Ethereum 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 Ethereum 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 , dRPC has the lowest median latency of the 6 free public Ethereum RPC endpoints measured, 34 ms (p50, 24h, 3 regions). Source: OpenChainBench, https://openchainbench.com/benchmarks/ethereum-rpc. Chain ID 1. 6 public endpoints, no key: eth.drpc.org, ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com, gateway.tenderly.co, public-eth.nownodes.io, eth-pokt.nodies.app, eth.meowrpc.com. 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 →
Ethereum carries one of the largest free-RPC cohorts we measure: 6 no-key public-read providers answering the same `eth_getBlockByNumber` probe every 60 seconds from three regions. This bench is scoped to public, read-optimised gateways only; MEV-protection RPCs (Flashbots, MEV Blocker, Blink, bloXroute) share the JSON-RPC surface but serve a fundamentally different SLA (send-tx privacy, not read speed) and live in their own cluster on [mev-protect-rpc](/benchmarks/mev-protect-rpc). Cloudflare-eth has been removed from this bench after persistent JSON-RPC error -32603, and Merkle is excluded outright after recurring Cloudflare lockouts that froze our probes for 20 minutes after a single request. If you paste a free RPC URL into an Ethereum dapp's read path, this page is the live answer to which one deserves it.
Methodology
Ethereum: 6 free public RPC endpoints answering `eth_getBlockByNumber` every 60 seconds from us-east, eu-west and Singapore, ranked by 24h median. dRPC leads at 34 ms. The same page carries the private cohort (API key), Alchemy, Chainstack, GetBlock and QuickNode on their keyed Ethereum endpoints every 120 seconds: switch the Access selector; GetBlock leads it at 9 ms. We measure the round-trip latency of a single, identical RPC call (`eth_getBlockByNumber`) against every no-key public-read Ethereum endpoint that sustains continuous probing, 6 providers, every 60 seconds, from us-east, eu-west and Singapore. MEV-protection endpoints (private-mempool, anti-sandwich, PBS relays) are measured on the same probe but scored separately on [mev-protect-rpc](/benchmarks/mev-protect-rpc) because their SLA optimises for send-tx privacy rather than read latency, and mixing them here would flatter or penalise them on the wrong axis. 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 Ethereum-scoped answer with per-region breakdowns as a first-class dimension.
Results: 6 free public Ethereum RPC endpoints ranked by p50 latency (24h, 3 regions)
| № | Providers | p50 | p90 | p99 | Success |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dRPC | 34 ms | 114 ms | 214 ms | 98.18% |
| 2 | PublicNode | 73 ms | 147 ms | 1.90 s | 97.63% |
| 3 | Tenderly | 119 ms | 126 ms | 143 ms | 100.00% |
| 4 | NOWNodes | 129 ms | 145 ms | 196 ms | 95.73% |
| 5 | Nodies | 141 ms | 159 ms | 264 ms | 100.00% |
| 6 | MeowRPC | 173 ms | 302 ms | 490 ms | 100.00% |
Public Ethereum RPC endpoints measured
Chain ID 1, currency ETH. The 6 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.
dRPChttps://eth.drpc.org34 ms98.2%
PublicNodehttps://ethereum-rpc.publicnode.com73 ms97.6%
Tenderlyhttps://gateway.tenderly.co/public/mainnet119 ms100.0%
NOWNodeshttps://public-eth.nownodes.io129 ms95.7%
Nodieshttps://eth-pokt.nodies.app141 ms100.0%
MeowRPChttps://eth.meowrpc.com173 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 Ethereum
- 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 Ethereum RPCs work without an API key?
The 6 public-read providers on this page are listed with their URLs in the endpoints table above. 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 probe cadence is excluded rather than listed with an asterisk. Cloudflare was removed after persistent JSON-RPC error -32603. MEV-protection RPCs (Flashbots, MEV Blocker, Blink, bloXroute) also expose no-key JSON-RPC but serve a different SLA and live on [mev-protect-rpc](/benchmarks/mev-protect-rpc).
Why was Cloudflare's Ethereum RPC removed?
Cloudflare's public Ethereum gateway returned persistent JSON-RPC error -32603 on our probes. The endpoint responds with HTTP 200 but the body carries an error body rather than a usable result, which means it no longer qualifies as a functional free RPC. We classify a call as `ok` only when the HTTP status is 200 AND the body carries a usable `result` field.
Which Ethereum RPC provider is fastest with an API key?
Per the live data: GetBlock at 9 ms (eth_getBlockByNumber p50 over 24h, averaged across us-east, eu-west and Singapore); Alchemy measures 32 ms, Chainstack 64 ms and QuickNode 28 ms; GetBlock measures 9 ms. On the free cohort dRPC leads at 34 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