Hardhat Error: "Error: cannot estimate gas"

[houstonTaleubou]

Why does "Error: cannot estimate gas" appear in Hardhat?

[TatyOko28]

This happens when the contract function being called fails, but the failure reason is unclear.

Solution: Debug the transaction with .callStatic()

try {
    await contract.callStatic.functionName();
} catch (error) {
    console.log("Error:", error.reason);
}

This will return the exact Solidity error message.

Solution: Increase Gas Limit Temporarily
Try increasing the gas limit artificially:

await contract.functionName({ gasLimit: 5000000 });