Use gasrescue when you have only the stablecoin and want it moved now, or swap a few dollars into POL.
How to send it with gasrescue
- Open gasrescue and connect a wallet such as MetaMask, Rabby, Phantom or Trust Wallet. Polygon is already selected, and the token list shows what you hold.
- Enter the amount, or press Max to send everything, and the recipient. The quote lists the network fee, the service fee and what the recipient gets.
- Sign in your wallet: once for USDC, twice for USDT0 and USDC.e (first a permit, then the transfer). We send the transaction and pay the gas.
- You get a link to the transaction in the block explorer.
What it costs
The service fee is 0.5% of the amount, at least $0.25 and at most $2.00. Both fees are deducted from the amount you send, and the quote shows the exact figures before you sign. Gas on Polygon is so cheap that almost all of the cost is the service fee.
What you sign
For USDC you sign one typed message, not a transaction, so you need no gas for it. Your wallet shows the amount and our contract; recipient and fee are bound into a hash, so check those two in the quote on gasrescue.io. For USDT0 and the bridged USDC.e you sign two typed messages: a permit that lets our contract take exactly this amount, and the transfer itself with recipient, amount and fee in readable form. The contract uses the permit only together with that second signature. Transfer and fee run in one transaction: if it fails, nothing moves.
Need POL instead?
You can also swap a few dollars of your stablecoins into POL without holding any. It lands in your own wallet, so you can pay your own gas from then on. How a swap without gas works.
Common questions
Which tokens work?
Native USDC, USDT (called USDT0 since its 2025 upgrade, at the same address) and the older bridged USDC.e.
Is POL the same as MATIC?
Yes. MATIC was renamed POL in 2024, and POL pays the gas on Polygon. If a wallet or exchange still says MATIC, it means the same coin.
Which wallets work?
Wallets that support typed-data signatures, such as MetaMask, Rabby or Phantom. Smart contract wallets, such as a Coinbase Smart Wallet, do not work yet.
Before you start
Transfers are final, so check the recipient address carefully. Only sign on gasrescue.io. gasrescue is in early access and independent of every chain and wallet named here, so please start with a small amount.