Your statement is not true. Look at the chart. You can see mempool is empty since July and it is far lower than in late of 2017 and early of 2018.

• https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC%20(default%20mempool),all,weight
• In 2021, fee rates are high from Jan to May

---

Transaction fee will be depended on three factors

• Fee rate: satoshi/ virtual byte
• Transaction size
• Mempool status: you have to look at mempool and choose fee rate
• You can not control mempool status but you can choose cheap fee rate and use Segwit

You can check mempool and consider the appropriate fee rate for your transaction.

• https://jochen-hoenicke.de/queue/#BTC%20(default%20mempool),24h,weight
• https://mempool.space/
• If you are newbie, use the second one. If you want to get more details, use the first one. Hovering mouse on the chart, at specific point on the chart, you will see total size in mempool and total size for each fee rate (from tip of mempool to that specific fee rate).

By the way, try to use Segwit address because Segwit transaction will help you to save transaction fee. Additionally, try to consolidate your small inputs (if you have them), when mempool is empty that means you can use fee rate at 1 to 2 satoshi/ vbyte.

• Plot your transaction in the mempool
• Make sure to avoid wasting BTC for too high fees – step by step guide (Electrum)
• Mempool empty! Use this opportunity to Consolidate your small inputs!