# TRON energy and bandwidth

> What energy and bandwidth are on TRON, why sending USDT TRC20 needs TRX, and who pays for them when a customer pays or when CryptoLike sends a payout.

Source: https://cryptolike.net/glossary/tron-energy
Updated: 2026-09-25

The two resources the TRON network charges for transactions: bandwidth for the size of a transaction and energy for running a smart contract such as a TRC20 token transfer.

## How it works in CryptoLike

Every [TRC20](https://cryptolike.net/glossary/trc20) transfer, including a USDT payment on TRON, calls the token's smart contract and so consumes energy and bandwidth. An account that has not staked TRX for these resources pays for them by burning TRX. That is why a customer's wallet needs some TRX next to its USDT: a wallet with USDT and zero TRX cannot send the payment.

When a customer pays you in [USDT on TRON](https://cryptolike.net/coins/usdt-trc20), the customer's wallet pays this cost; the amount you receive is not reduced by it. When CryptoLike consolidates a USDT payment address, it pays the network cost in TRX from its own gas wallet: it activates the address if needed and sends it TRX, which the transfer then burns for energy and bandwidth. That cost is the platform's and is never charged to your balance. For a USDT TRC20 payout, the network fee is shown in USDT in the estimate before you confirm and is debited with the payout, so you do not need a TRX balance to pay out.

More on choosing a network: [USDT TRC20 vs ERC20](https://cryptolike.net/blog/usdt-trc20-vs-erc20).