# Lazy minting ### 💁‍♂️ Why Lazy Minting Creating an NFT involves recording data on the blockchain, essentially linking the NFT's address to the minter's address. This process, at its core, requires a gas fee due to the data being written onto the blockchain. Despite Ethereum's widespread use, many creators, both established and new, may hesitate to mint NFTs on this blockchain and incur the associated fee, as success isn't guaranteed. The idea of lazy minting partially addresses this concern. ### 💁‍♀️️ What is NFT Lazy Mint Lazy Minting is a method where creators are not required to pay the gas fee for minting the NFT upfront. Instead, they can list it on marketplaces for sale. Upon a buyer's purchase, the NFT is minted just in time, and the minting cost is included in the total price of the NFT. ### 🚀 Setting up Lazy Mint 1. You can start by [**Creating your Smart Contract**](/smart-contract/create-nft-smart-contract.md). Choose the NFT Drop contract. By default, this contract supports **Lazy Mint.** 2. Define how NFTs can be minted using [**claim phases**](/smart-contract/claim-conditions.md). 3. Other wallets mint NFTs by claiming them. When they claim, they pay the gas costs to mint the NFT. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.imintify.com/smart-contract/lazy-minting.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.