Base RPC endpoints: free public URLs and private API-key providers by latency
HTTP round-trip latency for eth_getBlockByNumber against every free, no-key public Base RPC endpoint (probed every 60 seconds) and, under the Access selector (Private), against the API-key endpoints of Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode (every 120 seconds), from 3 regions. The two cohorts are ranked separately, never against each other.
TL;DR. As of , PublicNode has the lowest median latency of the 5 free public Base RPC endpoints measured, 73 ms (p50, 24h, 3 regions). Source: OpenChainBench, https://openchainbench.com/benchmarks/base-rpc. Chain ID 8453. 5 public endpoints, no key: base-rpc.publicnode.com, base.drpc.org, gateway.tenderly.co, mainnet.base.org, base-pokt.nodies.app. Full URLs with their 24h median are listed below; Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock, QuickNode (private, API key) are ranked apart under the Private tab.
Companion page
Comparing free RPC endpoints across every chain we measure? Open the cross-chain RPC matrix →
Base offers the cleanest official-versus-gateway comparison in the cluster: Coinbase operates both the sequencer and the chain-official `mainnet.base.org`, so the house endpoint has every locational advantage, and it still has to beat PublicNode, dRPC, Tenderly and Nodies on a level probe. 5 providers, the same `eth_getBlockByNumber` call every 60 seconds, three regions, stale-head detection against the cross-provider tip.
Methodology
Base: 5 free public RPC endpoints answering `eth_getBlockByNumber` every 60 seconds from us-east, eu-west and Singapore, ranked by 24h median. PublicNode leads at 73 ms; the chain-official endpoint measures 130 ms. The same page carries the private cohort (API key), Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode on their keyed Base endpoints every 120 seconds: switch the Access selector; GetBlock leads it at 8 ms. We measure the round-trip latency of a single, identical RPC call (`eth_getBlockByNumber`) against every no-key public Base endpoint that sustains continuous probing, 5 providers, every 60 seconds, from us-east, eu-west and Singapore. The harness also classifies every response (ok / http_err / jsonrpc_err / stale / timeout) and audits archive depth every 5 minutes, so the leaderboard rewards sustained, honest availability rather than a fast error message. The cross-chain view lives on the parent rpc-capabilities benchmark; this page is the Base-scoped answer with per-region breakdowns as a first-class dimension.
Results: 5 free public Base RPC endpoints ranked by p50 latency (24h, 3 regions)
| № | Providers | p50 | p90 | p99 | Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PublicNode | 73 ms | 141 ms | 2.08 s | 96.82% |
| 2 | dRPC | 82 ms | 112 ms | 214 ms | 85.65% |
| 3 | Tenderly | 113 ms | 122 ms | 143 ms | 100.00% |
| 4 | Base (Coinbase) | 130 ms | 139 ms | 197 ms | 99.98% |
| 5 | Nodies | 137 ms | 151 ms | 238 ms | 100.00% |
Public Base RPC endpoints measured
Chain ID 8453, currency ETH. The 5 no-key endpoints answering our probes today, with their current 24h median. Paste one into a wallet or a client as is: no signup, no key. Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode, private endpoints that need an API key, are ranked separately under the Private tab; keyed URLs are never listed.
PublicNodehttps://base-rpc.publicnode.com73 ms96.8%
dRPChttps://base.drpc.org82 ms85.7%
Tenderlyhttps://gateway.tenderly.co/public/base113 ms100.0%
Base (Coinbase)https://mainnet.base.org130 ms100.0%
Nodieshttps://base-pokt.nodies.app137 ms100.0%
Median round-trip and success rate over the last 24 hours across the probe regions; the ranked table above carries p90, p99 and the per-region split.
Not listed on Base
- Ankr: public endpoint requires an API key
- NodeReal: requires an API key
- 1RPC: delisted for reliability: under 13 % success at one probe per minute (since 2026-07-09)
- gateway.fm: 29 requests per IP budget, too small for continuous probing
- LlamaRPC: Cloudflare 521 from the probe regions
- BlockPI: Cloudflare 521 from the probe regions
- OmniaTech: Cloudflare 521 from the probe regions
- Alchemy demo: rate-limited public demo endpoint; Alchemy's keyed endpoint is in the private cohort on this page
Frequently asked
Which Base RPCs work without an API key?
The 5 providers on this page are listed with their URLs in the endpoints table above. Blink (formerly Merkle) was delisted in July 2026 because its gateway does not serve `eth_getBlockByNumber` (JSON-RPC -32601), the anti-cache probe used across the cluster, so its latency cannot be compared on equal terms. Every (provider, chain) pair was live-verified no-key before inclusion, and anything that key-gates, region-blocks or rate-limits below our 60-second cadence is excluded rather than listed with an asterisk.
Is Coinbase's official Base RPC faster than third-party gateways?
Compare the two numbers: despite being operated by the same team that runs the sequencer, `mainnet.base.org` measures 130 ms against 73 ms for PublicNode on the cross-region median, and the ranking moves with the region the request originates from. Check the region tabs on this page for the origin closest to your deployment; the cross-region average hides these flips.
Which Base RPC provider is fastest with an API key?
Per the live data: GetBlock at 8 ms (eth_getBlockByNumber p50 over 24h, averaged across us-east, eu-west and Singapore); Alchemy measures 30 ms, Chainstack 31 ms and QuickNode 27 ms; GetBlock measures 8 ms. On the free cohort PublicNode leads at 73 ms, measured on the same call from the same three regions; the two cohorts are never ranked in one table (shared gateways at 60 s against metered endpoints at 120 s). Switch the Access selector to Private for the region tabs and the p99 column; plan tiers are disclosed in the methodology.
Source code github.com/ChainBench/OpenChainBench/tree/main/harnesses/rpc-capabilities