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Glamsterdam, Ethereum's next hard fork, has been running on the Sepolia test network since 6 October 2026 and is reported to have been scheduled on the Hoodi testnet for 26 October. As of 2 November 2026 no mainnet date has been announced. The Ethereum Foundation's own announcement lists 18 changes, led by enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, plus a repricing of gas costs that some contracts will need to be tested against. This guide sets out what the primary source says, corrects figures that circulated earlier, and explains what an ordinary ETH holder or user needs to do: for mainnet, nothing for now.

Notice: general information, not financial advice. Protocol upgrades can be delayed or changed. Testnet activation does not set a mainnet date, as the Ethereum Foundation itself cautions. We read the Foundation's announcement of 17 September 2026 and checked the current gas limit directly on the network; Hoodi details come from a secondary report and are marked as such.

The short version

  • Not live on mainnet. The announcement of 17 September 2026 says "Hoodi and mainnet activation dates have not yet been decided" and that it "does not schedule a mainnet upgrade".
  • Sepolia: scheduled at epoch 353,024, slot 11,296,768, which is 6 October 2026 at 13:53:36 UTC.
  • Hoodi: reported for 26 October 2026 at 17:42:48 UTC (secondary report, see sources). Mainnet: still no date.
  • What it contains: 18 scheduled EIPs. The two headline changes are EIP-7732 (enshrined proposer-builder separation, ePBS) and EIP-7928 (block-level access lists).
  • Gas costs change, and not only downward. EIP-8037 "increases and separately meters the cost of creating state"; EIP-8038 updates state-access costs; other changes cover calldata and access lists.
  • The 200 million gas limit is a validator setting, not part of the upgrade. On 2 November 2026 the live limit was 60,000,000. Two consensus clients default to 60M after activation, and validators who want 200M must configure it explicitly.
  • For users: the announcement says no action is needed for mainnet users. Node operators and validators must update both execution and consensus clients before activation.

What Glamsterdam is

The Foundation describes Glamsterdam as combining "the Amsterdam execution layer upgrade with the Gloas consensus layer upgrade". Its headline changes, in its words, are enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, "which change how blocks are produced and validated to support greater L1 throughput".

EIP-7732: enshrined proposer-builder separation

Today, many validators outsource block construction to specialised builders through off-chain services. EIP-7732 moves that relationship into the protocol. In the Foundation's description, "a proposer includes a builder's commitment to an execution payload, and the builder subsequently reveals that payload. The protocol handles payment to the proposer, reducing reliance on trusted middleware." The change also separates consensus validation from execution validation, "giving validators more time to validate execution payloads", and introduces a payload timeliness committee that attests whether the builder revealed its payload on time. For ordinary users the effect is indirect; the operational impact falls on validators and builder infrastructure, who "should review the new duties and interfaces before the upgrade".

EIP-7928: block-level access lists

EIP-7928 introduces "enforced block-level access lists that record the accounts and storage locations accessed during a block, together with post-transaction state changes". According to the announcement, these lists "allow clients to read state from disk in parallel, validate transactions in parallel, and compute state roots more efficiently". The Foundation describes ePBS and access lists together as "a foundation for scaling execution capacity while keeping block validation practical for node operators". It does not give a throughput figure.

Gas pricing and state growth

The announcement says Glamsterdam "adjusts gas accounting to better reflect resource usage": EIP-8037 increases and separately meters the cost of creating state, EIP-8038 updates state-access costs, and EIP-7976 and EIP-7981 raise the calldata floor cost and the access-list cost. Application developers are told to test contracts and gas estimation against the new rules, and that "contracts that rely on fixed gas stipends, hardcoded gas limits, or assumptions about remaining gas may need changes". What this means for what you pay depends on the operation: some become costlier by design, notably creating new state.

The rest of the list

The scheduled list has 18 EIPs. Others include ETH transfers that emit a log (EIP-7708), a slot-number opcode (EIP-7843), a higher maximum contract size (EIP-7954), a deterministic factory contract (EIP-7997), excluding slashed validators from proposing (EIP-8045) and increased exit and consolidation churn (EIP-8061). The Ethereum Bug Bounty Program is active for the Glamsterdam specifications.

Gas limit: what is and is not part of the upgrade

Earlier descriptions of Glamsterdam, including an earlier version of this site's guide, presented a rise in the block gas limit from 60 million to 200 million as one of its three pillars. The primary source does not list it as an EIP of the upgrade. What the announcement does say, in the client notes, is that Prysm and Teku "default to a 60M gas limit after activation" and that "validators wishing to propose with a 200M gas limit must configure it explicitly". We queried the network on 2 November 2026: the latest block (number 26,325,714) had a gas limit of 60,000,000. So 200 million is a setting that validators can choose, not a number the upgrade imposes. The announcement also lists, among supporting informational EIPs, one titled "Gas Limit Schedule" (EIP-8261); we did not review its contents.

What about the figures that circulated earlier

The earlier version of this guide cited an estimated 78% fee reduction, a "10,000 transactions per second" theoretical peak and a "Q3 2026" deployment. Q3 2026 has passed without a mainnet date. We found no figure for fee reduction or throughput in the Foundation's announcement, and the repricing it describes raises some costs. We therefore do not repeat those numbers: fee levels after an upgrade depend on real demand and on settings that validators choose.

What to do

  • If you hold or use ETH: nothing for now. The announcement says no action is required for mainnet users. Ignore any message that asks you to "upgrade" or "migrate" your ETH for Glamsterdam; this is a common scam pattern, and our crypto scams guide explains how to recognise it.
  • If you run a node or validator: update both the execution and consensus clients, and for validators both the beacon node and the validator client, using only releases whose notes confirm support. The announcement lists Sepolia-compatible versions; mainnet-ready releases will follow a mainnet decision.
  • If you develop contracts: test against the new gas rules, especially anything with fixed gas stipends or hardcoded limits.
  • If you stake through a provider: ask how they will handle the upgrade and the new validator duties. Our staking under MiCA article covers what applies to providers in the EU.

What we could not verify

  • The Hoodi activation. The date comes from a secondary report citing the Foundation's announcement of 16 October; we did not read the Foundation's own Hoodi announcement.
  • Whether Sepolia activated without incident; we read the schedule, not a post-activation report.
  • Any mainnet date. None had been announced when we checked.
  • The contents of EIP-8261 and the effect of the repricing on typical user fees.

Frequently asked questions

Has Glamsterdam launched on Ethereum mainnet?

No. As of 2 November 2026 it has been scheduled on test networks only, and the Ethereum Foundation says its announcement does not schedule a mainnet upgrade.

Will Glamsterdam make Ethereum fees cheaper?

The Foundation does not give a fee estimate. It says the upgrade supports greater L1 throughput, but it also raises the cost of creating state and updates other gas costs. Actual fees will depend on demand.

Is the gas limit going to 200 million?

Not by the upgrade itself. The live limit on 2 November 2026 was 60 million, and the client notes say validators who want 200 million must configure it explicitly.

Do I need to move or upgrade my ETH?

No. Nothing needs to be moved or converted. Messages that say otherwise should be treated as scams.

What is ePBS?

Enshrined proposer-builder separation (EIP-7732) moves the relationship between block proposers and block builders into the Ethereum protocol, so the protocol handles payment to the proposer rather than relying on trusted middleware.

Sources

Limits: quotations are from the English text of the Foundation's announcement. This guide is general information and not financial advice.