Fastest free Polygon zkEVM RPC, live no-key EVM endpoint latency
HTTP round-trip latency for the `eth_getBlockByNumber("latest", false)` method against every free, no-key public Polygon zkEVM EVM endpoint, audited every 60 seconds from 3 regions.
TL;DR. As of , Polygon zkEVM leads rpc latency at 306 ms (p50, 24h) on Fastest free Polygon zkEVM RPC, live no-key EVM endpoint latency. Source: OpenChainBench, https://openchainbench.com/benchmarks/polygon-zkevm-rpc.
Companion page
Comparing free RPC endpoints across every chain we measure? Open the cross-chain RPC matrix →
Polygon zkEVM is a ZK rollup L2 (chain 1101) that uses zero-knowledge proofs for Ethereum settlement, EVM-equivalent execution, ETH as gas token, ~2 s block cadence, launched March 2023. The 2026-08-04 audit confirms 3 clean keyless providers: the community gateway (zkevm-rpc.com), dRPC (polygon-zkevm.drpc.org), and Thirdweb (1101.rpc.thirdweb.com). Excluded: Ankr (no Polygon zkEVM route), Alchemy (key required), QuickNode (key required).
Methodology
Per-chain member of the RPC latency cluster, extended to Polygon zkEVM. We measure the round-trip latency of a single, identical JSON-RPC call (`eth_getBlockByNumber("latest", false)`) against every no-key public Polygon zkEVM endpoint that sustains continuous probing, 3 providers measured, every 60 seconds, from us-east, eu-west and Singapore. The harness classifies every response (ok / http_err / jsonrpc_err / stale / timeout) with a Polygon zkEVM-scaled staleness gap (20 blocks at Polygon zkEVM's ~2 s block time). The cross-chain view lives on the parent `rpc-capabilities` benchmark; this page is the Polygon zkEVM-scoped answer with per-region breakdowns as a first-class dimension.
Frequently asked
What is the fastest free Polygon zkEVM RPC right now?
Polygon zkEVM currently leads at 306 ms (`eth_getBlockByNumber("latest", false)` p50 over the last 24h), measured against 3 no-key providers probed every 60 seconds from us-east, eu-west and Singapore. The leaderboard re-sorts continuously against fresh Prometheus samples. Use the region tabs to see the leader from the origin closest to your deployment.
Which Polygon zkEVM RPCs work without an API key?
3 endpoints sustain continuous keyless probing: community gateway (https://zkevm-rpc.com), dRPC (https://polygon-zkevm.drpc.org), and Thirdweb (https://1101.rpc.thirdweb.com). Every listed endpoint was live-verified with a `eth_getBlockByNumber` POST returning a parsable response before inclusion.
Does the fastest Polygon zkEVM RPC change by region?
Often. Public infra concentrates in specific regions; a gateway that wins from Amsterdam can lose from Singapore by multiples. The region tabs at the top of the page re-scope every number to a single origin; pick the one closest to where your requests originate.
How is Polygon zkEVM RPC latency measured here, technically?
One identical `eth_getBlockByNumber("latest", false)` POST every 60 seconds against each provider from each of 3 regions, using the same plain HTTP client the rest of the RPC cluster uses. Wall-clock round-trip is recorded at millisecond precision; p50/p90/p99 are computed via Prometheus `quantile_over_time` over 24 hours. Responses are classified (`ok` / `http_err` / `jsonrpc_err` / `stale` / `timeout`) so an endpoint stuck on an old head or returning errors behind HTTP 200 is never ranked as fastest.
Source code github.com/ChainBench/OpenChainBench/tree/main/harnesses/rpc-capabilities